Who's next? | Golden Skate

Who's next?

Joined
Jun 21, 2003
I never thought I'd see another golfer the likes of Jack Nicklaus. Yet thirty years later, here is Tiger Woods, making the turn with 10 major championships, on his way toward matching the Golden Bear's 18.

Michelle :love: has been the most dominant and the most popular figure skater in the U.S. for a decade. Will we have to wait 30 years to see who's next?

Or only until next year?

Will Mao Asada win her first world championship in 2007, starting a string of nine straight trips to the world podium? Will fans in the United States and worldwide embrace her if she does?

Yu-Na Kim, also 15, beat Emily Hughes by 14 points, Kimmie Meissner by 17 and Alissa Czisny by 26 at junior worlds last year, and Katy Taylor by 35 at the junior GP final this year. Her potential appears to be on a par with Mao's.

Kimmie Meissner, 16. With two U.S. medals in her pocket already, will these Olympic games be the springboard for this rising star?

Katy Taylor, 16. The new Tara, this Sugarland Sprite is my pick for the next U.S. Champion if Sasha does not compete next year.

In 10 days someone will win a gold medal, and most of the present generation of champions will move on to the next stage of their lives. I for one think they will leave the sport in good hands.

MM :)
 

Spirit

On the Ice
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
There's a terrific rising star from Russia named Irina Slutskaya. The inside scoop says she's destined for great things.
 

Morganlee

Match Penalty
Joined
Feb 12, 2006
Are you even serious trying to compare Michelle with Mao or even Yu? These girls do 3 axels. Kwan was a held up 6.0 skater that if she had to rise through the ranks under CoP could never get out of regionals. She avoided CoP from the start and the few times she skated under it was not too great and no- 4th is not great when you've been skating as long as Kwan has. Comparing Jack and Tiger is one thing, they both played the same game. Comparing Kwan with any good CoP skater now is like comparing minature golf with the real thing.
 

nymkfan51

Medalist
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
Morganlee, why don't you just give it up. Your agenda here is quite obvious. So you despise Michelle ... get over it. Whether you like it or not, she is one of the greatest figure skaters of all time. That's just the plain and simple truth.
Mao and Yu are wonderful young skaters with hopefully, marvelous careers ahead of them. Come back in 7 or 8 years and see if they were able to live up to the hype ... then maybe your posts will make some sense. But right now they are just bitter ramblings.

And Mathman ... I am sure that at some point there will be another skater who captures the hearts of skating fans as Michelle did, but I don't think we are likely to see that for a long time. In the interim, I know we will have plenty of wonderful skating to enjoy. ;)
 

Morganlee

Match Penalty
Joined
Feb 12, 2006
You seem to be the one with the agenda and a pathetic one it is. We are in a new age with harder difficulties. Your dreams are stateside and over. The rest of us are enjoying the Olympics.
 

SusanBeth

Final Flight
Joined
Jul 28, 2003
Unfortunately, skaters like Kwan don't come along on a regularly scheduled basis. I think of Kwan as being in the same group as Janet Lynn or Peggy Fleming. (For the record, there is no higher group! :p ) There have been other great skaters, but they don't have the same heart appeal. There will surely be others, but we may have to wait.
 

Tonichelle

Idita-Rock-n-Roll
Record Breaker
Joined
Jun 27, 2003
Morgan, your point has been made, please move on and quit antagonizing other members.
 

millie

Medalist
Joined
Nov 1, 2004
I thought this thread was about who's next. Why do every thread end up with fans fighting about Michelle. That's in the past.:biggrin:

Mira Liang might be another next. She has good technical approach but has to work on her presentation.
 

Tonichelle

Idita-Rock-n-Roll
Record Breaker
Joined
Jun 27, 2003
millie said:
I thought this thread was about who's next. Why do every thread end up with fans fighting about Michelle. That's in the past.:biggrin:

unfortunately that's what happens when you're a legendary skater you're going to have everythread go your way one way or the other lol

besides she WAS mentioned in teh opening thread...


honestly I think the next has yet to be seen....
 

