The USFSA has got to start focusing on young talent and giving them opportunities to compete and access to good coaching. We have had a lot of women over the years who aren't usually medal contenders but stick around multiple Olympic cycles and take up plum GP, 4CC, and World spots. Would someone like Bradie have emerged earlier had she been given more opportunities? Would Karen and Courtney be doing better if the USFSA paired them up with a different coaches earlier on? After watching the GPF and JGPF and seeing how well the Russian and Japanese women are competing, I realized how dire the situation is. It isn't more dire only because Karen had the competition of her life at Worlds to keep 3 Olympic spots. Hopefully, at least one younger skater surprises us all at Nationals and earns one of those spots to gain some experience to build upon.
To be fair to USFS re: Bradie - she has been given opportunities, some of which I have personally criticized in the past. For example, I thought younger skaters should've been sent to Junior Worlds in both 2016 and 2017 - though I'm no longer sure that was such a bad decision, if those less-than-ideal competitive experiences have helped her achieve more consistency.
I agree though, in general, about the non-medal contenders sticking around who are given spots that might be more effectively used if given to younger, more inexperienced skaters. At the same time, it feels wrong to tell skaters like Sam Cesario (who I know is retired now) and Courtney Hicks and Angela Wang "hey, it's clear you're never in your life going to be in danger of winning a World or Olympic or GPF medal (or even making the GPF) so we're going to stop giving you good opportunities internationally" and effectively ending their international careers.
Then again, maybe that sort of response by USFS would force these stagnating skaters to make dramatic changes in order to achieve the better results they need to be more competitive.
Karen needed to change coaches two years ago. Her URs and inconsistent results are such major red flags that there just hasn't been any improvement on.
There are some promising novices/juniors, but the ones who are old enough to compete as seniors internationally are really unimpressive. Maybe Tessa Hong will surprise us, now that she's been healthy for a longer period of time and is Frank's main focus. Emmy Ma is old enough to compete as a senior internationally, but she really, really needs a 3-3. Starr - I just don't get the hype based on what she has delivered. I could see it if she was inconsistent but otherwise excellent, but that isn't the case. Her skating skills are very, very rough, especially.
All of the other junior ladies too young to compete as seniors are inconsistent and need to work on various things. Kaitlyn Nguyen is promising - she's a jumping bean who desperately needs refinement, but that's better than a refined girl who can't rotate a jump. Hanna Harrell had an amazing sectionals and is already getting some attention, but her JGP event wasn't great. Honestly, based on her Sectionals performance and the protocol, it looks like she's getting the benefit of the doubt on some rotations that look close. What do others think? I'm bad at detecting URs, especially without slow-mo. I think her jumps look iffy.
If USFS wants to get their ladies onto international podiums, tech panels at home need to start nitpicking over every jump and hammering these girls. That will get coaches to fix what they're teaching, and if they don't, then parents will take their students to a coach who will get the good results. Sloppy, sloppy tech panels at lower levels are so bad for the US ladies.
