Adam Rippon will be going to Dungjen and Detroit

[bekalc]

Caroline Zhang and Kimmie Meissner both followed a similar pattern of peaking and reaching the top for a very brief moment then falling quickly into oblivion. But Zhang did it in her junior years while Meissner did it in her senior years, so the big difference is in the accomplishments and medals.

Adam Rippon's career trajectory is starting to resemble Caroline Zhang's, and that's very disturbing. Like Zhang, he's had a phenomenal undefeated year as a World Junior champ, but his transition to the senior ranks has been rocky. He's shown better potential, though. At least he made it to Worlds and also won a Four Continents title.

Adam won his first Junior world title without a triple axel. There were always questions about how he'd transition to the Senior level. Lovely to watch yes, but there were always questions if he'd be able to compete technically with the big boys. A lot depends on the competition you face too. I mean Meissner had to compete against Ando, Kim, and Asada in Juniors. Zhang never had THAT kind of competition there.

Meissner had a couple of successful years at the Senior level. Yes she had "puberty?" issues latter on, but she's still a World Champion, has another top 4 finish too, Four Continents, US title.

To compare Meissner with Rippon or Zhang is unfair to Meissner. In fairness Meissner did have some iffy jumping technique that kind of hurt when she grew up. But I think she was a different skater than Rippon/Zhang. Zhang's issues was not just the iffy jumping technique but the fact that her basics weren't very good at all. She had some lovely qualities layback, nice lines so people ignored the shoddy basics.

Rippon is a way better skater than Zhang, but his stroking/power isn't like the rest of the top guys and doesn't have the big gun jumps down.

Meissner at her hey day is the exact opposite of those two in that Meissner wasn't the most artistic skater around, but she had at her best the ability to do some 3/3s, and also had pretty good basic skating skills.