Are the US ladies on a downward spiral?

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Quote from Joesitz:

and what is the fate of those Jr Girls champions?
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Well, former World Junior champions include Kristi Yamaguchi, Michelle Kwan, and Irina Slutskaya, among others!

However, the truth is that winning Junior Worlds doesn't necessarily predict success on the senior level. Both Jenny Kirk and Ann Patrice McDonough are former World Junior champions, but their senior careers haven't panned out. Meanwhile, neither Tara Lipinski nor Sarah Hughes won Junior Worlds--but they did win Olympic gold medals!!

In 1996, a trio of Russian ladies swept the podium at Junior Worlds: Yelena Ivanova, Yelena Pingatcheva and Nadezhda Kanaeva.

Also rans in that competition:
4th-Fumie Suguri
5th-Tara Lipinski
7th-Shizuka Arakawa

I think what we are saying is that winning a Jr World Championship does not necessarily relate to winning a Senior World Championship. An exceptional skater who wins Jrs will certainly become a contender for Srs Worlds, and some who don't win Jrs. Not all Jr Champs are exceptional.

Joe

What a difference a couple of seasons make... wasn't that long ago that the "depth of the US Ladies" was all the talk. I'm still hoping (perhaps naively) for great things from Sasha and one should never count out MK. But beyond that, who knows? Amber has had years to prove herself and hasn't. Angela simply implodes on too frequent a basis to make her a real contender. And the fact that Jenny Kirk tanked so thoroughly at Cup of Russia seems to spell greater trouble than a coaching change. Really not trying to bash these ladies, but yeah, it might seem that things don't look that bright for us right now.

I'm hoping a new skater we haven't considered explodes onto the scene at Nats.

(And okay, this is tacky, but Alisa Ciszny has lovely artistic qualities but falls so often that she wears obvious crash pads even in competition.)