Wow....U.S. Figure Skating launches "greatest ever" bracket | Page 3 | Golden Skate

Wow....U.S. Figure Skating launches "greatest ever" bracket

I'm fairly sure the newer ones will beat the earlier rivals most times: for example, I can't imagine a majority choosing Heiss over Asada, no matter how their achievements stack up, and the same is true with Kim over Fleming. Fans today know who Fleming is, but most of them probably don't recall the impact her win had in Grenoble. Isn't it shocking that she won America's only gold medal that year? I've noticed that even on this site, with all our expert fans, we speak reverently of Janet Lynn all the time but rarely mention Fleming, who was both technically and artistically superior and who won three Worlds as well as the OGM. In many regards Fleming was the one American lady of modern times who had the ideal amateur career arc: three consecutive world championships and the Olympic gold. Kristi was world champion only once or twice, Hamill only once, and of course Michelle had the other half of the treasure map: all those World golds but no OGM. And Lynn had neither--just the most exquisite skating of her time.

As for Salchow vs. Valova/Vasiliev...I have no idea who would win this pair, but I'm fairly sure the winner will be voted out in the next round.
 
Mao vs Carol is a good example of your point. Carol won an OSM, 5 straight WC's topped of with an OGM.
What a career!
It is interesting that Mao in her first Olympics matched Carol's first Olympics with a Silver. Mao has two WC's and if she stays healthy odds are that she can win a few more. Three more would be tough though.
In Sochi, four years away who knows if Mao will still have a shot at the Gold.
But that is what Carol Heiss did. What a great skater she was!
 
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Olympia said:
As for Salchow vs. Valova/Vasiliev...I have no idea who would win this pair, but I'm fairly sure the winner will be voted out in the next round.
Click to expand...

Ulrich Salchow won ten world championships (and three silvers), nine Eiropeans, and the 1908 Olympic gold medal. Plus he invented a new jump and served as president of the ISU for many years. (I hope the voters don't hold that against him. :) )

Rodnina won ten world championships and three Olympic gold medals, with two partners. But, yeah Rodnina and Zeitsev will probably lose to Shen and Zhao. Not only are Shen and Zhao more recent, they are universally adored, while Rodnina made a lot of enemies during her career, and is still doing so in Russian sports politics.

Curiously, Carol Heiss won five world champioships but only four U.S. championships. I wonder how many other U.S. skaters have more world titles than national titles. Alexei Yagudin won worlds four times, but never won the Russian championship.
 
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That's true about people such as Salchow, Mathman. But it all depends on who is doing the voting. Will voters be the kinds of fans who do actual research before casting a vote and enjoy deliving into past statistics, or will they be the kinds of fans (equally devoted) who depend on their own memories and resulting preferences? I have to say I'd be torn if I had to choose between Rodnina/Zaitsev and Shen/Zhao, because though on paper, R/Z have better credentials (heck, Rodnina has better credentials than any woman except Sonja Henie!), S/Z were equally pathfinding as the first premier Chinese couple--indeed, as the first champion pair in all of Asia, unless you get technical and find some Soviet/Russian skaters who grew up in Asian Russia (Didn't Dmitriev come from Siberia somewhere?). They started from absolute scratch, whereas R/Z were part of a dynasty, begun in 1964, with the Protopopovs preceding them as winners and various other proficient Soviet pairs coming as their contemporaries through the seventies. (Including Moskvina and Mishin!) Who could choose easily?
 
How I missed this part

Several criteria were used in seeding the skaters, including:

• On-ice accomplishments
• Historical significance
• Public perception
• Longevity

Plushenko vs Lysacek..right.
 
seniorita said:
How I missed this part

Several criteria were used in seeding the skaters, including:

• On-ice accomplishments
• Historical significance
• Public perception
• Longevity

Plushenko vs Lysacek..right.
Click to expand...

