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- Oct 25, 2012
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Since karne has highlighted some of the promising skaters from her country, I thought I could do the same.
Unfortunately, there are not many young skaters from Northern Ireland competing. I can only think of one, and the only reason I know of him is because his mother is Margaret O'Neill (the driving force behind skating in the whole of Ireland over the past 30 years, and Jenna McCorkell's original coach)
Sam McAllister (Great Britain)
Sam finished 4th in the Advanced Novice Men category of the British Championships this year (Results). He was 5th in the SP (Results), and 4th in the FS (Results).
I have looked on YouTube, and unfortunately I can't find any videos of him. So, we'll just have to wait until he gets to compete in a more high profile competition to see if he has potential.
So, I'll have to go beyond Norn Iron.
Most of the promising young Men’s Singles skaters that I know about have already been mentioned. So, I’ll move onto the other categories.
And I shall start with those that are already competing at senior level.
In Ice Dance, there was one suggestion that popped into my head as soon as I started thinking about promising up-and-coming couples. Then I looked them up to try to find videos to choose from, and discovered that they are actually a lot older than I thought. For goodness sake, the girl is less than a year younger than me!
Emi Hirai/Marien de la Asuncion (Japan)
You know, you have to feel sorry for Emi and Marien. The only time you ever get to see them on the international scene is at Four Continents, because the Reeds always win Nationals, and hence get sent to Worlds.
But, since they do not fit into the criteria of this thread, I will move on.
In Pairs, the obvious suggestion would be Annabelle Prölß/Ruben Blommaert (Germany). But, they are already well known as being stars of the future. So, I will go for a very new partnership that may still be a bit under the radar for now, but probably won’t be for long!
Amani Fancy/Christopher Boyadji (Great Britain)
I think it took everybody by surprise when this Anglo-French partnership won this year’s British Pairs Championship in their first season competing together.
When they competed at Europeans, I remarked:
Since then I have watched their performances from Nationals. And they were even better! So, I would advise that you watch those performances!
2014 British Championships SP
2014 British Championships FS
There are lots of young Ladies Singles skaters that have already established themselves in the senior ranks. But, I want to focus in on 2 that have not done too many senior competitions yet, but have still managed to stand out for me. Oh, and they both hail from Moscow… (Imagine that – me picking Russians!)
Anna Ovcharova (Switzerland)
I admit, I am totally biased when it comes to Anna. I have been a fan of her skating for a few years now, and over the past year or so I have become quite good friends with her.
Anna was a very promising Junior level skater. 2010 was definitely her best year. In Russian Juniors, she finished 2nd, coming back from a disappointing 8th in the SP to win the FS. It is worth looking at the results sheet to see the names that Anna beat! Then in Junior Worlds, Anna came 5th (behind Murakami, Zawadski, Agafanova and Shelepin). This time, she won the SP, but came 8th in the FS.
But the next few years were tough for Anna. First, she had problems with her leg, which ultimately needed surgery. Then her family decided to move to Switzerland, as Anna’s brother was at a private school there.
About a year ago, Anna did an interview with a Russian language newspaper in Switzerland (translation on FSU) and she admitted that she found it very hard to adjust to living in a foreign country, and getting taught in a foreign language and everything. I found it very upsetting to hear this and, after reading it, I just wanted to fly over there and give her a big hug!
But, things have improved since then. Anna has settled into life in Switzerland, and is actually enjoying living there now (I asked her about it myself). She entered Swiss Nationals in 2012, and finished 2nd at her first attempt. Then, in 2013, she won the title.
Anna competed for Switzerland at the World Championships this year, and although she made quite a few mistakes, and had a few falls, you could see how much she was enjoying the experience.
Nevertheless, for my choices of programmes to watch, I am going to go back to her Junior days. The SP in particular is brilliant!
2010 Junior World Championships SP
2010 Russian Junior Championships FS
The next skater is actually the girl that won the SP at Russian Juniors in 2010, but ultimately only finished 9th overall after a disastrous FS.
Kristina Zaseeva (Russia)
I have never really bothered with watching Junior competitions. So, the first time I came across Kristina Zaseeva was when she took part in a video that Adelina Sotnikova and some of her skating friends made to mark Adelina’s 17th birthday. They were dancing and messing about to “My Humps” by the Black Eyed Peas.
