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Preview: Junior World Championships · The Rocker Skating Podcast

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We're back with previews, Michelle.
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I can't believe it. Hi, Jackie.
1:02
For for those of you who are new to the Rocker Skating Podcast
1:08
and or new to figure skating because you loved it so much at
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the Olympics, the season is not over yet and you're like, what
1:18
is going on right now? We have a Junior World
1:22
championships happening in a week, less than a week, and then
1:26
we have a senior World Championships happening at the
1:30
end of March. So there's a lot still
1:33
happening. And figure skating nerds will
1:36
tell you world and junior worlds after the Olympics.
1:44
If I can categorize it as fun, I think I would.
1:49
Fun is one of the adjectives that we would use for for those.
1:54
Messy is another adjective that we could use for those.
1:58
Chaotic would be another one. Michelle, what would you call
2:04
it? I feel like if I weren't so
2:06
tired from the Olympics, these would 2 be like two of my
2:08
favorite competitions in the quad.
2:10
They're yeah, very unpredictable.
2:14
And we often see like, I don't know, like breakthrough
2:17
performances at junior worlds. That exactly, like really
2:22
extraordinary as something about like the juniors, like still
2:25
like improving throughout the season.
2:27
Their season is so long. They've been competing since
2:30
like, August and, you know, they're being inspired by the
2:33
Olympics and yeah, I'm excited. Yeah, totally.
2:38
Let let's, let's talk about that in just a second, But a couple
2:42
of pieces of news for Worlds, which is we had the first set of
2:48
entries that came out and Worlds will be in Prague this year.
2:53
But as we know and we know every, even every Worlds, right,
3:00
the, the first list that comes out is never the final list that
3:04
happens. There are always withdrawals,
3:08
there are substitutions or all kinds of stuff.
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I, when I was at the Olympics, I heard about a number of them,
3:15
some of which may not actually happen, but some of it has
3:20
already happened, which is, yes, some haven't happened yet.
3:26
But Luna Hendrix being out of worlds, that was, that was for
3:31
me expected. I heard about just basically
3:33
she's she's Michelle and I talked to her at the World
3:38
Championships or at the Olympics and she was basically like week,
3:43
I don't even know. I didn't even know last week if
3:45
I could come to the Olympics, right.
3:47
And so she was really holding it together to just be competing
3:53
there. And she competed and it was
3:55
often very, it was just very, you know, like she gave it her
3:59
all there. And so no worlds for Luna
4:02
Hendrix. And then Lyra Kiara after
4:06
winning the Olympics, they're not going to worlds.
4:10
They were originally on the the list but withdrew.
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Japan does not have a second or a third pair to send.
4:18
And so there's no substitution for that.
4:22
And Luna Hendricks will be substituted by Yada Hoveen, who
4:27
sadly missed worlds by like a fraction of a point last year
4:33
because of the world, the the, the technical minimums.
4:36
And she gets to go this year. So she's very excited, but
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expecting there to be maybe a couple more before.
4:47
Yeah, I mean, I don't have any inside information, but I feel
4:51
like that there's going to be some in dance.
4:52
I mean, it's like these, they're not all going.
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There's no way. Yeah, those two were were
4:57
certainly two of the ones that I, I knew about beforehand.
5:01
And then, you know, we'll see what happens with with the rest
5:04
of them. So that's the World
5:06
Championships. Well, we will talk more about
5:08
the World Championships as the the next few weeks come along.
5:14
But to your point about Junior worlds being something of a what
5:22
do you call it? Star making debut events.
5:28
It certainly is star making. I mean, you look at some of the
5:32
post Olympic World Champion or Junior World Championships that
5:35
we've seen in the past 20-30 years or so, right?
5:40
2002 you had Daisuke Takahashi winning. 2006 you had Takahiko
5:47
Kozuka. 2010 you had Yuzuru Hanyu. 2014 Nathan Chen was the
5:55
bronze medalist. Yelena Ilenik and Nikita
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Katsalapov winning in 2010, Yeah.
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Right. Yeah, and they.
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They have Vancouver and I was like, do I want to be a Junior
6:05
World? Yeah.
6:10
Yeah, I mean you, you look at the women too, right?
6:13
Like what was it 2014 was Radionova was Medvedeva that was
6:21
that was that year. Truseva was 2018, Isabel Levito
6:27
was 2022 and Jia Shin was also 2022.
6:33
And because of the the age eligibility changes that have
6:37
happened over the past four years, she stayed in juniors for
6:41
then the next Four Seasons and one forced world silver medals
6:49
in a row. And of course she.
