Raising minimum age for seniors from 15 to 17?

starlight97 said:

I think to anybody that's capable of even a half objective observation it's clear that the skaters from the 2000s generation like Kostner, Asada, Kim when they were that age that these current phenomena are at right now, let's say anywhere 12-16, were not even close to what these kids show today. Neither in program complexity, nor in transitions and most definitely not in technical content.
And subjectively adding: neither in skating skills if you compare 15yo Mao to 15yo Kostornaya for example. But that comes down to specific skaters.

But that's okay :confused2:
Sports advance, that's their nature. And of course Mao or Kim at 19 or 20 had better SS and programs that 13yo novices. That's why the point is- at that age.

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Tolstoj said:

While with skaters retiring at the age of 18, you'll never see that development, i'm glad at the very least commentators have stopped saying "oh this is not quite as good but she'll learn that over time, she's still young" because they even know most of these skaters won't be around for that long to learn things properly.

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icestorm said:

The main reason for good skaters to retire at the early age is the situation when by the current ISU rules number 6, 9 and 10 in the World Best list (Med, Tuk, Zag) are not allowed to go to WC, while numbers 125, 132 and 133 (McKay, Mikutina, Perticheto) are.

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Mathman said:

I wish there were some actual content posted about the question instead of wallowing in imagined national victimhood and martyrdom.

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Mathman said:

I wish there were some actual content posted about the question instead of wallowing in imagined national victimhood and martyrdom.

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ParadiceSport said:

At least by rising the age slightly, there is a chance for other countries to be on top. Right now there is full dominance By Russian. It is more like Russian championships with others.

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Mathman said:

I wish there were some actual content posted about the question instead of wallowing in imagined national victimhood and martyrdom.

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icestorm said:

Mathman, did you mean "imagined national victimhood and martyrdom" of non-Russians?

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Mathman said:

Yeah, you're right. I shouldn't single out any one particular group of skating fans.

My real complaint is about the rise of unpleasantness and belligerence in friendly discussion groups like Golden Skate. Maybe it was always this way, but it seems to be getting harder and harder for fans to keep their ardor in check.

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eterislouisvuitton said:

With the 8 year old doing 3Lz+3T, 10 year old doing 3A, 11 year old doing 4T, and 14 year old doing 4Lz it seems like this won't be ending anytime soon. We will have to see what effect long term all these quads have on Sasha and Anna, they are really the first test crop. But seeing what happened to Alina without a quad is just not settling to me.

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flanker said:

Somehow it is still missing the problem. If hard elements like quads or 3A are dangerous beyond acceptable risk (there is always a risk in top sport), than the dangerous elements should be banned, not the age eligibility raised, because the jumps would be dangerous the same way in juniors.

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Tolstoj said:

The point i was making though is that they developed many skills over time, so yes maybe at 15-16 they weren't the complete package (worth noting rules were very different too) but they had the time to work on both the elements and the artistry and the maturity, and they had the opportunity worked with best choreographers around the world.

While with skaters retiring at the age of 18, you'll never see that development, i'm glad at the very least commentators have stopped saying "oh this is not quite as good but she'll learn that over time, she's still young" because they even know most of these skaters won't be around for that long to learn things properly.

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Mathman said:

Yeah, you're right. I shouldn't single out any one particular group of skating fans.

My real complaint is about the rise of unpleasantness and belligerence in friendly discussion groups like Golden Skate. Maybe it was always this way, but it seems to be getting harder and harder for fans to keep their ardor in check.

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Skatesocs said:

Not sure it was always like this. But certainly social media has made it worse. It brings out the worst in people. Compound that with the issues of language across a multinational sport, the fanbase being so young (surely you remember high school and your undergrad!), the judging being bad, and the information but not the understanding and knowledge needed to use it being widely available for this sport (favourite skaters skate for 5 minutes tops! Not really the 90 minutes long soccer game. You can watch that skate repeatedly to dissect it and complain about it), then this is what we get, if we add the magic ingredient of nationalism.

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icestorm said:

The main reason for good skaters to retire at the early age is the situation when by the current ISU rules number 6, 9 and 10 in the World Best list (Med, Tuk, Zag) are not allowed to go to WC, while numbers 125, 132 and 133 (McKay, Mikutina, Perticheto) are.

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TeamGubanova said:

I am originally from Slovenia and if that was the case we would never be able to see Dasa Grm nor Olga Mikutina it would be a showdown between Russia, USA, and Japan countries that have a very high training capacity. What may actually help Liza, Zhenya and Alina would be a fairer component situation where Sasha doesn't beet Liza. Or to actually call flutzes and criticize bad technique and actually apply the GOE system and not skew it up just because you are Team Tutberidze or have 3 quads. Those are good solutions not cutting out the figure skating dream of people from other countries who don't have resources like Russia, the USA, and Japan.

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SkateSkates said:

This is why I’ve been advocating for another event, based on SB. It wouldn’t replace worlds, but would give skaters from strong countries a chance to compete in a championship event in the 2nd half of the season. It could be held after worlds in April and the top 24 skaters in the SB list would qualify.

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TallyT said:

Though playing angel's advocate here, if the Russian Federation and fans believe that their wealth of ladies do not have enough chances to shine, there is nothing to stop them creating and running their own special competition...

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