Latest / The Rocker Skating Podcast / Recap: 2026 Junior World Championships

Transcript

Recap: 2026 Junior World Championships · The Rocker Skating Podcast

• 0:00
  This episode of the Rocker Skating Podcast is brought to
• 0:02
  you by MK Blades, the choice of champions.
• 0:05
  For nearly a century, MK has crafted world class figure
• 0:09
  skating blades, trusted by Olympians and beginners alike.
• 0:13
  Whether you're perfecting your first jumps or chasing gold, MK
• 0:16
  gives you the edge you need. Visit mkblades.com and find your
• 0:20
  perfect pair. Welcome to the Rocker Skating
• 0:29
  Podcast. Junior World is over, and that
• 0:34
  means we're talking about one last competition to go in this
• 0:40
  marathon, marathon of a season. And we just had a marathon,
• 0:48
  marathon of a Junior World. Hi, Michelle.
• 0:52
  How are? You.
• 0:52
  Hi, Jackie. I'm I've been watching a lot
• 0:54
  more skating than I expected to be at this point in the season,
• 0:57
  but here we are. Same, same.
• 1:03
  We had what was billed to be 51 women's short programs, which
• 1:08
  ended up being 50 because we had one withdrawal.
• 1:11
  Not that that really changed much in terms of the amount of
• 1:15
  time we were spending watching the Olympics or, sorry, watching
• 1:19
  watching the Junior World Championships.
• 1:21
  Incidentally, I was also watching Olympic replays in
• 1:26
  between all these Junior world's programs because I just can't
• 1:31
  get enough apparently. We had 50 women's short
• 1:34
  programs, we had 43 men's short programs, we had 30 rhythm
• 1:37
  dances and we had 18 pairs short programs.
• 1:42
  There was a lot of Ricky Martin and it was a lot of Backstreet
• 1:45
  Boys. Backstreet.
• 1:46
  Boys, you know the Backstreet's back all right.
• 1:51
  All right. And the, the, the, the thing
• 1:55
  about the Ricky Martins and the Backstreet Boys is not just that
• 1:58
  there were many of them. It was that they just
• 2:02
  coincidentally happened to have gone back-to-back multiple
• 2:06
  times. So many times, even in the last
• 2:08
  group, like second and third last skaters, like both skated
• 2:13
  to Baxter's back. Everybody.
• 2:18
  I just, I, you know, next year when they have the waltz,
• 2:25
  hopefully they'll have the waltz.
• 2:27
  Although weird little little rumor that came out of Junior
• 2:32
  World is one of the ice dancers. I think it is Amber Perrier.
• 2:37
  Gianissini was talking about how the Golden Waltz is not going to
• 2:40
  have key points next year, it's just going to be GOE only.
• 2:44
  I saw that. That'd be interesting.
• 2:47
  The thing about key points though, is we'll, we'll have
• 2:52
  more discussion about this if we're if and when we don't
• 2:54
  actually have key points. But the thing, thing about key
• 2:56
  points for me is that you end up really focusing on 4 very
• 3:02
  specific things. And therefore to get those
• 3:06
  levels called you are really as ice dancers, you know, you're
• 3:12
  always optimizing for levels, you're always optimizing for
• 3:14
  points. You have to focus on those
• 3:17
  specific 4 things before you focus on the entire pattern,
• 3:22
  which in some ways it's a little bit of a detriment, right?
• 3:25
  Because you get, you get the GOES from the actual pattern
• 3:28
  itself, but you get the levels called for these four particular
• 3:32
  steps or turns. Yeah, I mean, I'd like for them
• 3:34
  to focus more on the pattern and connecting to the music than the
• 3:38
  key points. However, I am afraid that
• 3:40
  they're going to do something like put the key points in the
• 3:43
  criteria for the element and we're going to get a ton of
• 3:46
  golden walls. Exclamation point.
• 3:48
  Like everyone can have an exclamation point.
• 3:51
  Well, GWBS, there's going to be a lot of GWBS.
• 3:57
  George Washington's Golden Waltz.
• 3:59
  Golden Waltz. Well, should we start with the
• 4:02
  the dance since we are talking about dance?
• 4:05
  It's a great dance event. It was, but you know what was
• 4:09
  interesting? And I want to hear your, your
• 4:12
  perspective on this because when I saw a boy in Resolukin's Vogue
• 4:20
  at the Junior Grand Prix Final, I was so enamoured by it.
• 4:24
  And then when I saw it here at Junior World, I was like, this
• 4:27
  is not the same program. Like it felt like it was
• 4:29
  different energy, different, whatever.
• 4:32
  Definitely like I. Yeah, I definitely think they
• 4:34
  didn't perform it to their maximum ability.
• 4:37
  It was there was a little scratchiness.
• 4:39
  There wasn't like I think the freedom and their movement, I
• 4:42
  felt like they were almost off time a little bit in their
• 4:45
  rotational lift at the end. I feel like she didn't get her
• 4:47
  leg all the way around him, so she was like just hanging on.
• 4:51
  Yeah, it was not their best performance of it.
• 4:53
  I also think that they are very, I feel like Hannah Boyen is this
• 4:57
  like baby diva Glamazon. She is just so she has so much
• 5:03
  performance energy. And the Grand Prix Final had
• 5:06
  this huge arena of people just eating it up.
• 5:09
  And Junior World was a little different, was a smaller venue,
• 5:12
  less people in the audience. And I think that might have also
• 5:15
  impacted their performance a little bit.
• 5:18
  Their freelance though, I think was really strong.
• 5:21
  I. Agreed.
• 5:22
  Yeah, I, I, I did think Vogue for me was, was a little
• 5:28
  frenetic, like it was a little Gumby in some ways.
• 5:32
  And like the the the the the positions and the structure of
• 5:36
  their shapes were not as. Defined.
• 5:38
  Precise, yeah, defined as it, as it has been in other
• 5:43
  competitions. And I, I frankly, I thought they
• 5:45
  should have been like second or third in the in the rhythm
• 5:48
  dance. It definitely.
