Which skaters have competed in both singles and pairs/dance?

mmcdermott · Dec 4, 2011

Which skaters have competed at a high level in both singles and paris or dance? By "high level" I mean junior level or above.

These are the ones I know about - who else?

Kristi Yamaguchi (won junior worlds in both pairs and singles)
Jamie Salé, Megan Duhamel, Jessica Dubé (all known as pairs skaters but competed in singles at the senior level)
Todd Sand
Rena Inoue

(And the last two competed singles for other countries!)

Who else don't I know about?

Olympia · Dec 4, 2011

And of course Kristi's partner, Rudy Galindo.

Ken Shelley and JoJo Starbuck of the U.S. competed in both disciplines. Shelley came in first nationally in both in 1972. I think he won fourth in the world in both that year. Tai and Randy also competed in both, or at least Tai did. I think Jayne Torvill was a singles skater before she took up ice dancing with Christopher Dean.

Also Yuka Sato, who learned pairs skating after turning pro. Gordeyeva skated solo after her partner and husband, Sergei Grinkov, died.

Tonichelle · Dec 4, 2011

I believe David Pelletier also competed in singles at one point?

John Baldwin was originally a singles skater before he went to pairs... I think his brother might have also done that?

callalily · Dec 4, 2011

Paul Poirier did a JGP in singles.

Rachmaninoff · Dec 4, 2011

Kyoko Ina competed at senior nationals as a singles skater. She finished fourth once.

jcoates · Dec 4, 2011

Jeremy Abbott has competed in all three disciplines.

Jessica Dube has done singles and pairs (so has Davison IIRC)

Jenni Meno also skated singles. She did double duty in both for a brief time but did not have enough triples to be competitive.

Kyoko Ina skated both also and came in 4th in 95 us nationals in singles and 2nd in pairs. She skated for both Japan and the US in singles.

Also from that period, Shelby Lyons was a talented young skater who was doing both pairs and singles. She medaled in pairs at Nationals (bronze and pewter) but never took off in singles.

Peter Tchernychev and Naomi Lange were both also singles skaters. Naomi passed her senior test and Peter skated singles until getting injured at 18. He still practiced all his triples (lutz to toe loop) in the off season while competing dance.

Belbin has a background in pairs.

Pelletier was a singles skater and actually came to pairs full time relatively late in his career. He actually was a fairly decent jumper just lacked the big guns.

Baldwin was a singles skater for around 2 decades before moving on to pairs.

Davis and White were both singles skaters alongside dance until shortly before turning senior.

Of course, Maribel Vinson Owen was a national champ in both singles and pairs. Her husband Guy Owen was a Canadian champ in junior men's singles and senior fours.

Natalia Bestemianova has a background in singles.

Paul Wylie and Nancy Kerrigan both have some pairs experience (Paul won junior nationals).

ryanbfan · Dec 4, 2011

Ashley Cain currently competes in Senior pairs with Joshua Reagan and Junior ladies. Alex Johnson does Pairs and Senior men also.

Rachmaninoff · Dec 4, 2011

Tonichelle said:
I believe David Pelletier also competed in singles at one point?

Oh yeah, he did. His best finish was fourth at senior nats too (in Canada of course). He was skating with Allison Gaylor back then.

I also recall an American skater named Shelby Lyons...I think she was junior ladies champion the same year she competed in senior pairs with Brian Wells and came in third.

chuckm · Dec 5, 2011

Charlie White competed as a single in the 2004-2005 JGP in Long Beach CA and finished 7th. He scored 51.71 in the SP (5th) and 76.95 in the FS (7th). That same season, Davis/White competed in JGP Dance in Yugoslavia and Romania, and won two bronze medals.

Buttercup · Dec 5, 2011

Many pairs skaters started out in singles - other than those already mentioned, here are a few more who got at least to the junior level:

Vanessa James and her current partner Morgan Cipres were both originally singles skaters, and also Adeline Canac.

Mylène Brodeur.

Evgeni Krasnopolski.

Stefania Berton and Ondrej Hotarek.

Anais Morand skated in a JGP before finding her current partner.

Skaters from the past: Tamara Moskvina and Alexei Mishin, Pierre Brunet and Andrée Joly/Brunet.

Ice dance:

Fedor Andreev (though he didn't end up doing much as an ice dancer).

John Kerr was a singles skater until he was 17, but I don't know if he skated internationally. Sinead skated singles, too, but switched to dance at a younger age than he did.

Sara Hurtado and Adria Diaz - I don't know if they skated internationally, either, but they only switched to ice dance in 2008.

p.s. the thread title needs to be fixed.

jcoates · Dec 5, 2011

Robert Wagenhoffer was also a national senior medalist in both singles and pairs. He also medaled internationally both disciplines at both NHK and Skate America.

