Thanks, everyone, for your responses! It's fun to watch skaters compete in disciplines other than what you're used to seeing them in.
I also discovered fours because of this thread. Cool!!!
Thanks, everyone, for your responses! It's fun to watch skaters compete in disciplines other than what you're used to seeing them in.
I also discovered fours because of this thread. Cool!!!
So interesting. I've often wondered why talented skaters that aren't gonna quite make it as a single don't try pairs. I know there is a whole other skill set, but at the same time there a more open field and careers tend to be a little longer (or at least the skaters are compete successfully at older ages). Not sure how many of the single Mens field are tall enough for pairs.
At the same time I think singles could often benefit from training as ice dancers, seems like they'd. learn a little more musicality, expression and a few skating skills to boot.
Do Yuka and Jason have any pairs they're coaching?
As it turns out, Berton also competed in ice dance, though she only got as high as novice. Still - pretty cool that she's skated competitively in singles, pairs and dance, and did two of them at the senior level.Originally Posted by Buttercup
Johnny Weir skated pairs in addition to singles when he was younger, but only up to intermediate.
Has Paul Poirier been mentioned? He was still skating singles - at least the national level - until fairly recently. Vanessa Crone did dance and singles for a while, too. Bryce Davison also competed in singles. Actually, I think it's safe to assume that many Canadian skaters have competed in more than one discipline nationally if not internationally.
Felicia Zhang has done singles and pairs.
IIRC, Shae-Lynn Bourne has some pairs skating experience.
Maxim Marinin switched to pairs when he was sixteen or so - he famously lost to a much younger Evgeni Plushenko and decided his future was not in singles. I don't know what level he was competing at when he made the switch.
Lloyd Eisler was also a competitor in both pairs and fours. And I might be wrong, but I recall Peter Carruthers once discussing a background as a competitor in junior dance during a discussion with Terry Gannon.
I'm sorry fours aren't still done in general competition. I've seen one exhibition of fours, and they are very exciting to watch. Also, years ago, they had three shows called Skates of Gold, and in at least the first one, the pairs skaters switched partners. Since the pairs included Gordeyeva/Grinkov and Artur Dmitriev (I think with his earlier partner, Mishkutenok), it was the most exciting thing imaginable, though it wasn't true fours, I think.
It is fun to watch skaters compete in several disciplines, isn't it? Sometimes you get that in a professional show. For example, have you ever seen this splendid pairs routine done by Gordeyeva and Ilia Kulik for Stars on Ice? You would swear that Ilia was a pairs skater, judging by the smoothness of his lifts and holds. And the emotional content....wow.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MpDZf82KYhA
Here are two videos of skaters doing 4's as a exhibition:
1980 Olympics Exhibition
Pestova & Leonovich and Cherkosova & Shakrai
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prnnnpR6xCY
1988 Worlds Exhibition
Benning & Johnston & Hough & Ladret
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OpfBn0KmaR8
Crone and Poirier also skated pairs with one another. Jayne Torvill, along with singles and dance, as also a pairs skater.
Utako Wakamatsu skated singles for Japan, before switching to pairs for Canada.
Katya Gordeeva skated singles after ______ in pairs.
Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford both skated singles nationally and internationally. Both competed on the Jr. GP circuit as singles. Meagan went to the Jr. Grand Prix Final in singles in 2005, and both Meagan and Eric are former Junior Canadian singles champions.
Paul Poirier won bronze medals at Canadians as a Juvenile and as a Novice and silver as a Junior.
Dylan Moscovitch also competed as a single.
Here's a brief example of sixes including some of the same Soviet teams Doris posted.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...wB3xaWk#t=101s
Tamara Moskvina was a singles and a pairs champion in Russia. She skated in worlds in both disciplines, IIRC. Her pairs partner was Alexei Mishin. She was the first to do what is now known as the Biellman spin.
Also I think Paul Wylie skated pairs at one time.
Yes, Vash01. I think Wylie just never grew enough to be a viable pairs partner. He's about five foot four. But he and Nancy Kerrigan have a lovely exhibition piece that they did for the Olympic gala the year he won silver and she won bronze, to music from Miss Saigon. No lifts, of course--she was just about his height--but lovely moves and holds. Isn't that interesting that it was Moskvina who perfected the Biellmann spin.
he's definitely under 5'4"
Sounds great. Seems like a relief to leave behind the need to do all the triples and quads, though of course pairs elements are getting trickier and trickier - especially lifts.
I heard Mervin Tran had never skated pairs, but was recruited to skate with Takahashi.
I think Jeremy Abbott would make a great pair skater. Ryan Bradley would have the upper body strength for pairs
Jeremy has skated pairs and done ice dance. It's one of the reasons that his singles career took off at a relatively advanced age (he's the same age as Lysacek and a year younger than Weir.)
I think Tiffany and brother Johnnie ended their pair s partnership due to injury, growth ( she was too similar in height) and his college dreams. I think she had another partner after Cording. Then she switched to ice dance as you mentioned.
Not sure why she stopped skating, but I thought she changed to ballroom dancing
Her sister Stephanie skated with John Zimmerman until she was injured and he decided to partner with Kyoko Ina.
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