6:51
Was at the Olympics. Right, she was at the Olympics.
6:53
So she won't be. In Junior World to get.
6:56
Yeah, she'll be in senior worlds and for the first time in a
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whole Olympic cycle, we will have a new silver medalist at
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junior worlds. I mean, crazy.
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We'll talk about the women in just a bit, but like Sway and
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Han in 2010, Tarasova Morozov in 2014, like you, just you look at
7:19
the, the skaters who have been through junior worlds in the
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post Olympic junior worlds competitions.
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And you know, these are these are some names that we got so
7:36
excited to see where it all goes.
7:40
Since we we're on the subject of the women, let's start with the
7:42
women. OK.
7:45
Oh, we won't have a four, five time.
7:50
No. Junior World silver medalist but
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we might have a four time Junior World champion, won't we?
7:55
Yeah, that's that's crazy. I mean, let's go Mao.
8:01
But that if she doesn't win, she's never lost an
8:04
international competition. She's been first at every single
8:06
one she's ever done. So I I expect her to win, but
8:11
you never know and we haven't seen her compete in a minute.
8:15
It's been since Japanese nationals.
8:17
I don't know if she's done any. She's she's done a domestic one,
8:20
I'm pretty sure in January, but that was that was sort.
8:25
Of it, it'll be interesting to see what her score is too.
8:28
And then looking at like you add some additional steps into it
8:31
where it would have finished in the Olympic, the Olympic
8:35
results. Well, we, we remember very
8:39
famously in 2006, Mao Asada and you're not Kim.
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We're not at the Olympics. And it was you, not Kim, who won
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in 20 in 2006 and Mahasada who was second.
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So that, you know, for some foreshadowing going on there,
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you know, you look down this list like you and I had both had
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to dig into our memory banks of what happened during the Junior
9:13
Grand Prix, which felt like a lifetime ago.
9:18
And you know, because these are these are juniors, right?
9:21
Like they a season for them is actually a a long time in terms
9:27
of growth. But I, I do think we had a
9:30
little bit of, of with us with the women because we, we, we
9:34
have a little bit of a refresher because we saw them at Korean
9:37
nationals, Japanese nationals and US nationals.
9:40
So some of them are in my memory.
9:43
Some of them I I kind of had to dig for.
9:47
I mean, they're, they're you certainly have like the, the,
9:51
the three Japanese women, right? Mao Shimada, Maiyuka Oka, which,
9:55
who I love and I, I, I'm so excited to see if she can really
10:01
bring it because she just, she has such a maturity about her
10:06
skating. May Okada, who is like a a
10:11
different kind of breed of skater from like the the three
10:15
Japanese women who are going to junior worlds are going to be
10:19
all three very different in terms of style, in terms of jump
10:24
technique, in terms of everything.
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And they all, they all are great.
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You got the two Korean women who are not the two Korean women you
10:34
expected to be here. You Song Kim, you expected her
10:38
sister UJ Kim did not skate as well at Korean nationals and
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therefore did not get the spot for Junior World.
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She Uha, she's the one who got the spot and she's she's a
10:54
beautiful, artistic skater. I love her.
10:58
So those, those 5 right, like, yeah, totally those 5, you would
11:04
expect them to be amongst the top, but then you got a whole
11:09
bunch of others who who really like you.
11:13
You never know with these women because it's like you get a
11:17
couple of clean programs and all of a sudden your, your, your
11:20
score is way up there because some of these skaters really
11:23
have some big difficulty. I was remembering Hannah Bath
11:28
when I was going through this list and she was such a standout
11:32
on the Junior Grand Prix. She had a really strong triple
11:34
axle, triple toe combo. And yeah, I, I feel like she,
11:40
she was very like near to breaking through to winning some
11:44
of her events. And I think she could.
11:46
She could make a move here. She was very close to, she was
11:51
very close to getting into the Junior Grand Prix Final.
11:54
If it weren't for an invalidated jump, she would have.
11:59
Yeah, one of those. Yeah, yeah.
12:02
And then Sophie Jolene we saw at Nationals, but I'm excited to
12:05
see her here. I'm really interested in what
12:09
kind of technical content she attempts.
12:11
Nationals were, was I think the only event she did this year
12:15
that she didn't attempt her quad sow but I, I would guess we're
12:19
going to see it again here. Yeah.
12:23
Yeah. I mean, they're they're going to
12:25
be a lot of triple axels in this group, like Sophie Jolene.
