Samuel Contesti retires

Altri Sport - Beloved italian figure skater Samuel Contesti has announced that he will no longer compete as an athlete. Complications with his training conditions combined with a lack of support from his own federation lead him to take this decision. He aims to become a coach.

After van der Perren, Contesti's retirement is kind of a blow to the European circuit. He always showed interesting and entertaining programes.

Aw ... I'll miss him. He was very entertaining and had a number of interesting programs. I wish him all the best with his growing family, and am glad that he'll stay involved in the sport by coaching the next generation of skaters.

Contesti was often an entertaining skater! I met him (a second time) at Challenge Cup last season and he seemed really nice. I didn't realize he was married and had a son and another baby on the way! His silver at Euros in '09 was a great highlight.

Sounds like he wanted to continue but doesn't have the resources. Pity, the sport needs crowd pleasers like him. I'm glad he stays in the business though. Perhaps a new Italian Figure Skating school started by Samuel and Geraldine

Good luck to the whole family

Sad, I prefer people retiring on their terms...I hope it wasn't resources. I can't remember but is there another Italiam male skater because if there isn't; Italy may have just lost its team medal chance at Sochi. With a top ten in pairs most likely as well as maybe a gold in ladies and a bronze in dance Italy had a very reasonable shot at a medal as a team in the Olympic format. If Contesi was top ten level well a gold is possible with the right luck.

ON the other hand, Italy could reasonably bomb. This sounds crazy but Kostner is probably their best shot at gold. C and L could win bronze. However, C and L is probably the only guaranteed top ten placement because Carolina, Contesi and the pairs are all capable of falling out of the top ten.

He is married with children, has international medals and a wonderful legacy. What else could he hope for? It is sad to see him retire but nice to know he has accomplished so very much!

- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UgDi1ysqZ_E

LP@Nice Worlds 2012.
I loved LOVED 2A in the middle of his choreo step sequence!
Samuel skated so well in his homeland (France!) and this performance moved me to tears. Kudos to him for finishing 11th SP, 9th LP = 10th overall and bringing 2 spots back to Italy!

- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5viVqwWGyQ

LP@LA Worlds 2009. Jumps look even bigger here.
Silver medal at Euro and strong 5th finish at Worlds. 2008-09 season is probably his best season in his career.

I remember I was so happy for him that one year later he got participated in the Winter Olympic Games finally after some obstacles against him.

I love CoP overall, but one of things I donot like is this rule tends to be too harsh on skaters who do not have great skating skills and/or many transitions, thus we get to see fun programs like Contesti's less and less over the years. Great edge work, transitions into and out of every jumps, text-book spins, etc...I won't comlain, of course. But my preference on skaters always has been those who had huge jumps with proper technique, strong presence on ice, and most of all, their own personality in skating.
For that matter, Samuel is definitely one of them for me. He is such a crowd pleaser!

First Kevin Van der Perren, and now Samuel Contesti...I am going to miss them a lot in the new season.

mikiandorocks said:

Altri Sport - Beloved italian figure skater Samuel Contesti has announced that he will no longer compete as an athlete. Complications with his training conditions combined with a lack of support from his own federation lead him to take this decision.

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So disappointing! With Kostner's gold medal win in ladies last year, I would have thought the Italian federation would want to see her win as a way to move things along in other disciplines, which of course would mean supporting the top tier skaters well. (It's not like the field of Italian male skaters is overflowing.... :no

Maybe if Italy had someone in power higher up in the skating world??

I will miss him.