Small and Mighty Club | Page 2 | Golden Skate

Small and Mighty Club

yuumagical

"There is always something to love."
Record Breaker
Joined
Apr 17, 2021
Country
United-States
Well, I think a good place to start would be determining what constitutes as "tiny." I did some googling and it seems that 5 feet, 9 inches or 1.75 meters is the average height of men in the US and that this height is average among the countries of the world. Can we agree that the small but mighty club members should be at least smaller than that?
 

CaroLiza_fan

MINIOL ALATMI REKRIS. EZETTIE LATUASV IVAKMHA.
Record Breaker
Joined
Oct 25, 2012
Country
Northern-Ireland
The question has come up - so how tiny do the guys have to be?
Most are 5ft 5in (1.65m) or less, except for Michael Parsons who is 5ft 7in.
Since you are acting Prez of this enterprise - what say you?

Oh no! I'm not sure :laugh:

I guess if a skater looks noticibly tiny amongst their peers they're allowed in :)

Well, I think a good place to start would be determining what constitutes as "tiny." I did some googling and it seems that 5 feet, 9 inches or 1.75 meters is the average height of men in the US and that this height is average among the countries of the world. Can we agree that the small but mighty club members should be at least smaller than that?

Oh, no. 5ft 9in is definitely not small. I'm 5ft 8in, and my family think I am tall! I consider myself more of an average height. Most people in my year at school were around the same height as me.

Personally, I would put the line at 5ft 5in (165cm).

CaroLiza_fan
 

Ruthypegs

On the Ice
Joined
May 5, 2017
Country
United-Kingdom
Oh, no. 5ft 9in is definitely not small. I'm 5ft 8in, and my family think I am tall! I consider myself more of an average height. Most people in my year at school were around the same height as me.

Personally, I would put the line at 5ft 5in (165cm).

CaroLiza_fan
I agree to drawing the line at 5ft 5 inches, 166 cm. It's "Small and Mighty"/"Tiny but Mighty" after all (not "Below Average Height and Mighty"). Edit: I've now realised that this would exclude the Mighty Jean Luc Baker (5 foot 7), so I'm redrawing the line at 5 foot 7......
 

Magill

Record Breaker
Joined
Sep 23, 2020
I agree to drawing the line at 5ft 5 inches, 166 cm. It's "Small and Mighty"/"Tiny but Mighty" after all (not "Below Average Height and Mighty"). Edit: I've now realised that this would exclude the Mighty Jean Luc Baker (5 foot 7), so I'm redrawing the line at 5 foot 7......
Not getting into private biases here but 170 cm is nowhere close to tiny, neither is it small, even for men, lol.... :ROFLMAO:
This is exactly where "medium height, below average" would start usually.
I'd vote for 166 cm, honestly, but I don't even know if any voting here is allowed :laugh:
 

Arriba627

TWO-TIME WORLD CHAMPION šŸ”„
Record Breaker
Joined
Jun 2, 2014
Country
United-States
Here is 159cm / 5'2" Shoma (Shomita, Malyshatina) amongst the tall trees. He is tiny! Lombardia podium 2018.

1694313635862.png
 

el henry

Go have some cake. And come back with jollity.
Record Breaker
Joined
Mar 3, 2014
Country
United-States
I don't consider 5'5" particularly small for a man, and I come from a family of tall people. (As in centers on high school basketball teams tall).

Frankly, particularly in skating, where 5'5" for a singles man is not all *that* small. Michael Parsons???? Where is the shaking head emoji?

Small but mighty are Shoma and KĆ©vin. If you're taller than KĆ©vin, you may be mighty, but you aren't small.

But I have always been a stickler:biggrin:
 

4everchan

Record Breaker
Joined
Mar 7, 2015
Country
Martinique
I don't consider 5'5" particularly small for a man, and I come from a family of tall people. (As in centers on high school basketball teams tall).

Frankly, particularly in skating, where 5'5" for a singles man is not all *that* small. Michael Parsons???? Where is the shaking head emoji?

Small but mighty are Shoma and KĆ©vin. If you're taller than KĆ©vin, you may be mighty, but you aren't small.

