food for thought (junior champions)

I was recently perusing the Skatabase website for the Ladies section of the Jr World Championships from 1994-the present. Not one of the Jr Ladies Champions has won the Olympic Gold Medal. Michelle Kwan and Irina Slutskaya have been the most successful as Olympic medalists. In fact, as a whole, future Olympic Gold Medalists have had mediocre results as juniors. Tara Lipinski was 4th one year and 5th another year. Shizuka Arakawa was 7th one year and 8th (good thing they didn't get discouraged). The exception is Sarah Hughes who was 2nd at 1999(?) Junior Worlds.

So is there a Jr World's curse? It brings to mind recent champions such as the US Ladies sweep of this year and Japanese dominance of recent years.

alicelouise said:

I was recently perusing the Skatabase website for the Ladies section of the Jr World Championships from 1994-the present. Not one of the Jr Ladies Champions has won the Olympic Gold Medal. Michelle Kwan and Irina Slutskaya have been the most successful as Olympic medalists. In fact, as a whole, future Olympic Gold Medalists have had mediocre results as juniors. Tara Lipinski was 4th one year and 5th another year. Shizuka Arakawa was 7th one year and 8th (good thing they didn't get discouraged). The exception is Sarah Hughes who was 2nd at 1999(?) Junior Worlds.

So is there a Jr World's curse? It brings to mind recent champions such as the US Ladies sweep of this year and Japanese dominance of recent years.

Click to expand...

I don't think there's so much a curse as the issue of peaking coming into play. Junior World Champions are in their prime at Junior Worlds... Everything comes together for their skating and they achieve a semblance of perfection. Fast forward a couple of years and these skaters are still great, but their breakthrough year is past them and they're merely fulfilling the potential that their peak performances at Junior Worlds gave them.

As for the women who didn't do so well at Junior Worlds, they keep on plugging on and their miracle year, their athletic peak if you will, comes to the fore in later years... particularly at the Olympics..

Probably have to look at the age of the competitors as well. Tara was 14 when she won her senior world title and I don't know how old Michelle was but Michelle started competing in seniors at age 12. I don't follow the world junior scene but some of these champions were "older" (15-16) and the most successful senior competitors seem to treat juniors as a "learning experience" and then move on. I guess now with the age requirements in place, you will see more junior ladies stick around to win a world junior title than move on to seniors. In previous years, Yu Na Kim would not have stuck around to win a junior world title. She would have went on to the senior division.

Yes, it's incredible but many of them after being successfull at Juniors, weren't able to repeat at Seniors. Examples of gold medalist at Juniors that didn't win even a medal at Seniors Worlds are Suzie Brasher (USA), Carolyn Skoczen (CAN), Jill Sawyer USA, Janina Wirth (GDR), Simone Koch (GDR), Karin Hendschke (GDR), Tatiana Andreeva (URS), Natalia Gorbenko (URS), Cindy Bortz (USA), Jessica Mills (USA), Laetitia Hubert (FRA), Kumiko Koiwai (JPN), Elena Ivanova (RUS), Sydne Vogel (USA), Daria Timoshenko (RUS), Jennifer Kirk (USA), Kristina Oblasova (RUS), Ann Patrice McDonough (USA), Yukina Ota (JPN). Same thing with silver and bronze medalist = Garnet Ostermeier (FRG), Christa Jorda (AUT), Tracey Solomons (GBR), Corine Wyrsch (SUI), Petra Ernert (FRG), Manuela Ruben (FRG), Jacki Farrell (USA), Kay Thomson (CAN), Carola Paul (GDR), Marina Serova (URS), Anna Antonova (URS), Cornelia Tesch (FRG), Parthena Sarafidis (AUT), Susanne Becher (FRG), Linda Florkevich (CAN), Shannon Allison (CAN), Junko Yaginuma (JPN), Yukiko Kashihara (JPN), Tanja Krienke (GDR), Lisa Ervin(USA), Kristina Czako (HUN), Elena Pingacheva (RUS), Nadejda Kanaeva (RUS), Deanna Stellato (USA)

Kristi Yamaguchi won Junior Worlds in 1988.

:thumbsup:

soogar said:

Probably have to look at the age of the competitors as well. Tara was 14 when she won her senior world title and I don't know how old Michelle was but Michelle started competing in seniors at age 12. I don't follow the world junior scene but some of these champions were "older" (15-16) and the most successful senior competitors seem to treat juniors as a "learning experience" and then move on. I guess now with the age requirements in place, you will see more junior ladies stick around to win a world junior title than move on to seniors. In previous years, Yu Na Kim would not have stuck around to win a junior world title. She would have went on to the senior division.

Click to expand...

:thumbsup: :thumbsup:

gio,

Of your silver/bronze medalist list, I only recognize Lisa Ervin's name. They must have peaked and been buried in the lower echelons of the senior world's, if they even got there.

alicelouise said:

...

So is there a Jr World's curse? It brings to mind recent champions such as the US Ladies sweep of this year and Japanese dominance of recent years.

Click to expand...

Since '94, there have only been four Olympics -- 12 ladies medals -- during which junior world champs Kwan and Slutskaya have won a total of four, and, another world junior medalist (Sarah Hughes) won the OGM. That 5 out of 12 (slightly less than one half) of the available Oly medalists went to junior worlds medalists does not sound like a curse to me.

Alsace said:

gio,

Of your silver/bronze medalist list, I only recognize Lisa Ervin's name. They must have peaked and been buried in the lower echelons of the senior world's, if they even got there.

Click to expand...

Yes, many of them didn't even go to the senior worlds. Probably growth spurts, conflicts with the Feds, injuries... were factors that blocked the careers of all these young talents. :no:

How do the male junior medalists stack up in seniors?

Could it just be a sign of how girls are more affected by puberty than boys?

Ant