- Joined
- Sep 19, 2006
Taking from the thread "Poised to break through but didn't"
Some skaters burst onto the scene as teenagers (almost always teenage girls) and are immediately hyped to be a big star destined for greatness. We see times where they live up to it, like Michelle Kwan, Tara Lipinski, Sarah Hughes, etc.
However, there are other times where these girls don't live up to our expectations. Caroline Zhang, Mirai Nagasu and Rachel Flatt seem to have fizzed. Cynthia Phaneuf won her first Canadian title when she just turned 16, and the SKate Canada title the next year, but struggled since then.
In Canada, many up and coming male skaters were expected to be The Next One, yet it wasn't until 2005 when Jeffrey Buttle won silver that we had a strong contender, and he was succeeded by Patrick Chan, a male teen skating prodigy, though he came on his potential pretty quickly
It makes me wonder about the Russian teen sensations like Julia Lipnitskaia and Elena Radionova. Both are extremely talented but at this point neither have hit puberty. Whent hey do it remains to be seen what happens.
Do skaters get hyped too early? And does it hurt them? I'd say yes. The skaters who have had more long term success are the ones who aren't hyped until after they reach their potential, and by this time, they're in their 20s, like Joannie Rochette or Ashley Wagner.
Some skaters burst onto the scene as teenagers (almost always teenage girls) and are immediately hyped to be a big star destined for greatness. We see times where they live up to it, like Michelle Kwan, Tara Lipinski, Sarah Hughes, etc.
However, there are other times where these girls don't live up to our expectations. Caroline Zhang, Mirai Nagasu and Rachel Flatt seem to have fizzed. Cynthia Phaneuf won her first Canadian title when she just turned 16, and the SKate Canada title the next year, but struggled since then.
In Canada, many up and coming male skaters were expected to be The Next One, yet it wasn't until 2005 when Jeffrey Buttle won silver that we had a strong contender, and he was succeeded by Patrick Chan, a male teen skating prodigy, though he came on his potential pretty quickly
It makes me wonder about the Russian teen sensations like Julia Lipnitskaia and Elena Radionova. Both are extremely talented but at this point neither have hit puberty. Whent hey do it remains to be seen what happens.
Do skaters get hyped too early? And does it hurt them? I'd say yes. The skaters who have had more long term success are the ones who aren't hyped until after they reach their potential, and by this time, they're in their 20s, like Joannie Rochette or Ashley Wagner.