Promising skaters who never fulfilled expectations

[chuckm]

Hmm. With the possible exception of Bebe when she was 12, I never really expected anything outstanding from any of those skaters. (?)

Emily won a medal at Junior Worlds in her first big international competition. At the time, she was considered a very promising newcomer.

Andre Griazev beat Evan Lysacek to win the World Junior Championship, and under Tarasova's tutelage, he was expected to follow in the footsteps of Yagudin and become an OGM contender.

Joannie Rochette eclipsed Cynthia Phaneuf in the 2004-2005 GP and won a medal in the GPF. At that point, she was considered a potential World medalwinner, especially after she finished 5th at the 2006 Olympics. Many of her fans still consider her a medal threat for the Vancouver Olympics.

 

[KwanFan1212]

I would say Angela and not all of it was her fault. Right around the time where she was finally figuring things out and controlling her nerves better, she lost her coach Elena and missed a very good shot at making the 2002 Olympic team. Then, when she came back and starting figuring things out again, she lost her mom in Portland in that horrible car accident (I still remember being in the arena there and hearing about that news. It took everything I had not to burst into tears before the pairs short program. ) and never really recovered from that to skate competitively again. Her career will always be one of those 'what could have been' moments for me because while her nerves were definitely not her strength, I think she was well on the road to figuring them out when Elena died and she never really got everything back after that. Anyway, I'm glad she's skating a little bit professionally and hopefully she can continue to teach some of the younger skaters and share some of her experiences with them.

 

[bethissoawesome]

yoshie onda
bebe liang
sasha
ann patrice mcdonough
alissa czisny

 

[Rachael]

Lisa Ervin
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVqTgbO3hxE

 

[Kasey]

Andre Griazev beat Evan Lysacek to win the World Junior Championship, and under Tarasova's tutelage, he was expected to follow in the footsteps of Yagudin and become an OGM contender.

Was "expected" to, although a totally different personality than Yagudin. Andrei has said before that winning Russian Nationals was a big goal for him. So perhaps he is living up to his own expectations, or doing better at it than others think.

 

[sk8addict]

A little bit OT, but is Katy Taylor competing this year?

No, Katy Taylor is NOT competeing this year. No word why.

 

[Yellow Cat]

Sydne Vogel?

 

[Cal Girl]

Wow, I never saw Lisa Ervin, she was good!:agree: And does Carol Heiss-Jenkins still coach? If so where and does she have any known skaters any longer.
And what is Nicole Bobek up to?

 

[JaeJ]

Naomi Nari Nam

Definititly Naomi Nari Nam for me. I thought she was going to be the next Michelle Kwan following her long skate at the 1999 Nationals. First time I'd ever heard Kwan booed by Americans was when NNN's scores were listed as lower than Kwans's. I hear NNN struggled for many years with injuries, and continues to train in smaller venues. That definitely reflects a love of the sport I think, but what a shame she never lived up to the early expectations seen in this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXiosQOmHtI&NR=1

 

[laceup]

Thanks for the link JaeJ - I have to agree with you, NNN looked like she was a star in the making.

 

[cassieandcheetah]

Jamie Silverstein Justin Pekarek FD 2000

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKqTEY05O7o

 

[chuckm]

No, Katy Taylor is NOT competeing this year. No word why.

Katy has a stress fracture in her foot and decided to take the year off.

 

[chuckm]

Definititly Naomi Nari Nam for me. I thought she was going to be the next Michelle Kwan following her long skate at the 1999 Nationals. First time I'd ever heard Kwan booed by Americans was when NNN's scores were listed as lower than Kwans's. I hear NNN struggled for many years with injuries, and continues to train in smaller venues.

Naomi competed at Nationals again 2000, but she finished 8th. She was diagnosed with the same type of hip injury that Tara Lipinski had, and Naomi had surgery. After that, she was unable to return to competitive skating until she tried a comeback (I think it was the 2004-2005 season), but she didn't make it out of Sectionals. It was after that that she teamed up with Themi Leftheris and came back in Pairs.

 

[hockeyfan228]

Ye Bin Mok was a wonderful skater whose career was cut short by injury.

One of my all-time favorite pairs skaters was Marina Pestova, who competed with Stanislav Leonovich in the early 80's. They won World bronze in 1980, and looked to be the successors of Rodnina/Zaitzev. In 1982 they moved to silver, and then seemed to disappear; in 1983 Valova/Vasiliev were the top Soviet pair, and by 1986, V/V competed with Gordeeva/Grinkov for the World title until V/V left the eligible ranks.

I never knew what happened to this pair. She was a wonderful, wonderful skater.

 

[chuckm]

Ye Bin Mok is still competing. She was 6th at Pacific Sectionals this season. That was a big improvement over last year, when she was 8th at SWP Regionals and didn't even make it to Sectionals. Maybe next season we will get to see her at Nationals!

 

[Jaana]

Rohene's problem is nerves. I practice with him and I have seen him land some clean quad toe loops.

Will he be at US Nationals this season?

 

[discoduck]

I always think about Christopher Bowman. He was one of the most naturally gifted athletes I've ever seen. Unfortunately he made some poor choices and threw it all away. He was national champion twice and won two world medals but he had the potential to do so much more.

 

[JaeJ]

Naomi competed at Nationals again 2000, but she finished 8th. She was diagnosed with the same type of hip injury that Tara Lipinski had, and Naomi had surgery. After that, she was unable to return to competitive skating until she tried a comeback (I think it was the 2004-2005 season), but she didn't make it out of Sectionals. It was after that that she teamed up with Themi Leftheris and came back in Pairs.

I did not know that she competed at Nationals in 2000; that is really too bad about her hip injury. I had heard that she was unable to get out of Sectionals a couple of years back, but it sounds as if she's doing pairs skating now? Thanks for the heads up, I'm going to google it now.

Sorry if I sound totally clueless, I haven't followed skating in a year or two because it's been kind of boring for me since so many of the "greats" left. Yu-Na and Mao have really brought the excitement back for me.

Anyway, It's nice to see you still posting; thanks again for the info.

ETA: Wow! a bronze medal in pairs at Nats their first year? That's great. I guess I'm going to have to start following pairs again now as well

 

[MFarone]

Lisa Ervin & Naomi Nari Nam

Lisa Ervin is now a Technical Specialist for USFSA. She and Scott Davis were the technical specialists in Spokane at the Ladies SP (and got a lot of criticism for a couple of calls). I liked Lisa much better than Nicole, but Lisa seemed to have a problem maintaining her weight and wasn't as able to control her nerves.

Naomi and Themi withdrew from all events this year because she needed more hip surgery. I believe they intend to skate at Nationals but wonder how prepared they can possibly be without much practice time.

 

[Joesitz (RIP)]

Lisa Ervin is now a Technical Specialist for USFSA. She and Scott Davis were the technical specialists in Spokane at the Ladies SP (and got a lot of criticism for a couple of calls).
.

Do you know of any criticisms? davis called a downgrade for a 3A of Lambiel in Calgary which one side of the arena disagreed with. But was there any official cricisms of these two?

Joe