And at that moment none of us know if those juniors can keep their quads for another 4 years.. From those 3 I actually see alena having the best chance to stay on top of her game
Call me crazy but I have the most confidence about Tarakanova keeping her triples. She has tight air position, relatively fast rotation, is already quite tall, jumps high. And she‘s got amazing technique, too, that 3Lz is a thing of beauty that every old-school technique fan should appreciate.
Anna‘s chance will depend on whether she grows a lot or not. But considering her mom who seems to share a similarily thin and fragile look, it seems to be just her innate, natural body type. She relies on fast rotation and her upper body to jump but as long as she doesn‘t grow too much, it should be fine. Not everyone has a serious growth spurt. Zhenya had a similar jumping technique and it lasted her a long time.
Alena is a weird case. Her jumps are so high and beautiful that I‘d say yes, she‘ll keep her jumps with full confidence if... it wasn‘t for the leg wrap she’s having. It always seems kind of lose on every jump but her 3T in combo and she also seems to have a bit of delayed rotation which is absolutely beautiful but can turn out to be a problem too. I‘m fairly confident, though, as her 3Ts show that she can have a tighter airposition. I hope and think her team is working on that. Her lutz is also something I‘m keeping my eye on. Shallow outside/flat edge should be enough as long as it isn‘t inside. Hopefully she‘ll manage to keep it that way and not have it turn to an inside as she grows because I really don‘t want to have yet another favourite whose ”FLUTZ!“ calls from outraged fans I have to endure.
Sasha is a machine. Her body is made out of muscle. The height she gets on her quads isn‘t solely due to her being tiny and thus being able to jump high. She‘s got strength in her legs, that one. She jumps 2A without any preparation. She jumps high, rotates fast. Her landings are sometimes a bit rushed and seem rough but that‘s the only bad thing I can say about her jumps.
But commenting on puberty is a dangerous thing to make. Because we simply never know. Evgenia for example always looked like someone who‘d be hit badly by puberty, yet she managed to keep her small and thin stature for years. And there‘s also the thing with injury. It can happen to everyone. Anna literally broke her foot on a double. You can have just bad luck and slip of the edge and break your arm/leg/whatever. We just don‘t know what will happen. I personally wish all of them good luck but it‘s hard to predict how their future will turn out. That‘s why to my mind, Alina and Zhenya and every other senior girl in Russian FS who‘s trembling because of the 3A powertrio shouldn‘t focus too much on juniors but rather do their own thing, improve on their own rate. They can‘t do anything else anyway and beating themselves up won‘t do any good. Leonova is still around. Liza came back. Not all is lost. For nobody. Skating is a strange sport. We can never be certain of literally anything. That‘s why I‘m personally so reserved about “she is done!“ calls. Because no one knows the future and with a sport as slippery and exciting as figure skating, it would be a shame to. I mean, how boring would the FS have been today had we guessed all the placements beforehand? This way it was a HUGE sensation. And rightfully so.
Btw, because I haven‘t done it in here yet: Congrats to Anna, Sasha and Alena! You were all amazing.
