2026 Junior Worlds: General Info and Pregame Chat | Page 2 | Golden Skate

2026 Junior Worlds: General Info and Pregame Chat

With regards the Lengyelová sisters, I wouldn't be quite so sure that it is set in stone yet that Alica is the one that is going to Tallinn.

Yes, Alica won a Junior GP. But, with Slovak Junior Nationals not being held until the week AFTER Junior Worlds ( :palmf: ), the Slovak Fed has been doing like the Lithuanian Fed did with their Senior girls, and has sent both sisters to a series of competitions for head-to-heads over the past few months. And Olivia has beaten Alica in all of them.

No doubt about it, Alica had the upper hand in the early part of the season. But since then, Olivia has eclipsed her.

With this in mind, I was surprised when the entries for Junior Worlds came out and Alica had the slot while Olivia was the alternate.

They are both in Tallinn this week for the Haabersti Cup (which is held at a different arena to where Junior Worlds are being held).

The Junior Ladies SP starts at 13:35:00 EET (11:35:00 GMT / 12:35:00 CET). So 6 hours from now.

Olivia will be the 2nd skater to start, while Alica will be the 24th skater to start.

It'll be interesting to see what happens.

CaroLiza_fan
 
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With regards the Lengyelová sisters, I wouldn't be quite so sure that it is set in stone yet that Alica is the one that is going to Tallinn.

Yes, Alica won a Junior GP. But, with Slovak Junior Nationals not being held until the week AFTER Junior Worlds ( :palmf: ), the Slovak Fed has been doing like the Lithuanian Fed did with their Senior girls, and has sent both sisters to a series of competitions for head-to-heads over the past few months. And Olivia has beaten Alica in all of them.

No doubt about it, Alica had the upper hand in the early part of the season. But since then, Olivia has eclipsed her.

With this in mind, I was surprised when the entries for Junior Worlds came out and Alica had the slot while Olivia was the alternate.

They are both in Tallinn this week for the Haabersti Cup (which is held at a different arena to where Junior Worlds are being held).

The Junior Ladies SP starts at 13:35:00 EET (11:35:00 GMT / 12:35:00 CET). So 6 hours from now.

Olivia will be the 2nd skater to start, while Alica will be the 24th skater to start.

It'll be interesting to see what happens.

CaroLiza_fan

Just to follow up my comment about the Lengyelová sisters.

As it turned out, Alica didn't compete at the Haabersti Cup. Olivia was 7th in the SP, 2nd in the FS, and 2nd overall.

For those that are wondering, Sofia NEKRASSOVA (EST) won both segments, and took the overall title by 7.19 points. Sofia is Estonia's first alternate for Junior Worlds.

It take it Alica's withdrawal means that the Slovak Fed are going ahead according to the original plan, and that she was being rested as preparation for Junior Worlds.

They really were caught between a rock and a hard place. Go with the younger sister that earlier this season had the biggest international result for Slovakia in years, but isn't in the same form now. Or go with the older sister who had a slow start to the season, but is the skater in form now.

It's a hard choice to make. And I'm not convinced they have made the right choice. But, we shall see.

Olivia has been sent to Junior Worlds for the past two seasons, but hasn't got through to the Free Skate. She also becomes Senior eligible next season. With her being the sister currently in better form, I'd have been inclined to give Olivia one final shot this season, and then give Alica preference from next season onwards.

Regardless of my opinion on the selection, I wish Alica all the best.

CaroLiza_fan
 
🇮🇹 Amanda Ghezzo replaced Anna Pezzetta in Women
I was surprised to see Anna to begin with on the entries for JWC because she is also on the entries for Sonja Henie Trophy in seniors, which is the same week :scratch2: The entries were updated today and Anna is still there 😱 She has a good chance to take the gold though, so if she cares more about medals it makes sense she wants to ditch Jworlds and go to Norway 😁
 
Which is, tbh, an ISU problem with increasing the age limit to absurd.
I am fine with the age limit. I think in many cases, pairs take more time to develop. However, the ISU should be having a rule that if skaters take part exclusively in senior events, they shouldn't be allowed to compete at Junior worlds. Skaters wanting to do so should not be competing in GP and senior championships but should be competing in JGP or junior Bs. The rule would be very hard to word in and would probably be unfair to some skaters from small federations who are not at the top but do represent their countries in seniors.