12:33
All three of the Japanese women are likely going to be trying
12:37
triple axels. Yousong Kim has a triple Axel.
12:41
Inga Gerganitze has a triple Axel.
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I don't, I think she's done it this season.
12:46
Hannah Bath has a triple Axel. Leandra Zimpukakis has a triple
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Axel. Like all.
12:53
Really. Yeah, yeah, She, I don't think
12:56
she's. Landed it cleanly.
12:58
Yeah, I don't think she's landed it cleanly yet, but she's done
13:02
cues and, you know, it's a it's a nice jump.
13:07
So we'll see. It's, it's, it'll be really
13:09
interesting to, to just watch this group and, and see who
13:15
could potentially, you know, if Mao Shamada has an off day, who
13:20
could, who could dethrone her because she has not been immune
13:24
to mistakes this season. That's true, yeah.
13:29
And I, you know, for me, it's like you want a dark horse for,
13:33
for the upset. I my Yuko Oka is my my vote.
13:36
Yeah, Oh yeah. I mean, her short program is
13:40
glorious. And I mean, I'm going to be
13:43
eating my words, but I'm going to say when everyone skates
13:45
clean, I feel like she deserves to win the short program.
13:51
You know, I'm, I'm sure like a week from now, Mao Schmad is
13:54
going to make me look like an idiot for saying that.
13:56
But that's just that's just my my my opinion.
14:00
Well, the the interesting thing about the Junior women short
14:02
program is you cannot do a solo triple Axel as your as your axle
14:08
jump as opposed to you know, we saw it with Amber Glenn, right
14:12
and and others who do a triple axle as the solo axle jump.
14:16
You have to do a double axle for your solo axle jump.
14:20
And therefore if you want to put a triple axle in, it has to be.
14:26
Combo. It has to be the the combo.
14:29
Yeah, it has to be the combo because you have to do a triple
14:32
flip, right? This year, no triple loop.
14:34
This year it's a triple loop so so the only place where you
14:38
could do the triple Axel is in the combo, which makes it
14:42
doubly. Risky.
14:45
Risky, right? I, I, I know.
14:49
We know that Sophie Jolene has the triple Axel combo in her
14:52
short program. Yeah.
14:54
But Mao Shimada does not. Yeah, Mao Shimada has not done
14:58
that. I think Hannah Math has done
15:00
that. I might be wrong.
15:03
So you know, that that short program will be interesting.
15:05
You wonder if my Yuko Oka has been, you know, over the last
15:08
couple months been like, how do I add this triple Axel in the
15:11
short program, You know, and then she's got a beautiful one,
15:14
and she does it well. When I was at Japanese
15:16
nationals, it was just like, yeah.
15:18
Yeah. She was just landing all these
15:20
triple axes. I was like, Oh my God, they're
15:21
so good. Yeah.
15:23
So women, oof, excited to see where that goes.
15:29
Let's go to dance 'cause I know you want to go to dance.
15:33
There's a very clear favorite here.
15:36
Yes, I I think so, but I don't think that they they're
15:41
unbeatable. So Hanna Maria Aboyan and Daniel
15:44
Veselucan of the United States adore them.
15:47
They have so much personality. It's just like oozing out of
15:49
them. I mean, I'm expecting to
15:52
sensational performances from them.
15:54
I'm so excited to see them compete again.
15:58
And they won the Junior Grand Prix final.
15:59
So it it seems like they're the the likely winners of worlds,
16:06
but junior worlds. But I think that they're, I
16:08
mean, there's a bit of competition I think from a
16:11
couple other teams I want to mention, like First off, the
16:14
French team, Amber Perrier, Gionescini and Samuel Blanc
16:18
Klopperman, they were sensational at the Junior Grand
16:23
Prix Final. They were so good.
16:25
They have really strong programs.
16:26
They've been competing really well this year.
16:29
I think they're going to be right there.
16:33
I don't, you know, we'll see, we'll see what will happen.
16:36
I think the Ukrainian team should be in the mix as well.
16:39
Let me scroll back down to them, Irina Pidgayina and RTM Kaval
16:44
maybe saying that wrong, but they have a very like they have
16:47
like a senior look like they're very mature.
16:50
They have some like unbelievable lifts.
16:54
Their free dance is it's just so upbeat and complicated and
17:00
flashy and I know. We'll see one Grand Prix final
17:05
of you remember they they were very tight at the Grand Prix,
17:09
the junior Grand Prix final at the end of third a boy and
17:13
vessel Lukin won that by 7 points over Perrier Giannisini
17:18
and Blanc Kopperman. There's I think the the six who
17:22
went to junior worlds are likely going to be the six who are
17:29
fighting for for the sorry Junior Grand Prix Final are
17:32
like. Junior Grand Prix Final.
