TALENT&TENACITY
There was a time when junior skaters were, well, junior skaters. In a bygone era, those at that level were considered up-and-coming talents that executed double jumps, throws and twists — and fell a lot
But those days are long gone. While the level of skating in the junior ranks has been rising every season, those at the top took it to an entirely new level this year.
The current crop of future champions turned up with multiple quads, triple Axels and difficult triple-triple combinations in their arsenals.
Though some decry the stress these jumps are causing their growing bodies, it is the nature of elite athletes in all sports to push the boundaries — to go higher, faster and do things that have never been done before. With skaters now being taught solid technique, they learn difficult jumps at an early age and grow into themselves in a way that the generations before them did not.
On more than a few occasions during the seven-event Junior Grand Prix Series, the ladies and men earned scores that would have placed them in the top five at any given senior competition.
At the Junior Grand Prix in Poland, Russia’s Daniil Samsonov and Yuma Kagiyama of Japan earned scores that would have placed them first and third at the senior Challenger event, U.S. International Classic, and first and second at Nebelhorn Trophy by a runaway margin of 30 and 25 points, respectively.
Likewise, three of the top four ladies that qualified for the Junior Final — Kamila Valieva, 13; Alysa Liu, 14; and Ksenia Sinitsyna, 15 — earned scores throughout the junior Series that would have seen them claim all three steps of the ladies podiums at the same competitions.
Given that juniors are not permitted to include quad jumps in their short programs and ladies are not permitted to execute triple Axels, their scores are even more impressive.
Russia earned the most places on the Grand Prix circuit due to the success of its skaters at the 2019 World Junior Championships, which determines the allotments for the following season.
Though that nation once again topped the overall standings of the Junior Grand
