Best skaters who never went to the Olympics

YagsFan said:

Please remind me what happened with Roca and Sur? I didn't remember that they didn't get to the Olympics---they are always fixed in my mind with a whole group of great teams for that general era.

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Sur didn't have citizenship, and their competition fought to block him from getting it in time for the Olympics.

drivingmissdaisy said:

Angela Nikodinov had a top 5 finish at Worlds and never skated in the Olympics. If Karen Chen never makes an Olympic team, she'd probably also be one of the better skaters who hasn't. Looking at the list of Junior World Champions, several haven't competed in an Olympics; Yukina Ota, a talented Japanese skater, never even made a World team despite winning Junior Worlds (and 4CC).

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mrrice said:

I was just coming here to write Angela's name on this list. Didn't she get 4th in 2002? She was beautiful when she was on and I still love watching her 2001 Giovani SP. One of my favorites.

I'll also add Tonia Kwiatkowski........4th in 1998.....So close!

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Yes, Angela was one of the first people I thought of when I added her in my earlier post. She went through so much with the death of her coach, whom she was very close to, then later being in a horrible car wreck in which her mother was killed, and she was injured.

On a happier note, she married fellow skater - and fellow Bulgarian (Nikodinov's parents emigrated from Bulgaria) - Ivan Dinev. They now have a daughter and are coaching together. In fact, they coach 2017 US Junior champ Kaitlyn Nguyen.

Alissa was beginning to be hyped in the 2005-6 Season, and I'm even a little surprised that she didn't make it in 2010, and they might have used bow for a reason to put her on the team if she hadn't imploded quite as badly as she did. She was 2nd alternate for the GP Final that year, having placed 2nd and 4th at her GP events. Its a total shame she never got to be an Olympian.

Weathergal said:

then later being in a horrible car wreck in which her mother was killed, and she was injured.

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2005 National Championships in Portland, OR. The Cab Driver took the corner too fast IIRC from the off ramp and flipped the van. No one was wearing seat belts as I remember.

It was announced that night at the opening of the Senior events, very somber evening. I was on my way to the rink when the news broke. My best friend was watching on TV and called me to ask if I'd heard, everyone on the metro was also headed to the arena so I was having to relay what she was hearing on the TV. Pretty crazy night.

I'll always remember Tim Goebel breaking down after his SP, he was very close to Angela and her family and it affected him greatly.