Teeny-tiny skaters?

I remember watching Nancy Kerrigsn and thinking how tall she was. Looking at pictures of her, she looked model tall. In reality, Nancy was only 5 ft 4 in. Tonya was 5 ft 1 in.

Everyone looks/is taller with skates on.

concorde said:

I remember watching Nancy Kerrigsn and thinking how tall she was. Looking at pictures of her, she looked model tall. In reality, Nancy was only 5 ft 4 in. Tonya was 5 ft 1 in.

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I remember being surprised when I found out that Ashley Wagner is only 160 cm tall and Daisuke Takahashi 165 cm. Ashley is average when it comes to size in FS, Daisuke is short for a man.

koatcue said:

I'll tell you the sekret: Russian parents are part of governmental program, the core of which lies in providing little skaters with some sekret medicine. THAT's what makes them so small *evil laugh*. Meldonium is the tip of iceberg.

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Takahashi is not short for a Japanese man.

Uno: 5'3" 160cm
Tatsuki Machida: 5'4" 162cm

Ares said:

I remember being surprised when I found out that Ashley Wagner is only 160 cm tall and Daisuke Takahashi 165 cm. Ashley is average when it comes to size in FS, Daisuke is short for a man.

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hippomoomin said:

Takahashi is not short for a Japanese man.

Uno: 5'3" 160cm
Tatsuki Machida: 5'4" 162cm

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Huh. I never checked data of these two Japanese are shorter than Europeans and with figure skating favoring smaller people it makes sense that they're of this height.

Tara Lipinski is only 5 feet 1 inch fully grown after being 4 feet 10 at the 1998 Olympics. If it wasn't for her hip, I don't think that 3 inches of growth would have prevented her from continuing to do well.

Next to me, all skaters look small!

But that´s not their fault, I just should have stopped growing when I was a teenager

@ topic

What spectators see in sports, is always the crème de la crème, the best who survived so to speak. Certain sports, will favor a certain body type, as we see with Simone Biles. She is 19 years of age, but really tiny and it allows her to shine in her sport, just like Shawn Johnson before her. Since the US gymnastics educational system favors tumbles over ballet and spins, these girls will get the spotlight as they fit perfect.

That, however, does not mean that there are no taller gymnasts, just that they are not as favored by the system and the same can be applied to many other sports, including FS.

Some sports, are while selective, a bit more "open" to various people, as we see at Soccer / Football or to some degree Volleyball & Basketball, where the Libero / Libera and PG´s are usually of smaller stature and it´s a great opportunity for athletes, who might not fit the typical body mass that coaches want.

In the end, however, the look of someone, should not matter to us. To be different is not wrong and if you ask me, our society is way to obsessed with the perfect body and people always think that someone who is thin, must be sick or has stopped eating, just like someone with a bit more on the hips, must automatically sit at McDonalds all day... it´s just unfair to the people, to make these assumptions!

Besides that, all athletes around the world, need to be healthy and in good shape. Else they could not be an athlete. In my practice group, plays a young girl, she is much smaller than all the other girls, but if she get´s the ball, she is on fire and a little Messi You never know what abilities someone has, until you give him or her a chance and why all those prejudices are bad.

Japanese ladies also tend to be short too, but the ones truly stand above the crowd, are tall skaters, speaking of Mao, Yuzuru Hanyu, and Shizuka Arakawa.

And the opposite side are the Finish lady skaters in recent years. They are so tall and skinny, and they don't have the muscle to jump well.

Ares said:

Huh. I never checked data of these two Japanese are shorter than Europeans and with figure skating favoring smaller people it makes sense that they're of this height.

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