Juniors: Highway to success or Where are they now? | Golden Skate

Juniors: Highway to success or Where are they now?

lulu

Final Flight
Joined
Aug 4, 2003
Are Junior worlds a highway to success, or do most of the people who win junior medals simply fall off the wayside?

Remember the three Russian girls who had a podium sweep in the mid 1990s? Probably not;) I haven't seen any of their skating, but I heard nice comments about it. Now, I'm not sure if any of them are still skating at the elite level.

Of couse there have also been skaters who have been sucessful on both the junior and senior level, Ilia Kulik, Irina Slutskaya, Gordeeva& Grinkov, Anton Sikharulidze, Maria Petrova...
 

Matt

On the Ice
Joined
Dec 19, 2003
Those skaters who do win Jr. Worlds may not do very well initially in the senior ranks, but they do seem to pop up again at interesting times. To name a few who have medalled and popped up later: Sokolova, Abt, Yagudin, van der Perren, Gao, et al.

Others seem to fall into interesting situations. Take Daria Timoshenko; she was a Jr. World champion for Russia, and now is skating in the senior ranks for Azerbaijan. Silverstein/Pekarek are another. After a huge win and a promising senior debut, they are not no longer skating together as a team.

I would compare Jr. Worlds almost to a TV child star; can they make it after their initial debut and success?
 

Jennifer Lyon

On the Ice
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
Actually, I remember several young Russian ladies who competed at Junior Worlds in the mid-to-late 1990s-- Irina Slutskaya, Elena Sokolova, Elena Ivanova, Elena Pingacheeva, Yulia Soldatova, Viktoria Volchkova, Daria Timoshenko, Irina Nikolaeva, and I know I'm missing somebody but I can't remember who. (Kristina Oblasova was in 2000, right?)

I think the transition from juniors to seniors might be harder for skaters from the "big" countries like Russia, the USA, and Japan. Their senior-level fields are so deep that it's difficult for a young skater to break in. They pretty much have to wait until one of the big guns gets injured or turns pro.
 

dorispulaski

Wicked Yankee Girl
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
Country
United-States
To me, the most interesting Junior success/senior transition story belongs to the pair of Kristi Yamaguchi and Rudi Galindo, who won junior worlds both individually and as a pair. Kristi's singles success was quite straightforward, but it required her to stop working on being a pair. The pair did make it to World's but never made the world podium (5th? 4th? was the highest I remember them finishing before Kristi made the decision to concentrate on singles alone.)

Rudi probably has the longest delay between winning junior worlds and then winning a U.S. championship, followed by a world bronze, in 1996.

dpp
 

STL_Blues_fan

Final Flight
Joined
Jan 24, 2004
How about Elena Leonova? She won junior worlds then more or less dissapeared from competition.

Of course, she and Andrei Khvalko won the pro world champs in 1999 and 2000 (?).

Yana
 

Jaana

Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 27, 2003
Country
Finland
http://www.isu.org/vsite/vfile/page/fileurl/0,11040,4844-130375-131683-26004-0-file,00.pdf

I think that quite many male singles Junior WC champions have made it into top skaters (Olympic or WC medal) in seniors (e.g. Ilia Kulik became the 1995 World Junior and European champion in the same season):

1980 Fadeev
1981 Wylie
1983 Bowman
1984 Petrenko
1987 Galindo
1988 Eldredge
1994 Weiss
1995 Kulik
1996 Yagudin
1997 Plushenko

It remains to be seen what Klimkin, Lindemann, Weir and Takahashi are going to achieve in Worlds and Olympics.

Marjaana

Ilia Kulik photos & photolinks
http://koti.welho.com/mjylha2/index.html
 
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Evdokia

On the Ice
Joined
Oct 24, 2003
And two more male Junior World Champions with success in senior ranks:
1989 - Zagorodnjuk, European Champion in 1996
1993 - Dimitrenko, European Champion in 1993
 

Evdokia

On the Ice
Joined
Oct 24, 2003
Jennifer Lyon said:
Actually, I remember several young Russian ladies who competed at Junior Worlds in the mid-to-late 1990s-- Irina Slutskaya, Elena Sokolova, Elena Ivanova, Elena Pingacheeva, Yulia Soldatova, Viktoria Volchkova, Daria Timoshenko, Irina Nikolaeva, and I know I'm missing somebody but I can't remember who.
Maybe Elena Ivanova (Gold in 1996) and Nadezhda Kanaeva (Bronze in 1996) are the ones you were missing?:confused:
 

Tove

On the Ice
Joined
Aug 20, 2003
it seems adjusting to senior ranks can be quite a challenge....I wonder what will happen to Alexander Shubin, as I hope hope hope hope he'll not fall into darkness.....but continue like he did last year....