Olympia · Dec 5, 2011

Tiffany Steigler skated in both pairs and ice dance. She had a lot of promise, not to mention stage presence to burn, and I'm not sure why she couldn't make more of a splash. Her first partner (pairs) was her brother Johnnie, and I think he just gave up on skating. Didn't they make it to fourth nationally? Then she skated pairs with Bert Cording, I think. Then they split and she tried ice dance with a Russian skater.

I'd love to know what happened to her.

nolwenn · Dec 5, 2011

Marie-Pierre Leray had a decent career in both pairs and singles :
For instance :
- In pairs : french champion in 1993 and 9th at the European chamionships in 2002
- Singles : 7th at the World championships in 1994
etc ...

http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie-Pierre_Leray

Spun Silver · Dec 5, 2011

Amanda Dobbs was a real sparkler in both pairs (placing 7th) and singles (6th) at 2010 US Nats - her Nats seniors debut for both disciplines. Then she placed 4th in ladies' at 4CC. It was quite a start. And then her partner got injured and I believe she did too (?).

It seems like her partner Joseph Jacobson has moved on. She's now 5'4" and didn't make it out of sectionals this year. But she's still only 18.

Olympia · Dec 5, 2011

Ooh, how could we omit Naomi Nari Nam?

mmcdermott · Dec 5, 2011

Thanks, everyone, for your responses! It's fun to watch skaters compete in disciplines other than what you're used to seeing them in.

I also discovered fours because of this thread. Cool!!!

ivy · Dec 5, 2011

So interesting. I've often wondered why talented skaters that aren't gonna quite make it as a single don't try pairs. I know there is a whole other skill set, but at the same time there a more open field and careers tend to be a little longer (or at least the skaters are compete successfully at older ages). Not sure how many of the single Mens field are tall enough for pairs.

At the same time I think singles could often benefit from training as ice dancers, seems like they'd. learn a little more musicality, expression and a few skating skills to boot.

Do Yuka and Jason have any pairs they're coaching?

Buttercup · Dec 5, 2011

Buttercup said:
Stefania Berton and Ondrej Hotarek.

As it turns out, Berton also competed in ice dance, though she only got as high as novice. Still - pretty cool that she's skated competitively in singles, pairs and dance, and did two of them at the senior level.

Johnny Weir skated pairs in addition to singles when he was younger, but only up to intermediate.

Has Paul Poirier been mentioned? He was still skating singles - at least the national level - until fairly recently. Vanessa Crone did dance and singles for a while, too. Bryce Davison also competed in singles. Actually, I think it's safe to assume that many Canadian skaters have competed in more than one discipline nationally if not internationally.

Felicia Zhang has done singles and pairs.

IIRC, Shae-Lynn Bourne has some pairs skating experience.

Maxim Marinin switched to pairs when he was sixteen or so - he famously lost to a much younger Evgeni Plushenko and decided his future was not in singles. I don't know what level he was competing at when he made the switch.

jcoates · Dec 5, 2011

Lloyd Eisler was also a competitor in both pairs and fours. And I might be wrong, but I recall Peter Carruthers once discussing a background as a competitor in junior dance during a discussion with Terry Gannon.

Olympia · Dec 5, 2011

mmcdermott said:
Thanks, everyone, for your responses! It's fun to watch skaters compete in disciplines other than what you're used to seeing them in.

I also discovered fours because of this thread. Cool!!!

I'm sorry fours aren't still done in general competition. I've seen one exhibition of fours, and they are very exciting to watch. Also, years ago, they had three shows called Skates of Gold, and in at least the first one, the pairs skaters switched partners. Since the pairs included Gordeyeva/Grinkov and Artur Dmitriev (I think with his earlier partner, Mishkutenok), it was the most exciting thing imaginable, though it wasn't true fours, I think.

It is fun to watch skaters compete in several disciplines, isn't it? Sometimes you get that in a professional show. For example, have you ever seen this splendid pairs routine done by Gordeyeva and Ilia Kulik for Stars on Ice? You would swear that Ilia was a pairs skater, judging by the smoothness of his lifts and holds. And the emotional content....wow.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MpDZf82KYhA

Which skaters have competed in both singles and pairs/dance?

mmcdermott

Olympia

Tonichelle

Idita-Rock-n-Roll

callalily

Rachmaninoff

jcoates

ryanbfan

Rachmaninoff

chuckm

Buttercup

jcoates

Olympia

nolwenn

Spun Silver

Olympia

mmcdermott

ivy

Buttercup

jcoates

Olympia

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