Figure skaters who progressed fast

[norwegianfairytale]

Hi

I would like to start a topic on figure skaters who has progressed really fast, and seems to be natural talents. I remember from time to time there are figure skaters in the international stages who only has been skating for a few years, and I almost couldn´t believe it when the commentators mentioned for how long they skated.

First things comes to mind is a Turkish skater, who hadn´t been skating for many years, but was already training/doing a triple axel. He competed at JGP last season, please help me fill in the name and his story.

For a while I have been following a skater named Spencer Lane on TikTok, who seems to be training in Boston, he has 14 000 followers now. He only started skating in January 2022, and his progress is mind-blowing. I´m not sure I ever have heard about a skater who went from doing barely a singel axel to triples in 2 years time. When I discovered him he was just doing his first triple toeloop, and hadn´t even been skating for 2 years. All the way he has been posting his progress.

In the recent couple of months he has progressed to doing 3T-3T, 3Lo, 3T-eu-3S, 3Lz with ease. I´m not sure what his age is, but he just recently did a small competition called Colonial Open. If he continues like this and wants a competitive career, i´m sure we will see his name in the future in some international competitions.

Here is a recent video from practice with 3Lo and 3T-3T.

Link




His first attempts of 3Lz looks amazing:

Link




What other skaters progressed really fast? This thread is not supposed to be a competition about who progressed the fastest, but more a celebration of natural talents that people may not be aware of. Also, people may not be aware of top skaters skaters who started pretty late.

 

[CaroLiza_fan]

Hi

I would like to start a topic on figure skaters who has progressed really fast, and seems to be natural talents. I remember from time to time there are figure skaters in the international stages who only has been skating for a few years, and I almost couldn´t believe it when the commentators mentioned for how long they skated.

First things comes to mind is a Turkish skater, who hadn´t been skating for many years, but was already training/doing a triple axel. He competed at JGP last season, please help me fill in the name and his story.

For a while I have been following a skater named Spencer Lane on TikTok, who seems to be training in Boston, he has 14 000 followers now. He only started skating in January 2022, and his progress is mind-blowing. I´m not sure I ever have heard about a skater who went from doing barely a singel axel to triples in 2 years time. When I discovered him he was just doing his first triple toeloop, and hadn´t even been skating for 2 years.

In the recent couple of months he has progressed to doing 3T-3T, 3Lo, 3T-eu-3S, 3Lz with ease. I´m not sure what his age is, but he just recently did a small competition called Colonial Open. If he continues like this and wants a competitive career, i´m sure we will see his name in the future in some international competitions.

Here is a recent video from practice with 3Lo and 3T-3T.



His first attempts of 3Lz looks amazing:




What other skaters progressed really fast? This thread is not supposed to be a competition about who progressed the fastest, but more a celebration of natural talents that people may not be aware of. Also, people may not be aware of top skaters skaters who started pretty late.

If you are embedding TikTok videos, it might be a good idea to also include the links in your post, because all I can see are masses of white space. And although I can see the file number for each video when I go to quote your post, I cannot construct the address of the video from it because I don't know the uploader's username.

Would Ali Efe GÜNEŞ, from the Altin Patencİler club in Erzurum, be the Turkish skater you are thinking of? His ISU Bio says he started skating in 2017, and his Rink Results Bio only has competitions going back to the start of 2020.

The other two Turkish boys in the Junior GP last season have Rink Results Bios that go back much further, to 2015 and 2016.

If you forgive my indulgence, may I suggest one of my kids from Cyprus, Olivia BAZLOVA. Her very first competition was the 2019 Cyprus Championships, held just a few days before her 6th birthday. Fast forward five years, and she did 15 competitions this season, winning 10 Gold Medals; 4 Silver Medals; and 1 Bronze Medal (that was her first competition of the season).

In fact, she has been on the podium in every competition she has done since the start of 2023. 18 podium finishes in a row!

Her final event of the season was last month at the kids edition of the Tallinn Trophy, and as well as winning the Basic Novice competition, she finished second in the Advanced Novice 2011-2012 competition, her first outing at that level.

I would say that was pretty rapid progress.

CaroLiza_fan

 

[norwegianfairytale]

If you are embedding TikTok videos, it might be a good idea to also include the links in your post, because all I can see are masses of white space. And although I can see the file number for each video when I go to quote your post, I cannot construct the address of the video from it because I don't know the uploader's username.

