Skaters who had a late start in the sport

silverfoxes · Nov 14, 2016

Johnny Weir - began skating at age 12
Adam Rippon - age 10
Chafik Besseghier - age 12
Phillip Harris - age 11

Any examples from ladies, ice dance or pairs? I always find late bloomers interesting.

Ares · Nov 14, 2016

Michal Brezina - age 10, he trained hockey before though.

Krunchii · Nov 14, 2016

Kim Jin-seo - age 11, started off as physical therapy but then his coach recognized his talent and had him try for the National team and he took off from there

Also, football/soccer player Ilhan Mansiz who helped bring Turkey to a 3rd place finish at the 2002 World Cup started learning how to skate at age 33 to skate with his girlfriend Olga Bestandigova and go to the 2014 Olympics in Pairs. Didn't make it but they skated for a while afterwards, not sure what they're doing now.

andromache · Nov 14, 2016

What's the difference between someone "starting skating" and "skating seriously"? At what point does it turn from hobby into vocation and how does that impact whether or not someone is a late bloomer?

Just asking because I checked Sasha Cohen's wiki page for this thread - started skating at age 7 but didn't skate seriously until 11.

mrrice · Nov 14, 2016

Well, do you mean skating or figure skating? I believe that Max and Scott Hamilton started as Hockey Player's, didn't they? I started skating in 7th grade and I think I was 12. However, I had been dancing since I was 6 and already had a sense of how my body worked. I don't know if it existed in the late 70's but, It's too bad I didn't try Ice Dancing because it was a fall on a Lutz that made my Parents pull me from skating out of fear that I'd get seriously injured and "Ruin my singing career" :drama:

KatGrace1925 · Nov 14, 2016

So I could have started when I was 11? Good to know. I discovered the sport when the 2002 olympics came around, I had just turned 11 and I told my parents I wanted to do that. They said I was far too old to begin. Oh well.

andromache · Nov 14, 2016

KatGrace1925 said:
So I could have started when I was 11? Good to know. I discovered the sport when the 2002 olympics came around, I had just turned 11 and I told my parents I wanted to do that. They said I was far too old to begin. Oh well.

Uhhhh I think we are the same person??? This was me in 2002 too!!

silverfoxes · Nov 14, 2016

mrrice said:
Well, do you mean skating or figure skating? I believe that Max and Scott Hamilton started as Hockey Player's, didn't they? I started skating in 7th grade and I think I was 12. However, I had been dancing since I was 6 and already had a sense of how my body worked. I don't know if it existed in the late 70's but, It's too bad I didn't try Ice Dancing because it was a fall on a Lutz that made my Parents pull me from skating out of fear that I'd get seriously injured and "Ruin my singing career"

I guess I'd be more impressed by someone who didn't put on skates for the first time until late childhood (or later), but I'm sure it's also not so easy to go from hockey to figure skating - different skates, totally different skillsets. So we can talk about both.

The Turkish soccer player must take the prize so far, starting at 33...wow!

KatGrace1925 · Nov 14, 2016

andromache said:
Uhhhh I think we are the same person??? This was me in 2002 too!!

That is too funny! I have actually been think of taking skating lessons now just to have more skills than glide forward.

Maybe if our parents had let us pursue our dreams we would have competed against each other haha. In another life!

cathlen · Nov 14, 2016

According to wikipedia, Chris Knierim starting skating at 12, so here's the Pairs example

skylark · Nov 14, 2016

mrrice said:
Well, do you mean skating or figure skating? I believe that Max and Scott Hamilton started as Hockey Player's, didn't they? I started skating in 7th grade and I think I was 12. However, I had been dancing since I was 6 and already had a sense of how my body worked. I don't know if it existed in the late 70's but, It's too bad I didn't try Ice Dancing because it was a fall on a Lutz that made my Parents pull me from skating out of fear that I'd get seriously injured and "Ruin my singing career"

Yes and No. LOL. Max was a hockey player, and I think it just shows powerfully and beautifully with how he is as a competitor, that team spirit and also, in hockey they have the congratulations of every other team member on the ice at the end of the game. Honestly, I wish figure skaters would do this at the end of every competition in every discipline. Include everybody that way.

