- Joined
- Feb 17, 2010
Is it me or does the US seem to be finally building up the lower ranks with first Alysa and now with Levito and Kalin in the pipeline? It's to early to know what the future holds but it's great to see such talent at such a young age. It's not Russian depth yet but seeing these girls doing jumps and combos that in past years US Junior ladies champions couldn't do tells me that things are heading into the right direction. The days of a US Junior lady winning the US Junior title at 17 or 18 without all the triples or a 3-3 combo may be over.
It is looking promising, but I do care more about having strong senior skaters than junior skaters. Aside from Alyssa, none of the US Juniors are doing much more than Caroline Zhang did when she was a junior. A lot of skaters since then, like Ashley, Gracie, and Mirai, ended up accomplishing more than Caroline despite having less impressive junior results. Look at Rika; she's unquestionably been one of the top skaters in the world this past year, and her junior results wouldn't have foreshadowed that success at all. I'd like to see our juniors attempt the difficulty, but only if they learn the jumps in a way that will sustain them through their growth.