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