Kimmie had a growth spurt, which kinda took her out. Between 2006 to 2012, nationals was a free for all, in which anyone could win as long as they skated clean. Our ladies were a mess. It was such a struggle transistioning from 6.0 to IJS. Without a stable lady like Michelle, it took away the stability that ladies skated relied upon for decades. Ashley provided some of the consistency needed, while Gracie gave ladies skaters a blueprint to transistion into IJS programs.
The problem with Gracie, is that she was expected to be a world champion out the gate. She hadn’t had a lot of experience competing against competitors at her level. Her ascent was fast. Suddenly she was expected to handle the expectations of a nation while facing off with competitors that were just as good if not better than her. Evgenia OTOH was challenged as a junior and learned competitive nerves because of it. It’s something that juniors and seniors need to learn before they can be expected to win.
Winners are made not born. At novice level, local level competitions are easy for skaters that have semi consistent triples to win. If the most talented novices, juniors and seniors competed against each other more often then they’d develop better competitive skills that would serve them well competing internationally. It’s takes more just talent at jumping and spinning to become winners.