• 5:49
  I would know. I don't know if I would go that
• 5:51
  far, but I maybe second. I love that French team's
• 5:54
  backstreet voice rhythm dance. It definitely, yeah.
• 5:59
  It's like, I think it was a timing issue, and that's so
• 6:01
  their positions are getting rushed because the timing was
• 6:03
  off in a weird way. I stand by their performance of
• 6:07
  that program at the Junior Grand Prix Final is the definitive
• 6:10
  vogue rhythm dance of the season, period.
• 6:14
  You know, I don't disagree with you.
• 6:18
  The I I did I I also liked Periagenosini and Blank Blank
• 6:23
  Clopperman's rhythm dance. The one that I loved was very
• 6:30
  own and brand new. I thought they were totally.
• 6:33
  Underscored and it was like that was so it was like Daft Punk,
• 6:37
  like around the world and another piece and there oh, they
• 6:41
  were just so in the rhythm of it and just their choreography was
• 6:44
  so good. Mark was saying on the broadcast
• 6:46
  that Mark Henry that it should have been like a 10 for
• 6:48
  composition or like the best score of the event for
• 6:50
  composition, maybe not a 10, but I absolutely agree with that.
• 6:53
  I think the program construction and the way that it was like
• 6:56
  choreographed to the music, it was really, really satisfying.
• 7:01
  And they, they skate, they really like, they remind me a
• 7:07
  bit of Hubble Donahue at their best in terms of like, how like
• 7:13
  they have such a, a lot of times the ice makes skaters look small
• 7:19
  because it's such a huge rink. And I feel like they actually
• 7:24
  fill out the ice really well. And, and their aggressiveness
• 7:28
  and, and the, the way that they step into things is just so, so
• 7:33
  good. That was my.
• 7:35
  Thought it's it's like there's kind of an efficiency to their
• 7:38
  movements that allow them to put more energy into sort of the
• 7:41
  dance movement and just the the musicality.
• 7:45
  They don't need to do too much work because they just kind of
• 7:48
  fly around. I, I feel terrible saying this,
• 7:51
  but I kind of think they should have been third here.
• 7:55
  No offense to the Ukrainian team who are seem lovely and I'm just
• 7:58
  not crazy about that Moulin Rouge free dance.
• 8:02
  I think they, the top four were, were the top 4, right?
• 8:08
  Like I, I think those were the four that should have been in
• 8:10
  the top 4. I, This is why I was saying I
• 8:15
  think I, I, I would have had a boy in Veseluc in second or
• 8:19
  third in the sense that I would have had the French and the
• 8:22
  Canadians above them in the rhythm dance.
• 8:26
  I think overall, if you took their free dance into account,
• 8:31
  they absolutely won this one. The the free dance was
• 8:35
  definitely the class of the field.
• 8:37
  Yeah, some of those that, that, that, that that lift is just so
• 8:44
  oh. At the end when she has her leg
• 8:45
  up behind her and she's just like, yes, oh, that was that was
• 8:48
  great. The the big musical accents in
• 8:51
  that program and the way she hit them.
• 8:52
  Hannah Maria hit them with such definition in her body.
• 8:54
  It was like, really, really exciting and yeah.
• 8:59
  It was the opposite of what we saw in rhythm dance where I was
• 9:04
  talking about kind of Gumby, right?
• 9:05
  Like I the, the, the, the precisioning was very, very
• 9:09
  good, very strong. And, and it, it was like we were
• 9:12
  seeing two different teams from the rhythm dance to the free
• 9:16
  dance. I love her skating.
• 9:18
  I think she is the she is the star of that.
• 9:22
  Team very, very grish. I'm I'm so excited that they're
• 9:26
  American and they're, we have them in the US and they're so
• 9:29
  good. I'm so excited to see where they
• 9:31
  go. They are.
• 9:36
  She's only 15, right. So they have another year, let's
• 9:38
  say birthdays in May. So they have another year of
• 9:41
  junior. I think these other three teams
• 9:42
  are eligible to move up. I don't know if they're all
• 9:44
  going to, but they're eligible, yeah.
• 9:48
  Yeah, I think Begin and Koval, the Ukrainians that they, they
• 9:57
  get their points and their excitement from the crazy lifts
• 10:02
  that they do and and the the craziness of also their
• 10:07
  twizzles, right. I think those two are the
• 10:09
  standouts for them. I also tend to agree with you on
• 10:14
  the the Moulin Rouge. Was it like, I think it's for me
• 10:19
  that the fact that they're they're using Moulin Rouge the
• 10:22
  Musical and Moulin Rouge the Musical is such a hodgepodge of
• 10:28
  random songs, like even more so than the movie, even some more
• 10:33
  so than the movie that like you're like, what?
• 10:35
  What's going on? What is the story that we're
• 10:38
  telling right now? Yeah, Tarzan, the Tarzan was.
• 10:42
  God, I love the Tarzan program. It was a cool idea and they just
• 10:45
  executed so well. I am such a big fan.
• 10:48
  I mean, go on and on about this, about the Lyon school and the
• 10:51
  work they're doing there. I mean, every team that comes
• 10:54
  out of there, I love their material.
• 10:55
  I love their style. I'm a big, I'm a big fan.
• 10:59
  And I think they're doing, yeah, amazing things.
• 11:03
  I do. I do think that as overall
• 11:07
  basics, Perrier Giannacini and Blanc Cobberman, I feel like
• 11:12
  sometimes out skate a boy and vessel Lucan the the I think
• 11:19
  their edge quality is superior. I think a boy and vessel Lucan
• 11:26
  skate bigger. So it's it's a it's evenly
• 11:30
  matched in some ways. They both have their strengths
• 11:33
  and but, but I don't think there's one who is absolutely
• 11:38
  stronger than the other right now.
• 11:40
  That's it was a fun little rivalry this season.
• 11:44
  I the Perry Giannasini and Blank Clapperman.
• 11:47
  I think they said that they haven't decided yet if they're
• 11:49
  moving up, but if they do, please invite them to Skate
• 11:53
  America. Just putting my request out
• 11:56
  there. I mean that the French ice dance
• 12:02
  we. Had three French teams.