Would Ali Efe GÜNEŞ, from the Altin Patencİler club in Erzurum, be the Turkish skater you are thinking of? His ISU Bio says he started skating in 2017, and his Rink Results Bio only has competitions going back to the start of 2020.

The other two Turkish boys in the Junior GP last season have Rink Results Bios that go back much further, to 2015 and 2016.

If you forgive my indulgence, may I suggest one of my kids from Cyprus, Olivia BAZLOVA. Her very first competition was the 2019 Cyprus Championships, held just a few days before her 6th birthday. Fast forward five years, and she did 15 competitions this season, winning 10 Gold Medals; 4 Silver Medals; and 1 Bronze Medal (that was her first competition of the season).

In fact, she has been on the podium in every competition she has done since the start of 2023. 18 podium finishes in a row!

Her final event of the season was last month at the kids edition of the Tallinn Trophy, and as well as winning the Basic Novice competition, she finished second in the Advanced Novice 2011-2012 competition, her first outing at that level.

I would say that was pretty rapid progress.

CaroLiza_fan

Thank you for the feedback on the media I added, I added the link now as well. Hope it helps!

You are right, I think it´s Ali Efe i´m thinking about!! Started to skate in 2017, that is amazing!

First competition at 6 years? :O Amazing. So many medals already. Her name doesn´t sound very Greek, does she have some Russian blood maybe?

 

[Mathematician]

Did some looking into Spencer Lane since what you mentioned about him made me interested.

He started his recordings at around 13 by the looks of it, that was about 2-3 years ago, so hes about 15-16 now. But I find it extremely likely he had at least basic prior skating experience before that, unless he started doing full rotations from day one on the ice.

He competed recently and scored 91 overall. Intermediate mens is his category:

2024 North Shore Open

Event Results for 2024 North Shore Open

ijs.usfigureskating.org

Considering he almost definitely has at least 4 years of skating under his belt, I think this kind of progress is not unheard of, but I may be wrong.

 

[norwegianfairytale]

Did some looking into Spencer Lane since what you mentioned about him made me interested.

He started his recordings at around 13 by the looks of it, that was about 2-3 years ago, so hes about 15-16 now. But I find it extremely likely he had at least basic prior skating experience before that, unless he started doing full rotations from day one on the ice.

He competed recently and scored 91 overall. Intermediate mens is his category:

2024 North Shore Open

Event Results for 2024 North Shore Open

ijs.usfigureskating.org

Considering he almost definitely has at least 4 years of skating under his belt, I think this kind of progress is not unheard of, but I may be wrong.

Not sure what you mean with basic skating experience, but the first video he posted in 2022 he almost couldn´t even do a single axel, for me, this looks like a new beginner:



Link

In his comments he confirms he started skating in January 2022, so I don´t think he has been skating for 4 years. It´s clearly though he has been interested in skating before that, since he posted photos from other skaters he looked up too.

Thanks for the insight about age, category he competed in. I checked the scores and he is getting great credit for jumps, but still has a lot of work to do with other elements, with getting level on spins and step sequence and of course overall skating skills.

 

[Mathematician]

Not sure what you mean with basic skating experience, but the first video he posted in 2022 he almost couldn´t even do a single axel, for me, this looks like a new beginner:



Link

In his comments he confirms he started skating in January 2022, so I don´t think he has been skating for 4 years. It´s clearly though he has been interested in skating before that, since he posted photos from other skaters he looked up too.

Thanks for the insight about age, category he competed in. I checked the scores and he is getting great credit for jumps, but still has a lot of work to do with other elements, with getting level on spins and step sequence and of course overall skating skills.

Interesting... that video does look like a beginner, maybe a couple months on the ice.

But here in this video he posted, on 2023 march, he mentions "a year and a handful of months", so at the very least this video would have been taken in January of 2022 (a handful sounds like more than 3, but we're just going to assume his official claim to be true) when he claims to have started skating:

TikTok - Make Your Day

So did he really start landing fully rotated combos fresh on the ice? I dont know...

I never assume that someone is a liar without proof, so my best guess here is that he had practiced skating in general before 2022, but began training figure skating specifically (maybe to him that means jumps) in 2022.

It is possible that hes a total 1 in a million savant who has gobsmacking proprioception and could do combos off the bat, I know the level of talent some people possess, but I just find it unlikely.

Considering were in may of 2024, and he was landing combos at least in January 2022, my guess it his total ice training experience must be at least 3 years. But, who knows...