(For the discussion about the video, see from this post downwards in Adelina’s Fan Fest thread. Unfortunately, all the abuse people have been throwing around since the Olympics has led Adelina to cancel her vKontakte account. As a result, this brilliant video can no longer be viewed. Thanks a lot! :sarcasm: )
Out of the group, there were 2 that stood out as being absolutely brilliant dancers – Adelina and Kristina.
We all know where Adelina went on from there. But, I am surprised that Kristina hasn’t become a contender for a spot on the Russian team. Like, she didn’t even qualify for nationals this season! (She only got 1 point)
Looking through her results, Kristina seems to be a strange case. At Nationals, she ALWAYS does better in the SP than the FS. But, when competing in other countries, she tends to do better in the FS.
That she does not do so well in the FS at Nationals probably explains why we don’t get to see her competing internationally too often. It places her too far down the order in the overall results to be considered for an international slot. But, when she does get one, she does tend to do well, regularly finishing in the Top 5 (although, to be fair, there do not tend to be many big names at the competitions Kristina gets sent to…)
For the videos to watch, I have chosen the programmes where Kristina has scored her PB. Please be aware that the SP is from a Junior competition, while the FS is from a Senior competition.
2010 Russian Junior Championships SP
2011 NRW Trophy FS
Moving into the Junior ranks, and I could bore you by going on about all the promising Russian teenagers that are coming along the production line. But, instead I’m going to do things a bit differently. There are some young skaters that I’ve already talked about on the forum a few times. So, I will add them into this conversation.
Sini has already got in with the first skater I was going to suggest - Jenni Saarinen! (Good to see that I'm not the only one that likes her! )
You can already see that Jenni is highly talented, and is going to be somebody to keep an eye on for the future. But, for my other suggestions, I am going to look a lot further down the Junior ranks. These skaters probably won’t make it to the same level as Jenni, but I thought I would throw them in anyway to see if anybody saw some potential.
Tena Čopor (Croatia)
I first saw Tena during the Gala at the 2013 European Championships, and I was really impressed with her. Next time I saw her was during the Gala at the 2013 Golden Spin, and I was very disappointed - she was totally upstaged by the younger girl that was on the ice with her (Hana Kosić)
Tena finished 29th (out of 31) in the Slovakian round of the Junior Grand Prix in 2013. I have to be honest, I can see why she was so far down. These were not great performances at all.
Unfortunately, I can’t find any videos of her at other competitions. So, it's hard to tell whether Tena is actually as good as I thought the first time I saw her.
2013 European Championships Gala
2013 JGP Kosice SP
2013 JGP Kosice FS
2013 Golden Spin Gala
The next skater is actually the girl that finished one place below Tena at the 2013 Kosice JGP.
Kristina Dubrovskaya (Cyprus)
You probably don’t realise it, but I have talked about Kristina D on this forum before. However, I deliberately made a point of not naming her at the time. Kristina D is the skater I was referring to as “the Russian” in my original post in the “Figure Skating On Ice Rinks In Shopping Centres” thread.
Unfortunately, both of Kristina D’s segments in her 2013 JGP appearance were a disaster. So, maybe it is better not to watch them! Instead, watch her performances from her 2012 JGP appearance. Although she finished in a lower position than in 2013 (due largely to a bigger entry in 2012), her performances (and hence her scores) were far better in 2012.
Kristina is by no means the best skater in the world. It may be VERY rough around the edges, but you can see that she has the same characteristics that all the other Russian teenagers have. It needs a LOT of polishing, and a LOT of hard work on Kristina’s part, but she has the potential to be a half-decent skater, who could qualify Cyprus for a slot at the big competitions.
That said, I really do feel that if she wants to progress in this sport, she needs to stop practicing her skating in Cyprus, and get training with a proper coach in Russia.
2012 JGP Zagreb SP
2012 JGP Zagreb FS
Incidentally, when you do a search for her name on YouTube, if you scroll down the page, you will find quite a few videos of a girl singing in Russian and playing guitar. This IS the same girl!!! So, if the skating doesn’t work out, she can fall back on her music.