Scott Hamilton, no. He started at age 8 or 9; and at the end of the very first day he could do figure skating moves better than all the athletes and others who'd bullied him for years for being small and weak and having a feeding tube in his nose. He never looked back!

skylark · Nov 14, 2016

KatGrace1925 said:
That is too funny! I have actually been think of taking skating lessons now just to have more skills than glide forward.

Maybe if our parents had let us pursue our dreams we would have competed against each other haha. In another life!

Or in one of the infinite number of alternate realities split off from this one.

drivingmissdaisy · Nov 14, 2016

According to Wikipedia, Sasha Cohen didn't start skating "seriously" (?) until age 11.

LRK · Nov 14, 2016

Mishin?

http://www.goldenskate.com/forum/sh...lexei-Mishin&p=1452989&viewfull=1#post1452989

http://www.openkwongdore.com/2016/07/18/episode-12-alexei-mishin/

Mango · Nov 14, 2016

Petri Kokko (of Finnstep fame) started figure skating at age 14: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petri_Kokko_(figure_skater)

karne · Nov 14, 2016

mrrice said:
Well, do you mean skating or figure skating? I believe that Max and Scott Hamilton started as Hockey Player's, didn't they?

Max started hockey at 3 and figure skating at 8, so I don't think he really qualifies for this list of late starters since 8 is quite a common age, particularly in western countries. It is true that figure skating did not have his full attention until he was 16, but given he was already a Novice champion at that point, that didn't seem to have too much of an effect on him.

skylark said:
Yes and No. LOL. Max was a hockey player, and I think it just shows powerfully and beautifully with how he is as a competitor, that team spirit and also, in hockey they have the congratulations of every other team member on the ice at the end of the game. Honestly, I wish figure skaters would do this at the end of every competition in every discipline. Include everybody that way.

Adorable Max hugs for everyone! :ghug:

Ares · Nov 15, 2016

KatGrace1925 said:
So I could have started when I was 11? Good to know. I discovered the sport when the 2002 olympics came around, I had just turned 11 and I told my parents I wanted to do that. They said I was far too old to begin. Oh well.

In 2002 I was 9 years old and I also wanted to start but there was no skating club in my city (or anyway in the radius of 100 kilometres), there's no such till today even though there is covered rink.

KatGrace1925 · Nov 15, 2016

Ares said:
In 2002 I was 9 years old and I also wanted to start but there was no skating club in my city (or anyway in the radius of 100 kilometres), there's no such till today even though there is covered rink.

2002 was so inspiring to us all! All there US ladies were in the hunt for the podium, what a time to be alive.

Sk8DSmom · Nov 15, 2016

IIRC:

Kurt Browning - was doing hockey but switched to figure skating at age 11
Shawn Sawyer - started skating at age 9 but switched within a year or two I think

gkelly · Nov 16, 2016

mrrice said:
I don't know if it existed in the late 70's but, It's too bad I didn't try Ice Dancing

Of course ice dancing existed in the late 1970s.

People had been skating to music in couples in some form since the late 19th century, and there were competitions within various countries in the early 20th century. Ice dancing was first added to the World Championships in the early 1950s, and it first appeared at the Olympics in 1976.

It's entirely possible that no one was ice dancing at the rink(s) you skated at during that time, but ice dancing did exist as both social activity and Olympic sport by the late 70s.

Falls are entirely possible in ice dancing, but fewer and not from so great a height as in freestyle. It's certainly a discipline one can take up post-puberty and have more success than jumping disciplines.

Skaters who had a late start in the sport

silverfoxes

Ares

Krunchii

andromache

mrrice

KatGrace1925

andromache

silverfoxes

KatGrace1925

cathlen

Team Gorgeous Cacti!

skylark

Gazing at a Glorious Great Lakes sunset

skylark

Gazing at a Glorious Great Lakes sunset

drivingmissdaisy

LRK

Mango

Royal Chinet 👑🍽️

karne

in Emergency Backup Mode

Ares

KatGrace1925

Sk8DSmom

gkelly

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