The Start of New Skaters in 2014 Worlds | Golden Skate

The Start of New Skaters in 2014 Worlds

sky_fly20

Match Penalty
Joined
Nov 20, 2011
though Mao will be favored to win Worlds with home advantage and to end her season/career ? on a high note
2014 Worlds will also mark the start of new blood of skaters with the likes of Gracie leading the new generation, aside from Mao
new young and fresh skaters are looking for a podium finish, maybe even a gold medal for Gracie
speed, power, fast spins, big jumps and body type is what the New Generation and CoP will be all about

what and exciting new crop of skaters to be excited about
time for the veterans to make way and give it to the new skaters !!
 

hyperinflation

Match Penalty
Joined
Jan 19, 2014
this might as well be called the 'gracie gold is the gr8est sk8r ever' thread. do you want some kleenex to clean up after yourself or something
 

sky_fly20

Match Penalty
Joined
Nov 20, 2011
this might as well be called the 'gracie gold is the gr8est sk8r ever' thread. do you want some kleenex to clean up after yourself or something

Gracie is one of the bright stars in the coming 2014-2018 quad
and there are other talented skaters too but for now, Gracie is the safest bet to become a multiple World Champion.
2016 Worlds, she has a high chance of winning in Boston
 
Joined
Aug 16, 2009
One thing we've all learned is that new skaters can pop up in the twinkling of an eye, so we may be greeting champions in a few years who are barely a blip on the radar now. But if things go on as they are now, Gracie, several of the Russians, and some others from Canada and Japan especially seem poised to make a run for the top ranks.
 

R.D.

Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
I'm ready for some new faces at the top, quite frankly.

But first, the season must end. Kim is the only one that has officially retired; I think Lipnitskaya is the only "new face" with a very strong shot at a medal (and the win). Gold could contend, too, if on and the top name(s) make mistakes.
 

CanadianSkaterGuy

Record Breaker
Joined
Jan 25, 2013
Seriously, how many more of these threads do you need! :rolleye:

Gracie wasn't even good enough to medal in the individual event in Sochi and you are still exhibiting the same if not greater rabid fanaticism.

Also, your statement that Gracie is the safest best to become a multiple World champion is ridiculous, when she hasn't even made the Grand Prix Final, skated a clean SP+LP, or even won any international event. Lipnitskaia is a far more obvious choice.
 

ClockwiseSpinner

Rinkside
Joined
Jan 8, 2014
After the "old" generation is gone, after 2014 worlds, I think that those who will fight for the next world titles / olympic titles are
ladies: sotnikova for sure. zijun li ha a great potential. lipnitskaia, only if she finally develops some speed and height in the jumps. gold only if she finds some artistry and does not skate as a boring robot anymore.
men: hanyu and fernandez for sure, they'll be on the next podiums. ten will be there on top. I think brown will never have a breakthrough as he doesn't have the jumps.

I'll say it clearly as here there are a lot of posters from usa/canada who each time push non credible skaters as the next "stars": you have to wait. I see no skaters with the "X" factor from usa/canada at the moment (beside patrick chan who is probably leaving soon).
 

aramina

Rinkside
Joined
Feb 13, 2014
I think the problem with prediction posts like this is that everyone forgets that in the USA, Russia, and Japan (probably other countries too, I just don't know them as well) there is an incredibly deep field of figure skating talent. We only really see a lot of the current best that these countries are sending to international tournaments, but hardly anyone had really heard of Julia Lipnitskaya before about a year ago, so there's no saying who we'll see steal the show in 2018 or even say in 2016/2017 Worlds. Okay, it's incredibly unlikely that Japan's going to manage to field a OGM class pair or ice dance team any time soon, but who knows? In many ways I'm both sad and excited, because while a lot of my favourite skaters are retiring, at the same time this means we get to see other skaters come into their own.
 

caseyl23

Rinkside
Joined
Dec 29, 2005
After the "old" generation is gone, after 2014 worlds, I think that those who will fight for the next world titles / olympic titles are
ladies: sotnikova for sure. zijun li ha a great potential. lipnitskaia, only if she finally develops some speed and height in the jumps. gold only if she finds some artistry and does not skate as a boring robot anymore.
men: hanyu and fernandez for sure, they'll be on the next podiums. ten will be there on top. I think brown will never have a breakthrough as he doesn't have the jumps.