17:34
My brain are likely going to be the six who are fighting for the
17:38
junior world's podium and and they've been close this season.
17:45
They were not so close at the Junior Grand Prix Final because
17:49
of some mistakes. Because, you know, I think there
17:52
were there were some when when you got all of them sort of in
17:57
the same place going back-to-back to back it the,
18:01
the, the differences in their components really start to show.
18:06
And so that's why you saw, you know, a boy in Veseluc and, as
18:10
Michelle has said, the best vogue rhythm dance of the
18:14
season. Absolutely.
18:16
I stand by that and that's phenomenal.
18:19
Yeah, you know, they that's a stand out program for them for
18:22
sure. And they won the short program,
18:25
that rhythm dance by 3 1/2 points almost at the Junior
18:30
Grand Prix Final. So, you know, you wonder if they
18:33
skate well, they they can they break 70 here.
18:37
Yes. You can see.
18:39
It Let's go. I junior wants.
18:43
Yeah. I want to mention the Canadians
18:44
too, Leila Vellon and Alexander Brandis, they had a mistake in
18:48
their rhythm dance at Junior Grand Prix final.
18:50
I can't remember right now what it is, but I remember that was
18:53
distinct and it really took them out of contention.
18:56
But they have a really strong free dance as well, and I think
18:59
they could also be in the metal hunt.
19:01
Yeah, I mean, you look at the free dances, right?
19:03
They went first out of the six and they they ended up third in
19:07
the free dance. So that's, that tells you where
19:10
the judges are, are are sort of slotting them in some ways.
19:13
And you know, I think my guess is those 4 will be your podium
19:20
in some order. But again, you never know.
19:24
Like we, we, we saw at the Olympics, a twizzle goes off and
19:30
all of a sudden you're in 25, 25th PL. or whatever.
19:33
Yeah, it's like really tough. Yeah, and the field is that deep
19:37
here, so yeah, yeah, Twizzle, twizzle your twizzles.
19:42
That'll be very interesting to see.
19:45
Pairs, pairs is very like, I think this is this is one of the
19:54
stronger set of pairs that we have seen in recent years.
19:58
I mean recent years being that Olympic silver medalists.
20:07
Anastasia Metalkina and Luka Baruova have been at Junior
20:10
Worlds over the past couple of years and just like blowing it
20:14
out of the water because they're literally a senior pair.
20:17
Do you? Think they thought about coming?
20:20
Like, yeah, there's no way. But but like, you know, they had
20:25
no business being in junior worlds and they've been, but
20:31
that's also to say, I think the, the, the, the set of junior
20:35
pairs have really skated up and they're, they, how they look,
20:41
their elements, all of that have improved in the past couple of
20:45
seasons. And you know, if we got you
20:47
finally got some Chinese pairs who are back in the mix, you
20:54
know it, it's been it's been a bit of a glut of Chinese pairs
20:59
in the juniors in junior field for Zhang and Huang who are
21:04
going to the World Championships, right, because
21:08
Sway and Han are not going. Oh yeah, OK.
21:11
Yeah, so. I hadn't noticed that on the
21:13
list. But yeah, yeah, that's right.
21:14
I mean, yeah, Song Han. Song Han will not lace up a pair
21:19
of skates for the rest of his life because he's like, I'm done
21:21
with this. So you know Owen Zhang won the
21:26
Junior Grand Prix final. Yeah, I, yeah, they are so
21:30
stunning. I feel like it's they're really
21:32
going to do well here, yeah. It's they are they are one of
21:37
those juniors skaters this season who started off much less
21:44
interesting than they have developed.
21:47
Like they've gotten better and better during the season and
21:49
that's often times you see that trajectory with junior skaters
21:53
because they are developing as as like right before our eyes.
21:57
They're they're getting better and they and they have certainly
22:00
gotten better. I love Kemp and Elizarov skating
22:05
the Canadian pair. That's one of the three Canadian
22:09
pairs who's who's here. They have a, they sometimes have
22:14
trouble with their side by sides and that's been a big a bit of
22:18
the issue. But they're, they have some
22:19
beautiful skating. And then you can't forget about
22:25
Olivia Flores and Luke Wang, who has not been on the junior
22:30
circuit because they've been skating in seniors all season
22:33
and they they, they, they have they they also have improved.