 

[norwegianfairytale]

It´s no doubt that it´s Ali Efe i´m thinking about, look at that beautiful triple axel at JGP last season He was 18 last season, starting in 2017, he must began skating at the age of 12!

 

[CaroLiza_fan]

Thank you for the feedback on the media I added, I added the link now as well. Hope it helps!

You are right, I think it´s Ali Efe i´m thinking about!! Started to skate in 2017, that is amazing!

First competition at 6 years? :O Amazing. So many medals already. Her name doesn´t sound very Greek, does she have some Russian blood maybe?

Yep, Olivia is Russian. She was born in St. Petersburg, but has lived in Cyprus since she was a toddler. (Her Mum runs a cake shop in Limassol. ) She is coached by Anna Levandi, which is why she competes in so many Estonian domestic events.

I saw a photo of her from her first competition, and she was tiny! She was holding a bunch of flowers that were nearly bigger than she was!

I really like her. Her Basic Novice programme to Lady Gaga's "Bloody Mary" is actually my favourite programme of this season.

CaroLiza_fan

 

[norwegianfairytale]

Interesting... that video does look like a beginner, maybe a couple months on the ice.

But here in this video he posted, on 2023 march, he mentions "a year and a handful of months", so at the very least this video would have been taken in January of 2022 (a handful sounds like more than 3, but we're just going to assume his official claim to be true) when he claims to have started skating:

TikTok - Make Your Day

So did he really start landing fully rotated combos fresh on the ice? I dont know...

I never assume that someone is a liar without proof, so my best guess here is that he had practiced skating in general before 2022, but began training figure skating specifically (maybe to him that means jumps) in 2022.

It is possible that hes a total 1 in a million savant who has gobsmacking proprioception and could do combos off the bat, I know the level of talent some people possess, but I just find it unlikely.

Considering were in may of 2024, and he was landing combos at least in January 2022, my guess it his total ice training experience must be at least 3 years. But, who knows...

I know it´s hard to believe... he must have great body control in the air.

From this video someone asked when he started to skate, where he comments: "January of 2022 is when i got my first pair of skates, i’m on my third now". This video was from the end of 2022, so he had almost skated a year then.

He could have skated before on borrowed skates. but it seems he had very little skating experience prior of January 2022.

 

[Jumping_Bean]

Interesting... that video does look like a beginner, maybe a couple months on the ice.

But here in this video he posted, on 2023 march, he mentions "a year and a handful of months", so at the very least this video would have been taken in January of 2022 (a handful sounds like more than 3, but we're just going to assume his official claim to be true) when he claims to have started skating:

TikTok - Make Your Day

So did he really start landing fully rotated combos fresh on the ice? I dont know...

I never assume that someone is a liar without proof, so my best guess here is that he had practiced skating in general before 2022, but began training figure skating specifically (maybe to him that means jumps) in 2022.

It is possible that hes a total 1 in a million savant who has gobsmacking proprioception and could do combos off the bat, I know the level of talent some people possess, but I just find it unlikely.

Considering were in may of 2024, and he was landing combos at least in January 2022, my guess it his total ice training experience must be at least 3 years. But, who knows...

I think you're misunderstanding the video - I don't think he's trying to say the video was taken 1 year and a few months ago, but that he didn't start skating until 1 year and a few months ago. Basically a progress post showing how far he has come since he was 13 and looking up how to do an Axel.

This would line up with his jumping progress otherwise - Per his TT posts, he didn't land his first 2T until January of 2023, so he couldn't have done a +2T combo before that. He was also only posting single jumps and single+single combos before, so at least from his videos, there's nothing contradictory I can find.

 

[norwegianfairytale]

Yep, Olivia is Russian. She was born in St. Petersburg, but has lived in Cyprus since she was a toddler. (Her Mum runs a cake shop in Limassol. ) She is coached by Anna Levandi, which is why she competes in so many Estonian domestic events.

I saw a photo of her from her first competition, and she was tiny! She was holding a bunch of flowers that were nearly bigger than she was!

I really like her. Her Basic Novice programme to Lady Gaga's "Bloody Mary" is actually my favourite programme of this season.

CaroLiza_fan

I will need to check her out, thanks for bringing up her name. I love to discover new talents! Bloody Mary sounds like something right into my book The other day I was thinking why I couldn´t remember a skater skating to that song, given how much it trended last year

 

[Mathematician]

I think you're misunderstanding the video - I don't think he's trying to say the video was taken 1 year and a few months ago, but that he didn't start skating until 1 year and a few months ago.