I'll say it clearly as here there are a lot of posters from usa/canada who each time push non credible skaters as the next "stars": you have to wait. I see no skaters with the "X" factor from usa/canada at the moment (beside patrick chan who is probably leaving soon).

For the men, I think it's easier. Barring injury disasters, Hanyu and Fernandez seem like safe bets. I like Ten, but I'm concerned he won't hold up through his foot problems.
Brown, I'm reserving judgment on. He doesn't have any quads yet, but the talk is that he's working on it. If he can add the quads to his programs, he's got just as good a chance as the others (again, barring injury). From everything I've heard about him, he's ahead of where he thought he'd be at this point in his career, so I'm willing to give him a little time. That being said, if he's going to have that quad (and a really good triple axel) by 2018, I'd like to see him putting them in competition as soon as possible.

In the ladies, it's more of a shot in the dark. Actually, of the skaters you listed, Gracie Gold might be the safest shot, even though she's not my favorite. She's the opposite of Jason Brown – she already has the jumps, and if she stays with Frank Carroll, her artistry should only improve. The U.S. women are tough, but I don't think they're as tough as the Russians. Gracie's got room to have an off-day or two at Nationals and still be one of the top ladies. Zijun Li is very good, but she doesn't strike me as spectacular. She doesn't have the "wow" factor yet to push her above the other top girls.
The Russians are the most interesting to me. With them both being Olympic gold medalists, I can imagine the Russian Federation going in multiple directions. If no one else steps up to challenge them, they might stay in the top two/three through the next quad. If the other girls do, the Federation might push them aside in 3-4 years to give others a chance. Or those medals might be their insurance policy to set them apart from the others. Or they might hold up one and push aside the other, or one might struggle with expectations/puberty/pressure. The Russian Federation seems to either be its skaters' best friend or their worst enemy. The possibilities are almost endless.
 

pointyourtoe

On the Ice
Joined
Apr 11, 2013
Gracie will probably never become a world champion :( It's so sad

Julia and Zijun are the future. I think Mao's staying in for at least 2 more years
 

desertskates

Medalist
Joined
Nov 19, 2013
this might as well be called the 'gracie gold is the gr8est sk8r ever' thread. do you want some kleenex to clean up after yourself or something

I don't think Kleenex will do the job. Here, I've got some Clorox and a mop...

I will say I'm looking forward to seeing how some of the girls develop, though. Yulia L. and Li Zijun being my favorites is this group.
 

kwanatic

Check out my YT channel, Bare Ice!
Record Breaker
Joined
May 19, 2011
Whoa!!! I missed the Mao comment somehow.
Any solid info on this, anyone?

Just that she said she was 50/50 on deciding whether or not to continue. I'm wondering if the results of worlds this year will have any bearing on her decision? It could go either way though: (a) she wins and decides she can retire as a 3-time world champ which would give her the most world titles of her generation of skaters, or (b) she wins and it motivates her to continue to push forward and skate.

Personally, I'm hoping she'll retire. I love Mao (adores her) but the new generation of ladies is here and I'm ready for them to take over.

Going forward I think Gracie and Polina are two solid bets for the US now. There are many skaters still coming up through the ranks who can make a mark and, as we saw with Julia, it doesn't take long. She debuted on the senior level last year and won an Olympic gold medal this year. It can happen very fast. Karen Chen looks promising but she'll need to get through puberty.

