2020 Youth Olympic Games recap | Page 2 | Golden Skate

2020 Youth Olympic Games recap

lariko

Medalist
Joined
Jan 31, 2019
Country
Canada
I was looking for to the junior ladies division, and I was not disappointed...

By now, i’m quite a fan of Young You who went from an interesting name last season to joy to watch. I am so happy to have seen her skate live earlier this year :) and she skated it right after Korean nationals, so, wonderfully done!

Russian team was a great pick. I am glad that Frolova got selected, as she is becoming more and more intriguing as season progresses. I had the same worries about Sinitsina as about Mozalev&Samsonov, only more so, after her terrible fall in RusNats... but her skating has the level of polish I just don’t know how to describe. Fingers crossed the ladies perform admirably in the free!

And there were charming skates by Kawabe, Wang and Mazzara.
 

lariko

Medalist
Joined
Jan 31, 2019
Country
Canada
At what time is the junior ladies free program tomorrow? I can’t wait to see Sinitsina and Tornaghi!!!!!!

It now lists it in the upcoming streams if you visit the channel YouTube option, almost exactly 12 hours from the moment I am posting :yahoo:
 

Ladskater

~ Figure Skating Is My Passion ~
Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 28, 2003
2020 Youth Olympics?

I must really be out of the loop, I accidentally discovered this on the CBC sports app. Any Canadian skaters? I was not aware there was a youth Olympics.
 

brens78

Medalist
Joined
Jun 15, 2016
Country
Australia
I have the Olympic pages on Facebook and given me a live feed. Time differences and having to up early for work hasn't really made it feasible for me to watch.
 

lariko

Medalist
Joined
Jan 31, 2019
Country
Canada
I must really be out of the loop, I accidentally discovered this on the CBC sports app. Any Canadian skaters? I was not aware there was a youth Olympics.

Yes, Alexa Rakic competed in gentlemen division and there were Canadian youth in each discipline. The full YouTube coverage form Olympic channel is fine in Canada.
 

kan01

Final Flight
Joined
Dec 15, 2019
Country
Romania
Hi, everyone.
I'm a bit out of touch as well and I was just wondering why Alysa Liu is not in this competition? Is it because US Nationals will be soon? Just curious, if someone can explain. She could have won here.
 

lariko

Medalist
Joined
Jan 31, 2019
Country
Canada
Hi, everyone.
I'm a bit out of touch as well and I was just wondering why Alysa Liu is not in this competition? Is it because US Nationals will be soon? Just curious, if someone can explain. She could have won here.

We can only guess, but the timing of the event is not favourable, really, given that the strongest juniors now compete with seniors in the Nationals. Young You competed immediately after Korean Nationals, the Russians competed less than two weeks after their nationals, the Japanese had an extra week, while both Americans and Canadians are only a week or two before their Nationals.

I think it should have encouraged sending the junior skaters who do not compete in the senior events, and that’s what Americans did from what I can see with all of their entries. I don’t think they even substituted when one of their skaters withdrew.

As far as Olympics go, these games are as much under radar as it could possibly get
 

Edwin

СделаноВХрустальном!
Record Breaker
Joined
Jan 5, 2019
Pretty underwhelming competitions so far. Apart from the obvious favourites, many contestants didn't seem up to the task in all disciplines.

Don't know if YOG in this state and form serves any purpose. If IOC wants their to elevate their YOG to the same prestige as a mini Word Championships, something needs to be done.
 

DenissVFan

Medalist
Joined
Oct 20, 2017
Btw, do you consider Youth Olympians who haven't competed at the "senior" Olympics (yet or at all) Olympians? Just curious.

I was a little surprised that for example Alysa isn't competing. Some of the age eligible skaters from big federations may not be able to go to "senior" Olympics so it'd make sense to have this Olympic experience at least.
 

ladyjane

Medalist
Joined
Jun 26, 2012
Country
Netherlands
Btw, do you consider Youth Olympians who haven't competed at the "senior" Olympics (yet or at all) Olympians? Just curious.

I was a little surprised that for example Alysa isn't competing. Some of the age eligible skaters from big federations may not be able to go to "senior" Olympics so it'd make sense to have this Olympic experience at least.

Exactly that: who knows if any of these skaters will ever go to a 'proper' Olympics...although Kagiyama is aiming for it (he stated that in interviews).

I understand Alysa is not competing because she is training for a senior programme at Nationals. It would be complicated by doing the Junior programme again just two weeks before (she started training this revised and longer LP after the JGP) Nationals.
With regard to not sending a replacement for Malinin: he withdrew shortly for the start due to illness. There was no time left to replace him. Poor guy.
 

lariko

Medalist
Joined
Jan 31, 2019
Country
Canada
The profile of the event didn’t seem high, but I enjoyed watching it. This year was so good in terms of the availability of watching the sport, not just the star skaters in the highest level competitions (which were also available). I feel that I actually saw not just guessed at just how crazy out of the ordinary the performances I’d normally see are.

My mom told me she is enjoying it more than senior performances, because she loves how the juniors’ music selection and interpretation comes together...

I dunno, I am happy to watch it.
 

el henry

Go have some cake. And come back with jollity.
Record Breaker
Joined
Mar 3, 2014
Country
United-States
Any event that gives me one more chance to watch Utashin is a great event :cheer:

And my junior men as well.

