Top 20 skaters of all time per discipline

[Olympia]

I love Browning but why would he belong on a list over Boitano. Boitano had the longest reign in the history of professional skating, and as an amateur was a multi World Champion who also won Olympic Gold and the famous battle of the Brians with one of the greatest Olympic performances in history, which already sets him above Browning who has all those World titles but sadly was an Olympic flop. Obviously if you look at both as skaters they brought different things to the table, but overall Boitano contributed more to the sport and had the greatest impact IMO. I still did rate Kurt quite close to Brian in my list though.

Not over Boitano, but Browning shouldn't be left off a list of all-time greats where Lambiel has been given a spot. (And I'm a huge Lambiel fan.)

 

[caseyl23]

Fun question, and very hard to answer. I'll try a top 10 per discipline, based mostly on accomplishments, with a little bit of what I remember from reading about/watching some of these skaters. Rankings are (more or less) chronological, because I just had too hard a time ranking them one over another.
Men:
1. Ulrich Salchow
2. Gillis Grafstrom
3. Karl Schaefer
4. Dick Button
5. David Jenkins
6. Brian Orser
7. Viktor Petrenko
8. Elvis Stojko
9. Alexei Yagudin
10. Evgeni Plushenko
Others worth mentioning: Brian Boitano, Robin Cousins, John Curry, Kurt Browning, Donald Jackson, Hayes Alan Jenkins, Ondrej Nepela, Jan Hoffman, Scott Hamilton, Philippe Candeloro, Patrick Chan

Ladies:
1. Sonja Henie
2. Jeanette Altwegg
3. Tenley Albright
4. Carol Heiss
5. Sjoukje Dijkstra
6. Katarina Witt
7. Michelle Kwan
8. Irina Slutskaya
9. Yu-Na Kim
10. Mao Asada
Others worth mentioning: Kristi Yamaguchi, Chen Lu, Barbara Ann Scott, Cecilia Colledge, Megan Taylor, Peggy Fleming.

Pairs:
1. Ludowika and Walter Jakobsson
2. Andree Joly and Pierre Brunet
3. Marika Kilius and Hans-Jurgen Baumler
4. Ludmila and Oleg Protopopov
5. Irina Rodnina and Alexander Zaitsev
6. Elena Valova and Oleg Vasiliev
7. Ekaterina Gordeeva and Sergei Grinkov
8. Natalia Mishketenok and Artur Dmitriev
9. Xue Shen and Hongbo Zhao
10. Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy
Others worth mentioning: Isabelle Brasseur and Lloyd Eisler, Ria and Paul Falk, Barbara Wagner and Robert Paul

Dance:
1. Lyudmila Pakhomova and Alexsandr Gorshkov
2. Irina Moiseyeva and Andrei Minenkov
3. Marina Klimova and Sergei Ponomarenko
4. Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean
5. Natalia Bestemianova and Andrei Bukin
6. Maya Usova and Alexander Zhulin
7. Oksana Grishuk and Evgeny Platov
8. Marina Anissina and Gwendal Peizerat
9. Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir
10. Meryl Davis and Charlie White
Others worth mentioning: Jean Westwood and Lawrence Demmy, Eva Romanova and Pavel Roman, Diane Towler and Bernard Ford, Isabelle and Paul Duchesnay, Tanith Belbin and Benjamin Agosto

There are four skaters I'm going to add into this discussion, because they achieved major success in more than one discipline in the early 1900s, even though their success in one discipline might not necessarily warrant mention otherwise. They are: Ernst Baier (Men's Silver [and four world medals] and Pairs Gold [and four world titles]); Madge Syers (Ladies Gold [and two-time world champion] and Pairs Bronze); Beatrix Loughran (Ladies Silver and Bronze [and world bronze], Pairs Silver); Herma Szabo (Ladies Olympic and World Gold, two-time world pairs champion)

 

[Mathman]

Cool list, casey. :thumbsup: Madge Syers also won the silver medal at the 1902 men's world championship, turning the sport of figure skating upside down. Herma Szabo won five world championships besides her Olympic gold medal and pair championships.

Cecilia Colledge would almost certainly have won the 1940 Olympics if World War II hadn't intervened, and maybe 1944 also. She skated in the 1932 Olympics at age 11 and finished 8th out of 15. (Curiously, Megan Taylor, also of Great Britain, also aged 11, finished 7th.) She was the first woman to do a double jump (Salcho), at 1936 Europeans.

