Top 20 skaters of all time per discipline

[TontoK]

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

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

Fantastic! Athletic, loose, charming, and goofy... personality!

Is he still involved in skating? I haven't heard his name in a while.

 

[Olympia]

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 To me Curry's skating looks a bit outdated today mainly because his upper body was no where as expressive as Cranston's. That video of his 1976 free skate to Don Quixote is actually a perfect example of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".

Have you seen Cranston as Tybalt in Romeo and Juliet on ice?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=032DwlgcNHo

I always feel lucky that I found him and Curry and understood right off the bat that men's skating was as exciting as ladies' skating. Cranston certainly projects more emotion than Curry, but both have given me chills in their time. I'm sure I'm not the only one who thinks of Curry as Apollonian and Cranston as Dionysian...they're both astonishing in different ways. It's great that they both had such long careers, because their talents continued to be fresh and innovative for long after their competitive years.

 

[JanD]

I'm really surprised that no one has Babalonia and Gardner on their pairs list. They would be in my top 20.

 

[snejina]

For me the top skaters are:
Pairs:
Irina Rodnina / Alexei Ulanov/Zaisev
Ekaterina Gordeeva / Sergei Grinkov
Liudmila Belousova / Oleg Protopopov
Natalia Mishkutenok / Artur Dmitriev / Oksana Kazakova
Elena Berezhnaya / Anton Sikharulidze
Shen Xue / Zhao Hongbo
Tatiana Totmianina / Maxim Marinin
Aliona Savchenko / Robin Szolkowy
Jamie Sale/David Peiletier
Babalonia/Gardner

Dance:
Oksana Grishuk / Evgeni Platov
Jayne Torvill Cristopher Dean
Marina Anissina / Gwendal Peizerat
Tessa Virtue / Scott Moir
Marina Klimova/Sergei Ponomarenko
Natalia Bestemianova / Andrei Bukin
Maya Usova / Alexander Zhulin
Albena Denkova / Maxim Staviski
Anjelika Krylova / Oleg Ovsyannikov
Irina Moiseeva/Sergei Minenkov/
Margarita Drobiazko / Povilas Vanagas
Krisztina Regöczy and András Sallay
Shae-Lynn Bourne / Victor Kraatz
Meryl Davis / Charlie White
Natalia Linichuk/Genadiy Karponosov
Tatiana Navka / Roman Kostomarov
Isabelle and Paul Duchneys
Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto
Elizabeth Punsalan and Jerod Swallow

Ladies
Oksana Baiul - a great skater and at the same time an actress on ice! I will remember her skating forever! - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4W2u0CXryc; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMTVf6MSH4E; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3OubnJQdcY
Katharina Witt
Yuna Kim
Shizuka Arakawa
Mao Asada
Irina Slutzkaya
Michelle Kwan
Sasha Cohen
Nancy Kerrigan
Lu Chen
Carolina Kostner
Miki Ando
Elena Sokolova
Denise Biellmann

Men
Evgeniy Plushenko
Victor Petrenko
Aleksei Yagudin
Toller Cranston
Kurt Browning
Philip Kandeloro
Brian Boitano
Brian Orser
Daisuke Takahashi
Stephan Lambiel
Brian Jobert

 

[evangeline]

I'm really surprised that no one has Babalonia and Gardner on their pairs list. They would be in my top 20.

I for one am surprised that nobody has tried to roast me for me crowning Berezhnaya/Sikharulidze as the #1 Greatest Pair of All Time ahead of perennial favorites Gordeeva/Grinkov.

 

[Olympia]

I for one am surprised that nobody has tried to roast me for me crowning Berezhnaya/Sikharulidze as the #1 Greatest Pair of All Time ahead of perennial favorites Gordeeva/Grinkov.

I think once you get that high up, it's next to impossible to quantify conclusively which individual or couple is the absolute best. This isn't an accounting class! When you get to the top cluster of stratospheric talent, it comes down to preference and emotional reaction, and on those grounds, I endorse your choice completely. Why do we all have to go by some group decision that so-and-so is/are at the top of the heap? Break out of the box!

