Rank the princesses of the sport

[FlattFan]

I just realized one person's princess is another person's peasant from a few threads. So we can understand each other better, can you rank some of these skaters in princess scale from 0 - 10? 10 being Gracie Gold and 0 being Surya Bonaly. Feel free to add more to the extreme cases of princessy and peasantry.

My ranking would be
Peggy Fleming - 7
Dorothy Hamill - 5
Janet Lynn - 4
Tonya Harding - 1
Midori Ito - 2
Kristi Yamaguchi - 6
Nancy Kerrigan - 9
Oksana Baiul - 9
Michelle Kwan - 5
Chen Lu - 5
Tara Lipinski - 4
Irina Slutskaya - 1
Fumie Suguri - 2
Sasha Cohen - 7
Shizuka Arakawa - 4
Yuna Kim - 4
Mao Asada - 5
Miki Ando - 2
Carolina Kostner - 3

 

[mrrice]

I just realized one person's princess is another person's peasant from a few threads. So we can understand each other better, can you rank some of these skaters in princess scale from 0 - 10? 10 being Gracie Gold and 0 being Surya Bonaly. Feel free to add more to the extreme cases of princessy and peasantry.

My ranking would be
Peggy Fleming - 7
Dorothy Hamill - 5
Janet Lynn - 4
Tonya Harding - 1
Midori Ito - 2
Kristi Yamaguchi - 6
Nancy Kerrigan - 9
Oksana Baiul - 9
Michelle Kwan - 5
Chen Lu - 5
Tara Lipinski - 4
Irina Slutskaya - 1
Fumie Suguri - 2
Sasha Cohen - 7
Shizuka Arakawa - 4
Yuna Kim - 4
Mao Asada - 5
Miki Ando - 2
Carolina Kostner - 3

This Topic Again!! I'll add more later.

My 2 favorite princesses are Maria Butyrskaya and Jennifer Robinson because they both have multiple national Championships and were, IMO, real hero's in their home countries. More later this afternoon.

 

[4everchan]

Surya, a 0? wow just the dresses get her to at least 5

 

[solani]

I don't get the ranking. Is being a princess good or bad? What are the attributes of a princess? I'm confused with the scores. Nancy and Oksana a 9? Nancy was a tomboy. And Janet Lynn only a 4? To me she's the prototype of the perfect U.S. ice princess.

 

[FlattFan]

I don't get the ranking. Is being a princess good or bad? What are the attributes of a princess? I'm confused with the scores. Nancy and Oksana a 9? Nancy was a tomboy. And Janet Lynn only a 4? To me she's the prototype of the perfect U.S. ice princess.

Was Nancy ever a tomboy when she was skating? Nothing about her is tomboyish. She's the closest to Gracie Gold in term of princessy to me.
Oksana is also another super princessy type of skater.

Being a princess is neither good nor bad, IMO. It's a type of skater you are. You can be princessy with amazing speed and amazing skating skills and jumps, and you can dominate the sport. Or you can be warrior peasant like Midori and still dominate the sport.

Again, we don't have to agree, and this is why I'm interested in seeing who do people think are princessy.

 

[FlattFan]

Surya, a 0? wow just the dresses get her to at least 5

She always look like she's ready to slay dragons with her body armor. That is not a princess.

 

[solani]

Was Nancy ever a tomboy when she was skating? Nothing about her is tomboyish. She's the closest to Gracie Gold in term of princessy to me.
Oksana is also another super princessy type of skater.

Being a princess is neither good nor bad, IMO. It's a type of skater you are. You can be princessy with amazing speed and amazing skating skills and jumps, and you can dominate the sport. Or you can be warrior peasant like Midori and still dominate the sport.

Again, we don't have to agree, and this is why I'm interested in seeing who do people think are princessy.

So to you it's only about the on ice-performance, not about the off-ice behaviour. Maybe I'm confused because Gracie isn't a princess to me, I think somehow I do compare her to Nancy. Nancy preferred modern music and although they packaged her very classy (Gracie's packaging isn't bad either) she was still a feisty skater (to me).
Skaters like Janet Lynn, Yuna Kim, Shizuka Arakawa, Carolina Kostner, Michelle Kwan and Mao Asada with their classy skating and impeccable off-ice behaviours are the princesses to me.

 

[Mathman]

Can the men get in the act? Best Prince Charming: Stephane Lambiel

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipe...px-Stéphane_Lambiel_Grand_Prix_Final_2007.jpg

 

[Pamigena]

Being a princess is neither good nor bad, IMO. It's a type of skater you are. You can be princessy with amazing speed and amazing skating skills and jumps, and you can dominate the sport. Or you can be warrior peasant like Midori and still dominate the sport.

What if my perfect 10 is Xena the warrior princess on skates?
I'm not sure I understand the premise for this discussion. :think: First you say that everyone has different ideas about what a princess is, and then you put 2 specific skaters at each end of the princess scale. Do you want people to rank skaters according to your standards, or do you want them to present their own definitions of what makes a skater princessy?

 

[Mathman]

Here is a real princess skating.

http://cache3.asset-cache.net/gc/46...px6sYyZ/Ta8rMfO0zwvoqZ6a9EZ8XpAKQUFI8s1hWWw==

Quiz: Who is she?

Hint: She won this competition: http://www.skatingjapan.jp/local/2006-2007/13/comp2006-07-05/data0790.htm

 

[FlattFan]

What if my perfect 10 is Xena the warrior princess on skates?
I'm not sure I understand the premise for this discussion. :think: First you say that everyone has different ideas about what a princess is, and then you put 2 specific skaters at each end of the princess scale. Do you want people to rank skaters according to your standards, or do you want them to present their own definitions of what makes a skater princessy?

