- Joined
- Jun 3, 2005
So now that our season has finished, we're looking towards next season. We're going to see numerous skaters moving up from the junior ranks to the senior ranks next year, and with all the talk about Asada winning the Olympics if she could have gone, how much of an impact do you think these skaters will realistically make next year, in all disciplines?
If we want to play a numbers game, we could compare Junior Worlds to the Olympics and Worlds:
Kim's score of 177.54 would have placed her fourth at the Olympics, ahead of Suguri and Rochette, but a good few points behind Slutskaya, and fifth at the World Championships, if we eliminate the qualifying round scores. Of course, it's never perfectly black and white because of different sets of judges, and PCS perhaps being higher in general in senior competition, but this can give us an idea that Kim could very well be a force to be reckoned with next year.
Asada's score of 153.35 would have placed her tenth at the Olympics, behind Kostner, and ahead of Gedevanishvili. Of course this was arguably her worst performance of the season, so this might not be accurate in terms of what kind of effect she'll have on the senior ranks next year.
Junior men's champion Takahiko Kozuka's score of 180.05 would have placed him 19th at the Olympics, so I guess we can conclude that to a certain extent, the junior men that move up to the senior ranks next year won't be quite as much of a force as their female counterparts.
Vlassov and Meekins, the junior pairs champions' score of 138.05 would have placed them 14th at the Olympic Games, behind Hinzmann and Parchem, and ahead of the French team Pla and Bonheur, and 12th at the World Championships, again behind Hinzmann and Parchem, and ahead of the young Russian team Murkhortova and Trankov. So the junior pairs might not have a huge affect on the podiums next year, but they could very well shake up the top ten.
Virtue and Moir's score of 172.57 would have placed them 10th at the Olympics behind Domnina and Shabalin, but ahead of the Kerrs and their countrymen Wing and Lowe, who beat them at the national championships, and would have placed them 8th at the World Championships, again behind Domnina and Shabalin, and ahead of Faiella and Scali and again their countrymen Wing and Lowe. So the junior dancers could definitely have an effect on the top ten, and perhaps the top six next season.
The bottom line is that we can't compare competitions, because of different sets of judges, different circumstances, different context, different requirements, etc., etc. but we can get a rough idea of the landscape of the contenders next year in each of the disciplines. We can essentially expect the mens to stay the same. We can expect the ladies to really shake things up, and we can see some shuffling in pairs and dance in the future as well.
Thoughts?
If we want to play a numbers game, we could compare Junior Worlds to the Olympics and Worlds:
Kim's score of 177.54 would have placed her fourth at the Olympics, ahead of Suguri and Rochette, but a good few points behind Slutskaya, and fifth at the World Championships, if we eliminate the qualifying round scores. Of course, it's never perfectly black and white because of different sets of judges, and PCS perhaps being higher in general in senior competition, but this can give us an idea that Kim could very well be a force to be reckoned with next year.
Asada's score of 153.35 would have placed her tenth at the Olympics, behind Kostner, and ahead of Gedevanishvili. Of course this was arguably her worst performance of the season, so this might not be accurate in terms of what kind of effect she'll have on the senior ranks next year.
Junior men's champion Takahiko Kozuka's score of 180.05 would have placed him 19th at the Olympics, so I guess we can conclude that to a certain extent, the junior men that move up to the senior ranks next year won't be quite as much of a force as their female counterparts.
Vlassov and Meekins, the junior pairs champions' score of 138.05 would have placed them 14th at the Olympic Games, behind Hinzmann and Parchem, and ahead of the French team Pla and Bonheur, and 12th at the World Championships, again behind Hinzmann and Parchem, and ahead of the young Russian team Murkhortova and Trankov. So the junior pairs might not have a huge affect on the podiums next year, but they could very well shake up the top ten.
Virtue and Moir's score of 172.57 would have placed them 10th at the Olympics behind Domnina and Shabalin, but ahead of the Kerrs and their countrymen Wing and Lowe, who beat them at the national championships, and would have placed them 8th at the World Championships, again behind Domnina and Shabalin, and ahead of Faiella and Scali and again their countrymen Wing and Lowe. So the junior dancers could definitely have an effect on the top ten, and perhaps the top six next season.
The bottom line is that we can't compare competitions, because of different sets of judges, different circumstances, different context, different requirements, etc., etc. but we can get a rough idea of the landscape of the contenders next year in each of the disciplines. We can essentially expect the mens to stay the same. We can expect the ladies to really shake things up, and we can see some shuffling in pairs and dance in the future as well.
Thoughts?
Plus, Virtue and Moir had a promising senior international debut at 2006 Four Continents by winning the bronze medal. I'm definitely looking forward to seeing how Yu-Na Kim's transition to senior internationals goes! 
, she just outgrew him (or you can say he just wasn't big enough for her). 
