Let's Chat About Less-Known Skaters! | Page 7 | Golden Skate

Let's Chat About Less-Known Skaters!

labgoat

Done updating WJC rewatches!
Record Breaker
Joined
Jan 3, 2007
Country
United-States
Maybe not lesser known, but less familiar to more recent viewers.
Mandy Wotzel & Ingo Steuer 1998 SP to Enya "No Holly for Miss Quinn"

What a beautiful spiral sequence.
 
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4everchan

Record Breaker
Joined
Mar 7, 2015
Country
Martinique
Maybe not lesser known, but less familiar to more recent viewers.
Mandy Wotzel & Ingo Steuer 1998 SP to Enya "No Holly for Miss Quinn"

What a beautiful spiral sequence.
they were one of my faves back then
 

Bluediamonds09

Medalist
Joined
Sep 8, 2016
Is Alessia Tornaghi still competing? I remember being so proud of her when she won a jgp bronze a few seasons ago. And she has many nice qualities to her skating.
 

ladyjane

Medalist
Joined
Jun 26, 2012
Country
Netherlands
I remember that bronze for Alessia. I think she is still competing, at least she took part in Italian Nationals this year. She would be 19 now? She took part in one or two Challenger events as well in season 2022-2023. Regrettably I haven't seen her. I liked her skating as well.
 

PaulE

On the Ice
Joined
Jan 5, 2008
Country
United-States
There are a couple of Finnish ladies that I really enjoyed watching: Susanna Pöykiö and Jenni Vähämaa.

I had watched Susanna several times on TV in the early 2000s and got to see her in person at the first competition I ever attended live, Skate Canada International 2006 in Victoria, B.C. She was the start of a series of lovely Finnish ladies. Here is one of her skates: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9MTziHl-8w.

I got to see Jenni compete as a junior at 2007 and 2008 Junior Worlds as well as the Junior Gran Prix Final in 2007. She is one of my favorite skaters all time. I liked her better than her teammate Laura Lepisto. Sadly she got injured and retired after only 2 or 3 senior competitions. Here is a video of all her skates at 2007 Junior Worlds in Oberstdorf: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ddm4y3atRzQ.
 

TT_Fin

The second worst besserwisser in the world
Record Breaker
Joined
Jan 29, 2007
Country
Finland
Jenni Vähämaa retired after injuries at quite young age after not finding motivation. She also won FinlandiaTrophy once when Carolina Costner was competing there also. There is also another retired athlete in Finland called Jenni Vähämaa who has competed in Aerobic. So google hits both of them but they are two different Jennis.
 

PaulE

On the Ice
Joined
Jan 5, 2008
Country
United-States
@TT_Fin . Thank you very much for your information. My late wife and I attended a Junior Grand Prix in Sheffield, England, in the fall of 2007 and stayed at the hotel across from the rink where a lot of the coaches, officials, and skaters were staying. At the buffet breakfasts in the hotel we got to meet several of the coaches. I remember talking to one of the coaches (I believe it was Peter Grütter, Stefane Lambiel's coach) about Jenni. He was impressed with her skating and mentioned that she had skated wonderfully at Finlandia and had beaten some well known skaters.

I just looked up 2007 Finlandia and Jenni was in first ahead of Susanna, Carolina, Laura Lepisto, and Kiiri Korpi😲: https://www.figureskatingresults.fi/results/0708/ft_2007/CAT011RS.HTM.
 

PaulE

On the Ice
Joined
Jan 5, 2008
Country
United-States
Some more thoughts about Jenni. In 2007 to 2008 my wife and I went to 4 Junior Competitions and found we were almost the only ones other than coaches, parents, and officials that traveled out of the country to see Juniors. We got to see many of the same people and it seemed like a family outing. In 2007 we went to Junior Worlds in Oberstdorf, a JGP in Lake Placid, a JGP in Sheffield, and the JGP Final in Gdansk, Poland. In 2008 we went to Junior Worlds in Sofia, Bulgaria. Jenni was at the two Junior Worlds and at the JGP Final. When I heard that she had retired due to injury, I was very sad and managed to convince one of the photographers that we had met to send me an off-ice picture of Jenni as a keepsake. I just went looking for the email with that photo and found another email from 2008 that I had sent to another fan describing out visit to Sofia. The paragraph below contains my thoughts about Jenni written at that time. As I recall, the jumps I refer to below were probably her double axels.

"One of the big reasons for taking the trip was to be able to see Jenni Vahamaa skate again. I really liked her in Oberstdorf and enjoyed her in Gdansk even though she struggled there. Her short program is one of my favorites, it is so lyrical and she skates it with such grace. I saw her practice some jumps at the end of the ice where I was standing and was really impressed with the marks she left on the ice. From where the tip of her skate touched down for about 4 or 5 feet the skate mark was an absolutely straight line, no under or over-rotation on those practice jumps! Her warmup before the free skate did not look good, she popped a number of jumps, but she skated her program really well with only a couple of bobbles. I was happy to see her do well and hold on to 4th place this year as well."
 