So then, another way to rule out these odd cases would be to say that a skater who is top 6 at senior championships cannot enter junior worlds the following year.
 
I can see why a country with very few top skaters wants to get maximum value in both categories, and why a country with a lot of top skaters will want to send skaters in the crossover age range to junior worlds, so they can send others to senior champs.

And for a skater who is mostly skating seniors, but misses the cut for their World and Olympic Senior Team, this is a consolation prize.

But it does look ridiculous and unfair when the "junior" is a medal contender at senior championships. It shouldn't be impossible to formulate rules to stop that happening. Making the Senior Grand Prix Final could be a bar to competing in Junior Worlds, or medalling at GPs, Regionals or Worlds.

The Olympics makes the schedule heavier this year, so I'd guess it wouldn't be very tempting to go Euros-Olympics-JW-Worlds.
 
I can see why a country with very few top skaters wants to get maximum value in both categories, and why a country with a lot of top skaters will want to send skaters in the crossover age range to junior worlds, so they can send others to senior champs.

And for a skater who is mostly skating seniors, but misses the cut for their World and Olympic Senior Team, this is a consolation prize.
Yes. I have no issues whatsoever with USA sending Flores-Wang and Jacob Sanchez.
But it does look ridiculous and unfair when the "junior" is a medal contender at senior championships. It shouldn't be impossible to formulate rules to stop that happening. Making the Senior Grand Prix Final could be a bar to competing in Junior Worlds, or medalling at GPs, Regionals or Worlds.
Yes. Will they dare ?
The Olympics makes the schedule heavier this year, so I'd guess it wouldn't be very tempting to go Euros-Olympics-JW-Worlds.
I am thinking that the main reason why Metelkina-Berulava are not at JWC is exactly because of the schedule. One added event Is making it too hard.
 
However, the ISU should be having a rule that if skaters take part exclusively in senior events, they shouldn't be allowed to compete at Junior worlds. Skaters wanting to do so should not be competing in GP and senior championships but should be competing in JGP or junior Bs. The rule would be very hard to word in and would probably be unfair to some skaters from small federations who are not at the top but do represent their countries in seniors.
Well, it's minimums too. Like, if they were shooting for senior minimums all year and didn't get them, but have junior minimums... I dunno, pairs are different from singles and dance. Harder to get top 6 in seniors in 3 disciplines than in pairs. But they have the highest top age cut-off. So double dipping is just so much easier.
 
I am fine with the age limit. I think in many cases, pairs take more time to develop. However, the ISU should be having a rule that if skaters take part exclusively in senior events, they shouldn't be allowed to compete at Junior worlds. Skaters wanting to do so should not be competing in GP and senior championships but should be competing in JGP or junior Bs. The rule would be very hard to word in and would probably be unfair to some skaters from small federations who are not at the top but do represent their countries in seniors.

I have made my feelings clear on age ranges many times (minimum age for Seniors should be 16, and maximum age for Juniors should be 18), so there is no need to rake over old ground here.

But I just want to pick up on the small Federation point, as that is the situation Cyprus finds itself in.

This time last year, it looked like Cyprus was about to enter a halcyon era in Junior Ladies. They had two strong skaters already competing in Juniors, Vasilisa Bogomolova and Varvara Abramkina, and a third strong skater is due to become Junior eligible next season, Olivia Bazlova.

However, Varvara saw that the wind was turning against her, and jumped ship to Bulgaria, which is where she has trained for years. She promptly won the Bulgarian Championships by a country mile, but is not able to take the Bulgarian slot at Junior Worlds as she is still under embargo.