But I have always been a stickler:biggrin:
Nathan is 5.6. (just a bit taller than Adam SH FA) I would consider him average for a figure skater in singles.. or just below average in this era of giants.... but definitely not tiny. Chan is almost 5.7 just a bit shorter than Jason who is also almost 5.7
Shoma, at 5,1 almost 5.2 yes.. that is short. KĆ©vin is just above 5.2
Bennet Toman is 5.4 and that is where I would draw the line :) but it's not my club so i don't have voting rights ;)

Cong Han is almost 5.7 (170cms) he is short for a pairs skater but he is not tiny.
So maybe there should be a category for single skaters and one for pairs/dance skaters...
Corrected : Nathan's height (i can make typos too )
 
Last edited:

anonymoose_au

Insert weird opinion here
Record Breaker
Joined
Feb 22, 2014
Country
Australia
Cong Han is almost 5.7 (170cms) he is short for a pairs skater but he is not tiny.
So maybe there should be a category for single skaters and one for pairs/dance skaters...
For sure! :D

Also an Extra Super Special Legends category which would include Tamara Moskvina and Alexei Mishin of course. Tamara in particular is teeny, but remains the mightiest. :)

I just saw Charlene and Marco's RD at Lombardi, haha, Small but Mighty indeed.

But wow, Nathan is only 5ft5? He seems taller on TV...

I wonder are there any ladies in this club? (Aside from Tamara of course) Liza Tuk is quite short, most of the time other skaters on the podium are taller than her (even when she's on the top step :biggrin:), but yeah šŸ¤” Much to ponder.
 

TT_Fin

The second worst besserwisser in the world
Record Breaker
Joined
Jan 29, 2007
Country
Finland
For sure! :D

Also an Extra Super Special Legends category which would include Tamara Moskvina and Alexei Mishin of course. Tamara in particular is teeny, but remains the mightiest. :)

I just saw Charlene and Marco's RD at Lombardi, haha, Small but Mighty indeed.

But wow, Nathan is only 5ft5? He seems taller on TV...

I wonder are there any ladies in this club? (Aside from Tamara of course) Liza Tuk is quite short, most of the time other skaters on the podium are taller than her (even when she's on the top step :biggrin:), but yeah šŸ¤” Much to ponder.
ISU BIOS says Liza is 157 cm, I think there are a lot of ladies smaller than that. I think you need to be age limits, perhaps, because people grow, especially men can grow still when they are 18 and grow a little more. 13-17 year old men can grow more than 10 cm in a year, some even 20 cm. Good example is Janna Jyrkinen's profile say she is 153, but that what she was last season and after seeing some fresh pictures Iguess she is at least 160, and she has said in GS interview also that she grew a lot during last summer. (We have autumn now even it is summer temperatures also here at North Europe, don't we?) Maybe in ladies it could about 152/5 feet Converter says 5 inches is 152,4 cm sowould this be good, if ladies allowed?
 

NanaPat

Record Breaker
Joined
Oct 25, 2014
Country
Canada
Cong Han is almost 5.7 (170cms) he is short for a pairs skater but he is not tiny.
So maybe there should be a category for single skaters and one for pairs/dance skaters...
I agree. I thought that about the earlier discussion of Michael Parsons: he may not be short for a singles skater, but be short for a male ice dancer. Similarly, Trennt Michaud is short for a male pair skater. They are just a tad taller than Cong Han.
 

4everchan

Record Breaker
Joined
Mar 7, 2015
Country
Martinique
I agree. I thought that about the earlier discussion of Michael Parsons: he may not be short for a singles skater, but be short for a male ice dancer. Similarly, Trennt Michaud is short for a male pair skater. They are just a tad taller than Cong Han.
sure but Trennt is 175 cms jus like Mervin Tran Perhaps short for a pairs guy indeed... but still not far being quite average. Adcock is 176cms Dylan is 177cms.
Thierry Ferland at 172cms is closer to Cong Han who is 170cms.

Except for a few giants like Nic Nadeau 186 cms , Eric Radford 188cms or Ben Mimar 193cms, most figure skaters, are short. Just like gymnasts or divers tend to be shorter than the general population.
 

4everchan

Record Breaker
Joined
Mar 7, 2015
Country
Martinique
ISU BIOS says Liza is 157 cm, I think there are a lot of ladies smaller than that. I think you need to be age limits, perhaps, because people grow, especially men can grow still when they are 18 and grow a little more. 13-17 year old men can grow more than 10 cm in a year, some even 20 cm. Good example is Janna Jyrkinen's profile say she is 153, but that what she was last season and after seeing some fresh pictures Iguess she is at least 160, and she has said in GS interview also that she grew a lot during last summer. (We have autumn now even it is summer temperatures also here at North Europe, don't we?) Maybe in ladies it could about 152/5 feet Converter says 5 inches is 152,4 cm sowould this be good, if ladies allowed?
Osmond = 163cms. I remember one year at ACI : she looked like she was a giant compared to many of the other skaters...

