The Medalists thread, part 1 - LADIES

Hi. I'm interested in seeing the forum users' opinions on medal placements at the World Champions and Olympics. Who do you think deserved which medal? This is the first thread in my series, I figured everyone would be most interested in doing the Ladies first.

Go back as far as you'd like with your lists. Here's mine:

2012 Worlds
1. Akiko Suzuki
2. Carolina Kostner
3. Ashley Wagner

2011 Worlds
1. Yu-Na Kim
2. Carolina Kostner
3. Alissa Czisny
(I highly dislike Miki Ando's LP; there's almost no choreography and very poor usage of the ice. Her non-jump elements are weaker than my top 3 choices and she didn't hit all the jumps either, which is her big strength)

2010 Worlds
1. Mao Asada
2. Yu-Na Kim
3. Cynthia Phaneuf
(I'd have Lepisto in 7th; such a strange case of overscoring. She's not a very interesting skater/performer, she's not great in the non-jump elements, and she only did 3 Triples in the LP???)

2010 Olympics
1. Yu-Na Kim
2. Mao Asada
3. Joannie Rochette

2009 Worlds
1. Yu-Na Kim
2. Mao Asada
3. Joannie Rochette
(not a fan of Miki Ando's LP. There wasn't much of a program and it wasn't even in service of the jumps - her jump layout was the easiest out of anyone in the top 5! Miki Ando started taking the Triple Flip out of her LP at this competition and it's never come back, which boggles my mind. How can you call yourself a great jumper when you leave out the 3Flip and don't attempt a Triple-Triple combination???)

2008 Worlds
1. Mao Asada
2. Yukari Nakano
3. Yu-Na Kim
(such a disgrace that Kostner was on the podium after that performance)

2007 Worlds
1. Miki Ando
2. Mao Asada
3. Yu-Na Kim
(I constantly go back and forth between Ando and Asada here. On the one hand, some of Miki's spin positions are an embarrassment and her LP is choreographically lacking. On the other hand, Asada made a big mistake in the SP. It's too bad Yu-Na had to fall twice in the LP on important jumps, her program was far and away the best here)

2006 Worlds
1. Kimmie Meissner
2. Sarah Meier (Her LP was more interesting than Fumie's and she was a bit stronger technically as well)
3. Fumie Suguri

2006 Olympics
1. Shizuka Arakawa
2. Sasha Cohen
3. Irina Slutskaya

2005 Worlds
1. Irina Slutskaya
2. Sasha Cohen
3. Carolina Kostner

2004 Worlds
1. Shizuka Arakawa
2. Sasha Cohen
3. Michelle Kwan
(The time violation for Kwan in the SP is whatever. The more important point is how the actual performance was affected because she DID end the program after the music, which is distracting. I'd actually have her 5th in the SP because of that, considering the higher tech of Carolina Koster - who should have been 2nd in the SP with a lovely performance - and Miki Ando. Arakawa would be 4th in the SP. Her tech wasn't better than Kwan's but it was a great performance)

2003 Worlds
1. Michelle Kwan
2. Elena Sokolova
3. Sasha Cohen

2002 Worlds
1. Fumie Suguri (Surprisingly, I feel she had the best presentation and deserved to win on that mark)
2. Michelle Kwan
3. Irina Slutskaya

2002 Olympics
1. Sarah Hughes
2. Michelle Kwan
3. Sasha Cohen
(sorry, but Slutskaya's LP ranks 4th with me. It was artistically the weakest out of anyone in the top 5 and she didn't have enough tech to make up for it after that mistake on the 3Flip.)

