2024 World Junior Championships Women's Free Skate

[TallyT]

Its not so bad 3 silvers in a row if she gets 4 silvers in a row, she will be the only woman with that accomplishment, there are a couple who have had 3. And she is senior eligible the Olympic year and Mao is not. So its not so bad.

Mao won't be eligible for the Olympics till what, 2030?

 

[CoyoteChris]

Working. She's Fuji TV onsite reporter for Junior Worlds (and Senior Worlds, so we'll likely to see her at Montreal).

Good for her....her beauty and artistry are timeless....

 

[CoyoteChris]

Mao won't be eligible for the Olympics till what, 2030?

We better ask Mathman....Next winter olys is Feb 6, 2026. Mao was born Oct 30, 2008. If its 2030, not only will I may not be around, there are lots of things that can happen geo politically (rules can change) and health/injury wise in all those years.....maybe we should have a prediction pool on who will even still be around on the ice in 2030.

 

[Jumping_Bean]

A cute little coincidence



(Also, the medals are actually very pretty for once )

 

[Jammers]

So what the heck happened to Josephine Lee she almost wins Senior Nats then bombs again at Junior Worlds? She needs to figure out how not to peak in January. And why was Junior Worlds so early this year? Don't they usually start in the 2nd week of May i didn't even check for results since i thought they started in about 5 days.

 

[Jumping_Bean]

So what the heck happened to Josephine Lee she almost wins Senior Nats then bombs again at Junior Worlds? She needs to figure out how not to peak in January.

Nothing really happened to Josephine except for extremely lax technical calls at Nationals inflating her domestic scores beyond all reasonability. Yeah, she had an unfortunate fall on a 3Lo, which gained her a +REP, but even with that she wouldn't have scored more than mid to high 160s.

And why was Junior Worlds so early this year? Don't they usually start in the 2nd week of May i didn't even check for results since i thought they started in about 5 days.

Jr Worlds was at the same time last season, and has been multiple times before, nothing that unusual going on here. The timing of Jr Worlds is normally between the last February week and the second March week, depending on when the hosting federations can hold the competition.

 

[Leonardo]

I was able to watch it live at the arena last night despite not having been following the sport for years so was privileged to observe everything with fresh eyes. Sadly judging biases are still very much prevalent contrary to what is being performed on the day. Still hugely favours the rich feds in particular Japan and the US.

Mao's program was incomplete, a jumping drill with pleasant background music that thoroughly lacked in choreography, interpretation, ice coverage, everything is just small, small jumps, and her movements were mostly incomplete and hurried. (I believe I was the first poster who recommended Karl Jenkins music in this forum all these years ago because they make a natural alternative to the warhorses that complements figure skating well, with a good dosage of the built-in emotional factor, but I do not mean the skaters don't have to do any work) The only interpretation I saw from her was halfway mark when she was required to jump to a highlight part of the music. Her jumps were tiny and favored by physical size, doubt she will be able to keep the jumps once grows. Eteri strategy still wins the sport.

She covers half the coverage relative to what the Jia covered, skated small in presence, and I am frankly astonished by her PCS mark that should be in the early 50s for a junior program ranked as high or close to the silver. There should be a good 7 or 8 points in PCS to separate them. If the last Olympics said balanced complete performance can triumph over quad jumping drills, then I don't understand why they blatantly skew the result by undermark the silver and overmark the gold medalist. There was muted silence when her scores were announced in the rink. The huge mark separating them is puzzling.

Jia was by far the most impressive even during warm-up among her group, posture/carriage, air positions, flow, skating skills, ice coverage, jump stability, don't think she even missed one triple during warm-up. She did not skate junior relative to the field, but to me personally, perhaps a bit too close to Yuna Kim's style by imitation that wouldn't qualify her as a senior me. It is not a bad thing though.. she should have won the Gold or at least no more than 1-2 points separate them due to the quality of everything she does.

