The Perfect Skater * * *

[SunnySideUP]

Alright, this should be interesting and fun! If you could pick apart anyone's skating and put all the good parts of different people's skating together what would it be? In my opinion, with Sasha's grace and presentation, Kimmie or Mao Asada's jumps, and Michelle's drive and rock solid nerves (consistency!), we would have the best skater out there! What do you guys think?

[Katia_Fan22]

Ooh, it's almost like creating a recipe! Do they all have to be current eligible skaters?

OK, I'd take:

Sasha's posture, flexibility and spirals
Lucinda Ruh's spinning
Michelle's freakish consistency in competition (04-05 season notwithstanding)
Yuka Sato's triple loop jump (it's like buttah!)
Irina's - all other jumps that she does so high

[melody]

Cool!

I'd combine:
Sasha's elegance in her artistry, spins, and spirals....
Add in some Lucinda Ruh's spins...
With Mao Asada's consistant and feather-light jumps...
And Kimmie's smile :D
And Michelle's ability to portray a character in a story through her programs!

[Star3X8]

Oh boy...
I'll take:
Sasha's flexibility and positions
Irina Slutskaya's height on jumps
Lucinda Ruh's speed on spins
Michelle Kwan's constitency
Yep. That would be a nice, nice, skater. :D

[attyfan]

IMO, the ideal ladies skater would combine:

Kwan's consistency
Ruh's spins
Ito's jumps
Sasha's flexibility

[SkaterGem]

hmm...

Sasha's posture, felxibility
Kwan's consistancy and ability to portray a character
Luh's spins
Ito's jumps
Lipinski's spark

For a perfect guy:

well...john curry's lines
yagudins artisty and step sequences
if this was pre 2003 goebels jumps..but hes kinda lost them a bit..so i'd have to say joubert (not counting worlds)
and finally...lambiels spins

[Mozinha]

Sasha's posture, artistry, flexibility and spins
Irina's huge jumps

[liz_sk8gr8]

sasha's flexibility and elegance
Mao's jumps
alexei Y's foot works

perfect ^^

[Bladebabe13]

ID have to say:

Tara Lipinski's sparkel and spunk
Sasha's flexibility and spins
Kimmies perserverence and jumps
and Michele Kwan's well known name

[Catalina]

Sasha's flexibility
Naomi Nari Nam's spins
Tara's energy
Sarah's attitude
Jenny's sweetness
Irina's jumps
Kimmie's triple axel
Michelle's character portrayal

[skatepixie]

Sasha with Ito's jumps (without the leg wrap though).

[Leonie]

Perfect female skater:

Sasha's spirals
Slutkaya's triple flip
Miki's jumps
Michelle's emotion and falling leaf
Lucinda Ruh's spins

Perfect male skater:

Plushenko's jumps + exhibitions
Lambiel's spins and artistry
Yagudin's steps
Shawn Sawyer's spirals

[Georgia Houpis]

Sasha's posture, pure line and spins
Peggy's artistry
Dorothy's edges
MK consistency
Harding's Power
Trenary's ability to portrait a character
Tara's Joy for skating and competitive attitude
Kerrigan's gorgeous triple lutz
Yamaguchi's consistency under pressure
Janet Lynn's pure line

[ditzysk8r]

Sasha's spirals, spins, and artistry
Kimmie's triple Axel
Miki Ando's quad
Jenny Kirk's choreography and joyous smile when she skates
Angela Nikodinov's heart
Sarah Hughes's layback spin and triple sal/triple loop

[Bella_Italiana]

i would say sasha's spiral and her extensions during spins, michelle's ablity to work a crowd and good edges, def. kimmie's triple axel and her expressions on her face during a program,and umm irina's huge jumps

[skatepixie]

Id say the perfect male skater is Alexei...no need for any changes except for him not to have gotten hurt.

[SashaTarafan]

I would say the perfect skater would be Sasha Cohen with Tara Lipinski's nerves of steel...that would be one virtually unbeatable skater :)

Id say the perfect male skater is Alexei...no need for any changes except for him not to have gotten hurt.

Completely and utterly true!! He is/was friggin AMAZING!!!!!!!!!

[loveskating]

I'd take Sasha's line and position, her layback, camel spin with change of edge, side catch spin, Russian split jump, fan and oe and ie spirals and Charlotte split spiral and her 2 axel along with Tonya Harding's lutz, Kimmie's 3 axel, Ito's 3/3 toe loop, Oksana Baiul's delayed 2 axel, doughnut catch spin and flip jump.

Consistency is not so important to me...I'd rather see Ilia Kulik pop a 3 axel jump than to see Candeloro land 6 jumps.