Morganlee

Match Penalty
Joined
Feb 12, 2006
millie said:
I thought this thread was about who's next. Why do every thread end up with fans fighting about Michelle. That's in the past.:biggrin:

Mira Liang might be another next. She has good technical approach but has to work on her presentation.
It is in the past Millie but these idol worshipers are going through serious withdrawal and think they're going to drag everyone with them. Back to the Olympics:rock:
 

SusanBeth

Final Flight
Joined
Jul 28, 2003
Morganlee said:
Wait
untill they let someone win without jumping? That's over with pretty much. LoL:laugh:

It's not about winning and it's not all about jumping. Janet Lynn did not win a world title. She won Bronze at the Olympics, but to watch her move across the ice was to see pure beauty. She became part of the music. She made the audience love skating because it looked so beautiful on her.

Kwan also possesses that gorgeous way of floating above the ice. She has a sense of musicality that sets her apart from other skaters. I wish she had continued her work with Nichols, that is true. However, if you look at her entire body of work, she gave us plenty of masterpieces. Most importantly, she could make the audience feel in their hearts, not just in their heads, that they were seeing true beauty.

Great jumpers are a dime a dozen. If you think THAT is what skating is about, then you are really missing out on the good stuff.

I mentioned Kwan, because the whole point of the thread (to me) was who would be the next skater to rise to her stature. As I said, I think we are in for a wait.
 
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Joined
Jun 21, 2003
I completely agree with your post, SusanBeth, and that was the question that I was raising. I am not worried about the athletic ability of future skaters. Each generation of athletes manages to leap higher, run faster, and so on, than the previous one did. Onward and upward, good for them.

But will they touch our hearts? Or -- if that's too maudlin a sentiment -- will they put anything on the ice that people will be willing to switch on their TV to see, or pay out their hard-earned to watch in person?

I wish I could borrow the rose-colored glasses of the people who think the sport is moving in the right direction.

MM
 

geoskate

On the Ice
Joined
Jan 22, 2005
But will they touch our hearts?

Yu-Na Kim already touches my heart. I love watching her simply for the sheer beauty of her skating, although she is also a great athlete. There are a lot of 'ifs', of course (injury, puberty, etc) as to how well she will progress in the next few years.

I think that she is at least as good artistically as Michelle Kwan was at age 15, so I think there is a chance that she could become one of the great ones, as Michelle did.
 

rob43

On the Ice
Joined
Nov 1, 2005
Well- I think Tiffany Chin could have been.

Michelle was actually quite a jumper- technique, variety, height and edges (she wasn't the best at any one aspect except maybe run out but had very little weakness there.) If she's your're version of a jumpless skater you're either blinded by hate or living in a world where there are only 2-3 women skaters of merit.

I'm not sure who the next big one will be but if we look at the number of post 20 year old women winning world titles since the early 90s (which is basically all of them save 93 and 95-98) it might be someone already on the scene who simply needs to develop well roundedness. Like Kostner with a better sense of control and musicality she might develop in the next few years.

Taylor is starting to grow on me. Maybe Asada. If Lu Chen can produce a Chen Jr from China I would be beyond happy. (One could argue that Chen fits this bill as well since her world and Oly medals spanned about 7 years. And her 96 and 98 LPs where epic.)
 

julietvalcouer

Final Flight
Joined
Sep 10, 2005
It wasn't about Kwan until the troll showed up. Morganlee, stick to the question and answer civily or sod off.

I am currently waiting on Mao. She's cute, but that's about all right now. I don't really care about the 3a--nice that she can do it, maybe she'll keep it as she gets older and bigger, but whatever. Once she gets more presentation skills under her belt, we'll see. I enjoyed her, but she didn't make me go "Wow."

I loved Stephanie Rosenthal at Nationals. That's artistry of another sort. Unfortunately they're rewarding the very predictable Katy Taylor right now. Emily and Bebe both had flashes of brilliance at Nationals, but again it's the consistency. Give them a few years and we'll see.
 

