Hanyu has set world records on 19 occasions. Sarah: The time has come. In spite of a shaky set of programs, she still managed to place eighth. Hamilton was half on the money.

But most of the time, he didn’t. Sarah: Yes, because this entry is about Nicole Bobek, who along with Tonia Kwiatkowski was favored to win bronze at the 1998 U.S. Championships. In this Cinderella season, not only did she win an Olympic silver, she also took home a world silver medal as well. Kathy: For the record, 31 is like Betty White in figure skating years.

The list you're viewing has a variety of male ice skaters in it, like Johnny Weir and Brian Boitano. While he failed to make the podium there, he would go on to win a bronze at the World Championships two years later. The Canadian skater won a bronze in men’s singles at the 2006 games in Torino and went on to win a World Championship in 2008. She would tell you that although working in skating is where her passion lies; she is the voice of lots of commercial projects, a blogger on her own site, a public speaker and with "Taking The Ice: Success Stories from the World of Canadian Figure Skating" a published author.

I landed my double salchow before I landed my single axel.

They are on their way to becoming legends whose names will live on long after they end their amateur career. and is captured here in all its eerie silence, a performance that won the world’s hearts, Torvill and Dean/Bolero/Best-Performance-in-the-History-of-Ice- Dancing-and-Possibly-Figure-Skating Fame, (…At least he was friendly with John Candy? While questions about the flamboyant skater followed him through his career — two Canadian broadcasters caught flak and inspired a Pride House protest after making homophobic comments about Weir at the 2010 Olympics — he did not come out until 2011, when he revealed he was gay in his memoir, Welcome to My World. This list may not reflect recent changes ( learn more ). She began competing on the senior level at fifteen, coming in sixth at the 1986 U.S. Championships and slowly working her way up the ladder during the years that followed. She landed a triple axel for the first time in competition at the 1991 U.S. Championships — you can watch her performance in the video above, and I don’t think it’s just my bias talking when I say that it’s nothing short of magic. Or, backing up a bit — why were we so fascinated by her back in the day, and why is she so polarizing? But she earned a permanent spot in the fantastic melodrama Hall of Fame at 1994 Worlds. In his 2000 memoir, When Hell Freezes Over: Should I Bring My Skates?, the bisexual skater described relationships with women and men, including fellow skater Ondrej Nepela. Those dudes standing on the ice in that video are looking at their skate tracks and ensuring they’re using the appropriate edges at all times. She always had the potential to succeed but nobody really had her pegged as a contender. Her pairs partner was the son of a truck driver from San Jose named Val “Rudi” Galindo (He later exchanged the “i” for a “y”).

They also won a bronze medal in the team event at the 2014 Winter Olympics. She won the national title in the process and the silver medal at 1991 Worlds. Remember how, in Tiffany Chin’s entry, Kristi Yamaguchi was an inspiring up-and-comer whose win at the 1992 Olympics changed the sport forever?

He trained harder than he’d ever trained, losing 20 pounds, and dramatically improving his jumps. I mean, I can’t even tell you how hard it is to do that jump. Of course, Hamilton's career highlight came with a gold at the 1984 Olympics in Sarajevo. From then on she was heavily favored as America’s best chance to bring home the gold at the 1988 Olympics — but, as with so many skaters who started young, her jumps and consistency began to disappear as her body underwent a growth spurt. She was forced to withdraw from the 1983 World Championships after suffering a stress fracture, and had the dubious distinction of lending her name to the “Zayak Rule,” which stated that a skater may only use the same jump twice in a given program, and was put in motion by the International Skating Union after Elaine used four triple loop jumps in her routine at the 1982 Worlds. After Kati retired, Surya Bonaly was a breath of fresh, drama-loving air in a sea of petite, waif-y, ice princesses. Another name synonymous with U.S. skating greatness, the Hall of Famer won her only Olympic gold medal at the 1968 Grenoble Games.

The ice dancer represented the United States at the 2006 games in Torino alongside skating partner Jamie Silverstein. Kathy: Okay, Sarah, it’s time. CBC has been home to Pj's skating voice, writing and commentary opinions since 2007. The Greatest Male Figure Skaters of All Time, The Greatest Retired Figure Skaters of All Time, The Greatest American Male Figure Skaters of All Time, greatest figure skating pairs of all time, jesse mccartney and katie cassidy relationship. However, Fleming was a three-time singles world champion from 1966-68.
Nicole Bobek retired from competition soon after the Olympics and was arrested for conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine in 2009 — though it seems she is turning her life around. With that in mind, here's a look at 25 of the best figure skaters — from singles to team competition — to ever take to a sheet of ice or the rink. The Greatest American Ice Dancers of All Time. The French hadn’t medaled in ladies’ singles at the Olympics since 1952, and hadn’t shown up on the ladies medal stand at Worlds since 1963.