The most promising thing about these 2 skaters is that they are representing countries that are not normally associated with figure skating. And that in itself is a good sign for the future of the sport we love…
CaroLiza_fan
Unfortunately, there are not many young skaters from Northern Ireland competing. I can only think of one, and the only reason I know of him is because his mother is Margaret O'Neill (the driving force behind skating in the whole of Ireland over the past 30 years, and Jenna McCorkell's original coach)
Sam McAllister (Great Britain)
Sam finished 4th in the Advanced Novice Men category of the British Championships this year (Results). He was 5th in the SP (Results), and 4th in the FS (Results).
I have looked on YouTube, and unfortunately I can't find any videos of him. So, we'll just have to wait until he gets to compete in a more high profile competition to see if he has potential.
So, I'll have to go beyond Norn Iron.
Most of the promising young Men’s Singles skaters that I know about have already been mentioned. So, I’ll move onto the other categories.
And I shall start with those that are already competing at senior level.
In Ice Dance, there was one suggestion that popped into my head as soon as I started thinking about promising up-and-coming couples. Then I looked them up to try to find videos to choose from, and discovered that they are actually a lot older than I thought. For goodness sake, the girl is less than a year younger than me!
Emi Hirai/Marien de la Asuncion (Japan)
You know, you have to feel sorry for Emi and Marien. The only time you ever get to see them on the international scene is at Four Continents, because the Reeds always win Nationals, and hence get sent to Worlds.
But, since they do not fit into the criteria of this thread, I will move on.
In Pairs, the obvious suggestion would be Annabelle Prölß/Ruben Blommaert (Germany). But, they are already well known as being stars of the future. So, I will go for a very new partnership that may still be a bit under the radar for now, but probably won’t be for long!
Amani Fancy/Christopher Boyadji (Great Britain)
I think it took everybody by surprise when this Anglo-French partnership won this year’s British Pairs Championship in their first season competing together.
When they competed at Europeans, I remarked:
Since then I have watched their performances from Nationals. And they were even better! So, I would advise that you watch those performances!
2014 British Championships SP
2014 British Championships FS
There are lots of young Ladies Singles skaters that have already established themselves in the senior ranks. But, I want to focus in on 2 that have not done too many senior competitions yet, but have still managed to stand out for me. Oh, and they both hail from Moscow… (Imagine that – me picking Russians!)
Anna Ovcharova (Switzerland)
I admit, I am totally biased when it comes to Anna. I have been a fan of her skating for a few years now, and over the past year or so I have become quite good friends with her.
Anna was a very promising Junior level skater. 2010 was definitely her best year. In Russian Juniors, she finished 2nd, coming back from a disappointing 8th in the SP to win the FS. It is worth looking at the results sheet to see the names that Anna beat! Then in Junior Worlds, Anna came 5th (behind Murakami, Zawadski, Agafanova and Shelepin). This time, she won the SP, but came 8th in the FS.
But the next few years were tough for Anna. First, she had problems with her leg, which ultimately needed surgery. Then her family decided to move to Switzerland, as Anna’s brother was at a private school there.
About a year ago, Anna did an interview with a Russian language newspaper in Switzerland (translation on FSU) and she admitted that she found it very hard to adjust to living in a foreign country, and getting taught in a foreign language and everything. I found it very upsetting to hear this and, after reading it, I just wanted to fly over there and give her a big hug!
But, things have improved since then. Anna has settled into life in Switzerland, and is actually enjoying living there now (I asked her about it myself). She entered Swiss Nationals in 2012, and finished 2nd at her first attempt. Then, in 2013, she won the title.
Anna competed for Switzerland at the World Championships this year, and although she made quite a few mistakes, and had a few falls, you could see how much she was enjoying the experience.
Nevertheless, for my choices of programmes to watch, I am going to go back to her Junior days. The SP in particular is brilliant!
2010 Junior World Championships SP
2010 Russian Junior Championships FS
The next skater is actually the girl that won the SP at Russian Juniors in 2010, but ultimately only finished 9th overall after a disastrous FS.
Kristina Zaseeva (Russia)
I have never really bothered with watching Junior competitions. So, the first time I came across Kristina Zaseeva was when she took part in a video that Adelina Sotnikova and some of her skating friends made to mark Adelina’s 17th birthday. They were dancing and messing about to “My Humps” by the Black Eyed Peas.