• 12:05
  That's Gate America this past year.
• 12:06
  I was very a very happy girl. So that was ice dance.
• 12:12
  It was a, it was a, it was a fun event.
• 12:15
  I I really liked, I really liked a lot of those different.
• 12:20
  Oh, and also some of the creativity of the earlier teams
• 12:28
  I loved like was. It a Spanish team you posted
• 12:30
  with that leg accent. That was so cool.
• 12:32
  It was, it was, it was. It was Laura Sundberg.
• 12:38
  Hester. Gonzalez, Sundberg, Sundberg and
• 12:41
  Gonzalez that the their choreo lifts or their choreo hydro
• 12:46
  blade was so fun and such such a a departure.
• 12:53
  And you saw that with some of the earlier ice dance teams
• 12:56
  where it wasn't just that they were trying to find different
• 13:02
  creative ways to do things. It was also that they were doing
• 13:06
  things in different orders than you'd expect them to.
• 13:09
  Like I remember there was like, you know, somebody started with
• 13:14
  a choreo step sequence or character step sequence.
• 13:18
  Like usually you see, like with the senior teams, there's a lot
• 13:22
  of, oh, we're going to do all the big elements and then we're
• 13:24
  going to do the last three and it's the three corner graph
• 13:28
  things. Not that that's always the case,
• 13:31
  but you see that. A lot.
• 13:34
  Right. And, and I thought the the
• 13:36
  earlier teams, because they're trying to at least
• 13:39
  differentiate, differentiate themselves a little bit, they
• 13:41
  were trying some different things.
• 13:44
  And I, I love that for for for ice dance.
• 13:47
  I also love the Spanish team doing a big bad Voodoo daddy
• 13:50
  free dance, especially in the year of the 90s music.
• 13:53
  So they have two 90s programs. That's fun.
• 13:58
  I did find that these teenagers doing 90s programs were even
• 14:05
  more out of place than the the 20 somethings doing 90s
• 14:09
  programs. It's.
• 14:10
  So weird. I'm like, you have no idea what
• 14:14
  we were doing in the 90s as teenagers, but I guess that's
• 14:18
  also what happens, you know, like, you know.
• 14:22
  Lost the history only we remember.
• 14:27
  The history of Figures Gang has been people skating to music
• 14:31
  that was not of their generation.
• 14:33
  So it just so happens that the 90s were our generation when we
• 14:38
  were we were teenagers. So I think that's why I have
• 14:41
  such a visceral reaction sometimes.
• 14:48
  OK, Pears. Pears was a mixed bag and it was
• 14:56
  a general sort of mess, especially in the freaks gate.
• 15:00
  And I don't know, I have a, I'm of two minds about the pair, the
• 15:07
  junior pairs of on one hand, it's like, yes, they are juniors
• 15:13
  and it's great that they are putting, they're, they're trying
• 15:17
  new things. They're putting difficulty out
• 15:19
  there that they want to be putting out before they become
• 15:21
  seniors, all this and all that. On the other hand, like with
• 15:28
  like Herrera and Kupta, for example, they were doing throw
• 15:31
  double s because they, they're not ready for throw triples.
• 15:34
  And we were seeing some throw triples that were like, no, no,
• 15:37
  no, no, no, we're you're not ready for those yet.
• 15:40
  So, you know, it's, it, it, it's that question of like, do you do
• 15:47
  really nice throw double s or do you go and, and, and try a messy
• 15:51
  triple? And for a long time in senior
• 15:56
  skating, when the, the, the, the, the Ijs first started, we
• 16:01
  were seeing a lot more clean double twists because there was
• 16:06
  a long sort of regrouping period for pairs to basically relearn
• 16:14
  the twist and do them differently than they used to do
• 16:17
  them. So I don't know, I'm of two
• 16:20
  minds, but it was a, it was a, it was a, it was a mess.
• 16:24
  That's unfortunate. It was a mess.
• 16:27
  Rojang their free skate like, but I will say quad twist to
• 16:32
  open Level 3. That's a that's a positive.
• 16:37
  I love seeing this brand new Ukrainian team.
• 16:39
  I think he's only the guy is Ukrainian, but I love seeing
• 16:42
  them. We're getting on the podium with
• 16:44
  relatively clean skates and then Kieran Thrasher is an incredible
• 16:49
  name. He's been on the junior circuit
• 16:51
  for a long time. Every CM I'm like yes.
• 16:54
  That's great. Kieran Thrasher.
• 16:56
  Yeah, at the, I mean they the, the what was interesting was
• 17:02
  capitalizer of Deroche and Thrasher, Herrera, Hapta, Flores
• 17:08
  and Wang, they all have something of a like an early
• 17:14
  senior look to all of them. They skate bigger.
• 17:19
  They they are a little bit older than than some of the others,
• 17:25
  right. And so, you know, Cap and
• 17:27
  Elizaroff and Flores and Wang were both on the senior circuit
• 17:31
  this year and and skated there. So you saw, you saw the
• 17:36
  difference in power and maturity with those with some of those
• 17:40
  teams. It's the first time in history
• 17:42
  there have been 2 Canadian pairs on the junior world's podium.
• 17:45
  That's yeah. I can't believe that Skate
• 17:47
  Canada isn't blowing up all of my social media.
• 17:49
  I just looked at that now. That's crazy.
• 17:52
  Well, it was always like Soviet teams.
• 17:54
  It's like they could never get more than one medalist.
• 17:57
  And the first the first Junior World title for a Canadian pair
• 18:00
  since 1978 and it was Barbara Underhill and Paul Martini.
• 18:05
  Oh my gosh, that's amazing. Yeah, talk about, you know,
• 18:09
  Canadian legends, Underhill Martini for sure.
• 18:14
  All I can remember is Speaking of teenager in the 90s.
• 18:17
  All I can remember is them being like, here's the leap of faith.
• 18:20
  And I'm like, Oh my God, what is the leap of faith?
• 18:23
  And it's her basically like diving into his arms.
