Axel, Lutz, Flip, Loop, Salchow, Toe loop--Who was the best at each triple?

[tommyk75]

A lot of skaters have performed each of the triple jumps over the years. Which skater did you like the most for each jump? Why?

Here's my list:

Triple Axel
(Men) 1. A.Yagudin (amazing height) 2. I.Kulik 3. E.Stojko
(Women) 1. M.Ito (awesome) 2. T.Harding (she's the only other one, and hers was pretty good too)

Triple Lutz
(Men) 1. B.Boitano (LOVE the Tano Lutz with the arm raised) 2. I.Kulik 3. A.Urmanov
(Women) 1. M.Ito (HUGE height) 2. N.Kerrigan 3. M.Kwan & K.Yamaguchi (tie)

Triple Flip
(Men) 1. E.Stojko 2. I.Kulik 3. B.Orser
(Women) 1. T.Harding (she used to do one right after a beautiful ena bauer) 2. K.Yamaguchi 3. M.Ito

Triple Loop
(Men) 1. E.Plushenko 2. K.Browning 3. I.Kulik
(Women) 1. M.Ito (again, amazing height) 2. T.Lipinski (did two in a row!) 3. Y.Sato

Triple Salchow
(Men) 1. A.Yagudin 2. E.Stojko 3. K.Browning
(Women) 1. T.Harding 2. O.Baiul 3. E.Manley

Triple Toe
(Men) The men pretty much are all the same, IMO
(Women) 1. K.Witt 2. M.Ito 3. D.Thomas

[thvudragon]

Originally posted by tommyk75
Triple Lutz
(Men) 1. B.Boitano (LOVE the Tano Lutz with the arm raised) 2. I.Kulik 3. A.Urmanov
(Women) 1. M.Ito (HUGE height) 2. N.Kerrigan 3. M.Kwan & K.Yamaguchi (tie)

Triple Loop
(Men) 1. E.Plushenko 2. K.Browning 3. I.Kulik
(Women) 1. M.Ito (again, amazing height) 2. T.Lipinski (did two in a row!) 3. Y.Sato

Kwan for the lutz . She's a repeat flutzer and she does not get good height. I would say the best lutz for ladies is Hardings. Great outside edge, amazing height and wonderful speed and position on the landing. Another great lutzer is Sebestyen and Volchkova (when she actually has speed into it).

On the loop, I would not say Lipinski. Her jumps were incredibly small and was only good in consistancy. Her landings were never very stable in that she always turns out of her landings. She does have the best 3lp/3lp of ladies though (but this is by default as no other lady landed them with any consistancy).

TV

[Kasey]

Definitely Yagudin for the triple axel, although I think Scott hamilton has a great double axel. Kristi Yamaguchi for the triple lutz. Paul Wylie for triple flip. Jozef Sabovcik for the triple toes! Not sure about others, I'll have to think on it more. These are just the ones that first came to me.

Kasey

[RIskatingfan]

Of that list, I'd certainly remove Michelle in the triple lutz. Ladies like Maria Butyrskaya, Julia Sebestyen, Irina Slutskaya, Volchkova, Sokolova... well LOL a large majority of European ladies have a much better lutz because they don't flutz one bit. American and some Japanese skaters tend to flutz to a bigger or lesser degree.

Also in the lutz I'd put Alexei Yagudin. You can tell by the long (and sometimes telegraphed) entry that many skaters will perform a lutz but Yagudin's was very fast and usually came out of nowhere.

I would also take Tara Lipinski out of the loop list for reasons someone else mentioned. None of Tara Lipinski or Michelle Kwan's jumps really belong in the list of "best of".

Maybe you want to add Zayak for the triple toe

I forgot, Andrei Griazev belongs in the best triple axel too!

[dorispulaski]

Don't laugh about Zayak for the triple toe. She could throw one anywhere, any time, any number nearly that you might want!

On the lutz list with Tonya Harding, Julia Sebasteyn, I would Yebin Mok. Good jump = height, distance, right edge in, great flow out. I wouldn't throw Michelle off this list, but don't look at her lutz in combination, which is often small, and if she is going to do a slight flutz, this is where. Look at the lutz near the end of the program. However, I would have her behind the other 3.