[robert]

I'd take Sasha's line and position, her layback, camel spin with change of edge, side catch spin, Russian split jump, fan and oe and ie spirals and Charlotte split spiral and her 2 axel along with Tonya Harding's lutz, Kimmie's 3 axel, Ito's 3/3 toe loop, Oksana Baiul's delayed 2 axel, doughnut catch spin and flip jump. Consistency is not so important to me...I'd rather see Ilia Kulik pop a 3 axel jump than to see Candeloro land 6 jumps.

Of all the posts, this one comes closest to what I would have suggested. Actually I think when Sasha skates a clean program, there is nothing I would change. All her elements are executed with such precision and grace that there seems no need to change anything; however, if I must choose some element(s) it would be Lembiel's huge spins and Pluchi's huge jumps. I've compiled all the suggestions from this thread and will post the results later. Looks kind'a interesting.
Robert

[GGKatyaSashafan]

Ekaterina gordeeva's skating teqnice her flownes ove rhte ice and so
Sashas flexibilty and spins
irina's jumps
plushenko's steps
that's it!

[MKFSfan]

Here's mine!

*A combination of Irina and Michelle's strong basic skating, with Sasha's beautiful positions and Fumie's speed.
*Sasha's layback combo as was this year, her flexibility, her fan spiral into the skid move, but that's held out after reversing like Gordeeva, or Cousins.
*Angela's classic layback, but no catchfoot!
*Lucinda Ruh's unbelieveable spinning ability.
*Shiz's ina baur.
*Shiz, Caro or Sarah Hughe's ability to put tons of connecting moves, transitions into their programs.
*Tonya Harding's 3loop, and rumored quad.
*Michelle's backwards COE as done in FOG OR forward COE as done in YRMU
*Irina's 3lutz/3loop
*Midori's huge jumps-esp. 3axle/3toe!!
*Michelle's performing abilities, as how she reaches such a large audience
*Tara's nerves of steel and fierce competitiveness.

Actually, I think my "ideal" skater is more suitable as show headliner for Cirque de sol...whatever it is! :lol:

EDITED: I'm stealing this from nvodivo who's 100% right: Oskana's musicality! I can't believe I forgot her...and her delayed 2axle...Thanks!

[nvodivo]

Oksana Baiul's gracefullness- I think she's actually one of the rare few ladies that can actually feel and relate to a piece of music-
Maria Butyrksaya's maturity and bold stroking over the ice-
Sasha Cohen's Flexibility-
Midori Ito's Power and height in jumps-
Mao Asada's Ease and consistency-
Lu Chen's Artisty for exhibition-

[robert]

Hi guys

For those of you who enjoy statistics, here are the results without comment from me except to say that I find them extremely revealing, especially in regard to certain preferences. Draw whatever conclusions you wish, but just have fun. It was done rather quickly so I hope there’re no major errors. Enjoy.

21 named Sasha Cohen for her gracefulness, presentation, posture, flexibility, elegance, artistry, precision, positions, pure lines, extensions, spins, spirals, layback spin, camel spin coe, side catch spin, Russian split jump, fan spiral oe to ie (Sasha Slide), Charlotte, 2-axel, layback combo, fan spiral.
12 named Michelle Kwan for her drive, solid nerves, consistency, character portrayal, famous name, emotion, edges, crowd working, basics, back & front coe, falling leaf, performance.
8 named Irina Slutskaya for her high jumps, 3-flip, basics, 3-lutz/3-loop
7 named Kimmie Meissner for her jumps, smile, perseverance, 3-axel, expression
7 named Lucinda Ruh for her fast spins
6 named Mao Asada for her jumps, ease, consistency
6 named Midori Ito for her jumps, 3/3-toe loop, power
6 named Tara Lipinski for her sparkle, spunk, energy, joy, attitude, steel nerves, competitiveness
4 named Tonya Harding for her power, lutz, 3-loop
3 named Sarah Hughes for her attitude, layback spin, 3-sal/3-toe, connecting moves
3 named Oksana Baiul for her 2-axel, donut spin, flip jump, grace
2 named Naomi Nam for her spins
2 named Jennifer Kirk for her sweetness, choreography, joyous smile
2 named Janet Lynn for her pure lines
2 named Evgeni Plushenko for his huge jumps, steps
2 named Shizuka Arakawa for her Ina Bauer, connecting moves
1 named Yuka Sato for her toe-loop jump
1 named Alexi Yagudin for his foot works
1 named Peggy Fleming for her artistry
1 named Dorothy Hamil for her edges
1 named Jill Trenary for her character portrayal
1 named Nancy Kerrigan for her 3-flip
1 named Christi Yamaguchi for her consistency
1 named Angela Nikodinov for her heart, layback
1 named Ekaterina Gordeeva for her technical ability, flow
1 named Stephane Lembiel for his huge spins
1 named Carolina Kostner for her connecting moves
1 named Lu Chen for her artistry
1 named Maria Butyrksaya for her maturity, bold steps