Plushenko should make it all the way through to the quarterfinals. Then he will have to take on Katarina Witt. :eek:
 
parma said:
I didn't imagine USFS is actually doing something that would fit a voting poll thread here...
Click to expand...

USFS is just trying to get more people on their Facebook page. :laugh:

Yu-Na's facebook page has over 105,000 fans, but I don't know if they are voting. Seriously. HAHA. :laugh:
 
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Because you are looking at it from the position of a Yuna fan vs. objectively. Sarah Hughes also won a OGM, does that mean she's on the same level or better than Yuna or Michelle? I'm never quite sure where the obession with Kwan's jumps being tiny and her skating slow comes from - its simply not true. You add that with her dominance for over a decade and compare records and it should be obvious. Now, not everyone is going to be an uber Kwan fan - but at the same time, you can't argue her record.
 
Michelle beat Bourne and Kraatz, and should have easy going in the next round against David Jenkins.

After that, though, she will face her first real challenge, either Gordeeva and Grinkov or Kurt Browning.

Plushenko knocked out Lysacek in the first round, will probably beat Berezhnaya and Sikharudlidze in the next round and then Skutskaya to get to the quarterfinals.
 
The John Curry Scheherezade: maybe the best of all. This is why contests like this are such fun: people start thinking about everyone who's done something marvelous in skating history. This is also why contests like this are also impossible. Who could choose one best skater ever?
 
the oldies --yes i figured might get kicked out==why newer crops of fans don't know them, and didn't grow up with them.
so who cares what did--only care about now
that is part of reason greatest is futile-who is great one generation isn't necessarily same great the the next generation.


t
not to mention the so called of favoring(cheating) rules for certain skaters to help win ogm--such as new for mao, last time for evan and canadians,, then to state greatest just because they won ogm is stupid-. how can be great if favor (cheat) for skater to win over other-.
by favoring rules for once you automatically downgrade /discline the other skaters a chance of victory . you dont go by skate, you go by who you want due to money, favortism, federation and whatnot-
most go went by past accomplishments to help win with federations quietly letting other ones know who was supposed to win over other, (not publicly)_ what stated publicly and did behind was two different things as well as promoting two different skaters.
 
Update :)

Katarina Witt beat Janet Lynn, Alexei .Yagudin over Virtue and Moir. Yagudin faces Brian Boitano next round.

Notable match-up next round: Kristi Yamaguchi versus Scott Hamilton. :eek:

Also in the next round, Irina Ridnina competes twice. Rodnina & Ulanov against Torvill & Dean, and Rodnina & Zeitsev versus Shen & Zhao.
 
The semi-finals will likely be Yu-Na vs. Kwan and Yagudin vs. Plushenko.

In the finals whichever female competitor gets through will be the winner.
 
my final predictions.
\i think yu-na fans will make sure brian orser beats (michelle/G&G outcome; even though personally i hope michelle wins.)

for me semi-now is carol/yu-na - yuna will win,
irina vs zhen/ zhou
. katarina vs torvill and dean/scott outcome --katarina will win.
the outcome of irina and zhen/zhou will face katarina, katarina will win.
so it will be yu-na vs brian;; irina vs katarina. and the final will be all girl.
the final yu-na vs katarina.


irina and evgeny was a toss up. i am happy irina won her round.
 
Re: Wow....U.S. Figure Skating launches "greatest ever" bracket

amazying
i can tell you anti-vote michelle .
but hey do what you want,
i think you just vote to prove me wrong. Be my guest, i am sure most skaters can't stand michelle either .
where is the write up about president fitness council nominations. the other federations and sports wrote a small bit about their athelete being in it.
the us. nothing. but if tara, sarah, sasha, johnny, kristi , scott was in it and evan it would be lamblasted.
i guess they only want good news printed from certain skaters who aren't a certain orgin.
jealously is all i can say.
like i stated earlier---it was rigged against michelle in the first place,
whoever did it didn't want her named or in the final 4 or final 8 anyway.
yu-na fans will vote for brian not michelle. why brian was yu-na coach.
 
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