22:38
They had an injury at the very beginning of the season that
22:40
made them look like they like what was going on, and as the
22:45
season has gone on, they've gotten more and more solid so.
22:49
Yeah, yeah. They had a great nationals.
22:52
They skated really well there, yeah.
22:56
Yeah, yeah. And you know, don't forget about
22:58
Goran Zhang's quad twist. Let's go.
23:02
The best quad twist I've ever seen.
23:04
I mean, hands down. Just floats like.
23:08
Such a nice nice element. So, you know, lots that could
23:13
also happen there. And I think it's going to be
23:17
some fireworks. And I think, as with all pairs
23:24
these days, it'll come down to those side by sides.
23:29
Unfortunately. Unfortunately, yeah,
23:32
unfortunately. All right, let's get on the men
23:36
all. Right, this is the big showdown.
23:39
I look, I, when I was thinking about this a few weeks ago, I
23:47
was like, oh, it's, it's like the fight between Minkusa and
23:53
Rio Nakata and Jacob Sanchez, right?
23:56
And then I looked at the list and I'm like, no, it's not like
24:01
there, there's certainly going to be 3 of them, right?
24:04
But there's a lot of good skaters here too, Like my
24:08
goodness, goodness, goodness. I think the Minku and Rio
24:13
showdown is the big one. Yes.
24:17
And we didn't get to see it play out at the Olympics because
24:20
they're both age and eligible, which is sad.
24:24
But yeah. And it's been it's been a bit
24:28
of, you know, back and forth. Like, you know, I feel like last
24:31
year Rio Nakata really had like the the dominance, but Minku
24:35
unseated him at the final and it was surprising.
24:38
And Rio was not happy about it. And yeah, I mean, he's really
24:43
going to be looking for vengeance at this event.
24:47
I mean, he's he's going to be really fired up.
24:49
He's such a fierce competitor. I'm excited to see how he likes.
24:53
Expected to just completely throw down here so.
24:57
It was interesting watching him at Japan Nationals and I, I got
25:00
to see him sort of a couple times here and there and he was,
25:05
you know, as much as he is amongst the top of the seniors
25:11
right at, at Japan nationals, he was still very much in awe of
25:15
the whole thing. And and, you know, taking it all
25:19
in, he would they sent him to the Olympics to to watch.
25:24
And to just like take. In the atmosphere, it was very
25:27
good to see him there. But you know, if you if you look
25:33
at consistency, right, Minku has had the consistency, Rio has had
25:39
the big jumps, but he's falling apart here.
25:43
And there. And there's no quad in the short
25:46
program. Yeah, yeah.
25:50
I'm really impressed with how Minku has been so consistent
25:54
while growing his arsenal. I think that's so impressive
25:58
adding the quad sow in over the course of the season and being
26:01
strong with it. And yeah, it's it's it's very
26:05
impressive. But yeah, that the short program
26:07
is the very like level playing field.
26:09
So I think that's a good, I don't know place for mink you to
26:12
start building. Yeah.
26:14
You got to be like, if you are in the hunt for a medal, you got
26:20
to be in the upper 70s into the 80s for for the short program.
26:26
Because otherwise if you're digging yourself out of a hole
26:29
in like in like a, you know, 70 point short program, that's not
26:33
that's not going to happen. It's going to be very tough to
26:36
to see that. But yeah, I mean, Jacob Sanchez,
26:41
first, first junior competition of the season for him because
26:46
he's been also been skating and seniors and he had a great
26:50
nationals. He had a.
26:52
Great 4 continents. His he, it feels like he's
26:56
starting to round into form a lot more than when when he was
27:01
at the very beginning of the season.
27:03
No quads that I know of. He was training quad Sal at
27:07
nationals, but it wasn't ready yet.
27:10
I don't think it's ready yet unless, unless there's a there's
27:14
been a huge development over the past couple of months, but he
27:18
will have to rely on. Yeah, he was in Milan.
27:20
They sent it to Milan because they had a, they had junior
27:24
world's camp in Italy. In Bergamo, where the American
27:30
team, the Olympic team was training, which was really cool,
27:33
yeah. Good to see, like all of them
27:35
being kind of part of this Olympic atmosphere.
27:40
But like, outside of the three of them, Lucius Kasanecki,
27:44
right, Like he was the surprise bronze medalist at at the Junior
27:51
Grand Prix Final hop in Choi, who is the the sort of opposite
28:00
of Menku saw in a lot of ways because he's the one who brings
28:04
in all the technical firepower in Korea, but doesn't have the
28:09
same kind of basics as Menku does.
