Name your top five underrated skaters, past or present. | Page 4 | Golden Skate

Name your top five underrated skaters, past or present.

skateluvr

Record Breaker
Joined
Oct 23, 2011
Even though she won the biggest titles, I think Oksana Baiul is underrated. She was magnificent to watch.

No, she was very over rated at Olympics where Nancy was robbed. But she was very special when young. I think people grew to dislike her bcause they saw her as a diva as she grew up and the whole alcohol issue. She was not really able to show us as a pro what she was like. Sad.
 

skateluvr

Record Breaker
Joined
Oct 23, 2011
Mariah Bell is finally skating so well and she is not getting any respect. Absolutely underrated and under scored this season.
 

Amei

Record Breaker
Joined
Nov 11, 2013
Mariah Bell is finally skating so well and she is not getting any respect. Absolutely underrated and under scored this season.

Disagree, people give her credit for her ability to perform but she's technically a weak skater, her placing well and having a chance to medal is dependent on other skaters doing poorly.
 

zyxwl2015

Rinkside
Joined
Sep 30, 2016
Ladies: Anastasia Gubanova and Anastasia Tarakanova are really underrated! There are other great Russian ladies having the same issue but I feel these two stand out the most. Seems like Russian ladies are either underrated or overrated, (almost) never judged correctly :confused:

Men: Shoma Uno is overrated, especially TES wise, in my opinion. Boyang Jin is underrated, especially compare to Shoma.
 

SarahSynchro

Record Breaker
Joined
Mar 7, 2014
Country
Canada
I know the topic is to list our top FIVE underrated skaters, but there’s one obvious choice who immediately came to mind, and she has yet to be mentioned in the thread:

Tonya Harding. Her career became synonymous with the infamous knee whack and its aftermath; so much so that everyone seemed to completely forget that she was a fantastically talented powerhouse of skater. That triple axel was a thing of beauty.

She was also typecast by the mainstream media as the badass poor girl from the other side of the tracks, with her unconventional costumes, unorthodox music choices, controlling mother, abusive husband, and refusal to quit drinking and smoking cigarettes. All this in comparison to Nancy Kerrigan, who was labelled as the stereotypically beautiful princess on ice.

For the record, I don’t condone what Tonya’s sketchy husband and his hired goons did to Nancy, mind you. I’m also conflicted by Tonya’s version of what she claims did and didn’t know, before and after the attack.

To be perfectly honest, I’d go as far enough to say that the knee whack fiasco managed to taint and overshadow both Tonya AND Nancy’s on-ice achievements. Their individual talents, while very different from one another, became all but a forgotten afterthought. It stopped being about their actual skating skills, completely shifting into tabloid fodder, trashy gossip, and just an overall big joke, primed and ready for the mainstream media to beat to death like a dead horse.
 

MarkusNJ

Rinkside
Joined
Feb 13, 2011
Elaine Zayak
GO and watch her short and long at the 84 Olympics, and then compare them to the actual medalists.....
 

Shedi0806

On the Ice
Joined
Mar 22, 2018
Mai Mihara
Mai Mihara
Mai Mihara

and did I mention Mai Mihara? :biggrin:

Also, she is always so unlucky with the GP assignments.
 

ladyjane

Medalist
Joined
Jun 26, 2012
Country
Netherlands
These are my personal views

Top 5 underrated skaters:

1. Alexander Abt. Beautiful skater, creative both in (mostly his own) choreography and music choices, his own Federation hardly supported him, got no more then Medals at Euros (a bronze and a silver), never at Worlds or Olympics. But just outstanding.
2. Drobiazko and Vanagas. Great ice dancers, never got the medals they definitely deserved, loved by their competitors too.
3. Sergei Voronov. Admirable guy with longevity, gets no love from his own Federation.
4. Akiko Suziko. That woman was such a joy to watch, and her steps and transitions were just sensational. Did get acknowledged once (bronze medal at worlds).
5. Michael Brezina. He shouldn't have got so many fourth places. He really was and is very good.

I wanted to include Bourne and Kraatz at first, but they did get a World Championship Gold in 2003, so I left them out in the end. Of course there are many more, I might mention others on a different day! I haven't included up and rising stars (although I agree with some other posters that Kevin Amoz was underrated in some events, but he definitely is on the rise). Also, I didn't include Weaver and Pojé. Because they medalled at Worlds, and won the GPF I think twice so they did have success. But they definitely were underrated a lot of times!

