You are hyped because you are good. Wagner was never hyped because she was not a great junior and not really that brilliant of a senior either. Gracie Gold hardly had a junior career but the hype she got once she entered world scene was definitely merited. Hyping really has nothing to do with how young you are discovered or how well your career goes. Some people are just unlucky as far as puberty and other things go.I don’t think there is any really great benefit from hyping a junior skater as the next great thing. It didn’t help Caroline Zhang or Gracie Gold much. If you look at the Zhang/Flatt/Nagasu/Wagner junior era, Ashley was the least hyped of anyone yet turned out to have unarguably the most successful career of the 4 skaters, and I think the lack of hype and attention worked to her benefit.
I don’t think it would have been scandalous for Mariah Belle to have won nationals last year. Now Alysa Lui has so much pressure and she grew so much and can’t land triple jumps right now. I think it’s better to be under the radar so young and I really think 13 year olds should not be skating against 24 year olds. That’s just crazy.
There are skaters like Michelle and Sasha who were super hyped as juniors and able to able to transition without much trouble but it’s not like that under the current system it seems.
With the Russian ladies, it’s a new 15 year old every year with reigning Olympic And world champs being washed up at 18.
Sad.