Didn’t watch the other disciplines, but I’m sure they were worthwhile. I’ve seen Young You skate in person, and when she’s on, she’s on :thumbsup:
 

Rere

Rinkside
Joined
Oct 22, 2018
Country
Canada
I'm watching YOG at my own pace now, and finished Men and Ladies SPs so far - it's such a treat and joy!
I am a relatively new fan, and this is my first season watching juniors - it was so nice to see some of my favourites from recent JGP events, and how athletes improved through the season! Maybe, it's just my perception, but the atmosphere of the event seemed just a right amount of cozy vs major event, with decent streaming and commentary (I've got used to Ted's great style with no talking during the program, but without element scores displayed, commentary made sense for sure, and was helpful!), yet no high concentration of the "big guns" or exorbitant stress levels for participants - at least, I'd like to hope so))).
Kokura was the surprise of the day, and in a positive way. I couldn't keep from grinning during his skate.
Yeeessss, I was grinning like mad throughout the program and probably about 15 minutes after it finished! And such a joy that Andrey got all his jumps right this time!

Noah Bodenstein seemed to improve so much, too, and seemed to have a blast))
And I am rooting for Mozalev so hard! Love his short program, I hope in the free he did well!
 

ladyjane

Medalist
Joined
Jun 26, 2012
Country
Netherlands
New medals: dancing, twirling and jumping at the YOG in Lausanne.

I have to admit that I haven't seen all skates and dances today. It is a monday and a working day, so I had to wait until I was home after that to watch. Still, I did see some interesting skates and dances at the second day of medals, so here goes another review. Please feel free to add about skaters and Ice Dance couples I missed, but were also worthy of note (as I imagine all were in the end).

Can I start with being disappointed about there being no victory ceremonies on ice that can be watched? At least at the 'proper' olympics you get to see an Ice ceremony with the skaters in costume, even if there's a medal ceremony later where they wear their country jackets and so on. There were ice ceremonies here as well, I know because I could see on site that they were planned, but the live streams all stopped before that happening. If someone's got a link: yay. Please forward them.

I'm also quite unhappy about the (lack of) exposure of these Youth Olympic Games. Oh, there's enough on the Olympic channel, the Lausanne website and so on, but why is there nothing on the ISU site? {Edit: they did put a summary on eventually:https://www.isu.org/isu-news/news/1...e-2020-figure-skating-review?templateParam=15. I suppose Senior Short track 4 Continents and European Speed Skate championships are considered more important, but the ISU president is present at the YOG (at least he was at the medal ceremony of the Pairs and the men). That would indicate that the YOG are important (and they should be). So far it seems as if Junior Worlds is more important, and I think that's odd. This is an Olympics after all. For Juniors, but still an Olympics. The crowds seem to enjoy the skating though.

Ice Dance
What an unhappy day for the Canadians. Both of their Dance Teams skated well, but it wasn't enough for a medal. I really expected one of them to capture one after the RD, but it was not to be. We had the wonderful Japanese team, who skated rather classically (and were wonderful to watch, but slightly old fashioned in my view) who skated past both of the Canadian teams in the Free, but didn't manage to pass them in the standings. And then there were America's Katarina and Jeffrey who haven't skated together very long, but somehow showed a togetherness together (see what I did there) with some great edges and difficult elements, and just overtook them. The resulting scores were pretty close for all four teams, which made it an exciting competition. But perhaps even more disappointing for Natalie and Bruce expecially. The Russians were one and two (deservedly I think), but I really loved Sofya and Alexander's Dance the best, while (sorry, had to agree with Chris on this one) Irina and Dario just made me think of Susanna Rakamoh and Petri Kokko in 1994. Much more technically demanding, but still. Nice for the USA to get a medal here. Although I would have been really happy for the Canadians to fight off the 4th place curse at YOG events. Good to see a couple of Japanese doing well in Dance though.

Ladies
Usually it's the men with the splat fest, but - even if I missed quite a few skates - today the ladies showed they can do it too. Argh. However, there were still some beautiful performances. I love Alessia from Italy (although she had a pop; no fall though). What a beautiful, mature skater. 0.01 point better than Alina from Georgia who also skated well (and was fun to watch - in a totally different style) in the Free, so not enough to overtake her in the standings. Makabe had a powerful skate to Black Swan with a triple axel, and a fall but still with some great elements. Anna is a beautiful skater, but it wasn't her day (2 falls). Makabe won the Free, but personally this time I would have had her in front of Anna in the end standings. Luckily for Anna, the judges did not agree: they gave Makabe the win on the free but not with enough points to overtake Anna. Anna was so unhappy about her skate, and I could hardly begrudge her that medal! Kseniia was wondrous today. Okay, she had a bit of a problem with one jump (but not a fall) and a deduction because of overskating in time, but she looks really gorgeous on the ice. The best however was saved for last. 10 years after Yuna Kim's win at the Olympics at Vancouver, another Korean young lady got herself an Olympic Gold. At the YOG, but still: Olympic Gold. And deservedly so. She did a triple axel, she was elegant, some beautiful combinations, and just a terrific skate. Congratulations to Young You.

Only the Mixed Team event left as far as Figure Skating is concerned. Although I am very much in favour of this kind of thing (getting team spirit among different countries), I'm not sure yet how I can review that as - it's a working day again - I won't be able to watch everything. I'll try to find a way, but for now: that's all folks.
 
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