- Joined
- Dec 12, 2005
If there is one thing this Olympics (and skating season) is proving, is the depth of both the Japanese mens and womens teams. Three very young and capable men were sent to the Olympics, who still have more seasons in them, and Japan had more Olympic-worthy female skaters than they even could send. And the amount of young skaters there training to be the next Mao or Takahiko are overwhelming. I guess the question comes to this: where is a Pairs team? We saw one Japanese woman. Kavaguti, defect to Russia to skate pairs for the "Olympic Dream," but there are so many capable skaters in Japan, that unless they do start having internationally competitive pairs teams, a lot of talented skaters are never even going to be seen. But somehow the Japanese attitude seems to be "great singles skater or nothing at all," or perhaps more would be turning to pairs. Does anyone think we will see any great Japanese pairs teams come about by the next Olympics, or will it just continue to be even deeper talented fields with many worthy skaters not getting their chance to shine?
It would be an interesting thing to see... it seems like any Japanese pairs team that would be able to compete with the best would have to be put together relatively late... turning two solid singles skaters into a pairs team; especially since Japanese boys tend to be smaller than girls until much later than for other ethnicities, and the population isn't as overwhelming as China. The other problem would be coaching, but with so much raw talent to choose from, it doesn't seem unfeasible that international coaches could set their eyes on it.
Any input?
It would be an interesting thing to see... it seems like any Japanese pairs team that would be able to compete with the best would have to be put together relatively late... turning two solid singles skaters into a pairs team; especially since Japanese boys tend to be smaller than girls until much later than for other ethnicities, and the population isn't as overwhelming as China. The other problem would be coaching, but with so much raw talent to choose from, it doesn't seem unfeasible that international coaches could set their eyes on it.
Any input?