• 18:29
  If you don't know what the leap of faith is, go go watch Barbara
• 18:31
  Hill, Barbara Underhill and Paul Martini do that in in a
• 18:35
  professional competition. It's it's pretty cool.
• 18:39
  Also a little scary. But Herrera Copta, I, I love
• 18:44
  them. I think they they are, they have
• 18:47
  such a a, a a strong future ahead for them.
• 18:53
  Hannah Herrera, by the way, was US women's junior singles for a
• 19:01
  few years. And so they've teamed up and now
• 19:03
  they're they're representing Ukraine.
• 19:06
  She looks like a natural she's. From Salt Lake City.
• 19:09
  Yeah, she might have a hometown Olympics in a few years.
• 19:12
  Yeah, yeah, yeah. Time for citizenship talk
• 19:16
  already Four years. Four years before.
• 19:18
  Ukraine to get Ukrainian citizenship, it's only gets too
• 19:21
  bad a. Little bit different, really
• 19:22
  different, but yes, capitalizer of when they were Shea and
• 19:30
  Thrasher second, Harira Kupta third in the pairs, these kids.
• 19:35
  Have had a lot. Of man, no.
• 19:38
  Oh God, yes. I mean, you know, we talk about
• 19:42
  our very first podcast episodes felt like five years ago and it
• 19:48
  was like what, August, September of 2025?
• 19:54
  They were already competing. They were already like at their
• 19:57
  peak and they have to like peak again now, which, yeah, it's
• 20:03
  it's been a long season. And also we talked about this in
• 20:07
  the preview the. These junior skaters a lot of
• 20:13
  the times really develop during the season and you see them
• 20:18
  change right before your eyes. And it's, it's, it's very
• 20:24
  interesting and it, it goes to show right, the the actual
• 20:28
  amount of improvements you can make during six months, whether
• 20:33
  you're a junior or a senior. But you see it more with these
• 20:38
  junior skaters because they really are just maturing as, as,
• 20:41
  as we're seeing them. OK, men.
• 20:45
  Men. What a battle.
• 20:47
  Yeah. What a battle it it didn't
• 20:51
  disappoint. You know the the Rio Minku
• 20:55
  showdown was exactly how it was. Well, not.
• 21:00
  Quite. I feel like I cursed Minky a
• 21:02
  little bit by saying in our preview episode that he has
• 21:04
  seamlessly integrated the quad Saucow and hit it every time
• 21:07
  when he fell. It's like, no, no.
• 21:12
  He was just paying homage to Chin Wancha and.
• 21:14
  Smacking the boards. All, all the Koreans, yeah,
• 21:18
  skaters who jump a little too close to the boards and hit him.
• 21:23
  Pose on the boards. I mean, he was great.
• 21:28
  I thought, I thought his his components were a little
• 21:30
  underscored in both programs. But you know, I think a a good
• 21:38
  season for Minku, even though he didn't end up being as
• 21:43
  competitive as he thought he was going to be for the title.
• 21:47
  It was also that Rio skated lights out in both programs.
• 21:52
  Rio was a beast at this competition.
• 21:55
  He was indomitable that opening quad Sao in his free skate.
• 22:01
  I mean that like covered like zip code to zip code.
• 22:04
  It was huge. It's a Yuma Kagiyama quad Sao.
• 22:08
  I mean, I think it's almost that's like Samoilov distance.
• 22:13
  It's huge. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 22:16
  Such a such a great a couple of programs for him.
• 22:22
  And early in the season we were talking about how he's he just
• 22:26
  has had this swagger going on because he was so confident.
• 22:31
  He was so well trained, even though he was injured early in
• 22:35
  the season. And then it sort of took a dip.
• 22:38
  You know, Junior Grand Prix final was like a little bit off
• 22:42
  Japan Nationals was not exactly what he wanted.
• 22:46
  And you wondered coming in if this is going to be early season
• 22:51
  Rio, it was going to be mid season Rio.
• 22:52
  And it was neither of those. It was a, it was a I'm ready for
• 22:57
  seniors Rio. He was building and I, you know,
• 23:00
  I think his team handled his injury correctly.
• 23:03
  And yeah, he he looks great. And I'm, I'm really still a
• 23:08
  little bit salty we didn't get him at the Olympics.
• 23:10
  I'm just, I'm still not a big, the biggest fan of the age
• 23:13
  change, age rule change, but you know, it's over.
• 23:18
  So guess we'll see him next next fall on senior.
• 23:21
  I I mean without the, without the age eligibility stuff, we
• 23:27
  would not have seen these rivalries go on even well.
• 23:32
  We might have seen them without the other skaters, I mean.
• 23:35
  But the way, but the way that like, Rio and Minku have been
• 23:40
  1-2 three seasons, right? And the way that Mao Shimada and
• 23:44
  Jia Shin was three seasons and. Poor.
• 23:49
  Oh my gosh, Mao Shimada. Anyway, we'll get into that.
• 23:54
  We'll get into that. We'll get in.
• 23:56
  We'll we'll get into poor Mao Shimada.
• 23:59
  Yeah, we. Will that was a lot.
• 24:01
  That was a lot to watch. But yes, Rionicada wins his
• 24:06
  second consecutive worlds. Junior Worlds in Couseau get
• 24:10
  second for the second time, and the two of them have been top 2
• 24:14
  for the last three years. It's been a dynasty in a lot of
• 24:17
  ways. Jacob Sanchez once again the
• 24:21
  pewter medalist #4. Yeah, I mean, he he skated
• 24:26
  pretty well, OK, his free skate was not what he's fully capable
• 24:30
  of, but I think that yeah, it was it was a good effort from
• 24:33
  him. Yeah.
• 24:35
  Yeah. As I as I understand it, his
• 24:40
  quad sows in practice at Junior World were better than his quad
• 24:45
  sows at senior nationals at US nationals.
• 24:48
  So that's it's a good sign that they're improving because he's
• 24:52
  going to need them next year. But you know, yeah, great that
• 24:58
  he he was able to end his season on a few good notes with US
• 25:04
  nationals with four continents with here skating really well.