It seemed like a wonderful beginning; instead, it was to be the high point of her career. Sarah: And before you go on about the greatness that is Surya, an impossible-to-resist sidenote re: Debi — her Olympic short program is both amazing AND choreographed to Dead or Alive’s “Something in My House,” and you should probably watch it right now. Sorry. Tara Lipinksi had made her entrance on the senior circuit the previous season, snatching the U.S. Championship title away from Kwan with those weird little jumping passes of hers in which she seemed to get about six inches up in the air and still manage three rotations before she landed. After the Lillehammer Olympics, Baiul, Chen Lu, and Nancy Kerrigan all sat out ’94 Worlds, leaving the field wide open for Surya to finally take gold. Surya Bonaly Kathy: Speaking of breaking racial and regional boundaries, my first choice is the delightfully dramatic Surya Bonaly of France. Rippon will join the list of out Olympians when he competes for the U.S. in PyeongChang in February.

The American skater competed in the 2006 games in Torino, where he finished seventh overall. Sarah: They also had the disadvantage of making many competitions almost incomprehensible to the viewers at home — take, for example, the legendary showdown at the 1972 Olympics between Janet Lynn, the effervescent American pixie, and Trixi Schuba, the workmanlike Austrian.

List of famous male figure skaters, listed by their level of prominence with photos when available. He is probably one of the best athletes one has ever come across.

And finally — the whack aside, the aftermath aside, the changes that came to skating aside, and my endless theory about Tonya-Harding-and-what-she-means-for-women-everywhere-aside — she was a hell of an athlete, and we may never see her kind again. This became a joke when Yuzuru Hanyu was not mentioned. Chan enjoyed success in skating's team event at the past two Winter Games. Kurt Browning fell on a triple axel in the original program and never quite regained his confidence, stumbling through a disastrous long program and finishing sixth. In the realm of pairs skating, Gordeeva and Grinkov were among the best — and most tragic. Sitting in the arena during the 2006 Turin Olympics, it came down to the final skate of the night to confirm that Buttle would take home the bronze medal. The two were contenders for gold heading into the 1980 games before Gardner tore his thigh in practice, according to People.

His brother succumbed in 1994, reportedly at the precise time Rudy was skating his long program at a competition in Vienna. Lynn won the freeskate, delivering a performance that won the world’s hearts, but because she was so far behind after figures — a discipline at which Schuba excelled — she left with only the bronze. He would go on to be an illustrator and designer before dying of a heart attack in 2015, according to The Globe and Mail. ), who started skating as a form of physical therapy after a lawnmower cut off part of her foot. This was one of my absolute favorite moments in the history of figure skating, and this woman is awesome. This kind of amazing talent and sports enthusiast combination is very rare and can be hard to find. He is also known for his sports commentary with Tara Lipinski, as well as his work in LGBTQ activism.... Scott Scovell Hamilton (born August 28, 1958) is a retired American figure skater and Olympic gold medalist. You can see, watching the long program above, that this kind of freedom was exactly what he needed: his energy, charisma, and fearlessness on the ice are everything one can want from an Olympic performance.

France!

Gordeeva and Grinkov were the only ones to recapture Olympic gold (although I don’t think it’s unwarranted to say that Witt’s short program, in which she not only skated to the theme from Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves but performed as Robin Hood, archery-miming and all, is one of the most memorable non-Tonya-related moments of the Lillehammer Games). She initially refused to step on the medal podium at all, instead standing next to it in protest. To practice them, you had this thing called a “scribe,” which was basically a giant nail attached the end of a stick, and you’d scrape it around in circles so that you could learn to trace those perfect circles. His signature move is a backflip, a feat that few other figure skaters could perform and which is against U.S.
If you missed it, here's my list of the greatest Canadian champions from 1930-1980. 16 Gay and Bi Olympic Figure Skaters When Adam Rippon competes at the Olympics this year, it will be the first time an openly gay figure skater represents the United States in an individual event . This greatest male figure skaters list contains the most prominent and top males known for being figure skaters.