 

[skateluvr]

Dick Buton, David Jenkins,Robin Cousins, Scooter, Wylie, Boitano, Orser, Yagudin, Plushenko, Lysacek, Buttle, Lambiel, Kurt of course, Elvis, Toller, Curry, Takahashi, Chan, Hanyu, Jan Hoffman

Sonja, Carol Heiss, Peggy, Dorothy, Linda Frattianee, Kat Witt, Krisi, Nancy, MK, Irina, Denise Bielmann, Lucinda Ruh, Janet, Jill Trenary, Roz Summners,Joannie Rochette, Sasha Cohen, Mao Asada, Midori Ito, Mao, Yuna

ice dance:younger couples: T/Dean, Griskuk/Platov, Boune and Kraatz, Voir, Marlie, Shibs, Krylova/Ovs, Belgosto, Lang/T, Punsalen/Swallow, Usova/Zhulin and the team who skated with SOI for years-her tall thin Brunette him Russian I think

Pairs Rodnina Zaitaev, Protos,G&G, S/B, S/P, Shen /Zhao, Aliona/Robin, Tat/Max, Artur/Oksana, Tai/Randy, the Carruthers and other NA teams Brasseur Eisler, Martini Underhill.

 

[venlac]

I can't sure the ranking of 1-5 in exactly. If I think who would be in top5 in ladies and men...

Men (in order of oldest)
Dick button, John curry, Robin Cousins, Kurt browning, Alexei yagudin
Ladies
Sonja Henie, Janet lynn, Katarina witt, Michelle kwan, Yuna kim

 

[plushyfan]

So many subjective list... I wonder what will be the answer 20-30 years time.

 

[Olympia]

I hope that at least some of the answers are different in thirty years' time. It will mean that other great skaters have come along, and that the sport's best years are not behind it. On the other hand, I hope that some answers will be the same, because people like Curry and Gordeyeva/Grinkov will always be inspiring--and also because skating will always lose some aspects of excellence even as it gains others. For example, today the jumps are bigger and better, but often the blade control is less so, because people don't train in school figures.

 

[plushyfan]

I hope that at least some of the answers are different in thirty years' time. It will mean that other great skaters have come along, and that the sport's best years are not behind it. On the other hand, I hope that some answers will be the same, because people like Curry and Gordeyeva/Grinkov will always be inspiring--and also because skating will always lose some aspects of excellence even as it gains others. For example, today the jumps are bigger and better, but often the blade control is less so, because people don't train in school figures.

I understand you, Olympia. But I hope, jumps are always important, even twenty years from now. This is a sport. I remember when the skaters had to do compulsory figures. But that is true, I didn't see it, because the TV didn't show us.
I just wanted to say, everybody wrote his subjective opinion, because we have no real aspects. How to compare Protapopov/P to Gordeeva/G? Or T/Dean and Virtue/M? Or Janet Lynn to Yuna? and so on...I agree with them, who didn't write ranking, only did lists.

 

[KKonas]

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.

.

Re Syers, The ISU passed a rule in 1903 prohibiting ladies and gentlemen from competing against each other. It wasn't until 1906 that it reluctantly established a ladies event, which Mrs. Syers won for the first two years. Also in 1908 figure skating became the first winter sport contested in the Olympic Games in London. Ladies was won by Syers and Ulrich Salchow won the men. The ISU established the pairs discipline in 1908, which was won by Germans Anna Hubler & Heinrich Burger. The ISU also had a Special Figures event which was won by Nicolai Panin, considered to be the "father" of Russian figure skating.

 

[Olympia]

If I had a time machine, I'd spend a lot of time going back to different Olympic Games, both summer and winter. Can you imagine spending 1924 going to Chamonix and Paris? I think Sonja Henie first competed in 1924, and the summer games were the famous Chariots of Fire games, with not only Liddell, Abrahams, and Jackson Scholz but also Benjamin Spock (crew gold medal), Johnny Weissmuller, and Duke Kahanamoku.

