Why did Amodio start in the junior category? As far as I remember he was already starting in the senior category at French Nationals last season.
The french system is an "elite system" (at least in FS, not in ice dance).
It doesn't work at all like in the US or Canada.
French Nationals is not the equivalent of US Nats or Canada Nats or ...
French Elite Nats are not Sr Nats.
In France, the basic categories are age categories (you can go in the upper category if you have a special goal or if, like Joubert, you want to be the boss at 17 yo but you can do without that).
There is a serie of competitions (les Tournois de France) and everyone competes in its age category (one can still go in the upper category but that's a personal choice).
Those who have the best scores there and in international competitions qualify for
Elite Nationals (min. age 12 yo), wether they are minimes, novices, juniors or seniors.
Elite Nats is a transverse competition.
It helps to concentrate the talents in a little field of skaters.
This way, the best youngsters compete very early against the grown-ups.
(Florent has entered Elite Nationals for the first time in 2005 when he was 15)
Later in the year, those skaters still have their age category championship : sr, jr, novices, minimes.
So there is actually a French senior nats later in the year but it doesn't really mean anything since the skaters in the Euro/World team don't enter it (it was usually at the same time than Euros). It simply gives a championship to the 6 best other seniors.
And there are french jr nats, ,novice nats, minimes nats and avenir nats.
That actually leads to have dwarf "true" senior category (currently 6 guys and 4 girls) because the seniors who are not competitive enough are quickly pushed aside by the juniors at Elite Nats.
Let's say that after the Olympics, there are 10 "real" seniors.
Year after year, more of them get beaten by the younger ones at Elite Nats and this age category shrinks little by little until only those who do international competition stay. The others leave to do shows or go on with their studies.
The elite system is a system of "exclusion" (which can be harsh and mentally exhausting when you don't seem on the right track because it's harder to "come back" than in the normal system) to keep only the best among the best ones.
France has a ridiculously little field of skaters compared to countries like the US, Canada, Japan or Russia (something like 14 000 FS members among which 2000 competitors from every level, that's not even a third of the Quebec Federation) and the goal is still to produce at least 3 World level athletes in each category.
The method simply can't be the same than in the larger federations.
Is the guy training a Quad? Does anybody know?
Not seriously yet. It'll be for next year.
This year, the goal is to fix and stabilize his jumps.
He has spent a month on that with Urmanov, this summer.
All his jumps have been far more secured since the begining of the new season.
