A brief look at China's future skaters

2006/2007 Chinese Junior Grand Prix Beijing’ was held from Dec 23rd to Dec 24th in Beijing. Ninety-seven skaters nation-wide at different levels (Pre-Novice/Novice/Junior) participated in this twice a year competition. A Chinese fan went to this event and videotaped a couple of skaters’ long programs. It is very interesting and fun to get a glimpse into China’s future skaters.

I haven’t watched any of North America’s Junior Nationals, so it’s hard for me to compare. But U.S. and Canada have far more junior skaters than China, thus the overall quality of such competition is obviously far better. But I did spot a couple of very talented young Chinese skaters and I am impressed with the huge improvement in spins and spirals of younger Chinese skaters (they used to have only jumps in the past). The flexibility of their female skaters is also quite impressive. They are more balanced skaters than past generations (such as Yan Liu, Dan Fang, ChenJiang Li).

Another impression I have is that junior Chinese skaters are generally very young. The ladies in the junior group are primarily between 11 and 14 years old. Most female skaters simply quit if they cannot master 3-4 different triples over the age of 17.

I have selected a couple of videos (on youtube) to share with you guys, their choreography is nothing to write home about, and the music is generally dreadful. But these videos do give you an idea of their basic skills/jumps/spins/spirals/footwork.

1. Junior ladies

There are two interesting skaters, the first one is Bingwa Geng(means ‘ice baby’ in Chinese). She is only 11-year-old and attempted three different triples: 3z(fall), 3S, 2l, 2a+2t(step out), 2flip, 3t+3t+SEQ (two-footed). Some of the landings were shaky, but she’s young! It is said she could do all five triples in practice and her spins are also nice.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tENIsCZYPPw

Another girl is Kexin Zhang, she’s about 12 to 13 years old. She completed a 3t+2t+2l, 2a+2a+SEQ, 3s, 3t, 2f, 2lz+2t. Her jumps are solid and she should have no problem in mastering all five triples in the years ahead.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWJRwIKo5ZM



Another interesting girl is 13-year-old Yue Cao. She was selected by Bin Yao as part of the three new pairs. She still competed as a single in this event. Her jumps are awful but presentation skills are beyond her age. Maybe that’s why Bin Yao selected her in the first place.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uU8Z5ymhw84


2. Junior/Novice men:

I am less interested in junior men since they are awfully young and it’s quite hard to predict their future jumping ability at such early ages. But the younger Chinese male skaters are much better spinners, that is for sure.

Here are some highlights.

Jia Xing Liu:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31I1EXTUiEk


An unknown ‘skating boy’. He is perhaps the most talented male skater in this group. This boy is probably only 11-12 years old but the maturity of his skating is awesome.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oBss4XXW1n0

Another unknown ‘skating boy’
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eec4DtSlCYk


3. Novice ladies

They are even younger and can only do doubles and singles. However, their flexibility is really impressive. If I did not watch Caroline Zhang’s videos before, this unknown ‘skating girl’s spin and spiral positions are certainly going to awe me!

‘Skating Girl’
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3YHFcGIq7TM

‘Skating Girl2’
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BPpsNjuRjIQ

Haitong Wang
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=adMe_CxmBqQ


Binghan Zhang
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1I2P41Vf-sg

yu xiao yu
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-NX1CH8YRUo


Finally, I would give my most impressive award to this 8-year-old little girl wang xue han. She is absolutely awesome. She can do all five doubles. Her presence on the ice makes you hard to believe she is only 8 years old!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cV0L9ashpp0


For another treat, this is the pairs silver medallist!(only three pairs). It’s just a torture to have another 8-year-old to practice pairs. But she is sweet and very shy according to some accounts. They got a silver medallist certificate signed by Shen & Zhao in the end!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVUkxAcvEnU

iloveaxel said:

Finally, I would give my most impressive award to this 8-year-old little girl wang xue han. She is absolutely awesome. She can do all five doubles. Her presence on the ice makes you hard to believe she is only 8 years old!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cV0L9ashpp0

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That was super!:agree:

Chengjiang Li I think has been on the verge of a breakthrough for a while, I definately thought that he deserved to be World Bronze Medalist in 2003 with those two magnificent quadruple jumps that he did.

Yan Liu I think also has deserved higher placements than she's gotten.

As for the rest of them I definately think that they are skaters to look for in the future, they are magnificent.

I wonder who's going to take over the domination of pairs skating once the current chinese teams that lead retire. Besides the Zhangs I think that everything else is pretty much open.

icesk8erdude4e said:

Chengjiang Li I think has been on the verge of a breakthrough for a while, I definately thought that he deserved to be World Bronze Medalist in 2003 with those two magnificent quadruple jumps that he did.

Yan Liu I think also has deserved higher placements than she's gotten.

As for the rest of them I definately think that they are skaters to look for in the future, they are magnificent.

I wonder who's going to take over the domination of pairs skating once the current chinese teams that lead retire. Besides the Zhangs I think that everything else is pretty much open.

Click to expand...

Those Junior skaters are much better than Yan Liu and Chenjiang Li in their basic skating skills, spins, speed and spirals. Liu and Li are good jumpers though.

Bin Yao has selected three pairs(actually four, but I think wang/wang are not going to work) post Olys.

The video of Yue Cao, I just posted, is one of them. She is only 13 years old, her style is similar to Pang, very tall and thin. She has good presentation skill but her jumps are just awful!! I usually don't like female skater to have poor landing skills to start with, so I don't really hold much hope for her. But who knows, she's still young.

Xu/li is another pair who participated in this year's GP events. But their skills seem to regress since last year's 4cc.

Another pair consists of a bronze medalist of last year's national ladies singles. She is 17 years old, so I assume she should have much better jumping ability. I have never seen her video, and I'm holding my hope for this pair.

we'll see what happens, I think that some of the young skaters that are out there really have a chance at doing some really good stuff, but we'll see.

Yan Liu though, I really hope that she gets up there soon, cuz she's such a wonderful skater and hopefully she'll have a breakthrough year pretty soon.