I can't recall if you've ever said but do you follow juniors at all? If so who are some skaters that you find interesting? I always feel a bit mixed about juniors because a: some people are amazing in juniors but lose their special somethin' somthin' going through puberty and b: I sort of feel mixed about kids getting loads of international attention in terms of pressure and such. All that being said I also love it because they are all adorable and often SO talented!
I do follow juniors, mostly the ladies’ side. Re: the men’s field, I don’t usually feel like I can form a good opinion about the guys when they are at the junior level because their techniques take quite a bit more time to develop. In this day and age a guy can’t compete for the top if he doesn’t have reliable triple Axel and quads, and those jumps don’t truly stabilize until they reach 17-18 years of age, so it’s very hard to draw any conclusion about a guy’s future trajectory based on his junior level performance. I mean, if you had asked me what I thought of Yuzuru Hanyu based on his skates at Junior Worlds 2010, my answer would have been: his basics look fine, but I have to wait and see how he developed.
Among the junior ladies, my current favorites include
Anastasia Tarakanova: she’s a fierce little warrior. Her movements are sometimes too wild as to appear lacking in control and finesse, but I love her raw emotion and projection. Recently she has left Eteri’s team and switched to Plushenko’s school. I saw some snippets of her new planned program for next season choreographed to Imagine Dragon’s Believer and right now it’s one of the programs I’m most looking forward to next season.
Alena Kostornaia: for her age, her skating skills are out of this world. Alena needs more work (a lot more) on jump techniques though.
Nana Araki: she’s the opposite of Alena in the sense that her jumping technique, especially on the toe jumps, is beyond reproach, but she needs improvement in interpretation, choreography, performance.
Anastasiia Gubanova: I adored her Romeo and Juliet FS from two seasons ago. Sadly she has been struggling since then, but I’m still holding out hope for her return.
Before you ask: Sasha Trusova is definitely on my watchlist, though I wouldn’t call her my favorite. I think she has a lot of work to do in all of the PCS areas (except maybe TR) before her skates can become enjoyable to watch.