 

[blue_idealist]

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

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

Haha, that was so funny! I think I had seen that in '99 but I forgot about it.

 

[Ladskater]

That's a pretty extensive list! I would also add to the ladies:

Karen Magnussen

and to the men's:

Donald Jackson (landed the first Triple axel in competition).

 

[Olympia]

I don't know much about Magnussen except what I've heard here on GS. She's kind of overshadowed in this country by Janet Lynn, her exact contemporary, who was one of America's landmark skaters. I really have to pay more attention to her. What would you say I should look for?

Jackson I found because he actually competed a few times in his forties during the heyday of the pro competitions. Even then he had a lot going for him. It was very impressive to watch. Of course, Dick Button was very happy to do commentary for him.

 

[KKonas]

Little Known Historical Facts: Skating/Skaters (1900-1926)
*Ulrich Salchow was of Danish origin but skated for Sweden his entire skating career. He was President of the ISU from 1925-1927.
*Gillis Grafstrom (Sweden) was an architect by profession and a “special figures” expert, inventing intricate, detailed variations of the standard compulsory figures. He was also known for the “Grafstrom spin” – a modified camel spin with a more straight-up body and bent skating leg.
*Madge Syers (Great Britain) was also a natural gifted athlete winning awards in horseback riding, swimming and skeet shooting. She died of heart failure in 1917 at the age of 35.
*Herma Szabo (Austria) skated in two disciplines – singles and pairs, and was the only person to win World titles in both disciplines in the same year. She won the last of her 5 World titles in 1926 when she defeated 13 year-old Sonja Henie in the freeskating, but lost the 1927 title to Henie, now 14 in 1927 in Oslo, before a panel of judges in which 3 of the 5 judges were Norwegian. The decision was so criticized, the ISU brought in the rule of one judge per country, which is still in effect today.
*Theresa Weld Blanchard became the first American to win an Olympic medal, the bronze in Ladies singles in 1920.
*The first Olympic Winter Games were contested in 1924 in Chamonix, France, but it was not officially designated as such until the following year. An 11 year-old Sonja Henie was among the competitors who raised eyebrows with her short skirts.

 

[Olympia]

Thanks, KKonas. Madge Syers sounds remarkable. Tragic that her life was so short. I wonder what her exact illness actually was--possibly rheumatic fever or cardiomyopathy?--and whether she could have been treated for it today. She sounds like Babe Didrikson in terms of the variety of her athletic skills. Interesting: the assortment of skills, except for the skating, would have made her a contender in modern pentathlon if such a sport existed for women. (It doesn't even today, I think.) Riding, swimming, sharpshooting; I think all that's missing is running and fencing, and I bet she could have excelled in those.

 

[Kitt]

I am going to have to weigh in and say that John Curry's Scheherazade is pretty fabulous in terms of lines and edges
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=se19k1ZvLSw&list=PLFB248E5F7CE0A501

In fact, if I had only 3 programs to watch before I go, it would be John Curry (above), Johnny Weir's 2004 Nationals win, and Elena/Anton's Lady Caliph.

All, simply sublime!

 

[Layfan]

I am going to have to weigh in and say that John Curry's Scheherazade is pretty fabulous in terms of lines and edges
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=se19k1ZvLSw&list=PLFB248E5F7CE0A501

In fact, if I had only 3 programs to watch before I go, it would be John Curry (above), Johnny Weir's 2004 Nationals win, and Elena/Anton's Lady Caliph.

All, simply sublime!

Oh my. This is why I love these "best of" threads. Someone always brings to my attention an amazing skate that was before my time. I think that had been my time as a skating fan I would have pined forever at the departure of Curry, just as I do for Michelle Kwan.

There haven't been any skaters like John Curry since ever in any field that I can think of. I can think of many artistic skaters but only Curry would I call an artist. I suppose figure skating isn't meant to be a fine art. It's like fashion - it can be artistic but its mission is something else. So? It's still fun. Like fashion.