Skaters who revolutionized/made an impact in Figure Skating | Page 2 | Golden Skate

Skaters who revolutionized/made an impact in Figure Skating

sky_fly20

Match Penalty
Joined
Nov 20, 2011
You mean like you pushing Hanyu when he has had one good season and other skaters like Chan and Buttle were maximizing the system long before Hanyu? :laugh: You dare talk about falls when every one of Hanyu's major wins this season had a fall? When his OGM performance had 2 falls - the worst ever by an OGM?

Chan is an innovator. He actually incorporates every turn into his program and his skating skills are second to none.

You on the other hand are a hater. You incorporate every spiteful comment into your posts and your bashing skills and anti-Canadian sentiments are second to none.

Yuzuru Hanyu did maximize points at the same time pushing higher technical elements
Chan has never done both, skating skills is an innovation ? then lets include Michelle Kwan on the list, lol

this has nothing to do with being anti Canadian
also Elvis Stojko is a Canadian and he pushed what we have quads now today, what did Chan do ?
Chan is only known for his scandalous wins and he couldn't even win the Olympics if it was handed up to him as the last one skating :rolleye:
 

Sophie-Anna

Medalist
Joined
May 24, 2013
I think you've mentioned all skaters who deserves to be named, so I don't want to write them again but there's one name I have to repeat:
Evgeni Plushenko-I still don't like him so much as a person but as a skater he is legendary. He had great technique for the times when he was the biggest champion, he had(and still has)his own skating style. Also is something as an icon for figure skating. People who don't like or don't watch figure skating often know him.
 

sky_fly20

Match Penalty
Joined
Nov 20, 2011
I think you've mentioned all skaters who deserves to be named, so I don't want to write them again but there's one name I have to repeat:
Evgeni Plushenko-I still don't like him so much as a person but as a skater he is legendary. He had great technique for the times when he was the biggest champion, he had(and still has)his own skating style. Also is something as an icon for figure skating. People who don't like or don't watch figure skating often know him.

agreed, a skater who transcends outside FS is surely a legend
 

CanadianSkaterGuy

Record Breaker
Joined
Jan 25, 2013
Yuzuru Hanyu did maximize points at the same time pushing higher technical elements
Chan has never done both, skating skills is an innovation ? then lets include Michelle Kwan on the list, lol

this has nothing to do with being anti Canadian
also Elvis Stojko is a Canadian and he pushed what we have quads now today, what did Chan do ?
Chan is only known for his scandalous wins and he couldn't even win the Olympics if it was handed up to him as the last one skating :rolleye:

Chan was the first skater to get 100+ TES points in a FS. He did 2 quads, was one of the first to do the half loop 3S sequence. And of course transitions between/leading into elements more than the other guys to increase the GOE/difficulty. How is that not maximizing points? He forced guys to go for quads instead of 3F-3T and 3Z-3T like the years prior to him gaining prominence, just so the other guys would have a fighting chance. Chan became know for exceedingly ambitious choreography. He was able to make mistakes since he maximized every aspect of CoP - and widely known as one of the first skater to really squeeze every point out of a program.

And total bs that it has nothing to so with you being admittedly anti-Canadian, so don't even try to claim anything else. :laugh: You spew crap about Chan, Osmond, and D/R like nobody's business.

And I would include Michelle Kwan on the list. Like, duh.
 

sky_fly20

Match Penalty
Joined
Nov 20, 2011
Chan was the first skater to get 100+ TES points in a FS. He did 2 quads, was one of the first to do the half loop 3S sequence. And of course transitions leading into elements more than the other guys to increase the GOE/difficulty. How is that not maximizing points? He forced guys to go for quads instead of 3F-3T and 3Z-3T like the years prior to him gaining prominence, just so the other guys would have a fighting chance. He was able to make mistakes evaluate he maximized every aspect of CoP - and widely known as one of the first skater to really squeeze every point out of a program.

And total bs that it has nothing to so with you being admittedly anti-Canadian, so don't even try to claim anything else. :laugh: You spew crap about Chan, Osmind, and D/R like nobody's business.