• 25:08
  And, you know, he just, he needs to start next season the way he
• 25:13
  ended the season, which is you got to do all your triples.
• 25:17
  Yeah. Yeah.
• 25:19
  And and go, go, go work on that triple sow cow that you messed.
• 25:23
  Up Yeah, do a clean free skate if you're only doing triples.
• 25:25
  Yeah, do some, do some clean free skates, Jacob.
• 25:29
  But he, he and Lucius Gasanecki gets the three spots back for
• 25:34
  the US, for the junior men, which is a, you know, it's, it's
• 25:38
  a, it's a good thing for, for the, for the, for the US
• 25:40
  juniors. Taiga Nishino though.
• 25:45
  Yeah, he was great. We knew that coming in that he
• 25:50
  was going to be a contender, one, because he's, he's a, he's
• 25:54
  a like a generally very assertive, like in your face
• 25:59
  kind of skater. And he, he, he showed that.
• 26:02
  But two, he has two quads and he landed them, Yeah, even though
• 26:08
  they were a little like everything was a little scratchy
• 26:10
  in the free skate. But yeah, he did it.
• 26:13
  Got it done. He got it done.
• 26:15
  He got the base value for it. Like he was very close to to
• 26:20
  upsetting Minkyu for the silver. Yeah, he was.
• 26:27
  He was very close. Uncomfortably close. close.
• 26:31
  Yeah, I know. But that I that that's also my,
• 26:35
  that was my thing around him about Minkyu being maybe a
• 26:40
  little bit underscored on the components.
• 26:42
  I thought Tyga versus Jacob, Tyga versus make you the PCs
• 26:48
  should have been a little bit larger in terms of the gap.
• 26:54
  Same thing with hop in Choi. Like we're seeing the two guys
• 26:59
  who have all the big quads getting components that maybe
• 27:04
  we're just a little bit too high here relative to everybody else,
• 27:09
  right? And they were generally fairly
• 27:13
  stingy with components at Junior Worlds, with the exception of
• 27:17
  Rio. If you're lucky, you get a
• 27:18
  seven. Yeah.
• 27:20
  I want to talk about Haben Choi. So there's a Meatloaf album,
• 27:24
  it's called Bat Out of Hell 2 Back Into Hell.
• 27:28
  And I don't, I don't know if I've ever heard the album all
• 27:30
  the way through, but that title, that is how Haben Choi skates
• 27:33
  his jumps. He attacked so hard and he's
• 27:37
  just like, I'm out of here. I'm out here jumping like crazy.
• 27:41
  I mean, and like Mark said, it was like he's you can tell how
• 27:45
  much he enjoys jumping. I mean, it was like almost truce
• 27:48
  of absolutely get to my next jump, but it's going to be huge.
• 27:53
  It was very and it was very I think you mentioned this.
• 27:55
  It was interesting for a Korean skater because they usually have
• 27:58
  a lot more detail and focus on components, the presentation
• 28:03
  and, you know, the skating skills.
• 28:04
  And he was like, no, I'm jumping.
• 28:07
  Just hold, hold that thought. I'm going to jump.
• 28:10
  Yeah, What's interesting about it is that because he he grew up
• 28:13
  in the Korean system, that his basics are still pretty good.
• 28:18
  I just, I just don't think he, in his mind as he's doing these
• 28:24
  programs, that's what he's necessarily being like.
• 28:27
  I'm going to really get my, my, you know, whatever.
• 28:31
  But he has enough of a solid foundation that he can, he can
• 28:36
  go through with it. But agreed, like I, I don't, you
• 28:40
  know, as great of a jumper as he is, he's not there yet with
• 28:43
  choreography. He's not there yet with
• 28:46
  presentation. I don't think he wants to be
• 28:47
  bothered. He has jumps to do.
• 28:52
  I do, I, I do wonder how he develops over the next couple of
• 28:57
  seasons as well, because, you know, you bring jumps like that
• 29:01
  and you're, you're in the conversation.
• 29:03
  Yeah. There are some really good
• 29:07
  programs also just like if you look down the list of like some
• 29:11
  really great skaters that some of whom were I think low balled
• 29:17
  on on components. You know, people like Luka
• 29:22
  Emedashvili, I don't know if you saw him in the short program.
• 29:26
  He was he had this just incredibly charming short
• 29:31
  program that he was totally low balled on for the for
• 29:34
  components. And he should have made the free
• 29:36
  skate. Lithuania.
• 29:38
  Yeah. Oh, wow.
• 29:39
  In this paragraph. By KIRO Khaliabin.
• 29:41
  I don't watch that. Oh wow, yeah.
• 29:45
  There you go. But, you know, Ian Wheeler was,
• 29:48
  oh, he's. A beautiful senior.
• 29:50
  Lynn 4 was great. Yeah, some of these like some of
• 29:54
  these junior guys who are are artists at heart and performers
• 30:00
  at heart, loved seeing those in in the junior ranks.
• 30:05
  So yeah, I think those men, it was a, it was a generally pretty
• 30:12
  good cop to show you. Need to talk about yon How Lee
• 30:14
  of New Zealand? Well, we should.
• 30:16
  We should. This kid can jump.
• 30:19
  He is a beautiful skater. He has such good technique.
• 30:23
  And I'm completely confused because he has like lives and
• 30:27
  trains in New Zealand, New Zealand coach that I haven't
• 30:29
  heard of. I'm like, where did you learn
• 30:31
  this? I mean, I guess you can learn
• 30:33
  good technique and all kinds of places, but he's amazing.
• 30:38
  I want to say something about Kangaroos, but that's Australia.
• 30:41
  Yeah, yeah, New Zealand has. I don't know, what do they have?
• 30:47
  It's like they have some kind of.
• 30:49
  They have clockas. Yeah, yeah, let's see.
• 30:55
  They have the Kiwi. That's what I'm thinking of.
• 30:56
  The Kiwi is their bird. Yeah.
• 30:59
  Ah, yes, yes, yes. Yeah, yeah, he was awesome.