As for Russia, I'd really like to see Adelina continue to skate for these next 4 years. At 17 years old she still has a lot of room to grow and mature as a skater/performer. Assuming Julia makes it through her next growth spurt and retains her jumps and consistency, she's a good bet moving forward as well. Anna Pogorilaya has the technical content and drive. She's 15 years old too so she may not be finish growing just yet. She has a ton of room to improve across the board and could be a really good prospect moving forward. Another young'un, Elena Radionova, has the technical goods, consistency and "it" factor to be great. She's only 14 so she has to weather puberty for the next couple of years but if she comes out on the other side intact she should be a contender.

This year's junior crop of Russian ladies doesn't have a stand out star. Adelina, Julia and Elena all ruled their junior seasons and were undefeated. Alexandra Proklova, Maria Sotskova, Evgenia Medvedeva and Serafima Sakhanovich have been trading placements all season long. No one stood out consistently so it will take a while for a star to emerge from this group.

Zijun Li looked really promising last season but she's trying to adjust to her growth spurt. I think she's lovely but she doesn't stand out as much as she needs to against the Russians or Americans. Her skating is light and subtle...but it's almost too light and subtle. She doesn't leave as big of an impact as she needs to. Hopefully she'll continue to improve upon that. As of now, it seems as though she's the only one from China. Ziquan Zhao is a lovely skater but her highest JGP finish was 4th a year ago; she was 11th and 12th in her events this year.

Japan is in a rebuilding phase. Satoko Miyahara is talented but I'm not confident she'll hold up under puberty. Her jumps are already small and prone to URs...I don't know if she'll retain her jumps post-puberty and if she does, she'll have a hard time competing with the other girls whose skating leaves a big impression on the ice. Rika Hongo has great jumps and skating skills but she is wholly uninteresting as a skater. If she can develop a style and personality on the ice she could be great. Riona Kato is another with potential and as well as Miyabi Oba, who is a Shizuka Arakawa/Miki Ando hybrid. Unlike in Russia, where there's a cluster of skaters who have already made their mark, Japan has skaters but very few of them have made any waves yet.

With Yu-Na gone, Hae-Jin Kim and So-Youn Park are the only ones who can carry Korea for now. Both girls are lovely performers and have a lot of potential, but they are going to have to work hard to keep Korea relevant for these next 4 years. There are a few others on the JGP (Da-Bin Choi and Na-Hyun Kim) but none of them have made a mark. Maybe we'll see what happened in Russia happen in Korea: a massive figure skating boom that results in many champion level skaters. Hopefully someone amazing will emerge in the next few years. With the next Olympics in Pyeongchang, it would be sad if Korea didn't have a top competitor in the ladies field.


Lots of prospects now and more we don't even know about yet. I'm excited to see what will happen this quad! :popcorn:
 

Sam-Skwantch

“I solemnly swear I’m up to no good”
Record Breaker
Joined
Dec 29, 2013
Country
United-States
^great post and great insight. Thx

I've posted this probably way too many times but I should have waited until now because if you look at where Yulia was in 2010(the start of last quad) and where she is now it is kinda scary that some 11 yr old kid might be out there with similar ambitions.

Again...the spiral at 0:48 mark :love: 12 seconds!!!
http://youtu.be/7pOyZc7Wur8
 
Joined
Aug 16, 2009
entire post

Thanks so much for your insights and your information about the up-and-coming skaters. I don't really know much about any of them except for the Russians we've been discussing (and now watching) for the past few seasons and a few of the Americans. I'm sentimental about Japan and always want them to have a few stars in the mix, so I'm hopeful that some of the ones you mention will realize their potential.

Like you, I adore Mao Asada. I'd like to see more of her but not if she's reached a point of exhaustion. She may want to continue now that she sees what she's capable of (after that extraordinary Olympic LP), because after all she's spent several years reworking her jump technique and may want to make use of it. But if she retires, or turns pro, I'll understand and will wish her well. We won't see the likes of her anytime soon.
 
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