I quite like the Swiss skater, her form was excellent but did not have the tech to back it up, needs experience, power, and stability. The Queen program was a riot, pure joy in a Junior way, thoroughly enjoyed i

Sometimes your emotions clouds an objective understanding about skating skills, musicality, choreography, flexibility, posture, extension, toe point etc etc etc Mie Hamadas students are famous for all of those qualities and Mao is no exception.
Everyone can see that she is a beautiful skater. She already grew 12cm, so unfortunately for some, shes not going to lose her jumps. Actually she landed her first 2 clean quads internationaly this season. And no there was no silence, she was the most applauded girl in the arena in many moments.

 

[TeamGubanova]

So if a country has earned 6 spots but they also have a JGP in their country (eg.France), do they get the other 6 JGP PLUS 3 spots at the French JGP (6 + 3 =9)? Or do they get 5 JGP, which includes France but they get 2 additional spots for their JGP (6 + 2 = 8)?

technically they could get 6 + 3 = 9 if the ISU for some reason dedcides to not give quota to any french skater at JGP France, but in reality its always 6 + 2 = 8

 

[NaVi]

There have been better 12 or 18 skater events. And better events when just looking at the top 6 or 12 or 18. But this was the most pleasant to watch whole 24 women FS event that I can remember. This is the first time every skater in a FS with 24 women earned over 100 points and they did it while being handicapped one less element in comparison to seniors.

Lowest total score out of the 24 skaters who made the FS for Junior and then Senior Worlds for the past 10 years
2024 - 155.39
2023 - 117.90, 155.74
2022 - 129.65, 147.12
2021 - -------, 146.54
2020 - 126.55, -------
2019 - 131.97, 143.22
2018 - 116.77, 136.87
2017 - 120.41, 152.94
2016 - 115.41, 136.07
2015 - 112.51, 120.11
2014 - 105.72, 129.82
2013 - 104.37, 127.98

Number of skaters who scored under 100 points in the FS at Junior and then Senior Worlds for the past 10 years. This is an unfair comparison as seniors have an extra element. I'm not going to do any normalization here as 100 point is a nice psychological barrier to cross regardless of the actually underlying meaning under it. And even with that disadvantage, the juniors beat the seniors to have a FS where everyone crossed that barrier.
2024 - 0
2023 - 10, 1
2022 - 11, 1
2021 - --, 3
2020 - 11, --
2019 - 12, 6
2018 - 13, 7
2017 - 14, 4
2016 - 15, 4
2015 - 15, 12
2014 - 15, 8 (there were withdraws in each event which probably would have made this 16, 9)
2013 - 21, 9

Number of skaters who scored over 160 for Junior Worlds and then 165 for Senior Worlds. Seniors have had an extra element so I set the cutoff at 5 points higher. I chose 160 as the benchmark because of it's proximity to what pre-2014 Junior Worlds medalists scored.
2024 - 21
2023 - 14, 20
2022 - 13, 19
2021 - --, 20
2020 - 14, --
2019 - 9, 17
2018 - 10, 16
2017 - 7, 17
2016 - 7, 13
2015 - 7, 9
2014 - 6, 12
2013 - 3, 11
2012 - 3, 5
2011 - 3, 8
2010 - 1, 9
2009 - 0, 7 (stopping here since earlier years had an extra element for each)

 

[zebobes]

There have been better 12 or 18 skater events. And better events when just looking at the top 6 or 12 or 18. But this was the most pleasant to watch whole 24 women FS event that I can remember. This is the first time every skater in a FS with 24 women earned over 100 points and they did it while being handicapped one less element in comparison to seniors.

These are some incredible stats! The men were also incredibly good in the FS as well, I thought the performances were all uniformly strong far down in the rankings. Any thoughts on what has caused the change in overall skating level? I think the only discipline where this is not the case is the pairs.

 

[OS]

Sometimes your emotions clouds an objective understanding about skating skills, musicality, choreography, flexibility, posture, extension, toe point etc etc etc Mie Hamadas students are famous for all of those qualities and Mao is no exception.
Everyone can see that she is a beautiful skater. She already grew 12cm, so unfortunately for some, shes not going to lose her jumps. Actually she landed her first 2 clean quads internationaly this season. And no there was no silence, she was the most applauded girl in the arena in many moments.