28:14
But you know, if he if he skates well, he's he's certainly got a
28:18
shot. Taiga Nishino, Daya Ebihara,
28:24
Yanghao Lee, I mean. And not in the metal, not in the
28:30
metal conversation, really. But I'm really excited to see
28:33
you, Shan Lee, again. I don't know.
28:35
He's, you know, props to him doing another competition after
28:39
the three weeks we had and I didn't have to skate.
28:43
Yeah, he's coming down from, I mean, he was, he was training
28:46
and training and training in, in the last week before the closing
28:51
ceremony. I was, I, I was watching him do
28:54
triple flip triples, triple loops.
28:56
See, I was watching him do like different things.
28:59
I was watching him do quad letzes.
29:01
He was trying quad letzes. That Olympic practice Ice Post
29:04
event is really profitable for a lot of people.
29:09
You're just watching these, these, these do other things.
29:13
He's the only Olympian in the field.
29:14
I think he is. Possibly.
29:19
Possibly somebody's going to tell us somebody else's was on
29:24
was in there, but. No, I don't think so.
29:27
I mean, because the Paris the Paris definitely in the dance
29:31
weren't and then of the women so like these a couple different
29:38
countries like France, Israel, Estonia, they have entries, but
29:42
they're not what their Olympic entries were.
29:44
So yeah, I'm, I'm pretty sure he's the only Olympian at junior
29:47
worlds from Olympian, from Milan, Olympian in general.
29:51
Yeah, it's, it's going to be a fun Junior World.
29:57
It it will be a marathon. Yeah, and it's back.
30:02
We're back in the the home of figure skating.
30:04
Tallinn, Estonia. Tallinn.
30:07
For those of you who don't know about what Michelle is talking
30:10
about, Tallinn, Estonia has been both the hosts of many big
30:19
competitions and the substitute hosts when the when some other
30:24
hosts couldn't do it. Like there was one year when 4
30:28
Continents was also at in Thailand because it was supposed
30:33
to have been in Beijing, I think.
30:35
And they couldn't do it because of COVID.
30:37
And they were like, we have to get somebody else to do it.
30:40
And Thailand was like, hey, we're going to host both
30:45
Europeans and 4 continents. Like 4, they're hosting a
30:50
competition that has no entries from their own continent.
30:54
That's incredible. It's something else, but it's,
31:00
it is a, it is quite the marathon because we have 43 men,
31:05
we have 51 women, we have 30 ice dance teams and then pairs is
31:13
the only place where we get a little bit of reprieve and we
31:16
get 18 pairs. But like, you know, we're, we're
31:20
talking about 51 women. Over half of those 51 women will
31:27
not make it to the 24 person free skate.
31:32
But they will make it onto the Rocker Skating Twitter feed.
31:37
Live call of the event. They will because.
31:40
I hope, I hope you stayed on the whole.
31:42
Thing I'm watching and live tweeting and giving you
31:47
everything for all of next week so.
31:52
I may not catch them all, but I will catch as many as I can,
31:58
yeah. Oh boy, it's it's going to be a
32:03
long week. Mm hmm.
32:05
It'll be it really will be interesting to see how how all
32:08
of these skaters do because it's like it really is for some of
32:11
these skaters. This will be the biggest event
32:14
that they will ever skate in. And it's it's very cool for some
32:20
of these smaller feds, some of these rising feds, like there
32:25
there's someone from Kyrgyzstan who is skating.
32:28
In the next event. Like I've never seen Kyrgyzstan
32:31
in in a competition before. They, I'm, I'm guessing they
32:34
were in a junior Grand Prix at some point as well.
32:37
But you know, you have you, you do have a lot of these different
32:42
federations who aren't necessarily in the big leagues
32:49
all the time. And you know, Hong Kong's got a
32:53
couple of people, Kyrgyzstan, New Zealand's got a couple,
33:00
right. Yonhali is part of part of the
33:03
New Zealand team. Like there's just it, it'll be
33:08
very interesting to, to, to see these and, and again, for, for
33:12
the, for the figure skating fans out there, especially for those
33:16
who are new to Junior World. If you're going to watch Junior
33:21
world's, it's a different level of competition, but it's also a
33:25
very different, the stakes are very different, right?
33:29
The what it means to these skaters is also very different.
33:34
Like some of these skaters, Junior World is basically like
33:37
their Olympics and it's a very cool thing for them to be.
33:41
And some of these skaters may not make it to the big leagues,
33:46
but they will likely have some kind of effect on their own
33:54
countries and the future of skating in their own countries,
33:58
which you really have to take that into account.