Ah, perhaps you are correct. This would make more sense.

91 overall after 2 1/2 years of skating then. I dont really have any reference of how skating progress works. What percentile would that put him in?

 

[Jumping_Bean]

Also, Chaeyeon Kim - She didn't start figure skating until late 2016/early 2017 (grade 5 in the Korean school system), and by late 2018 she had a double Axel, double Lutz and double Flip and was doing them in combination with a double toe loop.

By the end of 2019, she had a 3T and a 3S (also in combination with a 2T), and in early 2020 she added a 3Lo. A year later, in early 2021, she had a full set of triples, plus a 3Lz+3T and 2A+3T.

In late 2021, she had won her first JGP medal, a year later (late 2022) her first medal at a Challenger, in late 2023 her first Senior GP medal and now in early 2024 her first medal at Four Continents and Worlds.

 

[norwegianfairytale]

Also, Chaeyeon Kim - She didn't start figure skating until late 2016/early 2017 (grade 5 in the Korean school system), and by late 2018 she had a double Axel, double Lutz and double Flip and was doing them in combination with a double toe loop.

By the end of 2019, she had a 3T and a 3S (also in combination with a 2T), and in early 2020 she added a 3Lo. A year later, in early 2021, she had a full set of triples, plus a 3Lz+3T and 2A+3T.

In late 2021, she had won her first JGP medal, a year later (late 2022) her first medal at a Challenger, in late 2023 her first Senior GP medal and now in early 2024 her first medal at Four Continents and Worlds.

Wow, thanks for the insight. I had no idea she started so late. That is a fast progress from start to top level skater

 

[Jumping_Bean]

Ah, perhaps you are correct. This would make more sense.

91 overall after 2 1/2 years of skating then. I dont really have any reference of how skating progress works. What percentile would that put him in?

Percentiles are a bit difficult in skating, because people start at very different ages. Even the most talented 4-year-old probably won't be doing triples at 6 1/2, just because it's not developmentally possible.

Last season, 13 male skaters in the USA scored higher than 91 in Intermediates. From what I can tell, almost all of them were competing at NQC (National qualifying competitions) in 2021/22 at the Juvenile or Intermediate level, some even earlier (two in 2019/20). For one of them, the earliest I can find in terms of competition results is 2022/23, though that doesn't mean he wasn't skating before, just maybe only competing at lower levels. To be fair, he's also tiny - At the end of 2020, he was only 5, so not surprising if he wasn't competing much before.

So generally, someone scoring that much after 2 1/2 of skating, and after starting at 13 is pretty unusual, though I am not going to say it has never happened before

 

[TT_Fin]

I think Finland has one: Arttu Juusola. Lived in Malaysia until he was 9 years, put the skates on first time ever at the age if nine, started figure skating at the age of 10 and made it to national team at the age of 15. National team gas demands, in juniors 2a +4 different triples or one triple-triple and 2 different triples. So Arttu developed from nothing to this in less than 5 years. Arttu is also tall skater, maybe 180 cm or more So this is goid result while growing at the same time.

 

[lariko]

As far as I know, C.Kim, D. Carillo and I.Popov were among the skaters that started far later than others, and made most gains as pre-teens or teens versus a steady drilled in progress from 3-5 years of age. However, I think they were all in activities that relate to agility-based and flexibility-based sports or dancing. I don't know of anyone who was never into anything like that and just became a success later in life this century.

I don't know what to admire more tbh, because for me a kid who points at skaters on TV at 4 years of age and tells their parents that's what they want to do is more unusual and awe-inspiring.

 

[Weathergal]

Johnny Weir only started figure skating at age 12.

 

[AlexBreeze]

According to an interview with Stanislav Shaidorov (Mikhail's father), Misha started to train seriously only at the age of 11 (in general, he started skating at the age of 4 but took a break for gymnastics. And after gymnastics he skated, but as I understand it, he didn't train as a future elite skater). He landed his first 2A in January 2017 and then learned all the triples in a year (while constantly changing rinks and looking for a place to practice). Also, Misha won a JWC silver medal preparing for it at a public rink in Sochi.

It may not be as impressive as the progress of some other skaters, but given the difficulty in finding rinks, I think it's impressive.

 

[AlexBreeze]

Per ISU bio, Kim Yujae started skating in 2018 and won her first JGP medal in 2022. Her twin Yuseong Kim won two JGP medals in 2023, she has 2019 listed as "started skating" (though I doubt they started skating in different time).