• 31:03
  I was. And I was very like, interested
• 31:07
  in hearing him skating to the male version of AI Dreamed a
• 31:11
  Dream from Les Mis. I was like, I don't know if I've
• 31:13
  heard this before. Figure skating brings out some
• 31:16
  of the strangest musical options out there.
• 31:20
  Oh, I totally thought it was Josh Groban, but it's not.
• 31:22
  It's some guy. It's it's a someone named Carl
• 31:24
  Locksley. Who would have thought I'm.
• 31:27
  Sure, Josh Groban has a cover out there somewhere as well.
• 31:29
  Oh, I am sure Josh Groban has a cover of everything.
• 31:34
  No, he's, he's I, I've, I've really liked the skating for a
• 31:39
  while. He, he had the breakthrough.
• 31:44
  Was it two seasons ago? One, was it two seasons ago?
• 31:48
  He was third at the Youth Olympics.
• 31:53
  Last year he was fifth at the Junior Grand Prix Final.
• 31:56
  This year was a little bit different for him,
• 31:58
  unfortunately, and it was good to see him do a good short just
• 32:04
  the the free skate just didn't really materialize for him.
• 32:07
  But but hey, New Zealand getting getting a really good men's
• 32:12
  skater. We love it.
• 32:17
  All right, let's go to the women and let's pick up the thread of
• 32:24
  poor Mao Shimada. So poor Mao Shimada in her 4th
• 32:29
  Junior worlds because of the age rule.
• 32:34
  She had a great short program and then I guess she was really
• 32:37
  sick at this competition and had just an abysmal practice the
• 32:40
  morning of the free skate to the point where some people thought
• 32:43
  she was going to withdraw but pulled it together.
• 32:48
  Came out and did a really strong free skate.
• 32:50
  No quad attempt but she did a nice triple Axel to open.
• 32:54
  Had a little issue with one of her spins but very respectable.
• 32:57
  She is a little warrior and blocked down her 4th world
• 33:02
  junior title, which is crazy. Yeah, that's an unbelievable
• 33:10
  period of dominance. She has never finished lower
• 33:14
  than first at an international competition.
• 33:17
  She has more gold medals I think than anyone.
• 33:20
  That's just out of this world. It was, it was like, it was like
• 33:24
  me back in the days of intercollegiate collegiate
• 33:28
  skating where I never finished lower than. 1st.
• 33:31
  At a, I don't know what it was intermediate program in men's
• 33:38
  programs because I was the only one competing.
• 33:41
  That's why I never finished lower than.
• 33:43
  First medal, Jackie. But, you know, we're talking
• 33:49
  about Mao Shimada having been dominant over the past Four
• 33:56
  Seasons, having really like, strong skaters in the junior
• 34:04
  ranks who were never able to beat.
• 34:08
  Her yeah, yeah, yeah, it's. Including including our current
• 34:16
  Olympic bronze medalist. Yeah, I mean.
• 34:19
  Yeah, I mean, AMI couldn't beat Gia, so it's Yeah, it's really
• 34:25
  interesting. I'm really interested too, to
• 34:28
  see where Mao's career goes from here.
• 34:29
  I mean, I'm she's definitely moving up next year.
• 34:32
  She said this was her last senior, her last junior
• 34:33
  competition, so we'll see how she transitions to senior.
• 34:37
  I'm guessing it will be quite well, but I'm happy for her.
• 34:43
  That had to be just mentally so challenging to be so good and so
• 34:48
  dominant and unable to progress into another level for so long.
• 34:54
  And to have gotten through it without getting burned out.
• 34:58
  Yeah, it's impressive. Well, she has four more years
• 35:03
  until the Olympics on. Like, that's the crazy thing,
• 35:06
  right? Four years of dominance on the
• 35:10
  junior ranks and now she has to wait four years for the
• 35:13
  Olympics. She can win the next three world
• 35:14
  titles and then Olympic gold. So she doesn't win other color
• 35:18
  medals. So I mean.
• 35:20
  Apparently not. Apparently not.
• 35:22
  But you know, you know who was the highlight for me?
• 35:25
  Hannah Bath. My goodness.
• 35:29
  That triple Axel, triple toe, it's like she doesn't even set
• 35:32
  it up. She just steps up into it and it
• 35:34
  is like a tornado. I mean, it is so powerful just
• 35:40
  out of this world. I mean, the attack is just
• 35:43
  incredible. She was great.
• 35:46
  I, I, I I don't like. Jackie's shaking his head in
• 35:49
  disbelief. She was, she was saying
• 35:54
  something about she's basically been working on the triple Axel
• 35:57
  since she was 10. And so part of why she's so
• 36:02
  comfortable with it, right is, is that this is somewhat become
• 36:07
  second nature for her. And the move to Japan to train
• 36:12
  has just helped her become a much more all around skater over
• 36:17
  the past two seasons. And gosh, the first Junior World
• 36:25
  medal for Australia in any singles events or either of the
• 36:33
  single events, and I think the first Junior World or world
• 36:39
  medal for Australia. They won the bronze in 1976 in.
• 36:44
  Pairs, Elizabeth. Kane and Peter Kane.
• 36:48
  Oh, yeah, They've won plenty in pairs.
• 36:50
  Sorry. They've Yeah, we know our our
• 36:51
  teams are, yeah. Yeah, yeah.
• 36:54
  Katian Harvey and Nasia Hector. Yeah, of course, Of course.
• 36:58
  And women's, I don't think they've.
• 36:59
  Yeah, it's their first ever. First ever for junior worlds, I
• 37:03
  think also first ever for worlds that like any world, any kind of
• 37:06
  worlds, junior or senior worlds. So history maker Hannah Bath.
• 37:12
  Yeah, she made a good decision, moving to Japan to train with
• 37:18
  Rio and his dad. Talk about a a power 1/2 with
• 37:23
  with Rio and Hannah and she's what, she's 16, right?
• 37:30
  Yeah, I think she's old enough to move up, though.
• 37:32
  I think her birthday is. March 6th.
• 37:35
  So she just turned. 16 No, she's another year.
• 37:39
  Another year. See Jackie, it's OK.
