Best skaters of the quad from 1995-1998 until 2011-2014

[Buttercup]

A clean Joubert beating a clean Plushenko in 2003-2006 More CSG comedy for the ages.

Joubert's clean shorts at the 2005 and 2006 worlds with a quad-triple got 80 points. Plushenko's at the 2006 Olympics got 90 points. Joubert's best competition of the quad, maybe of his career, was the 2004 worlds, and Plushenko won both the short and long with straight 1st place ordinals, including a fall entering his triple loop in the free skate. Not to mention that Joubert probably didnt do a single thing better than Plushenko back then.

As much as I love Lambiel, he had no hope of coming anywhere near a clean Plushenko either. Their scores in all competitions proved that beyond a doubt.

I am, for once, going to have to agree with CSG to some extent: Plushenko was very strong in 2003-2006, but part of the reason he was so hard to beat (in addition to solid jumps, some good programs and his amazing consistency) is that the judges were very much in his corner. He actually got first place ordinals from some judges at 2004 Euros, and there is simply no way that is defensible, or the 6.0s he got at Worlds despite the splat.

In addition, in the early years of the IJS the PCS scores tended to be low. If he were at his peak today, Lambiel would probably be getting the sort of massive PCS that only very good tech can overcome.

 

[Sandpiper]

@Buttercup
The judges were in his corner, but no more so than they were in the corner of every dominant skater in the past several decades. Yagudin got some first-place ordinals against--guess who?--Plushenko himself even when Yagudin skated sloppy and Plushenko was perfect. (Yagudin even won the 01-02 GPF, which baffles me, but I'm glad he did because that convinced Plushenko to discard that choppy program for the Olympics). But for the most part, Plushenko and Yagudin won where they deserved to and lost where they deserved to.

There's no way to compare PCS from 2006 to today. Inflation in skating scores happened really quickly, even quicker than I expected.

 

[moviechick]

I am, for once, going to have to agree with CSG to some extent: Plushenko was very strong in 2003-2006, but part of the reason he was so hard to beat (in addition to solid jumps, some good programs and his amazing consistency) is that the judges were very much in his corner. He actually got first place ordinals from some judges at 2004 Euros, and there is simply no way that is defensible, or the 6.0s he got at Worlds despite the splat.

In addition, in the early years of the IJS the PCS scores tended to be low. If he were at his peak today, Lambiel would probably be getting the sort of massive PCS that only very good tech can overcome.

2004 Worlds was the final swan song for 6.0 so they were giving them out like candy. Also, they had already given a bunch of 5.9s to Joubert who skated earlier so in order to place Plushenko over him, they had little room to go up. Plushenko was often overscored in 2003-2006 but never really won an undeserved title (which was helped by the fact that most of his competitors could not skate clean). On the other hand, Yagudin's 2002 Euro title was pure reputation judging and robbed someone else.

 

[rolandgarros]

I'm mainly considering the best SP performance and best LP performance from a given skater/team in each quad to determine overall "best".

1995-1998: pairs- Berezhnaya & Sikharulidze, men- Kulik, dance- Gritschuk & Platov, ladies- Kwan

1999-2002: pairs- Berezhnaya & Sikharulidze, men- Yagudin, dance- Anissina & Peizerat, ladies- Kwan

2003-2006: pairs- Shen & Zhao, men- Plushenko, dance- Denkova & Staviski, ladies- Kwan

2007-2010: pairs- Shen & Zhao, men- Takahashi, dance- Virtue & Moir, ladies- Asada

2011-2014: pairs- Savchenko/Szolkowy, men- Chan, dance- Virtue & Moir, ladies- Asada

I used the same method and here are mine:

1995-1998: pairs- Berezhnaya & Sikharulidze (97 GPF), men- Stojko (98 Canadians), dance- Gritschuk & Platov (97 Europeans), ladies- Lipinski (98 Olympics, but could see a case for Kwan from 98 Nationals, especialy since her short was better)

1999-2002: pairs- Sale & Pelletier (2001 Four Continents), men- Yagudin (2002 SLC), dance- Anissina & Peizerat (99 GPF), ladies- Slutskaya (2001 Russian Nationals if same competition is required, or 2002 worlds short with 99 GPF LP if seperate is allowed)

2003-2006: pairs- Totmianina & Marinin (2006 Olympics, Shen & Zhao at 2004 GPF also is a possible), dance- Denkova & Stayviski (2006 worlds), men- Plushenko (2004 GPF),
ladies is the tough one. Slutskaya if we are allowed to combine her 2005 Cup of China SP and 2005 worlds LP. Arakawa's 2004 worlds LP is the best of the quad but cant remember any impressive shorts from here. Cohen's 2006 Olympic short and 2004 Marshall's long maybe. Just one competition probably Slutskaya from 2004 Cup of Russia.

2007-2010: pairs- Savchenko & Szolkowy (2009 Worlds), dance- Virtue & Moir (2010 Olympics), men- Takahashi (2008 Four Continents), ladies- Kim (2010 Olympics, cant believe you picked Asada)

2011-2014: pairs- Volosozhar & Trankov (2013 Skate America), dance- Davis & White (2010 Olympics), men- Chan (2013 Trophee de France), ladies- Kim (2014 Olympics short, 2013 worlds LP).

 

[snejina]

1995-1998: pairs- Berezhnaya & Sikharulidze, men- Kulik, dance- Gritschuk & Platov and Krylova - Ovsyannikov, ladies- Kwan
1999-2002: pairs- Berezhnaya & Sikharulidze, men- Yagudin, dance- Anissina & Peizerat, ladies- Slutskaya
2003-2006: pairs- Totmianina & Marinin, dance- Denkova & Stayviski, men- Plushenko, ladies - Arakawa
2007-2010: pairs- Savchenko & Szolkowy and Shen - Zhao (Olympics), dance- Virtue & Moir , men- Takahashi , ladies- Kim and Asada
2011-2014: pairs- Savchenko & Szolkowy, dance- Virtue-Moir, men- Chan , ladies- Kim, Asada and Costner