Then you should rank them as such. It's my "guide" and my ranking so people can understand my ranking. but you can rank however you want. The point is to see what exactly is princess from everyone's perspective.

 

[drivingmissdaisy]

Would seductress Katarina Witt be more princess or more peasant? We might need a two-dimensional representation here: x-axis for princess to peasant and y-axis for sexy to child-like.

 

[Mathman]

Would seductress Katarina Witt be more princess or more peasant? We might need a two-dimensional representation here: x-axis for princess to peasant and y-axis for sexy to child-like.

Davis and White, peasants. http://cdn-s3.si.com/s3fs-public/si...14432-davis-white-650-p1-single-image-cut.jpg

 

[chloepoco]

Here is a real princess skating.

http://cache3.asset-cache.net/gc/46...px6sYyZ/Ta8rMfO0zwvoqZ6a9EZ8XpAKQUFI8s1hWWw==

Quiz: Who is she?

Hint: She won this competition: http://www.skatingjapan.jp/local/2006-2007/13/comp2006-07-05/data0790.htm

Princess Kako of Japan!

 

[drivingmissdaisy]

Davis and White, peasants. http://cdn-s3.si.com/s3fs-public/si...14432-davis-white-650-p1-single-image-cut.jpg

Hah it's so hard to get an attractive image of ice dancers doing their lifts.

 

[Blades of Passion]

Jenny Kirk was the most princessy ever. The hair, the voice, the demure prettiness, the petite figure, the flutz (princesses can't be bothered), she skated to The Princess Diaries, and she drew hearts in the ice.

 

[TheCzar]

I think people are thinking about the criteria too much. It's quite fun actually- 'Princess' being the cliché figure skating pageant glitterati. Obviously, it's a lot more ironic on the Gracie level because she's obviously not one but she's painfully being packaged as one. Canned answers, ballerina buns, Miss Universe plastered smiles and the occasional mismatched music to convey 'grace'. Down on Surya's end are the opposite. Obviously, 'uncouth' would be an extreme caricature but you get the gist. These skaters are either hard or hard to look at, more often than not they are gauche, can't bend their backs for a layback to save their lives, and just have a bit of an anarchist vibe to them.

Since FlattFan started the thread with his own scale, then that should be the scale upon which skaters should be ranked. Of course to some people a princess would be Xena, but this is more tongue-in-cheek (I would imagine) and not a debate on feminism on the ice. That being said my choices would be (with 5-7 my personal preference):

Kiira Korpi 8
Alissa Czisny 9
Tessa Virtue 8
Meryl Davis 10
Mao Asada 6
Yu Na Kim 6
Carolina Kostner 6
Nancy Kerrigan 10
Michelle Kwan 7
Sasha Cohen 9
Tonya Harding 0
Kristi Yamaguchi 6
Midori Ito 3
Shizuka Arakawa 8
Ashley Wagner 4
Polina Edmunds 9
Elizaveta Tuktamysheva 0
Mae Berenice Meite 1

Just for fun

Yuzuru Hanyu 8
Patrick Chan 10
Sergei Voronov 2
Stephane Lambiel 10
Evgeni Plushenko 0
Daisuke Takahashi 5
Jason Brown 8
Evan Lysacek 10
Johnny Weir 3
Jeffrey Buttle 8
Artur Gachinski 0
Misha Ge 0

 

[mrrice]

After giving it some thought, I'm going to say that "Princesses" and "Diva's" are two different Characters. Because I'm old, I'm going to list my Diva's in order of when I saw them in person.

Diva#1 I don't think Diva or Princess fits Tonya Harding but, the girl had skills and beat "Princess" Kristi handily when I saw her at Skate America in 1991

Diva#2 Maria Butyrskaya, Sexy and full of Character all the way down to her pink disco skates at Skate Canada in 1992.

Diva#3 Jennifer Robinson, Jennifer is beautiful and quite tall for a singles skater and I think I've seen Jennifer as many as I've seen Maria.

Diva#4 Julia Sebestian, Like Jennifer, Julia appeared quite tall and it made her already big jumps look HUGE in person.

Diva#5 Alissa Czisny, I was fortunate enough to see Alissa during her finest season in 2010/2011 at Skate Canada and Nationals in 2011. She was absolutely beautiful and skaters need to give her costumer a call. Even standing still, she was spectacular.

The Czar, How could you possibly give Tuk a ZERO? She blew kisses at the judges and her costumes were the best!! She the Princess of Russia's Jersey Shore. I'm still waiting for Snooky On Ice Starring Tuk. I love her.

 

[Mathman]

Hah it's so hard to get an attractive image of ice dancers doing their lifts.

i think that still pictures of people in motion always look funny. For instance, the expressions on skaters' faces during a spin.

About lifts, when you see it in real time it looks graceful and effortless. In stop-frame you can see the tension and strain in the woman's body.

In this picture, is Charlie supporting her entirely by one hand at her waist, or is she helping out by wrapping her leg around his shoulder?

 

[Mathman]

Jenny Kirk was the most princessy ever. The hair, the voice, the demure prettiness, the petite figure, the flutz (princesses can't be bothered), she skated to The Princess Diaries, and she drew hearts in the ice.

This. She was the second prettiest princess in skating.

She (Tuktamysheva) is the Princess of Russia's Jersey Shore.