Change in Skater's bodies

Soogar, I think Kathy was in her early twenties when that happened! She'd trained so much and ate so little, that her body did actually delay puberty until then.

Laura

another explanation is the difference in modern training methods. In the past days of skating, I'm sure it was assumed that muscles equalled power. We now know that musculature can be developed in many ways and adapted to the sport for which they are intended. The days of the Ito/Hardint/Manley "thunderthighs" days have been left behind for longer and leaner muscle tone. I'm not a sports kinisiologist, but I know they've done computer simulated motion studies that show EXACTLY the strength needed in whatever muscles to complete a jump with the optimum results. Elite Athletics is now at a place where science and computer models are an equal part of the competion equation as is training, nutrition, or ice time. I also have read interviews that claim that this phenomenon is what is partly responsible for gymnists being able to compete long after the "pubecent years" have passed.

This science is "SUPPOSED" to be helping the prevention of injuries. Wonder if somehow the "powers that be" in the skating world don't want repetition of quads or 3X3 combos studied. That all being said, if you want to see women skaters with big thighs now, I'd suggest tuning into the Ice Oval and watching the speed skaters...Now THOSE are some massive legs!!!

sk8mate:
It's definitely interesting to see how training advances have bettered athletes. However the girls with the "thunderthighs" still have more height and power to their jumps than the smaller girls. None of the thinner skaters jump like Midori and Tonya. In fact, larger skaters such as Sebestyan, Slutskaya and others have more height on their jumps than Sasha and MK. It would make sense that girls with heavier muscles would be more explosive than girls with lighter muscles. If you look at track and field, the sprinters are extremely muscular b/c of the power needed for the start while the distance runners are extremely thin. Same thing for swimming as well.

I think the reason why the girls are getting smaller is that it's easier on smaller bodies to complete multiple triple jumps without injury than larger girls. The bigger girls get more height on the jumps but their bodies have to bear a harder impact. It's interesting that as another poster noted, the men are getting smaller as well. Skaters such as Jan Hoffman and Robin Cousins were significantly larger in build than the skaters of today.

Also skaters seem to eshew weights in favor of Pilates (both guys and girls) which would explain why the muscles are leaner.

Soogar, I agree that most skaters of today aren't too tall. The only exception is pair skaters (male halves) -- toping off that list is Chuviliav at 6'7". Out of singles, I think Andreev is probably the tallest at 6"1'. Some of the skaters today are outright tiny -- Davydov is actually 5'2"!