• 37:43
  It's. Not it's not the most
• 37:44
  delightful. You know what I'm here for World
• 37:50
  Junior champion Hannibal in 2027.
• 37:53
  I mean, you know, she has nowhere to go but up so.
• 37:59
  Yeah, excited to see where she goes.
• 38:01
  She's she's got so, so much potential.
• 38:03
  And she's she's she's already proving to be a history maker.
• 38:09
  And then my Yukaoka, who we, who we were expecting to be the one
• 38:14
  who could challenge for gold, didn't quite have it.
• 38:20
  That triple Axel in the free skate was not there.
• 38:23
  But that short program? The Peacock theme, I'm going to
• 38:27
  miss it. I wouldn't mind if she kept it
• 38:29
  another year. I know I love it.
• 38:33
  Props to Caitlin Weaver for being just amazing.
• 38:36
  So wasn't Caitlin Weaver, apparently.
• 38:38
  It was apparently kind of muromoto.
• 38:42
  Caitlin Weaver did her free skate.
• 38:43
  This is This is the at least what was.
• 38:47
  A bone to pick with the ISU then because they have them listed in
• 38:49
  the wrong order on her ISU bio. That's why we've been having all
• 38:54
  these issues, apparently. Well, well done, Kana.
• 38:59
  She was always an extraordinary ice dancer, so I'm I'm happy to
• 39:02
  see that her skill is translating to choreography as
• 39:05
  well. Either way, either way, Kana and
• 39:10
  Caitlin are are they? They have this this gem and I
• 39:15
  it's not even it's not even like a hidden gem anymore.
• 39:18
  This is the gem that is there in the world stage, on the world
• 39:23
  stage. And they have been doing wonders
• 39:26
  with choreography with her. And she seems, she just seems
• 39:29
  like such a malleable skater in terms of choreography and that's
• 39:35
  going to serve her really well as she progresses over the next
• 39:39
  four years. And you know, her jumps are
• 39:42
  strong. She has some very good
• 39:45
  foundations in, in all the stuff.
• 39:46
  Her, her jumps are big, too, right?
• 39:48
  She's not one of those junior skaters who you're like.
• 39:51
  No rotation issues. Yeah.
• 39:53
  Are we going to lose rotation going forward?
• 39:56
  So hopefully she will. She will continue and I think
• 39:59
  she's got another year in juniors.
• 40:05
  But you know, there there was. What was interesting about this
• 40:10
  junior slate was that. You didn't see as big of scores
• 40:17
  as we've seen in the last couple of seasons, partly because I
• 40:21
  think that that we had a Shinomano technical panel, so a
• 40:27
  lot of strict calls, but partially because I the the,
• 40:31
  the, the judging panel just felt a little bit stingy with their,
• 40:36
  with their scoring here too. So I don't know if it was
• 40:41
  necessarily, you know, lower depth of of the field, but it
• 40:48
  was certainly there was certainly a little bit of both.
• 40:50
  I think some great skating though.
• 40:54
  I think especially I think the short programs had some really
• 40:57
  good stuff and the free skates were a little bit more up and
• 41:02
  down. Yeah, but it was, you know,
• 41:07
  portends the future. I think that the the the the way
• 41:11
  that these junior women have been able to progress in the
• 41:16
  junior level on the junior level has been really good.
• 41:19
  Yeah, I was really surprised by some of the mistakes we saw
• 41:22
  from, I think metal favourites in the short program with May
• 41:25
  Okada messing up her combination.
• 41:28
  And then you saw Kim falling on her triple loop.
• 41:30
  It was like, no. So yeah, it it, yeah.
• 41:36
  Those were two of the ones you expected to.
• 41:37
  Be up there. I mean, yeah.
• 41:41
  I mean, if I'm being honest, Mayor O'Connor shouldn't have
• 41:43
  made the free skate. Yeah, probably not.
• 41:45
  That was a big error. Single Lutz, triple toe under
• 41:49
  rotated fall. Yeah.
• 41:51
  And a fall. Yeah.
• 41:54
  It was just it was one of those huge errors where she was lucky
• 41:58
  to have gotten the component scores that she got because she
• 42:02
  didn't skate that program the way that she would normally
• 42:06
  skate it. And so, you know, she made it
• 42:09
  barely into the free skate and then had a jump from 24th to
• 42:14
  10th as we expected from her. But still, you know, you, this
• 42:21
  was one of those competitions where you really saw the
• 42:26
  discrepancy of going early in a lineup when you're going, you
• 42:31
  know, first out of 12 on a Grand Prix is a different kind of
• 42:36
  thing than when you're going in the first group out of 51
• 42:41
  skaters. And the judges are like, well,
• 42:44
  you know, I give you some fours because you're you're early on.
• 42:50
  And, and it just, it translates into this, this sort of like
• 42:53
  pattern of, OK, well, the last person got a 4.5 S, the next
• 42:58
  person is going to get a 5.25 or, you know, whatever it was.
• 43:02
  Yeah, there were a bunch of triple axels.
• 43:04
  Yeah, that was fun. Certainly Sophie, Jolene, Usong
• 43:09
  Kim, Anger Gerganitze, Hannah Bath, Mao Shimada, Maiuka Oka
• 43:16
  tried one and the Okada was trying one, but then she popped
• 43:23
  it into a single. But a lot of attempts and a lot
• 43:27
  of pretty good ones that were landed, so.
• 43:31
  Sophia Schifrin did a really strong free skate.
• 43:34
  She was just really solid, big clean jumps.
• 43:37
  Yeah. And I it's, I think any other
• 43:39
  year that would have been enough probably to get on the podium.
• 43:42
  But there was just a lot of a lot of depth here.
• 43:46
  And she doesn't have any. She doesn't have a triple Axel,
• 43:50
  Yeah. She I thought her short program
• 43:55
  was, was especially sort of musically well skated and and
• 44:03
  like I think along with the men where we were talking about
• 44:09
  skaters who are have been able to progress as juniors and also
• 44:16
  find their presentation skills. We got a lot of that here. 2
• 44:21
  with the with with with a junior women.