2001 Worlds
1. Michelle Kwan
2. Irina Slutskaya
3. Sarah Hughes (gave a very nice performance in the LP and deserved to be ahead of Butyrskaya, who was tentative and a bit weaker technically too)

2000 Worlds
1. Michelle Kwan
2. Vanessa Gusmeroli (her Long Program is better tech and artistry than Butyrskaya and WAY better artistry than Slutskaya)
3. Irina Slutskaya (not a good program but definitely much better tech than Butyrskaya)

1999 Worlds (I'd rank the LP as 1. Butyrskaya, 2. Kwan, 3. Malinina, 4. Gusmeroli, 5. Soldatova, 6. Rechnio...Gusmeroli takes Bronze because I'd have her way higher than Malinina in the SP. Also, about Rechnio, I see why some praise her so highly...but the program was empty. Those strong edges and speed were wasted)
1. Maria Butyrskaya
2. Michelle Kwan
3. Vanessa Gusmeroli

1998 Worlds
1. Michelle Kwan
2. Irina Slutskaya
3. Maria Butyrskaya

1998 Olympics (The best Ladies podium ever. They all deserved a 5.9 for presentation)
1. Tara Lipinski
2. Michelle Kwan
3. Lu Chen

1997 Worlds
1. Tara Lipinski (Kwan's mistake in the SP doesn't really matter, Lipinski legitimately beat Kwan in the LP - this is a delightful program, even if her pure skating ability is below Kwan's, and her stronger tech gives her the edge)
2. Michelle Kwan
3. Vanessa Gusmeroli (deserved 1st in the SP)

1996 Worlds
TIE 1. Lu Chen and Michelle Kwan (I HAVE to)
3. Irina Slutskaya

1995 Worlds
1. Lu Chen
2. Michelle Kwan
3. Nicole Bobek
(I'd have Bonaly 5th in the SP and probably 3rd in the LP, although it's difficult to choose between Kwan and Bonaly for 2nd in the LP. I think Bonaly had more interesting movements and interpretation, but Kwan's basic skating and posture was already better than Bonaly's. In terms of the tech Kwan did 7 Triples, although no difficult combinations. A couple landings were shaky, but essentially clean. Bonaly had more power in her jumps and tried difficult combinations, although the 3Flip-3Toe was massively underrotated, the 3Toe-3Sal was also cheated, and the second Lutz was two-footed. In the end it's Kwan's sublime expression during her spread eagle towards the end that probably wins me over to giving her 2nd)

1994 Worlds
1. Yuka Sato (far and away the best here; Bonaly didn't even deserve a higher tech score)
2. Surya Bonaly
3. Tanja Szewczenko

1994 Olympics
1. Nancy Kerrigan
2. Lu Chen
3. Oksana Baiul

1993 Worlds
1. Lu Chen (she had the best artistry here and the second best tech)
2. Surya Bonaly
3. Oksana Baiul (deserved 1st in the SP but her LP was very overrated; I would have placed her 4th behind Yuka Sato in that segment)

1992 Worlds
1. Kristi Yamaguchi
2. Lu Chen
3. Laetitia Hubert

1992 Olympics
1. Kristi Yamaguchi
2. Midori Ito
3. Nancy Kerrigan (I'd have her 4th in the LP behind Lu Chen, but her great SP keeps her ahead overall)

1991 Worlds
1. Kristi Yamaguchi
2. Tonya Harding
3. Nancy Kerrigan

1990 Worlds
1. Midori Ito
2. Jill Trenary
3. Kristi Yamaguchi

1989 Worlds
1. Midori Ito
2. Claudia Leistner
3. Kristi Yamaguchi

1988 Worlds
1. Midori Ito
2. Katarina Witt
3. Elizabeth Manley

1988 Olympics
1. Midori Ito (she should have easily won both the SP and the LP. In fact, she is so far ahead of everyone in the LP that nobody even deserved to be ranked 2nd in that segment, LOL!)
2. Katarina Witt
3. Elizabeth Manley
(also, Jill Trenary should have been in 4th over Debi Thomas)

1987 Worlds
1. Katarina Witt (her LP here is by far her best performance ever)
2. Midori Ito (1st in the SP, 2nd in the LP)
3. Caryn Kadavy

1986 Worlds
1. Elizabeth Manley (deserved 1st in the LP. Had the best mix of technical and presentation here)

2. Debi Thomas (I'd have her 4th in the LP but her 1st in the SP holds her up to this position because Ito and Witt should have been in 6th/7th there after their mistakes)