On the men's 3 axel list, I would add Brian Boitano. I particularly liked his from Les Patineurs where it was followed by a 2loop followed by a great edge and then wiping his blade and throwing the snow, showing complete control of the movement.

Irina's loop is great.

[SusanBeth]

Harding's Lutz was a gorgeous and glorious thing to see. It had unbelieveable height and distance. I would rank her's first for the ladies.

For the men, Orser's Lutz at the '88 Olympics impressed me more than Boitano's. I can't recall if he did them that well consistantly.

ETA I agree Zayak had a wonderful toe loop. Considering she lost half of her foot when she was little, her accomplishments were amazing. She won me over completely when she came back in '94. That took guts.

[Lucy25]

Michelle has a good lutz, but I wouldn't put her on the list. When I think of lutz I think of Volchkova. Arakawa has a great one, too, and I agree that Yamaguchi belongs on the list. I don't remember Harding's. I would not put Irina, or anyone who flutzes, on a list of one of the best lutzes.

Michelle does, however, have a textbook salchow. Yes, it could be higher, but the rest of it is gorgeous.

Sarah Hughes had one of the best double axels in the business.

Irina has a great loop.

When I think of triple axel, I think of Todd Eldredge.

[show 42]

The above lists are great........this is from a lay person in skating, just an observer, but Chris Bowman had the most incredible jumps, height and flow out, also, I'd put Kulik at the top of any of the jump lists simply because when he was on, he finished his jumps way before he landed and then just floated down...........42

[PrincessLeppard]

While Alexei had amazing height on his 3A, his landings were always hunched over and very unattractive. I always thought he'd be able to do a 4A with the height, but God knows what that landing would've looked like.

I really have no other comments at this time...

Laura

[hydroradi]

Tonya Harding's Triple Lutz was amazing. The height and distance she got on it was unreal.

Just take a look at the one she did at '94 Nationals in this video clip.

http://www.cruelladekwan.com/thlpmarks_94nats.rm (save target as to save bandwidth)

[RIskatingfan]

Originally posted by PrincessLeppard
While Alexei had amazing height on his 3A, his landings were always hunched over and very unattractive.

When he was "on", the landing was just as perfect and textbook as the other components of the jump. I really miss the excitement of watching him landing those 3A, it was probably the only jump I really looked forward to watch in any event... :(

Irina Slutskaya's triple loop is great and so is Carolina Kostner's when she lands it cleanly. Kostner's jumps are really cool to watch, I love her position in the air, she always looks so relaxed when she jumps LOL If only she would land them consistenly...

[ks777]

Kristi? She had one of the smallest Lutz I have ever seen. I wouldn't put her in that category. Tonya might had a huge lutz but she was always tilted in the air. So was her triple axel, always tilted and looked very unattractive. I wouldn't put Tonya in that best triple axelers list because she only landed in 1991 and never after that. If you really want the best technique skater, look at Malinina. She was a text book jumper with the best technique.. I think.

[dorispulaski]

Ks, Download the clip and then say that again? Look at the depth of the outside edge on Tonya's lutz in that clip. The speed in. The flow out. As Button says, "that's a sensational triple lutz."
Now her outfit is *NOT* sensational. But that wasn't the question.

However, let's be fair. Do you have a Malinina clip available. I don't remember her lutz as being particularly specially good or specially bad?

Kristi's lutz was definitely low and small, smaller than Michelle's, but very precise, and very consistent. I wouldn't put her on a list of top lutzer's.

[hydroradi]

Here are a couple more video clips of Tonya doing a "textbook perfect" triple axel from '91 Worlds and '91 Skate America.

Notice the height and distance she gets across the ice, especially in the second Skate America clip.

FYI, You'll need DIVX to view the clips. Geocities is sometimes tempermental with links. If a direct link doesn't open the video, try right clicking, selecting properties, and then copying and pasting the links into your browser.

http://www.geocities.com/hydroradi2/...ngworlds3a.avi

http://www.geocities.com/hydroradi2/...gskateam91.avi

[dorispulaski]

Worth saying that 91 Worlds is in the 91/92 season. 91 Skate America is in the 91/92 season. So apparently she did have the 3A in at least 2 different seasons. She had a terrible time at 92 worlds-fell completely apart. I don't know whether she was ill. With the asthma and the foolishness of smoking, her health sometimes really hampered her skating.

Are there any other seasons Tonya landed it in competition?