Overrated skaters top 5

1. Grischuk and Platov. Although I really enjoyed their dance at the 1998 olympics, their other titles felt less deserved. Could be a question of taste, although I did generally like Platov's skating (but he did have some falls which didn't get deductions).
2. Totmianina and Marinin. Don't get me wrong, these were very good skaters in the technical sense, just bland and getting too many high marks in presentation and/or pcs (after the change to IJS).
3. Navka and Kostamarov. Good dancers of course, just getting too high marks in my view for what they laid down on the ice.
4. Domnina/Shabalin. I never understood why they got a world title and an olympic Bronze. Probably again a question of taste.

Only 4 to my mind. I'm not so sure about overrating with the current crop of skaters, even if sometimes the outcomes/results surprise me. And before people start asking about the fact that only Russian couples are mentioned: that's probably just the consequence of the Russian domination in those times and in those disciplines. When there's so many good ones from one country, there's bound to be a bigger chance for getting too high marks too.
 

surimi

Onward and forward, Sota!
Record Breaker
Joined
Nov 12, 2013
I feel that Gilles/Poirier, Satoko Miyahara, and Guignard/Fabbri have been getting low PCS, as did Mao when she competed. I'd have their PCS higher.
 

dorispulaski

Wicked Yankee Girl
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
Country
United-States
Nobunari Oda -curse his inability to count jumps. He is still a great skater!!!
Ilia Klimkin - such a creative, interesting skater; such bad luck in his personal life, and to be competing in the shadow of Plushy, Abt and Yagudin
Judy Blumberg & Michael Seibert
Madison Chock & Evan Bates - Sinead Kerr said that if others were getting +5 for their lifts Maddy and Evan should be getting a lot more. I agree!
Tonya Harding
 

SXTN

Final Flight
Joined
Jun 5, 2008
I still think Midori Ito is one of the most underrated skaters of all time. She was 30 years ahead of everyone else during that period.
 

jenaj

Record Breaker
Joined
Aug 17, 2003
Country
United-States
I still think Midori Ito is one of the most underrated skaters of all time. She was 30 years ahead of everyone else during that period.

Yes, but she is an underrated legendary skater.
 

vincerooo

Rinkside
Joined
Jun 19, 2019
Satoko Miyahara
Mai Mihara
Kevin Aymoz
Yuhana Yokoi
Andrew Torgashev

I think both Yuhana and Andrew will turn senior next season. Yuhana's jumps have such wonderful flow, and I particularly adore her POTO free skate at the Bratislava JGP. If Andrew is able to get his jumps together, I think he could become a real threat on the senior level.
 

SarahSynchro

Record Breaker
Joined
Mar 7, 2014
Country
Canada
Elaine Zayak
GO and watch her short and long at the 84 Olympics, and then compare them to the actual medalists.....

Yes!

While I can understand the ISU’s rationalization behind the creation of the Zayak rule, it also came off as a direct snub of Elaine’s jumping skills and overall talent. In a way, it blacklisted her, and her career was never the same afterwards.
 

deedee1

Record Breaker
Joined
Nov 14, 2007
Internationally: Mirodi Ito, Ilia Klimkin, Gilles/Poirier

Nationally: Yukari Nakano (by her own feds thru-out her almost entire career... :slink:) Another skaters come to my mind are Dice Murakami and US Armin Mahbanoozadeh. Always waaaay-underrated at the Nats, I thought. :no:
 

ray94611

Rinkside
Joined
Dec 22, 2003
The mention of Matt Savoie reminded me of Braden Overett. And what about Rohene Ward?

Also, I'd like to point out a difference between great skaters that were consistently under-scored and great skaters that didn't skate well in competition.
 

MGstyle

Crawling around on the ice after chestnuts
Medalist
Joined
Sep 1, 2015
Now that they announced their "retirement" (they don't use the word exactly, but my gut feeling is that they won't come back, considering their age), I would like to add Kaitlyn Weaver & Andrew Poje in this category. It was so unfortunate that they had to spend such a big chunk of their career as a shadow of Virtue & Moir, and they sort of lost a momentum along the way. I do believe they will do very well in the show circuit, though. I hope they will perform also in Europe!
 

el henry

Go have some cake. And come back with jollity.
Record Breaker
Joined
Mar 3, 2014
Country
United-States
Satoko Miyahara
Mai Mihara
Kevin Aymoz
Yuhana Yokoi
Andrew Torgashev

I think both Yuhana and Andrew will turn senior next season. Yuhana's jumps have such wonderful flow, and I particularly adore her POTO free skate at the Bratislava JGP. If Andrew is able to get his jumps together, I think he could become a real threat on the senior level.

Two of my favs, Kevin and Andrew:agree: I have been watching them both since early junior days, and I hope Kevin continues to improve and Andrew gets it all together.

Welcome to Goldenskate. Post long and post often!:)
 
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