3. Midori Ito (deserved 2nd in the LP. Her tech, even with a mistake on the Lutz and doubling the last 3Sal, was still the best here)

(This leaves Katarina Witt off the podium. Shocking, but she disappointed in the SP and her LP only deserved 3rd)

1985 Worlds (a shame that Midori Ito couldn't attend, her performance earlier in the season at Skate Canada blows everyone else away)
1. Katarina Witt
2. Kira Ivanova
3. Tiffany Chin

1984 Worlds
1. Katarina Witt
2. Midori Ito (regardless of figures, she was still massively underscored in the other phases of competition; her speed and technical elements were already the best and her musicality quite nice)
3. Elaine Zayak

1984 Olympics
1. Tiffany Chin (she was definitely the best in the SP and I'd put her 1st in the LP as well)
2. Katarina Witt
3. Elaine Zayak
(Kind of sad to put Rosalynn Sumners in 4th, her LP really does have some of the loveliest moments, but unfortunately she skated a bit too nervous and was the weakest in technical merit for both the SP and LP out of these top 4)

1983 Worlds
1. Rosalynn Sumners
2. Katarina Witt
3. Claudia Leistner

1982 Worlds
1. Elaine Zayak
2. Katarina Witt
3. Claudia Leistner

1981 Worlds
1. Denise Biellmann
2. Elaine Zayak
3. Katarina Witt

1980 Worlds
1. Emi Watanabe
2. Linda Fratianne
3. Anett Potzsch

1980 Olympics
1. Denise Biellmann
2. Linda Fratianne
3. Anett Potzsch

2008 Worlds
1. Mao Asada
2. Yu-Na Kim
3. Carolina Kostner

2007 Worlds
1. Miki Ando
2. Mao Asada
3. Yu-Na Kim

2006 Worlds
1. Kimmie Meissner
2. Fumie Suguri
3. Sarah Meier

2006 Olympics
1. Shizuka Arakawa
2. Sasha Cohen
3. Fumie Suguri


2005 Worlds
1. Irina Slutskaya
2. Sasha Cohen
3. Michelle Kwan

2004 Worlds
1. Shizuka Arakawa
2. Michelle Kwan
3. Sasha Cohen

2003 Worlds
1. Michelle Kwan
2. Elena Sokolova
3. Fumie Suguri

2002 Worlds
1. Irina Slutskaya
2. Michelle Kwan
3. Fumie Suguri

2002 Olympics
1. Michelle Kwan
2. Irina Slutskaya
3. Sarah Hughes (should have been 7th after a very shaky SP; if only the 6.0 system included major deductions for under-rotated jumps)


2001 Worlds
1. Michelle Kwan
2. Irina Slutskaya
3. Maria Butyrskaya

2000 Worlds
1. Michelle Kwan
2. Irina Slutskaya
3. Maria Butyrskaya

1999 Worlds
1. Maria Butyrskaya
2. Michelle Kwan
3. Julia Soldatova

1998 Worlds
1. Michelle Kwan
2. Maria Butyrskaya
3. Irina Slutskaya

1998 Olympics
1. Michelle Kwan
2. Tara Lipinski (if only the 6.0 system included major deductions for under-rotated jumps)
3. Lu Chen

1997 Worlds
1. Michelle Kwan
2. Tara Lipinski
3. Irina Slutskaya

1996 Worlds
1. Michelle Kwan
2. Lu Chen
3. Irina Slutskaya

1995 Worlds
1. Lu Chen
2. Michelle Kwan
3. Nicole Bobek

1994 Worlds
1. Yuka Sato
2. Tanja Szweczenko
3. Surya Bonaly

1994 Olympics
1. Nancy Kerrigan
2. Lu Chen
3. Oksana Baiul

1993 Worlds
1. Surya Bonaly
2. Lu Chen
3. Oksana Baiul

1992 Worlds
1. Kristi Yamaguchi
2. Nancy Kerrigan
3. Lu Chen

1992 Olympics
1. Kristi Yamaguchi
2. Midori Ito
3. Nancy Kerrigan

1991 Worlds
1. Kristi Yamaguchi
2. Tonya Harding
3. Nancy Kerrigan

I've updated my post to go back to 1980. Eventually I'll get into re-watching all the the 1970's performances. But, before that, I think I'll start the Men's thread.