34:05
Yeah. Junior World's starting on
34:08
Wednesday and going on for five years.
34:13
The short programs will take a long time.
34:15
Yeah, don't, don't miss the last groups of these, of the free
34:21
skates for these events, because you're going to be watching the
34:24
skaters in them for many years and it's your first real look at
34:27
them, you know. Well, for some of them.
34:32
Yeah. Before we before we end on this
34:34
thing, I do have what one thing I will mention is that this
34:39
junior world's is the end or not the end, but the continuation of
34:46
this control experiments, if you will, of the ISU, which is it's
34:52
which is basically this age eligibility change that happened
34:57
four years ago where a good number of the skaters who are
35:05
who have been competing over the past four years in the junior
35:08
events had expected to be seniors before this Olympic
35:16
Games happened. Mao Shimano was one of those.
35:20
And because of the age eligibility changes, there are a
35:27
number of skaters who now have to reframe their entire career
35:33
because their Olympics is no longer 2026.
35:37
Their Olympics is now fast forwarded or extended to 2030.
35:44
And the grand experiment here is that the hypothesis is if you if
35:50
you keep skaters in juniors for a longer period of time, they
35:56
will have time to develop both artistically and in their
36:03
potential longevity. And we will see over the next
36:09
four years if that does become the case, you know, like does Ma
36:15
Shamada make it all the way to 2030?
36:19
I I hope so but she's been doing triple axels for like 4 years.
36:25
And quad toe. Yeah, and quad toe and.
36:27
Who knows what else at home, Yeah.
36:30
And and these skaters that we're talking about the the women
36:34
especially, that's that's where it the the effects will see.
36:37
It's see will materialize. Most is in the women's event.
36:41
We're seeing a lot of triple axels here.
36:44
We are seeing a lot of skaters really up the ante.
36:48
And the question is, does that follow through in the senior
36:53
events or will they be just doing the triple axels in the
36:58
junior ranks and maybe the first year or so in the senior and
37:02
then it falls away. We don't know yet.
37:04
We have no idea. This has not, this has never
37:06
happened before and and this is this will be something that we
37:10
will be keeping an eye on over the four years.
37:13
Yeah, just looking through the ages of some of the skaters we
37:18
mentioned, Mao Shimada, Yousong Kim and Sophie Jolene Van Felten
37:23
will be eligible to move up to senior next year
37:25
internationally. I assume they will, but we don't
37:28
know. But Maiuka, Oka and Maokada have
37:33
another year or two to wait. So, yeah, the the next four
37:39
years will certainly be interesting and seeing these
37:42
junior skaters from from this past quad going up to seniors.
37:49
All right, well, I'm going to go sleep for a couple of days and
37:53
wake up to do all of these short programs.
37:55
But I'm, I'm, I'm excited for more skating, frankly, I will be
38:01
very interested to see how much Ricky Martin we have in.
38:04
Oh my gosh, it's going to be hours. 30 hours rhythm dances.
38:09
Ricky Martin himself will be at the boards singing.
38:13
I'm so excited for that. The same song, Maria.
38:17
Yeah, Maria over and over again. Maria, yeah, yeah.
38:21
And you know, the 4th place finisher at Junior World's last
38:25
year in the women's event ended up in the Olympic podium.
38:27
So if you missed the podium, don't worry.
38:31
Pretty well next year. Was was, I mean Akai 4th last
38:39
year? Mm hmm.
38:42
Yeah, at least Lynn Gracie beat her for the bronze medal I just
38:46
got. This feeling that.
38:47
Wild. Yeah, I know.
38:49
Crazy, right? But that's also the thing.
38:52
I mean, Akai had a really not great junior season last year.
38:57
Yeah. Just not really not great season
38:59
period. Last season she was 15th at
39:02
Japan Nationals Like. Wow.
39:06
Yeah, I, I, that's, that was how how she sort of like navigated
39:13
last season and, and it was it was on the heels of like a good
39:18
Junior Grand Prix final and, and, and a decent junior
39:26
Japanese nationals that she made it to the Junior World
39:30
Championships, but. Well, the season, yeah, the
39:34
season before, she was 10th at nationals and wasn't even
39:38
assigned to junior worlds. It was the season before that,
39:40
202223, where she was third at junior worlds and 4th at
39:44
nationals Senior. That's interesting.
39:48
She's had quite a quite a wild ride in.
39:50
Juniors, I think. Yeah, the growth, the growth for
39:53
its for certainly part of it. It was good for her too, I
39:56
think. Yeah.