Whatever happened to Derrick Delmore?? I believe he won junior worlds the year Davydov was second (for Russia) 1998, but I haven't seen him since....and Sergei is skating for Belarus...

Ukraine always comes up with great junior pairs, but then they dissapear again...split up....retire, I don't know...
Obertas & Palamarchuk, Sawchenko & Morozov, Filonenko and her partner (can't remember his name) I'm very glad Yulia has found her way though, and that Aljona is still skating...I hope to see her next year!!
 

berthes ghost

Final Flight
Joined
Jul 30, 2003
They showed Shubin on TV at Lalique. He did a nice 4/3/2 but his nice 3axel is awol. He made some other errors and was, IMHO, severly marked down. COP really did some strange things at that comp IMHO.

I wish I knew what the problem was with Delmore, as I really like his style. He's been kicking around US nats for years now, making lots of mistakes and never getting close to the podium and/or world team.
 

JonnyCoop

Record Breaker
Joined
Dec 28, 2003
I like Delmore, too; I keep waiting for him to finally have "the year", tho at this point it'd be more appropriate I guess to wait for him to try and "pull a Galindo".... Actually, a couple of seasons ago, he placed high enough at Nationals to get a couple of Grand Prix assignments, which I think would have helped him, but he did Skate Canada and then got injured.

Hard to know why some juniors make it and some don't. In part it's probably because different skaters peak at different times. The ones who peak at a younger age naturally are more successful in Juniors, then when they get to Seniors, they get past their peak and then get lost in the shuffle amidst skaters who peaked later.

With the ladies a lot of times, they win Juniors at an age where their bodies haven't completely changed yet and once they start to develop more physically into a woman's body, it throws off their jumping and many aren't able to make the transition and/or wait it out. In the case of the succesful Russian junior ladies from the mid-90s, they hit a glass ceiling in the Seniors. This was a time when they already had Butrskaja, Slutskaya, Markova; then Sokolova, Soldatova, and Volchkova were able to make the transition, thus leaving even less room at the top for the others like Kanaeva, Ivanova, and Pingacheva.
 

Grgranny

Da' Spellin' Homegirl
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
I'm almost pretty sure he graduated from college lately so he probably was spending time with his schooling the last few years.
 

STL_Blues_fan

Final Flight
Joined
Jan 24, 2004
Germanice said:
Really? :D
But he doesn't have the Blues ... :\

Anke ;)

:D :D :D

But he has Blues System and Forever Blue album :laugh:

I guess I should change my signature now! I am gald you saw it though :) I guess I am a dork, but I love Modern Talking and the Blue System!!!

Yana
 

Matt

On the Ice
Joined
Dec 19, 2003
I believe also that Denis Petukhov was a Jr. World Champion with his old partner, Oksana Potdykova. I don't know the year, however, but it would have been before 2000 sometime.
 

Ladskater

~ Figure Skating Is My Passion ~
Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 28, 2003
Some make it in both Jr. and Sr. ranks. The Jr. ranks give a skater a good learning curve for competing. Sometimes it takes awhile for them to really get noticed, but once they do the doors start opening for them!
 

soogar

Record Breaker
Joined
Dec 18, 2003
CBS televised the junior world champs the year Anisinna and Averbuch won and their performance was incredible, really smooth and elegant. Vyachaslav Z. won that year. I thought he would be the next Viktor Petrenko b/c he had an incredible triple axel. I think that Rudy would have won earlier had he not skated pairs with Kristi Yamaguchi. In his book, he said that he laid off the singles skating when he began winning pairs titles to make Carol Yamaguchi happy and so Kristi would continue to skate with him. I feel really bad for him.
 

gkelly

Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
Zagorodniuk won Junior Worlds in 1989.

Anissina & Averbukh won in 1990 and 1992. (They were 4th in 1991.)

CBS televised excerpts from Jr. Worlds in 1989 and 1990. I guess you saw both years, soogar, and forgot they weren't the same year?

Trivia question, which will be easiest to answer for people who actually saw the CBS broadcast: 1990 was the last year in which figures were included in international competition. Who won the figures portion of the men's event, and the bronze medal, at 1990 Jr. Worlds?

(Hint: That skater's biggest senior-level success came in . . . 2004!)
 
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