Best women jumper of all time?

[Vash01]

There is nothing she could do that Midori Ito couldn't do better.

Midori should have 100% of the votes here.

Some posters may not be that familiar with Midori ( they may have voted for younger skaters).

 

[Joesitz (RIP)]

Some posters may not be that familiar with Midori ( they may have voted for younger skaters).

That goes beyond polls. Young posters have no idea how much the earlier skaters contributed to figure skating and how well they peformed for their era of skating. Even when they see skaters from the 50s and 60s in film clips they compare them to Mao and Yu na. That's the way the mind works.

Joe

 

[slutskayafan21]

Grrr, I cant believe Mao has almost caught Irina, I can see Tonya possably catching up although I was thrilled when Irina was out in front of her, but Mao grrrrr. I know Mao does a triple axel and the dumb current rules give her more jump points based on that alone, but Irina's jumps are so much better in height, power, rotational shape, straightness, tightness of the body, trajectory, only landings are they close.

 

[evenstar]

Mao can't even do a DOUBLE toe! OR a salchow!!! I'm befuddled. I don't think Irina has great jumps, either. They definitely have GREAT hight, but the landings tend to be sloppy. I my Midori!

 

[Ilona]

Slutskaya

 

[diamondqueen]

Best woman jumper of all time?

Midori, she was also the most powerful jumper I have seen.

dimaond

 

[Ladskater]

Midori Ito wins this poll hands down. Kurt Browning used to say "Midori could compete with the men." When it comes to jumping Midori was in a class of her own. She can join the ranks of the skaters who left their mark on figure skating and raised the bar. Just like Trixi Schuba - the best female figure skater of all time, Midori is definitely the best female jumper.

 

[Mafke]

I don't understand how anyone can not vote for Ito here.

In terms of number of jumps completed, the quality of the jumps and in being the first to land certain jumps she was just off the charts. No one was in her class as a jumper when she was competing (the closest was Yamaguchi but as consistent as she was with toe jumps her edge jumps were kind of iffy). Arguably no one has been since.

And even apart form the jumps she was one of my all time favorites. I loved the clean power and joy she brought to her best programs.

 

[loren]

Midori Ito definitely. Even Mao's 3A fades in front of Midori's.

 

[OwenEvans]

Unfortunately, I have never seen Ito skate "live", however, watching her on the TV (or even now when I replay her performances on my PC) when she was "on", you can tell she was a totally exciting performer.

I can only imagine the energy in the audience during her truly memorable performances like 88O, 89W or 90W LPs. My fave performance of Ito's is still 88O LP - my friends and I collectively swooned when she landed her 3T-3T. It really was monumental performance - first 3Lz, first (?) 3F, first 3x3 and first 7 triple program seen at the Olympics - all in one programme. She was foot perfect and really, should have had straight 6.0s for Technical Components on this occasion. Other than Liz Manley's great free, I felt the rest of the ladies' competition was an anti-climax after Midori as, personally, I was not excited by the "Battle of the Carmens" and knew none of the last flight would bring that level of technical content to the competition.

As you can tell, I really liked Ito...

 

[Zuranthium]

I don't understand how anyone can not vote for Ito here.

In terms of number of jumps completed, the quality of the jumps and in being the first to land certain jumps she was just off the charts. No one was in her class as a jumper when she was competing (the closest was Yamaguchi but as consistent as she was with toe jumps her edge jumps were kind of iffy).

I'd have to say Tonya Harding was the closest to Ito in jumping. She got almost as high and could do the 3A but sadly lacked consistency.

 

[April]

Oh, Midori jumps looked great, like a human tornado's.

 

[doubleaxel]

I voted for Midori Ito, obviously! Her jumps are high and powerful. But I also like Irina Slutskaya - she is quite a good jumper.

 

[dreamingofskating]

consider surya bonaly

I think that Surya is the most under appreciated jumper here of the bunch. I think why a lot of people forget about her is because her artistry was atrocious when she first showed up on the world scene. Her jumps were nicely executed. She tried things technically that none of her other competitors of her time tried. I do wish she didn't telegraph her jumps though. I was soo pleased when she did that Backflip in '98 at the Olympics as her swan song. She knew at that moment she wasn't going to be recognized because she wasn't status quo.
I definitely see validity in Ito as well. Her jumps were amazing. It was a tough choice for me, but, ultimately, I went with Bonaly, although, I wish I could've also voted for Ito as well.
That's my two cents

 

[temperboy28]

The jumps Ito landed were the best ever but she missed alot of jumps too. I will say Petra Burka and Carole Heiss were ahead of their time in jumps so I consider them maybe. I will go with Denise Biellman though who landed the Worlds first triple lutz when the previous hardest was at triple salchow or something like that. Even in her mid 30s she was still doing powerful triple loops, triple salchows, and triple toes.