Suprises of the season | Golden Skate

Suprises of the season

yume

🍉
Record Breaker
Joined
Mar 11, 2016
Some skaters blew up during a season while they weren't among the ones getting the most attention. The ones designated as the next stars.

Papadakis/Cizeron (2014-2015): The progress of the century in ice dance. From 13th to 1st at worlds.
Mai Mihara (2016-2017): Under the radar before her first senior season but won 4CC.
Kaori Sakamoto (2017-2018): Until Skate America she wasn't among the favorites for the olympic spots. She ended winning one and 4CC.
Sofia Samodurova (2018-2019): Low TES and PCS but managed to qualify for gpf, euros (that she won) and worlds thanks to her consistency.
Tuktamysheva (2014-2015): Inconsistent as hell. Not making it to olympics the previous season. But stormed out to win almost everything (and skating in 100 competitions) the next season.
Kevin Aymoz: Zimmerman/Fontana definitely match well with french skaters. Though his inconsistency come back sometimes (euros) this season was an huuuuuuuge improvement in everything.

Are there other skaters who got unexpected results?
 

drivingmissdaisy

Record Breaker
Joined
Feb 17, 2010
This past season, I think Alena was the biggest surprise. Coming in with no quads and never having done a jump harder than a 3Lz, she managed to land almost every 3A attempt and win all 5 international event she competed in.
 

yume

🍉
Record Breaker
Joined
Mar 11, 2016
This past season, I think Alena was the biggest surprise. Coming in with no quads and never having done a jump harder than a 3Lz, she managed to land almost every 3A attempt and win all 5 international event she competed in.

This shows that test skates shouldn't be taken seriously. If it was a serious indication on how the season will go, Trusova and Zagitova would have been the top 2 of the team.
 

Blades of Passion

Skating is Art, if you let it be
Record Breaker
Joined
Sep 14, 2008
Country
France
For this past season:

1. The big leap in jump content among the Ladies
2. Hanyu successfully bringing his 4Lutz back and hitting 5 quads and doing yet another jump combo that nobody else had competed before (4Toe+half loop+3Flip)
3. Kevin Aymoz gaining technical consistency and refining his artistic spirit into something very special
4. Chock/Bates surging back as top competitors after several years of seemingly being past their prime
5. The...thing....that happened at Europeans with the judges deciding Sinitsina/Katsalapov are better than Papadakis/Cizeron. :roll5:

This shows that test skates shouldn't be taken seriously. If it was a serious indication on how the season will go, Trusova and Zagitova would have been the top 2 of the team.

The sudden development of Kostornaia's 3A was a nice surprise, because I assumed she would always be one of those lovely skaters who's going to get overshadowed by people with higher tech, but I feel like Trusova probably would have remained on top if she hadn't ruined her program by constantly trying to add a 4th/5th Quad, killing the flow and execution of her skating. She had 1 mistake at the test skate and should have focused on doing a perfect program in competition, before doing further tech upgrades that weren't needed to win and only hurt her standing with judges.
 

Skatesocs

Final Flight
Joined
May 16, 2020
The only thing that surprised me was Miyahara's gala this season. I was never sold on her as an artist - clear talent in that regard, but never got it together for me - and that gala for me puts her right among the Yunas, Maos, and Lus of the sport.

ETA: Oh, and the CoC men's 1-2. People can think of them in whichever manner they please, it won't take away from their talent.
 

FayD

spring will come 🌸
On the Ice
Joined
Feb 27, 2020
I'd say Rika Kihira's senior career so far. She was always a promising talent with ambitious content but in juniors she was not very consistent, never medaled at JGPF or JWC and people wrote her off. There were many other Japanese ladies that were supposed to be the next big thing (like Marin for example), so I don't think many people expected Rika will not only become the top Japanese lady, but win major titles like GPF and 4CC.
 

yume

🍉
Record Breaker
Joined
Mar 11, 2016
ETA: Oh, and the CoC men's 1-2. People can think of them in whichever manner they please, it won't take away from their talent.
Han Yan comeback was nice. I didn't expect those performances. He even won the SP. Majestic 3A as usual. A shame he couldn't get another gp.
 

Blades of Passion

Skating is Art, if you let it be
Record Breaker
Joined
Sep 14, 2008
Country
France
I should have listed Han Yan, it was great to see him back, those performances were mature and delightful (and sexy), and his edge quality and huge flighty 3A are always welcome.
 
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