:unsure:, Chan is and will not be an innovator,
Hanyu is young yet his records are already on his way

Rochette and Stojko were nice and great skaters
why do we even bring up Osmond or D/R in this thread :scowl:
 

fleeting

Queen Anissina
Medalist
Joined
Feb 19, 2014
Pechalat/Bourzat will have an influence down the road to someone with quirky personalities like theirs. Even though they were consistently underscored (especially over this quad which will also be remembered down the road) they showed that you can skate to something besides warhorses and dress in interesting costumes and still do very, very well.
 

Sandpiper

Record Breaker
Joined
Apr 16, 2014
Quads came back in favour after Lysacek's quadless win in Vancouver. It didn't have anything to do with Chan. In fact, wasn't Chan one of the "anti-quad squad" before the rule change?

Two quads under COP, while impressive, wasn't done first by Chan. Joubert did three back in 2006.

Chan is known for his excellent skating skills and complex transitions, so I'll give him that. Unfortunately, he is also known for winning despite splatting. Of course, we can consider all of these "innovations," regardless of whether I--or any one else--like the "splatting" part or not. I simply think we should let some time pass, get some distance, see where the sport goes, before declaring Chan an "innovator."

Also, while Chan is super COP-friendly due to COP's love for skating skills and forgiveness of falls, his jump layout is actually not the strongest. Someone like Hanyu who has super strong triple axels will be able to take far more advantage of the 10% bonus than Chan.
 

aschiutza

On the Ice
Joined
Jan 23, 2004
Chan is a very talented skater, woth great skills. But i count him out of revolutionising FS. He had just used very clever the point system. The same goes at the moment for Hanyu, but he seems to have great abilities to go further in the technical part. So now is too earyl to put him on that list, but in 4 years he might earn that place.

Personally from the modern era i would put Plushenko and Kwan, as those two who transcendent the FS little world and became the image of FS for many poeple outthere.

As legendary as he is , i woudn't count Yagudin, he was not so influencial for the generations to come and while he won the most times over Plushenko, he actually went with the trend made by Plushenko. I give more Stojko the edge, he brought the sport further, he pushed like Plushenko the borders.

How about Scott? Not only for his amateur competition, but more for his involvement in FS after going pro?
 

Sandpiper

Record Breaker
Joined
Apr 16, 2014
EDIT: Nevermind, Jammers reread my post, it seems.

^Also, pretty much agree with the above poster. Kinda what I was trying to say with my other post. Plushenko was pushing the technical stuff and Yagudin followed suit so he wouldn't fall behind. I give Yagudin a nod because while he didn't do the innovating himself, his presence probably pushed Plushenko to innovate.
 

donezo

On the Ice
Joined
Jan 12, 2014
Peggy Fleming was definitely the prototype for the All-American ice princess. I don't think Dorothy Hamill's astronomical post-Olympics fame would have been possible without Peggy opening that door in 1968. It's easy to see the impact Peggy had on how top American ladies' skaters were packaged through the years: look no further than Dorothy, Linda Fratianne, Roz Sumners, Nancy Kerrigan....

I would also add Bestemianova/Bukin for ice dance. I think the sport's reputation as theatrical and over-the-top has a lot to do with their dominance in the mid-late '80s.
 

pangtongfan

Match Penalty
Joined
Jun 16, 2010
Hamilton could be mentioned for bringing more advanced footwork and making non jump elements like spins and footwork important to mens skating and results for the first time, and for creating Stars on Ice and much of the pro circuit as we came to know it.

Yu Na Kim's biggest legacy will be adding a new Asian power country to the sport (especialy if any future Koreans win medals or Korea atleast becames more a fixture in the sport), and most of all for making the difficult 3-3s being included consistently in both programs paramount for the first time. Everyone now is trying triple lutz-triple toe or triple lutz-triple loop or triple flip-triple toe type combinations in both programs and that is mostly due to Yu Na.

Mao for pushing the triple axels which had become an extinct jump for many years post Ito, and still managing to deliver a beautiful overall package of skating even while trying the technically hardest programs by a women ever to do.

Ito for being many years ahead of her time in athleticsm and jumping, but she was already mentioned. Plus for being the start of the rise of Japanse skating.

Fleming was the first to really bring femininity and delicate artistry to modern day ladies skating, while Lynn was the first to really skate with her heart and soul and for it be very organic in nature.

