Great Edges

bigdeal said:

Men:
1. John Curry
2. the legendary (of this matter) Gary Beacom- professiobnal WorldChampion
3.Patrick Chan.
4.Stephan Lambiel.
5.Toller Cranston.

Ladies:
Shizuka Arakawa,
Yuka Sato,
Yu-Na Kim,
Carolina Kostner

(why to mention Kwan, who was not even able to perform an edgy Lutz, which is not even the highschool of the figure skating....)

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I am a huge Yuka fan, but if you define great edge by "edgy lutz", how is/was Yuka's lutz?

Yeah, Kwan makes my list as one of the lady skaters with great edges. BTW, the edge to her triple loop is just fine. One time I saw @ gala exhibition her doing the change edge spiral that span 3/4 of the rink. I also think Arakwas, Sato, and Kostner all have spectacular spirals.

bigdeal said:

(why to mention Kwan, who was not even able to perform an edgy Lutz, which is not even the highschool of the figure skating....)

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What do you mean by "the highschool of the figure skating"?

Are you speaking of triple lutz specifically?

In the US, where Kwan came up, the hardest jump required on any freeskating test, and only on the senior test, is double lutz. I would consider passing the senior tests to be equivalent to graduating from high school. Anything beyond that, including all triple jumps, would be higher education.

Even countries that require skaters to demonstrate triple jumps before being allowed to compete as seniors do not require triple lutz.

Now, whether an otherwise good US senior test would fail just because the double lutz was not from a perfect outside edge is another question. With some stickler judges, maybe. But it's also easier to hold the edge for a double than for a triple.

rtureck said:

I am a huge Yuka fan, but if you define great edge by "edgy lutz", how is/was Yuka's lutz?

Yeah, Kwan makes my list as one of the lady skaters with great edges. BTW, the edge to her triple loop is just fine. One time I saw @ gala exhibition her doing the change edge spiral that span 3/4 of the rink. I also think Arakwas, Sato, and Kostner all have spectacular spirals.

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Sato never did 3lz in competition.

She did in 1994 and I think she did it at least once as a pro, but it was never a great jump for her.

I think Delobel & Schoenfelder deserve a mention. The British Eurosport guys always seemed enamored of Olivier's edges especially.

FlattFan said:

I agree Michelle is very awesome in all of those areas. I just don't think she would be as effortless as Carolina or Shizuka under COP steps. Sure, her straightline steps were amazing, but they are relatively simple. If she had to do more bi-directional turnings, more upperbody movements, more more more, I think she would have a much harder time than Carolina.

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FWIW, in her one and only COP competition, Michelle actually was quite competition in the footwork sequence and outscored Carolina and Shizuka in GOE on that element.

bigdeal said:

(why to mention Kwan, who was not even able to perform an edgy Lutz, which is not even the highschool of the figure skating....)

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And how was the edge on Shizuka's flip? :sheesh:

Vash01 said:

Skaters with great edging (in addition to those mentioned earlier):

Berezhnaya-Sikharulidze: Magnificent edging; quiet speed and power across the ice

Gordeeva-Grinkov: Quiet speed & power (like B&S), very efficient movement

Klimova-Ponomarenko: Deep edges, great speed and great control

Grishchuk-Platov: Amazing speed and deep edges

Alexander Abt: Wonderful edge quality (his problem was inconsistent jumps)

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Ditto. Just watching their cross-overs were a big pleasure.

Daisuke Takahashi who obviusly has fantastic edges recently said that he admires Olivier Shoenfelder very much and doesn't know how Olivier can skate on such deep edges while being so tall.

My ladies list:
Slutskaya
Arakawa
Kostner
Kim
Kwan
Sato