Female is different cos now only they are starting the quad craze.Would he take a junior who doesn’t have all triples at 13 and only 3t-2t as her best combo?
Would he take a junior who doesn’t have all triples at 13 and only 3t-2t as her best combo?
The technical bar is so much higher now that this issue can't be ignored - but is, unless you have money or sponsorship.
Do you also have to pay for your coach to attend all of the competitions? (hotel & air & additional coaching fees)? Seems really expensive!
Which is another question. Leaving aside the very very top few who we know make decent to good to amazing money from sponsorship (of the active skaters, Shoma, Nathan, Alina, Evgenia, Virtue/Moir, and of course Yuzuru would be the biggest draws I assume) how hard is it to get even at a high level, let alone as you work your way up? Especially if, as Yuzuru, Javier, Eunsoo and quite a few others did and do, they travel not only to skate, but halfway round the world to train?
You not only have to be talented these days, you need to be marketable and able to market yourself (Javi always seemed to me to be very good at that, and also - as Spain's face of skating - could and does create/control his ice shows as I read somewhere. And I really honestly think had Gracie, the perfect US ice princess in the making, managed to deliver she well might have surpassed all but Yuzu, Mao and Yuna.)
One of the reasons they are nearly all ubiquitous on social media is that it is a way to do this if you are ambitious and charismatic and not very flush with funds.
If it's not being too nosy, who apart from the above superstars, do we know has sizeable sponsorships? What do you think - apart from medals or the promise of medals - gets companies interested and makes a rising/top skater appealing to customers? How could skaters, the Federations and the ISU drum up more interest in sponsorship/advertising?