Blades of Passion said:

Hi. I'm interested in seeing the forum users' opinions on medal placements at the World Champions and Olympics. ........

1990 Worlds
1. Midori Ito
2. Jill Trenary
3. Kristi Yamaguchi........

Click to expand...

I assume that for competitions from 1990 and earlier you're giving the qualification "Who should have medaled if figures were not part of the competition" since there's no rational way to get a lot of your results otherwise.

You might want to compare just the SP/LP results from said competitions instead of the actual podiums so that you're looking at "what would have been the results without figures versus what I would have preferred."

So for olympics in the 80's disregarding figures (and assuming the same performances and marks in Sp and LP) the podiums would have been:

1980
1. Fratianne
2. Biellmann
3. Poetzsch

1984
1. Witt
2. Sumners
3. Chin

1988
1. Manley
2. Witt
3. Ito

I don't care one bit about the actual placements/grades the skaters received. I want to know what people on the forum are thinking for themselves, not what the (often dumb) judges at the competitions have already told us.

And, yes, I disregard figures for many reasons:

(A.) They are dumb. What sport has a scoring event that takes place behind closed doors and with no documentation?
(B.) There is no way for us to see the figures, so how can we grade them?
(C.) Since we can not grade them for ourselves, it is pointless to take those results into consideration. There is no way of knowing how poorly they were judged.

Please participate if you have the time! There are a lot of performances on Youtube from these championships and I'm working to try and get ALL of the relevant performances posted from EVERY championship so that the whole forum can have a complete knowledge of competitive figure skating history!

Figures are NOT dumb. They were (and still should be, IMHO) an integral part of FIGURE skating. When I struggle with a MIF element I go back to the figure it comes from and it helps a lot.

An integral part of learning how to skate, sure, not an integral part of competitions.

Now let's see some LISTS, people, lists!

2008 Worlds

Kostner
Asada
Kim

2007 Worlds

Ando
Asada
Kim

2006 Worlds

Meissner
Suguri
Cohen

2006 Olympics

Slutskaya
Arakawa
Cohen

2005 Worlds

Slutskaya
Cohen
Kostner

2004 Worlds

Arakawa
Cohen
Kwan

2003 Worlds

Sokolova
Kwan
Suguri

2002 Worlds

Slutskaya
Kwan
Suguri

2002 Olympics

Slutskaya
Hughes
Cohen

2001 Worlds

Slutskaya
Butyrskaya
Kwan ( I know she was the best,however Slutskaya and Butyrskaya really impress me)

2000 Worlds

Kwan
Slutskaya
Butyrskaya

1999 Worlds

Butyrskaya
Soldatova
Kwan

1998 Worlds

Slutskaya(What a performance that was !)
Kwan
Butyrskaya

1998 Olympics

Kwan
Lipinski
Slutskaya

1997 Worlds

Lipinski
Kwan
Slutskaya

1996 Worlds

Kwan
Lu
Slutskaya


Most of them are the same,this means I agree most of the results

You forgot to give Irina a win at the 2006 World Championships when her spirit took to the ice and delivered a performance that clearly would agree with your flights of fantasy.

1971 Worlds

Janet Lynn
Karen Magnussen
Julie Lynn Holmes

1972 Worlds

Karen Magnussen
Janet Lynn
Julie Lynn Holmes

1973 Worlds
Janet Lynn
Karen Magnussen
Dorothy Hamill

2008 Worlds

1. Yu-Na Kim

2. Carolina Kostner

3. Mao Asada

2008

1. Nakano!!!
2. Kim
3. Asada (just do not get)

2008 Worlds
1. Mao Asada
2. Carolina Kostner
3. Yukari Nakano

2008 Worlds:
1) Mao Asada
2) Yu-Na Kim
3) Nakano

2006 Olympics:
1) Arakawa
2) Slutskaya
3) Cohen