The Junior Event (as seen on computer)

[yangjie]

Hicks for sure. But she and Dinh both skate early in the final flight, while Kulgeyko skates last so we could be in for some upsets.

just saw the result and wow, who is hicks?? i just heard her name first time! can she go to the jr world or the world? how old is she??

[Joesitz]

I feel the same way about Ashley, but at somepoint she may end up picking either singles or pairs. And I really hope Nina Jiang continues to skate after this season, she's had a rough year, but there are still so many great things about her skating, I would be very sad if she gave up at age 13.

Interesting you mentioned Jiang. I liked her too. However 13 is not a retirement age. mentioning the age, would be important for retiring. How old is Ashley?

Pairs skaters have a demanding Tech to cope with. Much more, imo, than Singles. Pairs skating requires every bit of tech that singles have plus the acrobatic lifts. That's not an easy "pick".

[mskater93]

just saw the result and wow, who is hicks?? i just heard her name first time! can she go to the jr world or the world? how old is she??

Hicks is 15, skates with Mr. Nicks
Dinh is 14 (I think she needs to fix her head on her jumps - she does a "turtle neck" kind of thing on her jumps with is bothersome to watch, but that's MHO)

[Layfan]

I just barely managed to watch the Junior Ladies SPs & FSs late last night before I fell asleep exhausted.

To tell the honest truth I wasn't really impressed with any of them, sorry to say. :( Yes, Courtney Hicks won and she does have the jumps, but she really does need to work on her PCS/presentation/et al. Between her & Agnes Zawadzki, I'd predict the latter as a future champion based on the jumps alone, but they BOTH still need to work on the PCS part.

It's simply a matter of whomever wants it more.

Here's hoping I get a chance to watch the Junior Mens & Pairs.

I kind of agree Nadine. I watched Courtney Hicks' SP after reading Phil Hersh's raving column and I wasn't blown away. Impressed sure but I didn't get her huge score. I know she's barely 15 so it's a matter of seeing how she progresses. For now I prefer Agnes and Christina and they're not THAT much younger.

But we'll see maybe I'll eat my words when Hicks is world champ one day.

[silverlake22]

Interesting you mentioned Jiang. I liked her too. However 13 is not a retirement age. mentioning the age, would be important for retiring. How old is Ashley?

Pairs skaters have a demanding Tech to cope with. Much more, imo, than Singles. Pairs skating requires every bit of tech that singles have plus the acrobatic lifts. That's not an easy "pick".

Ashley is 15. She's quite good in pairs but her height could be an issue, her current partner is 6'2", but she comes off as quite tall.

As for Nina, my fear is more that she would give up skating to be a "normal" teenager in highschool or play team sports or something after the disappointing year she's had. But I really hope she keeps going, she is just lovely to watch and even though she probably feels bad about how she's been skating recently, she's got to realize that for a 13 year old she is doing really well. She exudes elegance on the ice, has nice basics and jumps, and seems like a sweet girl too. I feel like her biggest problem is the mental approach.