 

[caseyl23]

Cool list, casey. :thumbsup: Madge Syers also won the silver medal at the 1902 men's world championship, turning the sport of figure skating upside down. Herma Szabo won five world championships besides her Olympic gold medal and pair championships.

Cecilia Colledge would almost certainly have won the 1940 Olympics if World War II hadn't intervened, and maybe 1944 also. She skated in the 1932 Olympics at age 11 and finished 8th out of 15. (Curiously, Megan Taylor, also of Great Britain, also aged 11, finished 7th.) She was the first woman to do a double jump (Salcho), at 1936 Europeans.

Thank you! I can't believe I forgot to mention that part about Madge Syers – that's a pretty important one!

I should also note the currently-active skaters on my lists are largely pending the results of next year's Olympics. I'm assuming Kim, Asada, Savchenko/Szolkowy, Virtue/Moir and Davis/White are going to win medals next year. If any of them fails, some revisions might be necessary.

 

[dorispulaski]

Cool list, casey. :thumbsup: Madge Syers also won the silver medal at the 1902 men's world championship, turning the sport of figure skating upside down. Herma Szabo won five world championships besides her Olympic gold medal and pair championships.

Cecilia Colledge would almost certainly have won the 1940 Olympics if World War II hadn't intervened, and maybe 1944 also. She skated in the 1932 Olympics at age 11 and finished 8th out of 15. (Curiously, Megan Taylor, also of Great Britain, also aged 11, finished 7th.) She was the first woman to do a double jump (Salcho), at 1936 Europeans.

Cecilia College would certainly be on my top 20 list!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_k1er6NRYdY
from floskate, the newsreel of figure skating at the 1936 Olympics

I uploaded this by request but also in memory of Cecilia Colledge, the Worlds youngest Olympian in 1932 aged 11 years 75 days and winner of the silver medal here behind Sonja Henie.
Cecilia was the first woman to do a camel spin, a one-foot axel, a double jump (salchow) and the layback spin. A true pioneer of figure skating.

Cecilia also invented the modern spiral position

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRwJcN2iWTg

from k9henrydog.

 

[christinaskater]

1. Michelle Kwan
2. Akiko Suzuki
3. Yu-Na Kim
4. Kristi Yamaguchi
5. Chen Lu
6. Mao Asada
7. Katarina Witt
8. Miki Ando
9. Midori Ito
10. Yuka Sato

 

[Mathman]

Cecilia also invented the modern spiral position

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRwJcN2iWTg

That was a weird video.

So she invented the assisted spiral with her pairs partner?

 

[pangtongfan]

Not over Boitano, but Browning shouldn't be left off a list of all-time greats where Lambiel has been given a spot. (And I'm a huge Lambiel fan.)

IMO if Lambiel could ever have done a clean competition with 2 quads in the long and a quad-triple in the short he would deserve over 100 points in the SP and over 200 in the LP. Higher than a clean Chan gets for sure as he is as strong in pretty much everything but his spins, interpretation, performance/execution, and even choreography are light years superior to Chan, and he is only a bit weaker in jump quality and maybe skating skills.

 

[CanadianSkaterGuy]

IMO if Lambiel could ever have done a clean competition with 2 quads in the long and a quad-triple in the short he would deserve over 100 points in the SP and over 200 in the LP. Higher than a clean Chan gets for sure as he is as strong in pretty much everything but his spins, interpretation, performance/execution, and even choreography are light years superior to Chan, and he is only a bit weaker in jump quality and maybe skating skills.

It's a bit of an ask, considering his triple axel was unreliable.

With Nationals inflation and perfect skates, Chan cleared 300. And with base values higher than Lambiel has shown to be capable of. There's no way Lambiel would clear 200 points in the LP, if Chan's 2011 Worlds skate is the best ever done by a man and doesn't even clear 190. He might clear 100 in the SP if he improved the intricacy of his programs, but a 200-point LP seems out of reach.

As far as comparison, his interpretation, artistic expression and spins are certainly better than Chan's.. for performance Lambiel edges him out, for execution they're on par... Chan's choreography is more complex than Lambiel's with greater transitions and more variety (but I'm sure Lambiel would be capable of incorporating more complexity/variety than his programs have been in the past), as you said his jump quality is weaker than Chan's as well as overall skating skills (two things which really can't be changed a whole lot). I agree though that if Lambiel and Chan skated at their best, it would be very close (with Chan perhaps edging him out because of the better quality of his jumps and higher overall base value; I'd imagine their PCS would be scored similarly and could be judged either way).