So Vasilisa started the season on her own. But she then got injured shortly after making her Junior GP debut. I don't know what happened, but her foot was in a cast. And she has been out of action ever since.

Olivia isn't old enough yet, so they have had to bring the revelation of the Olympic Qualifying Event, Stefania Yakovleva, back into Juniors as a backup in case Vasilisa is not able to do Junior Worlds.

From what I know of Stefania, I am 100% sure she had no intention of going back to Juniors. Especially after such a strong debut Senior season. But, circumstances have arisen which mean that she may have to, so as to ensure Cyprus gets enough Junior GP slots to enable both Vasilisa and Olivia to compete in two Junior GP's next season.

Stefania is entered for the Bellu Memorial in Romania this week. If she does not turn up for the SP on Friday, that may be a strong indication that she will be in Estonia next week.

So then, another way to rule out these odd cases would be to say that a skater who is top 6 at senior championships cannot enter junior worlds the following year.

I would fully support this amendment.

CaroLiza_fan
 
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I would rather ISU stopped creating convoluted rules based on a single occasion that made them pinch their lips. And, like, did that other thing instead. But that's just me.
 
I have made my feelings clear on age ranges many times (minimum age for Seniors should be 16, and maximum age for Juniors should be 18), so there is no need to rake over old ground here.

But I just want to pick up on the small Federation point, as that is the situation Cyprus finds itself in.

This time last year, it looked like Cyprus was about to enter a halcyon era in Junior Ladies. They had two strong skaters already competing in Juniors, Vasilisa Bogomolova and Varvara Abramkina, and a third strong skater is due to become Junior eligible next season, Olivia Bazlova.

However, Varvara saw that the wind was turning against her, and jumped ship to Bulgaria, which is where she has trained for years. She promptly won the Bulgarian Championships by a country mile, but is not able to take the Bulgarian slot at Junior Worlds as she is still under embargo.

So Vasilisa started the season on her own. But she then got injured shortly after making her Junior GP debut. I don't know what happened, but her foot was in a cast. And she has been out of action ever since.

Olivia isn't old enough yet, so they have had to bring the revelation of the Olympic Qualifying Event, Stefania Yakovleva, back into Juniors as a backup in case Vasilisa is not able to do Junior Worlds.

From what I know of Stefania, I am 100% sure she had no intention of going back to Juniors. Especially after such a strong debut Senior season. But, circumstances have arisen which mean that she may have to, so as to ensure Cyprus gets enough Junior GP slots to enable both Vasilisa and Olivia to compete in two Junior GP's next season.

Stefania is entered for the Bellu Memorial in Romania this week. If she does not turn up for the SP on Friday, that may be a strong indication that she will be in Estonia next week.



I would fully support this amendment.

CaroLiza_fan
Of course, no need for the long example but I know you are attached to Cyprus skaters, no idea why though :)

But there are tons of examples where it's fine... even in bigger feds, to have junior eligible skates have a period where they do both. The overlap is designed that way so strong juniors can also experience senior events.

We have a team in Canada right now, very promising, they did 4CC... It was tough for them but a very good experience. They will be at Junior worlds. But all season, they skated on the JGP circuit. They are in a development phase.

There are tons of examples, like Adam Hagara too. The point I am making has nothing to do with crossing over until the senior career is secured. Jacob Sanchez even won a challenger but truly, he is not competitive in his own country yet to be selected for senior championships, so I will be pleased to see him at JWC. Really, the only team I have seen milking the system, earning top prize money which means less funding for junior teams, and blocking access to a senior transition (junior world medallists may get a GP invite) to other teams have been mentioned ad nauseam in this thread. So, at some point, there will be an ISU rule (or not) to prevent that and it will have a name... :) like other specific rules that went against milking the system.

IIt's too bac that the ISU makes rules and doesn't have the vision to eliminate the gray areas first.
 
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