Greatest male skater of "all" times!
- Thread starter All that Jazz
- Start date
Joe, you have a point in saying that Kurt influenced a lot of young skaters. And some of them really benefitted from imitating him.
If I'm not totally mistaken, we could add Takeshi Honda to your list.
These days, young skater take Evgeny Plushenko and Alexei Yagudin for role model. But IMO it would be ways too early to tell if they are really "great" skaters in this aspect. Only time will tell. (Norbert Schramm's wonderful spins could be seen in other skaters' programs for years ... but this doesn't make him one of the all time greatest, of course.)
If I'm not totally mistaken, we could add Takeshi Honda to your list.
These days, young skater take Evgeny Plushenko and Alexei Yagudin for role model. But IMO it would be ways too early to tell if they are really "great" skaters in this aspect. Only time will tell. (Norbert Schramm's wonderful spins could be seen in other skaters' programs for years ... but this doesn't make him one of the all time greatest, of course.)
Definitely Kurt....
...for so many reasons:
(1) His pushing of existing technical boundaries during his amateur career (quads and several triple/triples for the men)
(2) His good sportsmanship in the face of 2 immensely disappointing Olympic skates (does anyone else remember how classy he was when he was interviewed after literally stepping off the ice after his triple axel fall in the SP in Albertville?)
(3) His versatility in both his amateur and pro days -- looking back on all his programs, Kurt has successfully interpreted and skated to almost every kind of music there is, with subjects ranging from the very serious to the very silly.
(4) Picking up where Scotty Hamilton left off with mind-boggling footwork sequences -- I have a tape of the GPF finals from 2001, right before the Olympics, in which Dick Button is praising Yagudin's MITIM footwork sequence, and refers to Kurt as the master of that kind of short, staccato footwork.
Yagudin is definitely a close second for me!
...for so many reasons:
(1) His pushing of existing technical boundaries during his amateur career (quads and several triple/triples for the men)
(2) His good sportsmanship in the face of 2 immensely disappointing Olympic skates (does anyone else remember how classy he was when he was interviewed after literally stepping off the ice after his triple axel fall in the SP in Albertville?)
(3) His versatility in both his amateur and pro days -- looking back on all his programs, Kurt has successfully interpreted and skated to almost every kind of music there is, with subjects ranging from the very serious to the very silly.
(4) Picking up where Scotty Hamilton left off with mind-boggling footwork sequences -- I have a tape of the GPF finals from 2001, right before the Olympics, in which Dick Button is praising Yagudin's MITIM footwork sequence, and refers to Kurt as the master of that kind of short, staccato footwork.
Yagudin is definitely a close second for me!
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- Jun 27, 2003
I don't think either one of them see it as a "problem" so much as a "disappointment" both of them tried so hard... and could make it happen anywhere else...
I think Kurt summed it up best in the 94 Oly Kiss and Cry
"I guess the Olympics just aren't my thing."
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