Even if Lambiel got 100 points of PCS (perfect PCS), he would need 100 points on TES which would be light years superior to anything he's been capable of or shown.

 

[dorispulaski]

I think the video is supposed to be of Cecilia learning how to do the spiral from the circus guy

 

[Skater Boy]

It's a bit of an ask, considering his triple axel was unreliable.

With Nationals inflation and perfect skates, Chan cleared 300. And with base values higher than Lambiel has shown to be capable of. There's no way Lambiel would clear 200 points in the LP, if Chan's 2011 Worlds skate is the best ever done by a man and doesn't even clear 190. He might clear 100 in the SP if he improved the intricacy of his programs, but a 200-point LP seems out of reach.

As far as comparison, his interpretation, artistic expression and spins are certainly better than Chan's.. for performance Lambiel edges him out, for execution they're on par... Chan's choreography is more complex than Lambiel's with greater transitions and more variety (but I'm sure Lambiel would be capable of incorporating more complexity/variety than his programs have been in the past), as you said his jump quality is weaker than Chan's as well as overall skating skills (two things which really can't be changed a whole lot). I agree though that if Lambiel and Chan skated at their best, it would be very close (with Chan perhaps edging him out because of the better quality of his jumps and higher overall base value; I'd imagine their PCS would be scored similarly and could be judged either way).

Even if Lambiel got 100 points of PCS (perfect PCS), he would need 100 points on TES which would be light years superior to anything he's been capable of or shown.

I think realistically if you got the best skate out of Lambiel and Chan though I prefer Lambiel's style and spins Chan would win. Even if you tied them pcs Chan's got a better score on tes. Realistically Chan could possible skate clean but I doubt you could say that about Lambiel with the #3A.

 

[ffionhanathomas]

Definitely very subjective!
I'd take out Tara Lipinski and put Sasha Cohen in.

 

[iluvtodd]

Also, can we get some Matt Savoie love up in here? He's maybe the most underrated skater of all time, and really, is maybe what John Curry would have skated like if he was around now. His long program in 2006: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRqY2Q2WUl8 is one of the top five long programs from the 2000s (for me)

I'm not going to present any lists, since this is SO subjective, but you've got my Matt Savoie ! I would certainly include Brian Orser in a list of the best men's figure skaters of all time, and I don't see him listed anywhere (unless my eyes are playing tricks on me)

 

[caseyl23]

I'm not going to present any lists, since this is SO subjective, but you've got my Matt Savoie ! I would certainly include Brian Orser in a list of the best men's figure skaters of all time, and I don't see him listed anywhere (unless my eyes are playing tricks on me)

I agree completely on Orser (and he did make my list!). One of the qualities I look for in great skaters, since skating is a competitive sport, are competitive results, and with two Olympic silver medals, a world title, other world medals, longevity and a technical prowess, I don't think you can go wrong with him.
The other one I was very surprised doesn't get more attention is Viktor Petrenko – two Olympic medals, one of them gold (and fourth at a third Olympics), a string of world and European medals and that longevity. Again, it seems like he's earned a lot more love than he gets.

 

[jenaj]

I love Browning but why would he belong on a list over Boitano. Boitano had the longest reign in the history of professional skating, and as an amateur was a multi World Champion who also won Olympic Gold and the famous battle of the Brians with one of the greatest Olympic performances in history, which already sets him above Browning who has all those World titles but sadly was an Olympic flop. Obviously if you look at both as skaters they brought different things to the table, but overall Boitano contributed more to the sport and had the greatest impact IMO. I still did rate Kurt quite close to Brian in my list though.

I've thought it over and think that the best men's skater is....Kurt Browning! http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=COJWW12GEIk#t=40s

 

[Sabrina]

It is impossible for me to decide whatever order of skaters. I am limited to skaters I remember, and unfortunately old skaters rarely impressed me, with a few exceptions. I know sport progressed a lot especially in areas like gymnastics and figure skating.
In gymnastics, Nadia Comaneci rules from a distance. That's not the case with figure skating...
I really don't have a winner for girls.
Girls I will always remember: Katarina Witt, Sasha Cohen, Denise Biellmann, Oksana Bayul, Irina Slutskaya, Maria Butyrskaya, Carolina Kostner, Mao Asada. Both Yuna Kim and Michele Kwan were/are great, but they were never my favourite. I remember a name, but not much more...Anett Pötzsch. I've seen some you tube films and she looked quite good...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDBjnVC8gWE

