https://www.usatoday.com/story/spor...ram-ever-u-s-womens-figure-skating/357458002/
My idea is that the gap the American ladies have is due to the fact that these girls are not competitive at the age of 13-14 because they learn all their triples and combos later. I don't really know the reason, maybe due to this philosophy US coaches and influencer have where we should praise more the maturity in figure skating. But let me remind you few facts:
1) By the time Russians and Japanese skaters move into seniors, they are already much more prepared to win medals;
2) Yuna won the gold medal in 2010 at the age of 20, Adelina at Sochi 2014 at the age of 17, and likely Alina Zagitova will win the gold medal in Pyeongchang at the age of 15, so ISU doesn't reward more aged skaters or yes they do but it's still not enough to beat the new rising stars.
3) America used to have the new queens who win everything at 15-16 in the 90s, so why now they are focusing more on aged skaters?
Another good point is the fact that the best coaches in US and Canada don't work with juniors: Brian Orser doesn't have american or canadian skaters competing in juniors, Rafael Arutyunian maybe he's helping or at least sharing the rink with Svetlana Panova, but again, she coaches russian skaters only (could she train American skaters?), Tessa Hong went back to Tom Z according to her ISU profile after 6 months with Frank Carroll.
Yes there are Tom Z and Tammy Gambill but they are not top coaches: they've never brought a skater to medal at Worlds or GPF.
On the other side Eteri Tutberidze and Mie Hamada (the leading coaches in ladies in Russia and Japan) work primarily with juniors.
Thoughts? Solutions?
My idea is that the gap the American ladies have is due to the fact that these girls are not competitive at the age of 13-14 because they learn all their triples and combos later. I don't really know the reason, maybe due to this philosophy US coaches and influencer have where we should praise more the maturity in figure skating. But let me remind you few facts:
1) By the time Russians and Japanese skaters move into seniors, they are already much more prepared to win medals;
2) Yuna won the gold medal in 2010 at the age of 20, Adelina at Sochi 2014 at the age of 17, and likely Alina Zagitova will win the gold medal in Pyeongchang at the age of 15, so ISU doesn't reward more aged skaters or yes they do but it's still not enough to beat the new rising stars.
3) America used to have the new queens who win everything at 15-16 in the 90s, so why now they are focusing more on aged skaters?
Another good point is the fact that the best coaches in US and Canada don't work with juniors: Brian Orser doesn't have american or canadian skaters competing in juniors, Rafael Arutyunian maybe he's helping or at least sharing the rink with Svetlana Panova, but again, she coaches russian skaters only (could she train American skaters?), Tessa Hong went back to Tom Z according to her ISU profile after 6 months with Frank Carroll.
Yes there are Tom Z and Tammy Gambill but they are not top coaches: they've never brought a skater to medal at Worlds or GPF.
On the other side Eteri Tutberidze and Mie Hamada (the leading coaches in ladies in Russia and Japan) work primarily with juniors.
Thoughts? Solutions?