Skating Siblings

I have taken notice that with siblings who skate, one is always better than the other...sometimes by a long shot. some siblings i can think of are alissa and amber, michelle and karen, gracie and carly, mao and mai. one has always excelled more than the other...kind of interesting to think about how one usually gets all the talent. thoughts?

The skating talents of Alissa Czisny, Michelle Kwan, Gracie Gold and Mao Asada are very, very, very rare on their own as it is, so the chances of even two sibling to possess same high level skating talent seems small.

Even being a kid of two elite skaters doesn't automatically guarantee skating talent.

I do suspect that body type, injuries and motivation to play a factor. I definitely remember Karen being a ½ foot taller than Michelle. I don't know about others.

Though Karen has become quite a capable and talented coach along with her spouse Peter Oppegard, it seems. Yes, she's about five-eight. Michelle once joked about feeling deprived that she remained so tiny, but it's worked in her favor.

What a fun topic for trivia buffs. Sequinsgalore, I agree with your characterization of the talents mentioned as extremely rare, even with the possibility of shared genetic abilities and even shared training setups. (For one thing, I think the cost is now too great for several siblings to go the distance in terms of training.) I think Carol Heiss had a sister Nancy, among other examples of champion skaters with siblings who didn't quite hit the same mark. On the other hand, there were the Jenkins brothers, Hayes and David, who succeeded each other as Olympic gold medalists. And then Hayes (I think it was) married Carol Heiss, thereby creating a family of skating royalty. So far I can think of just two skating dynasties, Yuka Sato (daughter of two Japanese Olympians, one of whom, Nobuo Sato, is now a legendary coach) and the Owen family of Maribel Vinson (multi-year U.S. champion in singles and pairs) and her daughters Laurence and Maribel Owen, singles and pairs champions respectively in the doomed year of 1961.

It remains to be seen whether Artur Dmitriev, Jr., will equal his father in skating glory. It's interesting that even in countries with a highly organized skating system, we haven't had a lot of sibling or parent-child champions. They'd be the ones trained since birth, who could achieve a high level just by virtue of genes and an early start in the family business.

Then there are the few sibling teams, like the Shibutanis and the splendid Duchesnays. Kitty and Peter Carruthers are an interesting example, because they are adopted siblings, from different families with different genes. The long arm of coincidence that two kids brought together like that would both excel. I think these days such pairs are less likely, because both pairs skating and ice dancing have become more emotionally intense, something not easily brought off by a brother and sister (the squick factor begins to enter into it). There used to be a lot more North American sibling pairs, including Karol and Peter Kennedy (American world champions and Olympic silver medalists) and Ron and Cynthia Kauffman, as well as the Jellineks of Canada. But the Russian model of romantically expressive pairs has prevailed, as is true in ice dancing.

Can anyone think of other examples?

macy said:

I have taken notice that with siblings who skate, one is always better than the other...sometimes by a long shot. some siblings i can think of are alissa and amber, michelle and karen, gracie and carly, mao and mai. one has always excelled more than the other...kind of interesting to think about how one usually gets all the talent. thoughts?

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Gracie and Carly are identical twins, right? They've probably been raised under the same roof for that matter. I guess you can make a lot of arguments about nature vs. nurture about them.

The Kerrs in ice dancing, and the Hartsells in pairs

Sarah & Emily Hughes

Srin Odessa said:

Gracie and Carly are identical twins, right? They've probably been raised under the same roof for that matter. I guess you can make a lot of arguments about nature vs. nurture about them.

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I think Gracie and Carly are fraternal. Their hair color and facial features are different. Do a quick Google image search and you'll see what I mean.

Of the skating siblings mentioned, I think the most talented were Michelle and Karen Kwan. In 1996, Michelle and Karen were first and fifth at Nationals. Not bad! Karen was the one of the most beautiful, elegant, lovely skaters I have ever seen. Artistically, she was as good as, or better than, Michelle. It was the jumps and her height (5'8") that held her back. Nowadays, we're beginning to see taller ladies like Kostner and Zawadzki master the full arsenal of triples. But that was very rare, almost unheard of, in the 1990s. I think Karen had a triple flip but never mastered the Lutz. If she'd had the full complement of triples, she and Michelle might have been the Venus and Serena Williams of skating!

iluvtodd said:

Sarah & Emily Hughes

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Actually, in terms of results, I guess you'd have to say Sarah and Emily Hughes are the most successful skating siblings in recent times (in singles). I think Michelle and Karen Kwan were more talented than Sarah and Emily, but the Hughes' top combined international results are better: 1st and 7th at the Olympics (in different years); 3rd and 8th at Worlds.

macy said:

one has always excelled more than the other...kind of interesting to think about how one usually gets all the talent. thoughts?

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I think you mean "more talent" not "all the talent" -- if the other sibling had no talent at all, they wouldn't still be skating at junior/senior level.

I don't see significant differences in talent level between Todd, Piper, and Alexe Gilles. But since the twins are in different disciplines and Todd is older and opposite sex from Piper, there aren't direct comparisons.

macy said:

I have taken notice that with siblings who skate, one is always better than the other...sometimes by a long shot. some siblings i can think of are alissa and amber, michelle and karen, gracie and carly, mao and mai. one has always excelled more than the other...kind of interesting to think about how one usually gets all the talent. thoughts?