PaulE

On the Ice
Joined
Jan 5, 2008
Country
United-States
Another two junior skaters that showed up in the same 2008 email letter that I mentioned in the post just above were Sonia LaFuente of Spain and Stefania Berton of Italy. I really liked Stefania as a junior singles skater and later as a senior pairs skater. This is the paragraph about them from 2008 (Celia is the name of my late dearly beloved English wife):

"I enjoyed seeing Sonia LaFuente and Stefania Berton again. Sonia finished 3rd in Sheffield after a cautious but probably mistake-free free skate. I hope she skates as well as she can at Senior Worlds, she appears to be a good skater but not world class. The same probably goes for Stefania, she looks good on the ice but doesn’t jump very high so probably will never get really high technical scores. However, she has the most gorgeous dresses of any of the lady skaters. That’s how I remembered her from Oberstdorf, she had the most beautiful white practice dress. Celia remembers a comment she heard from Jane Torville that any costume they made for her should look like a real dress even if it was held together by mesh. It appears that all of Stefania’s skating costumes are really beautiful real dresses. I complemented her and her coach about the dresses and she said they are made by some Italian design house but I didn’t catch the name of it. Anyway, I’d like her to qualify for the senior circuit just to keep seeing her dresses (and, by the way, she seems like a very sweet person who is there in the audience to support her friends from other countries). At Sheffield, Stefania and Sonia acted like sisters, and sort of looked like sisters as well."
 

labgoat

Done updating WJC rewatches!
Record Breaker
Joined
Jan 3, 2007
Country
United-States
Okay I am officially obsessed with the new team of Smart/Dieck. I am very familiar with what Olivia has done in the past and have been back watching Tim with former partner Katharina Mueller. Interesting possibilities.

Some I remember as the Coco Chanel number and the Burlesque, but somehow I forgot about this one...The Way through Cancer

Others of interest:
2018 RD Devil's Tango

2020 RD Burlesque

2020 FD Coco Chanel
The version from 2020 Euros can be found at 22:53 here https://www.bitchute.com/video/gaVK7NfAPl3A/

2021 RD The Joker
 
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dorispulaski

Wicked Yankee Girl
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
Country
United-States
Am I the only one who remembers when Joylyn Yang competed in Jr.dance with Jean Luc Baker? They were adorable at 2011 US Nationals especially in the SD and their sectionals 2009 FD.


Their FD from that season

2009 FD

2008 Jr. Nationals FD


Joylyn had a bad injury and retired. Jean Luc, of course, went on to skate with Kaitlin Hawayek.
 
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labgoat

Done updating WJC rewatches!
Record Breaker
Joined
Jan 3, 2007
Country
United-States
you can be sure something weird si going to happen if Tim with an E is involved :biggrin: really? really
Always! love the originality and the very good skating too. I remember fondly watching these programs with you and enjoying your commentary about Tim with an E.
 

labgoat

Done updating WJC rewatches!
Record Breaker
Joined
Jan 3, 2007
Country
United-States
Am I the only one who remembers when Joylyn Yang competed in Jr.dance with Jean Luc Baker? They were adorable at 2011 US Nationals especially in the SD and their sectionals 2009 FD.


Their FD from that season

2009 FD

2008 Jr. Nationals FD


Joylyn had a bad injury and retired. Jean Luc, of course, went on to skate with Kaitlin Hawayek.
I do. It is too bad she could not continue. I am glad he found Kaitlin to continue.
 

NanaPat

Record Breaker
Joined
Oct 25, 2014
Country
Canada
Always! love the originality and the very good skating too. I remember fondly watching these programs with you and enjoying your commentary about Tim with an E.
Why Tim with an E? I can guess it's related to something a commentator said on a competition stream, but what did they say?
 

CaroLiza_fan

MINIOL ALATMI REKRIS. EZETTIE LATUASV IVAKMHA.
Record Breaker
Joined
Oct 25, 2012
Country
Northern-Ireland
Why Tim with an E? I can guess it's related to something a commentator said on a competition stream, but what did they say?

Not a commentator. It's all @elektra blue's fault. She started referring to him as "Tim with and E" a few years ago, and it has stuck.

It was only in the early stages of this season that I finally realised what she was getting at. (I'm a good boy! 😇 ) And I admitted to my naïvity in reply to a post in the Ice Challenge SD thread:

i'm missing making jokes about his name :(

Confession time...

Despite you making those jokes for years, it was only in the past couple of months ago that I finally "got" them. And that was only because somebody else worked it out.

I thought you were talking about "Tim" and "Time", and so couldn't understand what was so funny.

:slink:

CaroLiza_fan

I can't remember who it was that confessed to working it out, so can't link to their post that made me work it out too. Suffice to say, "Tim with an E" refers to the difference the presence of an "e" makes to his surname. :slink:

CaroLiza_fan
 

NanaPat

Record Breaker
Joined
Oct 25, 2014
Country
Canada
Not a commentator. It's all @elektra blue's fault. She started referring to him as "Tim with and E" a few years ago, and it has stuck.

It was only in the early stages of this season that I finally realised what she was getting at. (I'm a good boy! 😇 ) And I admitted to my naïvity in reply to a post in the Ice Challenge SD thread:





I can't remember who it was that confessed to working it out, so can't link to their post that made me work it out too. Suffice to say, "Tim with an E" refers to the difference the presence of an "e" makes to his surname. :slink:

CaroLiza_fan
Thanks for the explanation. I never would have guessed it; I was thinking along the lines of someone calling him "Time" or "Teem".

Our MP's first name is Richard; he uses the common nickname in orindary life, but decided it was safer to use Richard when he ran for office!
 
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