Cynthia Phaneuf is even taller at 170 cms... She was brilliant before she grew and became a giant... (kostner = 169cms)
 

icewhite

Record Breaker
Joined
Dec 7, 2022
Lol, what a confusing discussion, especially with the inches...
Very difficult to say what constitutes "small" for a figure skater.
Shoma, Yuma, Kevin are small. (all of them around 1,60 I think)
Around 1,70 seems to be a very good size for many sports that require lots of coordination (it's also a good size for a dribbler in soccer for instance), and there are many very good skater of that size, but maybe that's just in the context of how tall people actually are. Maybe on average it's actually better to be 1,60, but there are just less men of that size who take up figure skating.
Skaters of ~1,70 (5ft7): Chen, Hanyu, Kolyada, Stojko, Orser, Browning, Chan, Buttle...
So I guess I would take 1,70 as an average to compare to.

An exact cut off seems difficult to make. And for pairs and ice dance men the "rules" would definitely have to be different. For women too.
I would, comparing to people in my everyday life, probably consider men <1,65 as small. Women... <1,55? But most of the women in figure skating don't seem to be that small, they just look super tiny because they are also so fair and thin. Probably 1,58 would already be small for a female figure skater. ?

One thing I've been thinking about: With more and more quads it might be more advantageous to be small, so we might see more small skaters than before?
 

SubRosa

I love Lussi
Final Flight
Joined
Mar 22, 2004
Country
Canada
Some skaters from ages past:

According to Wikipedia, 1964 Olympic pairs silver/bronze medallist Guy Revell was 163 cm (his partner, Debbi Wilkes, is 165 cm).

Can't find an official height for him, but Donald Jackson is noticeably shorter that Brian O (169 cm) and Kurt (170 cm). John Nicks is about the same height as Don.

Would love to know how tall Alexei Mishin is!
 

TallyT

Record Breaker
Joined
Apr 23, 2018
Country
Australia
I would, comparing to people in my everyday life, probably consider men <1,65 as small. Women... <1,55? But most of the women in figure skating don't seem to be that small, they just look super tiny because they are also so fair and thin. Probably 1,58 would already be small for a female figure skater. ?
I'm 153cm (and the tallest of six sisters, I might add, and both parents were shorter than me, though my brothers are all tall) so pretty much everyone so far is tall to me :rolleye: but then pretty much everyone not related to me is.
 

4everchan

Record Breaker
Joined
Mar 7, 2015
Country
Martinique
Dai is 5.5 and Nathan is visibly taller ā€“ he looks close to my height of 5.7:


in this photo, nathan is standing in front and dai is bending forward.
I went with the skaters' own numbers based on their bios...
try to find a picture of patrick who claims to be 5'7 and nathan together and nathan is shorter... of course, they should stand up straight and at the same level
BTW.. typo OUPS sorry.. Nathan is 5.6
:)
 

synesthesia

Final Flight
Joined
Mar 1, 2014
Country
Germany
in this photo, nathan is standing in front and dai is bending forward.
I went with the skaters' own numbers based on their bios...
try to find a picture of patrick who claims to be 5'7 and nathan together and nathan is shorter... of course, they should stand up straight and at the same level
BTW.. typo OUPS sorry.. Nathan is 5.6
:)

To me it looks like they're both standing pretty much centered with their respective inner foot on that tape on the ground, while their respective other foot is slightly in front. I give you that Dai is not standing entirely straight though...but he's also wearing his ice dance skates, which in his case have a slightly raised heel (to gain height over Kana).


BTW.. typo OUPS sorry.. Nathan is 5.6

That explains it, he's exactly between Patrick and Dai. ;)




Btw, I vote for Midori Ito for president of the women's "small/tiny and mighty club". šŸ„°
 
Last edited:

4everchan

Record Breaker
Joined
Mar 7, 2015
Country
Martinique
To me it looks like they're both standing pretty much centered with their respective inner foot on that tape on the ground, while their respective other foot is slightly in front. I give you that Dai is not standing entirely straight though...but he's also wearing his ice dance skates, which in his case have a slightly raised heel (to gain height over Kana).




That explains it, he's exactly between Patrick and Dai. ;)




Btw, I vote for Midori Ito for president of the women's "small/tiny and mighty club". šŸ„°
add shoma and now you have my favourite club. Midori, Shoma, Dai, Nathan and Patrick, in ascending (height) order :)
 
Last edited:
Top