Let us restart then. My favorite is Aliona Kostornaia. I loved her even before she became a top talent last season, she is not as “musical” as Anna but still knows exactly how to connect with the music, and is an exceptional performer. Her and Plushenko I could see working very well together— stubborn and somewhat loud personalities. So I of course wish her the best with Plush, and was very shocked when she left Eteri, whom she’d given such praise.
I adore Kamila. She is my favorite in the juniors field. She is a ballerina on ice. But I want to see her jump technique improved so she doesn’t get injured so often, and to see her do something more exciting on ice! Her programs are lovely, but I hope to see something different this season.
Liza seems to be the underdog right now. If she can really get technical content she plans and improves her performance skills, or at least looks like she’s putting effort into it, then she may surprise everyone and kick out one of the young prodigies from the world’s team.
Sasha is an incredible jumper and even looking at videos of her from AP I think she may actually be able to get five quads. She doesn’t look like she missed a beat, though I would understand totally if she did. But it is no secret that her spins and skating skills need work, and I think Romeo and Juliette may be a perfect choice for her this season even if it’s redundant because it has some softness to it despite that there are those powerful Sasha moments we expect. That may depend on choreography but I won’t pass judgement until we see the programs at least a few times.
Anna’s Firebird is going to be difficult to top this season. I’m curious to see what TT has planned for her and also if no longer having Sasha and Anna to compete with at practice will hurt her. She’s said in the past that even though she doesn’t like being part of the 3A, she does derive a lot of strength from seeing her teammates perform, because “it makes it seem as though things are not impossible” and that she “can do them as well”. I’m assuming that Kamila, Daria, Maia, etc will have replaced that for her? Always a joy to watch.
Daria and Maia intrigue me. Maia seems to really sell her new SP but I’m not so sure about the FS. But it does give me positive hints in the future because I was thinking she may have difficulty selling programs. Both of them seemed unstable at test skates but I’m not going to fault them there. How can I? Daría still has one of the best 2A’s and if she gets a 3A, dare I say, it may be better than Aliona’s.
Sofia and Veronika have been discussed about much in this thread recently so I won’t rehash, but Sofia has better artistry and Veronika has better jumps. Sofia also has some age on Veronika and artistry can evolve very quickly so I don’t know if it’s proper to compare them super heavily at this point even if they compete in the same category.
Other notable skaters— I think we’re going to be surprised by Titova and Samodelkina. I was really impressed by Samodelkina at the test skates. I also loved Osokina, and I look forward to seeing her compete against the rest of the juniors field because I think she’s really really underrated. Give her to Eteri tonight and tomorrow she would make a podium.
I am anxious to see Alina because it seems she has so much going on. I wouldn’t be surprised if she didn’t even appear at test skates even though she was named to the national team.
Zhenya’s music choices are really good, and suit her well, I think the programs will be nice. Technical content will likely again be her strain, so of the non-3A girls I am anticipating her test skate the most.
by all means help them out. I'm being tres serioux (very serious). When things are out of hand when people like Edwin and orlov and moriel and both Sam's among others don't post here anymore we know something's rotten in Denmark. Are other threads as occasionally hostile as this one? This is a really good thread most of the time. We need competition badly but then some are hard on jr Moscow competitors ehen they are all out of top form. We need patience it will take time for these super talented juniors and seniors to get in good form.