In men, I loved Philippe Candeloro! I loved, loved Laurent Tobel! Plushenko is among the greatest skater ever. So is Yagoudin. Yagoudin is maybe the best of all...together with Stephane Lambiel. Lambiel was just amazing! Had he not been injured, my god he could easily be the best of all.
I remember Victor Petrenco, Elvis Stoiko, Alexei Urmanov. I don't remember their skating, but I know they were great: Brian Boitano, and Brian Orser.
I liked Emanuel Sandhu, but he was just a lost super/mega talent. I am sure I forgot many other names, but so it goes...
For the pairs and dans I must double check the names (spelling). But in dance, I remember and loved Anisina/Peizerat!
PS: I remembered two other wonderful skaters who are definitely among the best of the best: Daisuke Takahashi and Kurt Browning.
I know there are some great skaters I discovered through you tube, like Dick Button and John Curry. They were AMAZING, in their era.

So, Dance in some sort of chronological order. Torvil Dean are the winners, though.

Dance:

Jayne Torvill Cristopher Dean
Natalia Bestemianova / Andrei Bukin
Maya Usova / Alexander Zhulin
Pasha Grishuk / Evgeni Platov
Anjelika Krylova / Oleg Ovsyannikov
Marina Anissina / Gwendal Peizerat
Shae-Lynn Bourne / Victor Kraatz
Margarita Drobiazko / Povilas Vanagas
Barbara Fusar-Poli / Maurizio Margaglio
Galit Chait / Sergei Sakhnovski
Tatiana Navka / Roman Kostomarov
Albena Denkova / Maxim Staviski
Tessa Virtue / Scott Moir
Meryl Davis / Charlie White


Pairs

My winners are: Artur Dmitriev with both Natalia Mishkutenok and Oksana Kazakova. They were amazing!

Pairs in chronological order:

Liudmila Belousova / Oleg Protopopov
Irina Rodnina / Alexei Ulanov/Zaisev
Ekaterina Gordeeva / Sergei Grinkov
Natalia Mishkutenok / Artur Dmitriev / Oksana Kazakova
Elena Berezhnaya / Anton Sikharulidze
Shen Xue / Zhao Hongbo
Tatiana Totmianina / Maxim Marinin
Aliona Savchenko / Robin Szolkowy

 

[Sabrina]

Not necessarily among the best 20, but in a class of his own!
Please watch this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzpT8vn4ZzQ

 

[Mathman]

That was amazing! French skaters always bring something unique. Delobel and Schoenfelder were wonderful, too.

 

[CanadianSkaterGuy]

Not necessarily among the best 20, but in a class of his own!
Please watch this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzpT8vn4ZzQ

Funny, when I was thinking of my initial list, I was wondering about skaters that were good and skaters that I enjoyed watching skater... Tobel is certainly one of the most entertaining and intriguing skaters (like Bonaly, I was never bored by their programs, even if their basic skating wasn't that great). So happy for that 1999 freeskate by Tobel. Should have placed higher, but 8th in the world isn't too shabby.

 

[shine]

Actually, I think Toller Cranston is more like the men's version of Janet Lynn. Both Lynn and Cranston were not that great at figures (which prevented them from winning a world or Olympic title) but were incredible, ground-breaking freeskaters who revolutionized the way skaters moved on the ice for their respective disciplines. Curry had lovely, very proper ballet training and a wonderful classical style but Cranston moved his body and emoted on the ice in a way that was unprecedented for male skaters and was just totally original.

To fully understand how exceptional Cranston and Lynn were, you have to watch their contemporaries, how skaters skated before and during their careers. Cranston and Lynn both skated with a freedom, fluidity and expressiveness that was ground-breaking and has proved to be extremely influential, and that's why I ranked both of them fourth on my "top 10 of all time" lists despite their lack of big titles.

I really agree. In fact, while I find John Curry's skating very pleasant because of his beautiful lines, Cranston is the one that gives me chills in his free skating. To me Curry's skating looks a bit outdated today mainly because his upper body was no where as expressive as Cranston's. That video of his 1976 free skate to Don Quixote is actually a perfect example of this. In comparison, Toller had lines that were just as exquisite plus he was the one that really danced on the ice, and opened the door to modern-day artistic skating where the upper body is utilized much more freely to express musical phrasing/accents and different layers of emotions.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGDW0yNQDiY This just never ceases to give me chills. It's incredible that a program skated almost 40 years ago is still as watchable as it is today. His artistry was simply transcendental.
And this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-AGzo1lrl4M In his words, he was "exploring skating with not only the body body, but with the mind".