Most Surprising Ladies' Victory

All of these ladies were top contenders, and a few were favored by some people. Heck, in 1994 Yuka was the favorite of most, after Oksana and Nancy retired and LuLu withdrew with an injury. I don't consider that any of these was much of a surprise, as they were expected to medal by most people. The only one that I'd classify as a bit of a surprise in Sarah in 2002, where most people picked her for third or fourth.

tripleflutz


Atfer some more thought, and seeing Frau Mullers post I remembered that Oksana really was an unknown before the 1993 season, and her fast climb to the 93 Worlds Gold was a surprise.

I choose other and am torn between two competitions:

Elena Liashenko's seventh to first win at Cup of China in 2003 (an astounding surprise) and Irina's 2005 Europeans win (based more on the quality of the skate vs. the scoring in the LP).

Both Irina and Michelle crumbling in SLC was more shocking to me than Sarah's win. I thought for sure after Michelle flopped on her flip that Irina would skate cleanly and confidently through to victory.

I voted for Oksana's 1993 Worlds victory. People forget that Oksana came out of NOWHERE, totally unknown to the skating community prior to Euros 1993. Sarah's '02 Olys victory was a surprise but, at least, Sarah had won Worlds bronze and some Grand Prix event titles in prior years.

I think that Sarah Hughes 2002 Olympic Games win was really suprising.

I think Maria's 99 World title was a big surprise. Granted she arguably came into Worlds as 2nd favorite behind Michelle, but while she was tipped by some early in the season as the dark horse to upset Michelle, she came into Worlds after a disaesterous performance in the GP final where she lost in a huge upset to Malinina. Some wondered if her nerves were shaky enough that she might be bumped off the podium by her younger teammates or Malinina at Worlds. Kwan was also seen as almost unbeatable at that point, especially in the depleted field. Butyrskaya up until that point had only beaten Kwan once, at 95-96 Cup of Russia, where Kwan fell in the short, and both performed faulty 4-triple long programs. Butyrskaya had only one World medal up until then, a bronze at the depleted 98 post-0lympic Worlds, she had missed chances to medal at 96 Worlds, 97 Worlds, and 98 Olympics due to errors in the long program. I in no way saw that one coming, if there was a threat to Michelle that year it was Maria, but given Michelle's dominance, Maria's lead in from the GP final debacle, and Maria's history in big events, it was a very very long threat IMO.

Ok, she didn't win, but for me, Viktoria Pavuk's bronze medal at the 2004(? I'm no good with years) Euros was the biggest and happiest surprise. she just succeded with everything at that championship..