(For the discussion about the video, see from this post downwards in Adelina’s Fan Fest thread. Unfortunately, all the abuse people have been throwing around since the Olympics has led Adelina to cancel her vKontakte account. As a result, this brilliant video can no longer be viewed. Thanks a lot! :sarcasm: )
Out of the group, there were 2 that stood out as being absolutely brilliant dancers – Adelina and Kristina.
We all know where Adelina went on from there. But, I am surprised that Kristina hasn’t become a contender for a spot on the Russian team. Like, she didn’t even qualify for nationals this season! (She only got 1 point)
Looking through her results, Kristina seems to be a strange case. At Nationals, she ALWAYS does better in the SP than the FS. But, when competing in other countries, she tends to do better in the FS.
That she does not do so well in the FS at Nationals probably explains why we don’t get to see her competing internationally too often. It places her too far down the order in the overall results to be considered for an international slot. But, when she does get one, she does tend to do well, regularly finishing in the Top 5 (although, to be fair, there do not tend to be many big names at the competitions Kristina gets sent to…)
For the videos to watch, I have chosen the programmes where Kristina has scored her PB. Please be aware that the SP is from a Junior competition, while the FS is from a Senior competition.
2010 Russian Junior Championships SP
2011 NRW Trophy FS
Moving into the Junior ranks, and I could bore you by going on about all the promising Russian teenagers that are coming along the production line. But, instead I’m going to do things a bit differently. There are some young skaters that I’ve already talked about on the forum a few times. So, I will add them into this conversation.
Sini has already got in with the first skater I was going to suggest - Jenni Saarinen! (Good to see that I'm not the only one that likes her!
)You can already see that Jenni is highly talented, and is going to be somebody to keep an eye on for the future. But, for my other suggestions, I am going to look a lot further down the Junior ranks. These skaters probably won’t make it to the same level as Jenni, but I thought I would throw them in anyway to see if anybody saw some potential.
Tena Čopor (Croatia)
I first saw Tena during the Gala at the 2013 European Championships, and I was really impressed with her. Next time I saw her was during the Gala at the 2013 Golden Spin, and I was very disappointed - she was totally upstaged by the younger girl that was on the ice with her (Hana Kosić)
Tena finished 29th (out of 31) in the Slovakian round of the Junior Grand Prix in 2013. I have to be honest, I can see why she was so far down. These were not great performances at all.
Unfortunately, I can’t find any videos of her at other competitions. So, it's hard to tell whether Tena is actually as good as I thought the first time I saw her.
2013 European Championships Gala
2013 JGP Kosice SP
2013 JGP Kosice FS
2013 Golden Spin Gala
The next skater is actually the girl that finished one place below Tena at the 2013 Kosice JGP.
Kristina Dubrovskaya (Cyprus)
You probably don’t realise it, but I have talked about Kristina D on this forum before. However, I deliberately made a point of not naming her at the time. Kristina D is the skater I was referring to as “the Russian” in my original post in the “Figure Skating On Ice Rinks In Shopping Centres” thread.
Unfortunately, both of Kristina D’s segments in her 2013 JGP appearance were a disaster. So, maybe it is better not to watch them! Instead, watch her performances from her 2012 JGP appearance. Although she finished in a lower position than in 2013 (due largely to a bigger entry in 2012), her performances (and hence her scores) were far better in 2012.
Kristina is by no means the best skater in the world. It may be VERY rough around the edges, but you can see that she has the same characteristics that all the other Russian teenagers have. It needs a LOT of polishing, and a LOT of hard work on Kristina’s part, but she has the potential to be a half-decent skater, who could qualify Cyprus for a slot at the big competitions.
That said, I really do feel that if she wants to progress in this sport, she needs to stop practicing her skating in Cyprus, and get training with a proper coach in Russia.
2012 JGP Zagreb SP
2012 JGP Zagreb FS
Incidentally, when you do a search for her name on YouTube, if you scroll down the page, you will find quite a few videos of a girl singing in Russian and playing guitar. This IS the same girl!!! So, if the skating doesn’t work out, she can fall back on her music.
The most promising thing about these 2 skaters is that they are representing countries that are not normally associated with figure skating. And that in itself is a good sign for the future of the sport we love…
CaroLiza_fan
Just wait until the grand prix circuit or four continents!
YouTube indicates that this was uploaded by her dad:
