- Joined
- Jun 5, 2009
For me this is very "matter" - even 2.5 years younger, Plushenko overcame Yagudin... so his every victory is more valuable.Age doesn't matter. It's when they Competed against each other.
He is 2.5 years older, but he was competed only 2 years earlier than Plushenko.Age can also affect Yagudin adversely. He was on the scene earlier wearing his body down.
It's not that big a deal. Yagudin was ranking will at 15 or 16 as well. So what?
I do not see that Yagudin in his 15, 16 years won any major international competition.... unlike Plushy.
- Plushenko won (as i said) his 1st Worlds medal, bronze in 15 - Yagudin same, in 17 years ... Plushy have only 1 gold medal less than Yagudin!Yagudin won 3 World Championships in a Row and then Won the Olympics and another World Championship. He was also medaling on the World scene as early as the 97 Worlds where he won a Bronze. Aside from that Bronze and the Silver to Plushenko in 01, he won Gold at every other Worlds or Junior Worlds he competed against.
- Plushenko won 2 golds and 2 silvers at Olympics - Yagudin 1 gold 2002 and 5th place 1998
- Plushenko won 4 Grand Prix Finals and 18 GP - Yagudin 2 GPF and 12 GP
- Plushenko won 7 Europeans golds (and 3 silver medals) - Yagudin 3 golds (and 2 silver)
- Plushy won 10 Russian Nationals titles - Yagudin, none
...
In international competitions - Yagudin was competed 9 years, Plushenko 10 + 3 incomplete seasons.
Because the title of this topic: "Does Plushenko's longevity make him a better skater than Yagudin?" - we are not talking here only about their "mutual score", but globally - who is the better skater.
So, in my view - I put forward enough evidences, why Plushenko is better
This is your opinion, which is based on your sympathy and taste - mine is different.And like I said before, Plushenko's packaging and programs were typically quite bad compared to Yagudin. Yagudin had issues technically and artistically. Neither of them were perfect. Later in his career Plushenko was a huge beneficiary of reputation scoring so I have a hard time really taking the later results seriously (Post-Turino) esp. WRT comparing them to what Yagudin did and against the skaters Yagudin had to skate against when he started medaling, before Plushenko burst on the scene as a seriously World Champion-level contender.