Is really in anyone's best interest to be trying to earn a lot of money in competitions at the age of 15? The vast majority of skaters are not doing that. If the age limits are known, skaters will train for the events they are eligible for.
Or she would have never started knowing that her first Olympics could be at 21, but Kwan always stated she wanted to compete at the 2002 and even 2006 Olympics even when she was doing interviews in Lillehammer. Money is always going to be an issue, but the answer to that shouldn't just be lowering the age limits. There are always other options to look at.
Valieva is one skater. I remember this board when Mao was age ineligible and how upset people were because Mao could have won in 2006. She had a long career, but never won a gold medal. Carolina and Tukt are two skaters who had long careers and were competing as teens. In fact, many skaters, even from figures era, starting competing at 15 years old. They just didn't win anything because of figures. I feel bad for these kids because it's a roll of the dice how their careers will peak. People try not to get injured but athletes do outgrow the sport. That's why there is so much attrition at junior level. However if they are great at that moment, why not be able to win an OGM. THere were 12 years olds in Japan competing in skateboarding and winning OGMS.
A lot of top skaters do come from relatively well-off families, or at least well-off enough to pay what's needed for them to be competitive. A lot of skaters teach/coach or have other jobs at the rink, or work retail/Starbucks/waiting tables to help fund their training. They may have local sponsors who provide them with assistance in exchange for promotions...ex: Madison Hubbell had some arrangement with a car dealership in her hometown where she got a car and then made some appearances at the dealership. Boot and blade companies may give equipment for a discount in exchange for appearing in ads/testimonials. Some skaters (Karen Chen, H/D) may have a friend or family member who can make their costumes for less than a professional seamstress. In some cases, a skater might be able to get discounts on ice time (IIRC, MK got free ice at Lake Arrowhead) or may receive some financial assistance or award from their skating club.
Once age became something to exploit, a change was necessary. Personally, I never liked young girl skaters. I certainly didn't like this last batch. I'm ok with 15 yos, 16 yos having to hang in there to get the big prizes. It'll be a different landscape now.
Imagine Michelle Kwan sitting in Juniors for 4 years when she was already a top 10 skater at 13. With the age limits in gymnastics, there are plenty of gymnasts who have long junior careers and just burn out or don’t make it to senior. At least they have NCAA gymnastics to go to but figure skaters don’t really have that option. If I’m not mistaken, didn’t Russia want to move the age up when the United States had all of these baby ballerinas and that didn’t gain traction? I think there were other measures they could have taken to protect children’s bodies like demonetize Junior competitions (for performance) and not have streaming coverage of Juniors. I think the ISU push to stream juniors plus Ted’s glowing commentary and focus on the Russian juniors really fueled the push to get children to do more technical content. Even in the United States, when Alysa was landing the quad lutz and triple axel, they pushed her to the forefront. I wouldn’t be surprised if that is the reason she is so burnt out. I think that with an age limit, Alysa would not have last another 4 years. In fact, the United States touted its baby ballerinas long before Russia and there are a lot of skaters who did not have long careers. Only Sasha survived out of that group of girls.
Don't forget Gordeeva and Grinkov's 1986 and 1987 World titles and their first OGM in 1988.
Probably.
I don't see the point either. At least not when you are going back 20, 30, 40 years. That's a lifetime in Sport.
Interesting that Kristy tweeted this since I believe she was 17 when she made her senior debut and 21 when she won the Olympics.
The age limit in gymnastics just hid the ones who didn't make it. I also think that the sport lost a lot of its grace when the participants became older. No matter how much power the older athletes have, they can't mimic the natural agility and grace of the younger athletes. They have the strength without the bulk of muscle. Nadia had all that agility and grace that was inspiring as a 14 year old. She was still a good gymnast but not quite the same as she became older.Probably.
I don't see the point either. At least not when you are going back 20, 30, 40 years. That's a lifetime in Sport.
So I used to agree with Kristi. But I saw what raising the age limit did for gymnastics and I'm hopeful it will have similar positive effects for skating.
Eh, and the program that I will watch every time it comes up on a social media feed is Savchenko/Massot's Pyeongchang FS.
Additionally, while Kristi Yamaguchi might not support the age increase, the Athletes Commission's poll showed a super-majority of support for increasing the age minimum. While former athletes are entitled to their view, they aren't competing now and society has changed drastically since the good dentist's daughter toiled away in relative anonymity in Fremont and San Jose. Would she have been able to compete senior level nationally and internationally in both singles and pairs nowadays? Doubtful.
Nadia was the 1979 European AA Champion, at age 18. She was also an Olympic AA silver medalist at age 19.
I think Kristi's point is that the problem that lead to this result is doping, not age, so in effect the real problem was not addressed.
Nu?
