I do not believe for one second that the new age rule was invented to stop Russian teenage phenoms. I welcome this rule, and think it's a good one. I don't really care if it's Akatieva or Mao Shimada who we won't see in senior competitions until they turn 17. And if a 13-year-old boy from Korea or France showed up in juniors with quints, beating everyone by a 20-point margin, I'd feel the same way.
It probably didn't stop injuries, nothing ever will.
Banning quads at junior and senior level for women means that no coach will bother teaching them, no child will have to take risks jumping them, otherwise what was the point of raising the age limit? Take the example of Sadkova who moved up to seniors this year. She struggled in juniors because she didn't have as many quads, nor the stability. She commented competing in seniors is much easier than competing in juniors. Much less pressure I can't remember the exact, but they were along those lines.
I haven't been following all countries super closely this year, but my impression is that we're generally seeing a step back from the quad craze among young teens - that is, among the countries that compete in ISU competitions, and therefore are motivated to tread slowly and carefully
with ultra C.
In ISU juniors a lot more non-Russian children are jumping or at least attempting ultra-c now than a few years back.
I don't see that as 'regression' or 'deterioration' at all, as some like to call it. Rather, for me it's an attempt to spare pre-pubescent youngsters' bodies that's definitely worth a try at least. Looking at the 2023 JGPF women for instance, I see just 1 quad (and Mao S is an exception rather than the norm), and three 3A.
If we go back to junior world's of 2020 before COVID upended the next season, the only non-Russian girl to attempt a quad was Liu which she failed to land, and three girls including Liu attempted a 3A and all of them failed on it as well.
If we look at Shimada in international comps I think it's 1 out of her last 9 that she's landed clean now, and fallen on 4 or 5 of them. Given how much she struggles to rotate or land the 4T now at her prime age for jumping quads, there's no chance of having a stable quad at age 17 so it makes no sense to have a coach putting her through this punishment at such a young age. And this is Shimada the best of the non-Russian girls. If she can't get stability, then there is little hope for any other junior. So just ban them for females.
What did Dave Lees say about Bazyluk landing a clean 4T+3T+3T+3T+3T and a 4S+1Eu+4S? That it's disgusting, that all her bones will break. I mean, she didn't even suffer a fall and he's saying how disgusting and dangerous it is.
If he thinks it's disgusting to see someone jump quads clean, then what does he think about the best non-Russian jumper in the world falling (often heavy falls) on close to 50% of her attempts and only landing 1/9 clean, and continually being pushed into attempting a dangerous jump she has never once had stability in. So just ban quads, so poor Shimada isn't sent out there to go splat on the ice and end her chances at senior medals before the even started.
Why are these skaters holding back on more ultra C? My logical assumption would be that the skaters and their coaches do it not because they're lazy or inferior to Russians, but because they want to enjoy the senior career, and largely don't want to risk getting so injured prematurely that they wouldn't even make it to seniors - to the big stage, big medals, big prizes (at least compared to juniors) and popularity. And if so, that's the way it should be, as far as I'm concerned.
No-one is holding back. Shimada is sent out there to take a heavy fall 50% of them time, there's an American girl with a frightening technique that attempts a quad when she should be learning basic techniques and she takes a heavy fall every time I have watched her.
Go back to junior world's 2020 and only one non-Russian had a quad and failed on it, world's 2022 only Rion attempted a quad and failed on it and only Watanabe attempted a 3A -- and you guessed it -- she failed on that as well. I don't understand where you get this idea they are holding back it's ramping up when you take into account all the 3A attempts as well now.
With these kind of terrible odds that the best juniors in the world have attempting ultra-c, when only 2 or 3 in a field of the best juniors in the world are capable of attempting them, why not just ban it for females when almost all of them will lose the jumps even if they have some stability as a junior.
Does not make sense to have them does it? Does not make any sense for the best of the best to be learning, attempting, risking health on these jumps when the odds are so terrible for the skaters. Not to mention this is juniors, they skate in juniors to be prepared for seniors. It is strange that so many people don't care about the health of these juniors.
In motor racing, cars become faster and faster with advancements each year. Without intervention of the FIA in tinkering with rules in order to slow cars down, the teams will continue to build faster cars and send drivers out in them. No driver is going to say no this is too fast. Drivers just say build something faster they all think a bad crash will happen to someone else. The FIA can't rely on a team or driver to self police and say to themselves, this is getting too unsafe maybe we should stop bringing upgrades to the car because someone might get hurt.
No, the governing body steps in to slow the cars down, they ask for tracks to alter the design of circuits if they become too dangerous. The save the teams and drivers from themselves.
The same has to happen in figure skating. Child skaters need to be saved from themselves (more so from their coaches and federations).