Don't think so in this case. As mentioned I have never seen these 2 skaters before nor aware of their reputation since I have been unfollowing the sport for the past few years. (Put off by all the poor judging, scandals and abuse blehs.. etc)

Mao is a fantastic JUNIOR skater, don't get me wrong, but I am referring to the PCS scoring which is wildly inflated as if she is marked as a senior which lob-sided the competition when that is maxed at 10 despite inflation, this hugely disfavors those who wish to compete and train for PCS. Her program consists of a jumping drill that requires little choreography or interpretation, as Jenkins' music allows it so, she moves only 50% with the music, and thus should be marked accordingly. Coverage, speed and scale is something you can't see clearly from the camera but became fairly obvious from rink side.

The silence I was referring to was the disagreeable scoring gap when Jia's scoring was read out. She had big applause when completed her performance, but there was visible surprise/shock when her score was announced.

 

[Skating91]

That 4T for Shimada looked like a q (I can post images if people like), and then in the short program the flip on the combo should have been a q as well, and the lutz borderline. Tech panel really dropped the ball.

Predictably of course they destroyed poor Inga.

I like Shin and she is impressive, but something is lacking. A lack of charisma or something. There is something bland about it like a Muraviova. I can't figure it out because objectively she's great (although I think there's an agenda to give her a big push in scoring to create a rivalry with Shimada).

Whereas Uezono I'm captivated every time and Shimada too but to a lesser extent.

 

[Skating91]

Jia Shin was boring, My favourite was Rena Uezono today.

Agree completely. Uezono is a phenom but I'm worried if she keeps getting taller the sport will become too hard for her.

 

[Joekaz]

I was able to watch it live at the arena last night despite not having been following the sport for years so was privileged to observe everything with fresh eyes. Sadly judging biases are still very much prevalent contrary to what is being performed on the day. Still hugely favours the rich feds in particular Japan and the US.

Mao's program was incomplete, a jumping drill with pleasant background music that thoroughly lacked in choreography, interpretation, ice coverage, everything is just small, small jumps, and her movements were mostly incomplete and hurried. (I believe I was the first poster who recommended Karl Jenkins music in this forum all these years ago because they make a natural alternative to the warhorses that complements figure skating well, with a good dosage of the built-in emotional factor, but I do not mean the skaters don't have to do any work) The only interpretation I saw from her was halfway mark when she was required to jump to a highlight part of the music. Her jumps were tiny and favored by physical size, doubt she will be able to keep the jumps once grows. Eteri strategy still wins the sport.

She covers half the coverage relative to what the Jia covered, skated small in presence, and I am frankly astonished by her PCS mark that should be in the early 50s for a junior program ranked as high or close to the silver. There should be a good 7 or 8 points in PCS to separate them. If the last Olympics said balanced complete performance can triumph over quad jumping drills, then I don't understand why they blatantly skew the result by undermark the silver and overmark the gold medalist. There was muted silence when her scores were announced in the rink. The huge mark separating them is puzzling.

Jia was by far the most impressive even during warm-up among her group, posture/carriage, air positions, flow, skating skills, ice coverage, jump stability, don't think she even missed one triple during warm-up. She did not skate junior relative to the field, but to me personally, perhaps a bit too close to Yuna Kim's style by imitation that wouldn't qualify her as a senior me. It is not a bad thing though.. she should have won the Gold or at least no more than 1-2 points separate them due to the quality of everything she does.

I quite like the Swiss skater, her form was excellent but did not have the tech to back it up, needs experience, power, and stability. The Queen program was a riot, pure joy in a Junior way, thoroughly enjoyed it.

I don't know if you watched the last Olympics, but the quad jumpers won gold and silver. Plus the only reason it wasn't a podium sweep was that Valieva completely fell apart in the free which allowed Sakamoto to get bronze. And Kaori is hardly a good example of artistry, gracefulness, or even good jump technique. Lol

 

[Andrina]

Wrong Thread