• 44:23
  I mean, you look at like AGU Ha and Angela Shao, you know, some
• 44:32
  of these skaters who Amanda Getzo was an interesting one
• 44:35
  too, because she she was not ranked terribly high up, but I
• 44:38
  thought her short program was like, you know, very, very well
• 44:43
  choreographed and very well skated.
• 44:45
  Like there was, there's some, there's very interesting variety
• 44:49
  in the talent that we're seeing with the junior women.
• 44:52
  Yeah. Oh, boy.
• 44:54
  Junior world's a whirlwind. That was Junior World that took
• 44:59
  sound, felt like it felt like it took three weeks, but it was
• 45:03
  only four days. Yeah, it's fun though.
• 45:06
  It's fun kind of seeing some of these younger skaters and their
• 45:09
  creative programs and after the the stress and the rigors of
• 45:15
  Milan so. Well, we're, we're about to head
• 45:20
  into the stress and the rigor that is Prague and the World
• 45:24
  Championships in two weeks, excited to start previewing, but
• 45:29
  we'll, we'll, we'll take a little bit of a break.
• 45:32
  Until we know who's actually going to be there.
• 45:34
  I know. Exactly, exactly.
• 45:37
  We'll take a little bit of a break, but we in the meantime,
• 45:42
  there's some fun interviews lined up.
• 45:46
  Olivia Smart, Tim Deek I just talked to for a good amount of
• 45:50
  time. And so we'll have we'll have
• 45:53
  that coming out. We're getting a Rocker rewatch
• 45:56
  for both June 1 and June 2. Cool.
• 46:00
  So we get to hear their commentary for both of those
• 46:03
  programs, which is fascinating. So we'll get that.
• 46:08
  I got a couple more lined up and hopefully we'll get those before
• 46:14
  we get to the World Championships in Prague.
• 46:16
  Michelle, anything, anything that's top of mind for you.
• 46:22
  I didn't mention this, but I love the two Italian junior
• 46:26
  dance teams that went back-to-back.
• 46:28
  Barbara Foussar. Polly had one and Valtorizo had
• 46:30
  another one. They were very different in
• 46:32
  their styles and they were both great.
• 46:35
  And I was thinking like, well, you know, Italy sort of not had
• 46:38
  a lot of depth in their dance program.
• 46:40
  And I was excited to see those two junior teams.
• 46:42
  And they have the recent last year's world junior champions
• 46:45
  who are missed most of the season because of injury.
• 46:47
  But we're there watching and will hopefully be back next
• 46:50
  year, so. Yeah, Talia, not for now are are
• 46:53
  they? They should be back next year
• 46:55
  and as seniors, so. I also have a heads up for any
• 47:00
  Canadian Team Canada fans who are in the US Lululemon has a
• 47:04
  ton of Team Canada stuff available for order in the US,
• 47:08
  but they have the mitten pins. So if you saw the skaters with
• 47:11
  the mitten pins that they were trading that that you can get
• 47:15
  them on the Lululemon website, I may have ordered them.
• 47:18
  I mean the Olympics are over but I was like, I need these just
• 47:22
  for reasons. I'm curious to see what the trip
• 47:26
  the pin trading is going to be like in Prague because I
• 47:30
  remember even in Montpellier when we were there for post
• 47:38
  Beijing worlds there was still a good amount of pin trading going
• 47:42
  on. Not quite to that level of
• 47:46
  craves, but maybe it's it was also because it was COVID
• 47:51
  Olympics and people are like, oh, we can talk to each other
• 47:53
  again. Junior worlds might have had
• 47:55
  some good pin trading going on because there were a lot of
• 47:57
  unique countries represented here.
• 47:59
  I kind of want to stand in the mix zone for that fifty woman
• 48:02
  short program and trade pins with each one that goes by and.
• 48:06
  You're like, what, Kyrgyzstan? Yeah, I mean, that's in New
• 48:09
  Zealand. It's like incredible Denmark I.
• 48:12
  Know I don't know. One thing that will be very
• 48:17
  interesting to watch in addition to who will remain in the on on
• 48:28
  the entries list for world is who will be making retirement
• 48:34
  announcements. We've already had a couple that
• 48:36
  we know of. My Mihara has officially made
• 48:41
  her retirement announcement, which is very sad and I'm sure
• 48:47
  we'll get more. But skating fans, just get
• 48:50
  ready. I think we'll also get the the
• 48:52
  soft retirements, as in they don't retire, but they don't
• 48:55
  show up in the Grand Prix entries.
• 48:57
  So then it's kind of like, oh, taking a season away, you know?
• 49:02
  Yeah, right. Some people never retire because
• 49:04
  it's like they just don't want to.
• 49:07
  I mean, the ship Retali is never actually really retired.
• 49:09
  And then they actually did come back.
• 49:10
  I mean. Famously, Ashley Wagner has
• 49:12
  never retired, so she could always come back.
• 49:16
  Ashley Wagner, we're Ready for You and Moulin Rouge version.
• 49:20
  Five, I mean, she hasn't done Moulin Rouge the musical yet, so
• 49:25
  I think, you know, there's a lot of material there.
• 49:28
  There's a lot of different songs there.
• 49:29
  She could do a few programs. Nicole Kidman.
• 49:31
  Yeah. Nicole Kidman all the way,
• 49:33
  though. Yeah.
• 49:35
  All right. Well, we're going to take a
• 49:38
  break. We're going to get some rest and
• 49:42
  we'll be back soon. We'll be back next weekend for
• 49:44
  something. We'll figure it out what we're
• 49:45
  going to do next weekend. But in the meantime, any sort of
• 49:52
  updates we will have for you for the World Championships coming
• 49:57
  up. So for Michelle Ellis, it's
• 49:59
  Jackie Wong, chief skate nerd of rockerskating.com.
• 50:03
  Thanks, as always, to John Wilson Blaze for getting us
• 50:08
  through this marathon of a season.
• 50:13
  And also getting us through this marathon of the season is Terra
• 50:16
  Nichols, who have been editing and producing us all season
• 50:21
  long. We'll talk to you again next
• 50:24
  week. Bye.