39:57
Yeah, OK, that's it for our junior world's preview.
40:05
Those of you again who are new to figure skating because of the
40:10
Olympics, welcome to the fray because it's the juniors are are
40:15
very interesting bunch and I hope you continue to watch.
40:19
We can watch them on YouTube. And you can watch him on
40:22
YouTube. Yeah, hopefully with Mark
40:24
Henry's commentary, I haven't asked him, but I assume he's
40:26
doing this. I think he.
40:27
Is I think he is I think he told me he was so everything will be
40:33
live streamed 0 Geo blocking on the ISU skating let's go YouTube
40:41
channel. It's at skating ISU so easy to
40:47
watch and and no no no need to figure out your VPNs.
40:56
You can use one if you want, but you don't know exactly you.
40:58
Don't need. You don't need to.
40:59
All right, Well, for Michelle Ellis, this is Jackie Wong,
41:04
chief skate nerd of rockerskating.com.
41:07
Thanks as always to John Wilson Blades for sponsorship and to
41:12
Tara Nichols who only has 1/2 hour well 40 minutes of of this
41:19
preview to edit and produce. The other thing also is there
41:28
were a couple of interviews that came out over the past couple of
41:30
days, which I think you would be very interested in Yuna Aoki.
41:35
They are interview from a couple weeks ago just came out.
41:38
She was a delight to talk to. I loved having the chance to
41:42
interview her. So it's on YouTube.
41:45
It's on all the podcast channels.
41:48
Go take a listen and go take a watch.
41:50
And then also if you are excited about pins, and I know, I know
41:57
Michelle was certainly excited about pins.
42:00
I'm very excited about the. Pins I I rounded up three of the
42:07
premier figure skating pin connoisseurs from Milan.
42:12
That would be Maddie Skisys, James Hernandez and Anthony
42:17
Panamarenko. We had three different countries
42:20
of experiences, but they all were very much talking to each
42:25
other at the Olympics, figuring out all of their pin strategy
42:30
and pin trading. You think my pin collection was
42:35
impressive? It is nothing compared to those
42:39
three. It was.
42:40
It was it was so fun. I I when I was editing, all I
42:44
was doing was just laughing my ass off.
42:46
It was just such a fun video to shoot.
42:49
So that that's on my YouTube rap rocker skating and go take a
42:55
look at that when you get a chance.
42:59
Anything else, Michelle? I have a a fun pin trading story
43:05
about James Hernandez. I can share if we, if we haven't
43:08
gone too long. So as you know, in I gave you
43:13
the NBC pin, gave you the NBC pin with a coffee cup on it.
43:16
And James Hernandez saw that you had it and asked me for it.
43:20
And so I was doing everything I could to track down more because
43:23
we had like a pin shortage in the NBC pins.
43:25
Like Andrea ordered her own pins.
43:26
Like they're just not enough. My production manager had to
43:30
actually request 2 coffee cup pins from another venue for me
43:34
to give to James because I was like, they're British.
43:37
She was British. I'm like, please, please.
43:39
She did it. She did it for me.
43:40
And then like the day, the next day, Ting Tsui, who is working
43:44
with us, comes up with a bag of pins.
43:46
There's probably like, I don't know, 30 NBC pins in it.
43:49
And she's like, look at this bag of pins that James asked Johnny
43:52
to get for him. Johnny asked me to give this to
43:54
James. I mean it's like every pin you
43:56
could imagine from NBCI was like he's, he is tapping everybody at
44:01
our company trying to get all the pins.
44:04
So James probably has the most comprehensive collection of NBC
44:07
pins from Milano Cortina that is out there.
44:10
It's very comprehensive for sure.
44:12
He's he's yeah, he had a busy side hustle going skating was
44:18
secondary to the pin collecting. I mean, you're there for three
44:21
weeks. Yeah.
44:23
You, you practice, you have some downtime.
44:25
What do you do? You go and trade some pins.
44:28
Yeah, That's that's, it's such a sport over there.
44:31
It's like the unheralded pastime of Olympians.
44:35
Yeah, he's going to be one of those people that has his own
44:37
pin in 20-30. Absolutely.
44:39
I mean, when we were talking about it, like his face just lit
44:43
up, he was like. Oh, we.
44:46
Should do that. All right.
44:48
OK, we're really going this time.
44:51
We'll talk to you again soon and the and the Junior World
44:54
Championships will be happening in less than three days, so see
44:58
you later. Bye.
45:00
Bye.