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Did you intend for this thread to focus on siblings of the same gender?
If not, then other brother-sister sibs not already mentioned are the Reeds and the Hubbells ...

gkelly said:

I think you mean "more talent" not "all the talent" -- if the other sibling had no talent at all, they wouldn't still be skating at junior/senior level.

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Exactly! Carly Gold qualified for Midwestern Sectionals in Junior Ladies this past season, so she is very accomplished in her own right (triple Lutz is a new jump in her repertoire this season). Gracie and Carly Gold are fraternal twins, as are Alissa and Amber Czisny. I really enjoyed watching Amber's powerful style of skating and she could spin very well in both directions! Amber competed in one senior US Nationals and one senior international before she retired, and I would call that a successful competitive career.

Current Team USA athletes with skating siblings:

The Lorello family has 4 ice dance siblings - Ian Lorello has competed senior nationally & internationally; his older brother Alex has competed senior nationally, and the 2 younger twin siblings, Grant (7th) and Meara (6th), competed with different partners at 2012 Novice Nationals;

Caydee and Haven Denney are the current U.S. Senior and Junior Pair champions, respectively, with their partners;

Rockne (pairs) and Collin (ice dance) Brubaker have both competed senior nationally & internationally;

Molly, Max, and Madeline Aaron have all competed internationally - Molly in Senior Pairs (now retired), Max in Senior Men, and Madeline in Junior Pairs.

Mariah Bell (5th in Junior Ladies at 2012 US Nationals) has an older sister, Morgan, who competed in the Senior Ladies event at 2011 and 2012 Nationals;

ETA: Isabella and Anastasia Cannuscio have competed senior nationally & internationally in ice dance with their respective partners;

Vanessa Lam, Kiri Baga, and Yasmin Siraj have older sisters (Nina, Courtney, and Layla), who competed at the senior level in the US;

Tiffany Vise's younger sister, Brittany (now retired), competed pairs nationally (senior) and internationally at the junior level.

dueling Dulebohns

macy said:

I have taken notice that with siblings who skate, one is always better than the other...sometimes by a long shot. some siblings i can think of are alissa and amber, michelle and karen, gracie and carly, mao and mai. one has always excelled more than the other...kind of interesting to think about how one usually gets all the talent. thoughts?

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The well known dancing siblings are very well matched in their talents.

Viktoria and Joshi Helgesson are both quite good. Viktoria is 23 years old, 5 years older than Joshi. Both are still developing. Viktoria did her first 3-3 toe in competition this season and does all triples. Joshi is practicing 3-axel among the other triple jumps, in spite of being tall. As of now Viktoria is able to medal at Europeans and be among the ten best at world's. Remains to be seen how far the sisters can reach in their carriers and who will be the best. Their mother and coach was also a figure skater, though at a lower level. Swedish FS didn't have the same resources back then. Christina, their mother, and their other coach Regina started practicing figure skating outdoors.

Alexander Majorov has a younger brother, Nikolaj, 11 years old who competes as a novice. Adrian Schultheiss' little brother Raoul, 7 years old, has his goal set to be better than his brother

Among my favorite skating siblings are the Kerrs

Doesn't John Baldwin's brother(?) skate pairs as well?

SkateFiguring said:

The well known dancing siblings are very well matched in their talents.

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Are you talking about the Shibutani's? I was wondering why they weren't mentioned yet

Tonichelle said:

Doesn't John Baldwin's brother(?) skate pairs as well?

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Yes, I forgot to include the Baldwin family in my earlier post.

Don Baldwin, Tiffany Vise's current pair partner, is the younger brother of John Baldwin Jr. who is the 2-time U.S. National Pairs champion (2004, 2006) with Rena Inoue (the Baldwin brothers competed at the senior level nationally in singles as well). Their sister, Donna, also skated (ice dancer?) and their father, John Baldwin Sr., competed as a singles skater (men's 1st alternate to 1972 Olympics).

SGrand said:

Are you talking about the Shibutani's? I was wondering why they weren't mentioned yet

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Olympia already had mentioned the unforgettable Shibutanis in post #3 of this thread.

The Gilles sibs have all been to international competitions, right? Todd, Piper, Alexe

centerpt1 said:

The Gilles sibs have all been to international competitions, right? Todd, Piper, Alexe

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Yes.
In Piper's case, so far only at the junior level, I believe. But the US officially released her earlier this month, so G/P now are free to represent Canada at international competitions.

Don & John Baldwin skated singles, and both skated pairs. Don & Tiffany Vise are still competing. I believe their sister, Donna, was an ice dancer?

Carol Heiss won the Olympic gold medal, but her sister Nancy was no slouch and won the silver at US Nationals.

She was 2nd at US Nationals to Carol in 1959, and 8th at Worlds. She was also US champion in Juniors. Injury kept her from competing in the Olympic year 1960, and she retired to concentrate on college.

Her brother Bruce skated too.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nancy_Heiss

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carol_Heiss