I think Skate Canada has internal criteria for senior international assignments. Keegan seems to have met that and so he got a Skate Canada host spot outright. Notice Nicolas didn't get one, despite being a junior silver world medallist and on the national team in a higher spot than Keegan. He doesn't appear to have met the benchmark. Or if he has, there are still doubts about his ability to deliver/if his recovery is complete. The fact is that at Junior Worlds the only guy who delivered completely was Conrad. So both Nic and Roman have huge question marks over them.
Roman however has proven himself to be able to do reasonably well on the JGP: he's medalled 5 times in 6 seasons and made the JGPF twice. He's gone to junior Worlds three times but never finished higher than 13th. He almost won a medal at the Youth Olympic Games. He would have support if he decided to spend his final year on the JGP and try to win the biggest medals. He rushed out of the junior level nationally and made the national team as a senior once. Apart from that it's been a challenging time for him.
The one thing that concerns me about him is the fact that his growth spurt affected the stability of his jumps. Apparently injuries have also played a role. He needs time to get his technique stable. He needs time to consider learning new quads. It's better to spend time doing that while you're a junior than when you're a senior with more expectations. I don't think of him having spent too much time already on the JGP. IMO it's all time he spent developing, with more opportunities than he'd have had as a senior with Patrick, Liam, Elladj, Kevin, and Nam taking up the GP spots. Even if he does do the JGP he should have opportunities to skate as a senior this season. He won't be stuck as a junior all season long.
But again, it's all up to him and his team. If Tracey thinks he's good to go senior then he will go and likely won't look back.
Awesome analysis, Mango, as always.
And thank you for the link. The quality is so much better and I love his Bring him Home I wish he could make it into his new SP. Of his current three exhibition numbers it is my favorite. He should ask uncle Patrick how to turn an EX into a succsessful SP. His best SP used to be exhibition numbers, like Elegie or Black Bird.
That is a marvelous idea! I also consider his revival of "Bring Him Home" to be the best of three, and it would make a stunning SP. It's too late for this season, but someone who follows Roman on Instagram should suggest this to him. In addition to the great examples you've listed for Patrick, I'm enamoured with Adam Rippon's "Arrival of the Birds / O (Fly On)" long program, which was once an exhibition set to just the Coldplay song.
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