The moment you started liking a skater

[iluvtodd]

This is a little complicated. Todd Eldredge. I had seen Todd skate before. I was at Skate America in 1991 and to be honest, I was there to see Tonya Harding. I had seen her land her 3A at Nationals and I was very excited to see Tonya along with Kristi Yamaguchi. Todd was there but, he was feeling the fatigue of an extended summer tour and did not skate well. He was also over shadowed by the late Christopher Bowman who wowed the crowd.

It was at Worlds in 2001 that I was able to really appreciate Todd and his spectacular Jumps and fast spins.....He also has an engine that can't be beat. He got standing ovations for both of his performances and he had the sweetest demeanor. You could just tell that he was a very nice young man. This is Todd's LP from Worlds in 2001. You can't even hear his music over the screaming crowd during the final spin combination.........https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEZyj0DM_5o

I'm going to give a shoutout to one of the best, and most friendly audiences I've ever been a part of....Go Canada...

Better late than never! Yeah, Canada!

 

[DorYiu]

Yuzuru Hanyu: 2012 at Nice "Romeo and Juliet 1.0", it changed everything I know (or I want to know) about figure skating, it really was the one program that got me, not just become fan of Yuzu, but also become the fan of figure skating.

Shibutani: US national 2016 "fix you", the twizzle series was epic, and the emotions that come from the program~

Satoko Miyahara: 2016 GPF "planets", so beautiful, just pure elegance and fierce.

Gabriella & Guillaume: WC 2016 -SP "Waltz", love it from the 1st step of the program.

 

[Ender]

Yagudin after his Etude Revolutionary SP at WC years ago. It was his best program in my opinion.
Kristi Yamaguchi when she won her first WC title in 1991.
Lu Chen after her allure tango years ago.

 

[Tulipstar]

I am quite new to Figure Skating and there are only a few skaters I was aware of before 2016.

I liked Yuzuru immediately with the Olympics 2014; so elegant and competent, he almost seemed super-natural.
I remember seeing Plushenko at the 2002 Olympics and thought he was really hot and energetic.
Also, I had seen the famous Jason Brown clip and thought it was cool. Remember thinking he seemed very shy; now know he is very bubbly and friendly.

So after I got into it:
Mai Mihara was one of the first ladies I knew the name of. She stood out to me because she seemed a bit different from the rest. The impression I got was that she was a second tier who did really well, but still did her own thing. Her exhibition made me like her even more.
Evgenia: heard about her and was wondering what all the fuss was about. Then I saw her perform. She's amazing.
She really got fave status for me when she did the triple-triple-triple at Russian Nationals. This lady has guts.
Anna Pogorilaya: I could not really distinguish between her and Sotskova at first (take into account that I did not know any skaters and struggled to keep track of all these people that were new to me), and I found Sotskova a bit bland. But then I saw Anna skate and was wowed.
Javier Fernandez: I knew he was friends with Yuzuru, so I looked up clips of him online. Such a fun personality and great skater!
Elena Radionova: Her short program stood out to me from the beginning. Liked her enthusiasm for skating. Even now she is still growing and is now developing from someone I just liked into a favourite.
Jin Boyang: "So, this is the guy who did Spiderman, right? Oh my, look at that jump! He almost hit the board! Amazing quads!" Something like that
Deniss Vasiljevs: Europeans. Nuff said.
Zahra Lari: I just loved it when I found out how much she does for the sport
Elizaveta: That triple axel

As you can see, I like loads of skaters. To be honest, I like even more than just the above. Always have these moments when one piques my interest and then I go watch all their programs, Instagram pages etc and then they become permanently part of my faves. I think Carolina Kostner is next.

 

[karne]

I remember seeing him at US Nats in 2014 and liking him

-Max was probably 2014 Nationals.

I'm curious about this, for this is two separate mentions of a competition that, as a Max fan, I would almost rather forget. May I ask what it was?

Anyone bothered with struggling to attain originality, creativity, breaking out of their bubble and comfort zone
Taking risks either artistically or technically for personal breakthroughs
....
Or overcome their shortcomings by tackling new things head on... It is about the process, not the end result.

Anyone harshly judged, unfairly marked, underappreciated by the judges also weirdly get me to like them and really want to cheer them on.

It is all about the work and how they got there, the rest is just noise (or nice bonuses).

Wow! You must absolutely adore Max!

 

[mrrice]

I have always liked Max but, it was this program that made me think he could be World Champion one day....So fast, Such Big Jumps, and Choreography that took him to the next level. Nessun Dorma: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNQlsxRLBBQ

 

[Sam-Skwantch]

Park So-youn : 2014 FS during the 2014 World Championship FS. If you watched it unfold live you know why because her slay count was impressive and fun to behold. It didn't take long for me to recognize that she has one of the best salchow in the game!

 

[SnowWhite]

I'm curious about this, for this is two separate mentions of a competition that, as a Max fan, I would almost rather forget. May I ask what it was?

Basically, I just didn't know any of the US men at all, and stumbled on it while channel flipping, like I said. I don't remember his program, but they mentioned how he used to play hockey and how he'd had to quit that after his back injury, and I thought that was cool. I think they might have shown a little fluff clip of him too, or maybe I just liked how he was in the KnC. I had no attachment to any skaters, so I was just enjoying watching the event. Jason and Max are the only two I remember from that.

 

[FSGMT]

One moment clearly comes to my mind: GPF 2014, when Meagan and Eric really gave it all in the FS to beat Stolbova/Klimov. I had never been a fan and they were being heavily criticized here because of SS/transitions/lack of polish and unison etc. but there was so much energy and so much passion in their skating that I just couldn't resist rooting for them! :hap85:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJuexQpgEBg

(I may have already posted this somewhere else in the past :think: )

 

[4everchan]

One moment clearly comes to my mind: GPF 2014, when Meagan and Eric really gave it all in the FS to beat Stolbova/Klimov. I had never been a fan and they were being heavily criticized here because of SS/transitions/lack of polish and unison etc. but there was so much energy and so much passion in their skating that I just couldn't resist rooting for them! :hap85:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJuexQpgEBg

(I may have already posted this somewhere else in the past :think: )

such an exciting performance!!!! I hope they regain this flair for the Olympics after all the set backs they had last year.