I am not sure if Hamill revolutioned the sport per say, even though she became a huge star an iconic figure. Maybe she could be credited for making spins, and complete technical skating, not just the jumps very important. What set her apart more than her artistry amongst her competitors, was that she had outstanding spins, spirals, footwork, and stroking, which set her far above her competitors even though a few of them could do triple jumps and she wasnt doing them. Plus her huge double axels.

I agree that neither Hanyu or Chan, while excellent, would go down as revolutioning the sport in anyway. Maybe Chan could be credited for making skating skills and complex programs a more prominent focal point. I think that impact would have been felt if he had been more consistent, but unfortunately it just gives the impression this is too much to reach for and doesnt really push future skaters to want to follow that.

Browning revolutioned the sport in the sense of making programs more diverse and showing you could display a whole range of styles and skating themes, both as an amateur and a pro. You didnt have to be pigoneholed into just one style of skating if you didnt want to be (although that was fine as well if it suited you best).
 
Joined
Aug 16, 2009
I don't want to get into an argument over specific choices, but this thread is a great way to think of skaters, and I like that you go back practically to the start of competitive skating rather than concentrating just on the recent past. Definitely Toller Cranston and Janet Lynn need to be on this list, because though they never won an international gold medal, they helped to usher in the era of more expressive skating. Cranston shares that distinction with his almost exact contemporary, John Curry, and Lynn probably can be thought of in conjunction with Peggy Fleming.

For the ice dancers, I'll leave it to better informed people (or just more emphatic people!) to argue, except to say that Torvill and Dean most assuredly do belong on this list.
 

pohatta

On the Ice
Joined
Mar 15, 2005
Some people are bending over backwards to come up with an excuse to include their favourites. Like Chan being "one of the first to do the half loop 3S sequence". Midori Ito did it in the 80s. She also did 7 triple LPs a decade earlier than Kwan. (I have nothing against Chan or Kwan.)
 

drivingmissdaisy

Record Breaker
Joined
Feb 17, 2010
She also did 7 triple LPs a decade earlier than Kwan. (I have nothing against Chan or Kwan.)

She did, but Kwan did more 7 triple LPs and almost everyone who won Worlds during her era needed 7 triples to do so. (I think Irina in 2002 and Kwan in 2003 did 6)
 

Sandpiper

Record Breaker
Joined
Apr 16, 2014
I didn't say Kwan was the first to do seven triples... right? I apologize if I did; I'm hardly the go-to person for figure skating history. I think Kwan is important because she made the seven-triple performance a mainstay, at least to some degree. And that's not even getting to the artistic side. Just like how Yagudin and Plushenko weren't the first ones to do quads (lol), but they both pushed quads to become more common and essential.

Speaking of rivalries and innovation, anyone have an opinion on the Brian's (Boitano and Orser)? Or Katarina Witt for that matter? I don't think any of them did any major technical innovations (that I recall), but maybe they should be considered if we look at performance as a whole. Of course, again, I'm not well-versed in the era.
 

kwanatic

Check out my YT channel, Bare Ice!
Record Breaker
Joined
May 19, 2011
Yu Na Kim's biggest legacy will be adding a new Asian power country to the sport (especialy if any future Koreans win medals or Korea atleast becames more a fixture in the sport), and most of all for making the difficult 3-3s being included consistently in both programs paramount for the first time. Everyone now is trying triple lutz-triple toe or triple lutz-triple loop or triple flip-triple toe type combinations in both programs and that is mostly due to Yu Na.

I'd revise that to say she gave the country relevance and notoriety but not necessarily any power outside of herself. "Asian power country" is a pretty big stretch especially seeing as how Yu-Na is the only skater from the country to have found any significant success in the sport so far. It's more of a testament to her personal legacy than the sport as a whole. Without Yu-Na the country has no power whatsoever.

Hopefully So-Youn, Hae-Jin and some of the others will step up in the coming years and become contenders but there's no guarantee that will happen. Look what happened to China after Chen Lu...it's taken nearly 20 years for China to produce another possible contender in the ladies and even she isn't a sure thing.

Essentially, in terms of impact/contributions to the sport, I'd say Yu-Na put Korea on the map and laid the groundwork for it to become a power country...whether or not that will happen is TBD.
 

Manitou

Medalist
Joined
Jan 17, 2014
From this standpoint Ito should be mentioned as the first one who broke the assumption that only Europeans and North Americans are capable of world class skating.
 
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