Poised to break through--but didn't | Page 7 | Golden Skate

Poised to break through--but didn't

coppertop1

On the Ice
Joined
Sep 19, 2006
Wow you must be such a hard-core skating fan to remember a (seemingly on a world scale) obscure skater as Hanae! Her showing at Skate Canada and NHK in the 95/96 season was wonderful (finishing 2nd to Michelle and Lu Chen, respectively). She had such a gorgeous lutz and had charisma. The following season she went overseas to work with a different team and an ambitious new age program and never really came back to the top form. Her body change didn't help at all.

Someone mentioned Yukina Ota. She's like Sasha Cohen of Japan, in that she had such beautiful lines and flexibility, but her skating skills weren't the greatest. Her SP at Skate Canada 2003 (came 2nd after Sasha I think) was so special.

Tanja Szewczenko looked like she was having a great "comeback", winning both GP events in the '97/'98 season only to lose the GPF to Tara. She didn't go to Nagano for a reason I can't recall.

Naomi Nari Nam- Remember the mean comment from the ABC reporter at '99 Nationals? "This is what the skating world has been waiting for" next to Michelle?

Gosh I miss the 90s!!!

LOL, yup I've been watching a skater since Lillehammer. So combined watching skating for years, with a good memory I could probably pull names of skaters most don't know, lol

Tanja Szweczenko!! I always loved her. Her comeback in 1997/98 was wonderful. She did go to Nagano but she had to withdraw. She got hit with that infamous Nagano Flu, that so many others got (Yagudin, Savard-Gagnon/Bradet, Stojko, and several other athletes). She had a blood virus the year before so her immune system was weakened, and she couldn't skate :( After that she disappeared again.

Naomi Nari Nam had so much potential, too bad injuries ended her career.

Yukina Ota had the problem of coming from a country with unlimited depth, but she was so talented.

Laetitia Hubert came so close to breaking through but her nerves would get the best of her. She was all or nothing.
 

hikki

Final Flight
Joined
Dec 18, 2007
Country
Japan
NNN. I remember that comment hikki!!! lol I intensely disliked Lesley Visser and her beyond awful bird's nest haircut.
And Michelle looked visibly annoyed lol. Bird's nest haircut!! Well no amount of hyping by that woman could stop Michelle from winning the next SIX nationals haha. NNN was fabulous in that year though. So magical.


Thanks! I like these too:
Skate Canada SP to another version of Kitaro, came 2nd to Michelle
NHK LP, the performance of her life, came 2nd to Lu Chen

She was overshadowed by Midori's comeback that season at Nationals and Worlds. She's coaching now and sometimes commentates on the Asahi network in Japan.

LOL, yup I've been watching a skater since Lillehammer. So combined watching skating for years, with a good memory I could probably pull names of skaters most don't know, lol

You certainly can! Looking back, I probably paid more attention to skating in the 90s much more than now. I replayed my VHS tapes so many times back in those days. Fun times.

I didn't know Tanja's withdrawal from Nagano was due to flu. Had she skated the way she had been skating that season, she could've got Bronze.
 

coppertop1

On the Ice
Joined
Sep 19, 2006
I don't have many old skating tapes but we'll always have YouTube :)

Yeah, she definitely could have. Poor Tanja, she wasn't completely recovered by Worlds either then she disappeared again. Shame, I always enjoyed her.
 
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