Morganlee

Match Penalty
Joined
Feb 12, 2006
julietvalcouer said:
It wasn't about Kwan until the troll showed up. Morganlee, stick to the question and answer civily or sod off.

I am currently waiting on Mao. She's cute, but that's about all right now. I don't really care about the 3a--nice that she can do it, maybe she'll keep it as she gets older and bigger, but whatever. Once she gets more presentation skills under her belt, we'll see. I enjoyed her, but she didn't make me go "Wow."

I loved Stephanie Rosenthal at Nationals. That's artistry of another sort. Unfortunately they're rewarding the very predictable Katy Taylor right now. Emily and Bebe both had flashes of brilliance at Nationals, but again it's the consistency. Give them a few years and we'll see.
Sod off? What is that merry old English talk ? As I've said, not spouting the party line does not make one a troll. If you want a skater to make you feel all gooey, maybe a chick flick might be in order instead. The rest of us are watching 2006 figure skating. Sonia H died a long long time ago.
 

julietvalcouer

Final Flight
Joined
Sep 10, 2005
Be glad I'm not channelling my friend Iain tonight. He'd be happy to explain EXACTLY what that expression means. (It's anatomically impossible, if that's a hint. I suspect the filter would catch what I really wanted to say.)

You, rather like geisha (did someone finally ban her?), are not only not spouting the party line, you're coming into threads just to trash Michelle Kwan. (No, she does not make me feel "gooey", though I do think her programs have always been nice to watch--personally I don't watch ladies in general as it's my least-favorite discipline.) The question was about who do you see as the next major star who will emotionally connect with as many people as Kwan has. If you can't handle that she was the major skating star of the last decade and she did emotionally connect with thousands of fans, I think that's your problem. Even non-fans (as opposed to bashers) acknowledge that. Either contribute to the discussion and prove you're not a troll, or go away. As it is, you sound as if (like geisha) you can't get past the "OMG TRIPLE JUMP YAY!" stage, suggesting you don't know a whole lot about skating, anyway.
 

guinevere

Final Flight
Joined
Jul 28, 2003
um...back on topic, I would agree with those who say that someone of the stature of Kwan and Slutskaya will not arise for quite some time, and it will be someone who isn't skating yet - at least not as a senior. The problem is that we've gotten so used to seeing these two skaters who've had very different paths (and have very different strengths), but whose careers have been simultaneous, that we're used to having lengends-in-the-making in our midst. Everyone will be quick to name someone the next Irina or Michelle, when, really, what has made them so special did not appear until they'd been at the top of their sport for a few seasons already.

I can't even consider any skater "the next one" until they've competed internationally (and done well) for 2 seasons on the senior level. Many skaters who excelled as juniors failed to reach those heights as seniors. And longevity no longer seems to be an aspiration for the ladies, which I find sad.
 

Morganlee

Match Penalty
Joined
Feb 12, 2006
julietvalcouer said:
Be glad I'm not channelling my friend Iain tonight. He'd be happy to explain EXACTLY what that expression means. (It's anatomically impossible, if that's a hint. I suspect the filter would catch what I really wanted to say.)

You, rather like geisha (did someone finally ban her?), are not only not spouting the party line, you're coming into threads just to trash Michelle Kwan. (No, she does not make me feel "gooey", though I do think her programs have always been nice to watch--personally I don't watch ladies in general as it's my least-favorite discipline.) The question was about who do you see as the next major star who will emotionally connect with as many people as Kwan has. If you can't handle that she was the major skating star of the last decade and she did emotionally connect with thousands of fans, I think that's your problem. Even non-fans (as opposed to bashers) acknowledge that. Either contribute to the discussion and prove you're not a troll, or go away. As it is, you sound as if (like geisha) you can't get past the "OMG TRIPLE JUMP YAY!" stage, suggesting you don't know a whole lot about skating, anyway.
I'm handeling things just fine. Most of us are enjoying this season. It's you and your ilk who can't seem to let things go and move on. Maybe a nice warm plate of brownies will help. I've been following figure skating since the 1950's and nobody is going back to watching ladies do doubles just so people like you can feel safe- nobody.
 
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