Is this a common thing in skating to have a slump in 1 discipline but do great in another

Is this a common thing in skating to have a slump in 1 discipline but do great in another

I mean (I talk about Russia here 'cause I know it better than I know about other countries) you can't have all disciplines very strong. Only Canada looks great in all disciplines.
But usually (Russia), when you have strong boys, girls are meh. And vice versa..Now we have girls, but no super junior boy a la Yuzuru even though the ladies discipline was always the weakest here, and there were many talented men in 90s. How so? I guess it's a tipical thing Canada aside, isn't it?
What are the reasons for it? No talent or what?

I think it's pretty common. The U.S was always strong in ladies and men, ok in pairs, and non-existent in dance. Now we're strong in dance, ok in ladies and men, and non-existent in pairs. Even during the days of the Soviet sports machine, they cranked out pairs and ice dance champions like it was their job, but they faced harder competition in singles skating.

In the late 90's to the mid 2000's when Russia had Slutskya Plushy, and Yagudin, they always had the chance to sweep the golds, but I believe a country being able to do that is an exception, and rarely the norm.

koatcue said:

I mean (I talk about Russia here 'cause I know it better than I know about other countries) you can't have all disciplines very strong. Only Canada looks great in all disciplines.
But usually (Russia), when you have strong boys, girls are meh. And vice versa..Now we have girls, but no super junior boy a la Yuzuru even though the ladies discipline was always the weakest here, and there were many talented men in 90s. How so? I guess it's a tipical thing Canada aside, isn't it?
What are the reasons for it? No talent or what?

Click to expand...

Canada is only strong in paper, the US is stronger next quad with men, ladies and dance
Canada has only 1 lady named Osmond who only get inflated marks in home ice, outside Canada her scores are in 150-160+ range
dance is Ok, Men is meh other than Chan, Pairs they have 2 old Pairs couple nothing much depth

to answer yes there will always be a shift every quadrennial
US will dominate men, maybe some ladies and dance can continue
Russia looks to do very well in ladies, Pairs should be fine and dance is just ok
Japan will have a slump in ladies until after 2018, men will stay the same
China will do well in men

These assessments/predictions of future strength sound reasonable, but we shouldn't forget that lightning can strike anytime. Who knows what new stars are rising, but are just below our radars?

Michelle Kwan really wasn't anyone until she burst onto the stage at US Nationals, and then she was WC something like 2 years later.

Tara Lipinski was here and gone within a single quadrennial.

G/G became WC, unseating the defending OC, in their very first season on the world circuit.

I sincerely hope we get some of these fresh faces, because I'm becoming less enamored (as a whole) of what we're seeing now.

Predictions for next quad for big federations

USA
1 men
2 ladies
3 dance
4 pairs

Russia
1 ladies
2 pairs
3 dance
4 men

Canada
1 dance
2 pairs
3 men
4 ladies

China
1 men
2 pairs
3 ladies
4 dance

Japan
1 Men
2 ladies
3 pairs
4 dance

In answer to the original question, it does seem as if a country often dominates in one or two disciplines and is less significant in others. The U.S. has almost never been strong in pairs and has not had much presence in ice dance until recently. Russia went through one period where they excelled in everything, but I think that was a fluke with women because it rested almost solely on the shoulders of one skater, Slutskaya (with a brief moment of Butyrskaya). In the days of the Soviets, the situation seemed to be that when a young skater looked promising, he or she was directed into training for pairs or ice dancing, so the best skaters ended up beefing up those two disciplines. Then suddenly from about 1990, there was a long line of male skaters at the top of the heap. And so on.

In countries with a national program, it might make sense for them to concentrate their resources on one or two disciplines, and that might explain, for example, Japan's excellence in singles skating but weakness in other disciplines. Also, from what I hear, Japanese men tend not to be very tall or big, so it's hard to field a good pair or ice dance couple with a significant height differential between the man and the lady.

With the U.S., where there is no real national program, we rise or fall according to the talent of individuals who come along, and in past years most of them wanted to be individual stars, so that meant excellence in singles.

There are other factors, but those are the ones that come to mind. Of course, things change depending on the available talent pool, so what's true today may not be true in a year or two. That's part of the fun of watching skating!