- Joined
- Feb 25, 2006
This is how I feel and why I find it impossible to rank skaters of this decade. Michelle and Kim never even competed against each other. They are from different eras, not the same one.
But it made me think of something. How do you determine whether a skater is truly great? Having a certain period defined as an era because a certain skater competed in it seems like a pretty good criteria to me!
So.
Is there a Michelle Kwan era? Obviously.
Is there a Kim Yuna era? Yes even if she doesn't keep competing.
Is there an Irina Slutskaya era? Well, there is at least a Michelle Kwan-Irina Slutskaya era. And a good case to be made for an Irina era, as she has two world title and two Olympic medals and was a favorite for gold for so long. So she's also on the list.
Is there a Mao era? There is obviously a Yuna-Mao era. And again, a case to be made for Mao with her two world titles and record-breaking triple axels. So she's on the list.
Is there a Sarah Hughes era? No.
Is there a Shizuka Arakawa era? May more than Sarah Hughes. But nah.
Is there a Miko Ando era? No.
Kim Meissner era? Definitely not.
So I say there are only 4 truly "great" skaters who competed in past decade:
Michelle Kwan
Kim Yuna
Irina Slutskaya
Mao Asada
With honorable mention to Sasha Cohen and Shizuka Arakawa since they were great rivals to Michelle and Irina. I might even say there was a Michelle-Sasha era but that's really only from a U.S. perspective. Just like a "Shiz era" would be from a Japanese perspective.
I agree with you - as I had the top four being Kwan, Slutskaya, Kim, and Asada, in that order.