2024 Four Continents/Junior Worlds/Worlds US Team Speculation

[skatingguy]

It's bit ridiculous that someone who has scored over 200 total points in each of her last international events which included a GP and a ISU championship doesn't quality for Jr Worlds. Seems backwards to me to score that high at the highest level of figure skating competition yet not have the Jr minimums.

I think it's about separating Junior, and Senior levels of competition, and discourage skaters from going back, and forth.

 

[RoseRed]

I think it's about separating Junior, and Senior levels of competition, and discourage skaters from going back, and forth.

I wish you could still use junior scores for senior minimums, but I think not being able to use senior scores for junior minimums makes sense.

 

[happycamper2554]

JR Worlds Team Announced

U.S. Figure Skating Names 16 Athletes to World Junior Championships Roster | U.S. Figure Skating

www.usfigureskating.org

 

[Karen-W]

JR Worlds Team Announced

U.S. Figure Skating Names 16 Athletes to World Junior Championships Roster | U.S. Figure Skating

www.usfigureskating.org

MEN
Daniel Martynov
Jacob Sanchez
Alternate 1: Beck Strommer
Alternate 2: Taira Shinohara
Alternate 3: Lucius Kazanecki

WOMEN
Josephine Lee
Sherry Zhang
Alternate 1: Logan Higase-Chen
Alternate 2: Sarah Everhardt
Alternate 3: Elyce Lin-Gracey

PAIRS
Olivia Flores and Luke Wang
Naomi Williams and Lachlan Lewer
Adele Zheng and Andy Deng

ICE DANCE
Leah Neset and Artem Markelov
Elliana Peal and Ethan Peal
Yahli Pedersen and Jeffrey Chen
Alternate 1: Jenna Hauer and Benjamin Starr
Alternate 2: Caroline Mullen and Brendan Mullen
Alternate 3: Olivia Ilin and Dylan Cain

 

[Karen-W]

Hmmmmm... not sure I agree with the Women’s selections - and I definitely do not agree with the order of the Alternates. Of course, Logan IS a Tammy Gambill skater and Sarah is not. You would think the USFS would stop screwing Skorniakov/Malinina skaters given how well Ilia had done the past couple seasons but nope...

Sarah is now left to fight and scrap her way for senior assignments next season the same way Ava Marie has the past couple. Hopefully the Skorniakov/Malinina team recognizes there is ZERO sense in Sarah staying junior internationally next season. Get her into seniors to start building her BOW for 2026.

Also, very surprised the USFS stuck with the podium results foe ice dance.

 

[Aceon6]

Disappointed that Sarah isn’t first alternate. Side by side, Sarah is a better competitor than Logan.

 

[Stephanie]

I hope Sarah at least gets a senior international before the season’s out, at least for the experience and chance to get the worlds minimums for next year. Unfortunately this won’t help her in terms of season’s best score and any world standings points wouldn’t be enough to make any real difference. At this stage I fear that she’s doomed for another JGP season next year.

ETA maybe USFS will surprise me and give her a SA host spot, but I’m not holding my breath

 

[Karen-W]

I hope Sarah at least gets a senior international before the season’s out, at least for the experience and chance to get the worlds minimums for next year. Unfortunately this won’t help her in terms of season’s best score and any world standings points would be small to not make any real difference. At this stage I fear that she’s doomed for another JGP season next year.

Coupe de Printemps for Sarah!!!

She doesn't have to stay junior internationally if she doesn't want to - Ava Marie didn't last season when we all expected her to do so. I think her coaches are wise enough to know they need to move her up to senior internationally full time this summer. She should warrant at least 1 Challenger and will be in the mix for the SkAm TBD spot (along with Elyce).

 

[A.H.Black]

No alternates for Pairs? Are there no other couples eligible?

 

[Karen-W]

No alternates for Pairs? Are there no other couples eligible?

No - neither Smith/McPike nor Park/Griffin were able to earn the TES mins this past week.

 

[Ena Grins]

I agree that Sarah is one to watch over the next couple seasons. I will absolutely tune in for her jump technique even if the presentation isn't totally there yet.

 

[her grace]

Thoughts on the selections

Pairs: Easy choices with only 3 eligible teams, but a good group with a chance to medal.

Dance: I think they got it right. My heart says Hauer/Starr, but my head says Peals earned this based on the selection criteria. Hauer/Starr just didn't have a body of work this season and when you think about Hauer/Starr's great result at junior worlds last year (8th), the Peals have been equally strong internationally this year (7th in the JGP standings) and the Peals beat them in the head-to-head at nationals. The U.S. has a wonderful, large group of amazing ice dancers, and one way to keep teams around is for each team to believe they will be rewarded when they skate well. The Peals earned it this time.

Ladies: Sigh. After finishing second, it was very unlikely that Josephine Lee wouldn't be selected. BUT the calling was so egregious at nationals that I find it difficult to believe that nationals predicts what Lee's results would be at Jr. Worlds. If her 3-3 had been called correctly in the SP, would Lee have skated so free in the long? Who is to say? That said, Lee will have her turn (again) and Zhang was fairly reliable internationally this season (YOG SP notwithstanding). I do think with these two selections that Everhardt should be first alternate, not sure what they're thinking there. This event will be a nailbiter for U.S. fans.

Men: Looks fine to me. Martynov is the easy pic and Sanchez, while not perfect, is still scoring pretty well. Strommer gets the first alternate nod due to his international success with Shinohara as the rising skater back-up. Cool.

 

[Sarah]

I’m kind of in agreement with @her grace. The only real issue I have is with the alternates for junior women. I’d probably have had Sarah as first alternate. That said, the rest I’m ok with (even if I’d have preferred Sarah over Josephine on the team).

 

[AngieNikodinovLove (ANL)]

JR Worlds Team Announced

U.S. Figure Skating Names 16 Athletes to World Junior Championships Roster | U.S. Figure Skating

www.usfigureskating.org

What is Sarah E doing all the way down at A2?..

Does she not have the minimums or something?

 

[jlai]

It's hard to compare a domestically junior and a domestically senior skater. Sarah E. never went head to head against Logan. Logan didn't get a jgp assignment, making it even harder to compare. She did win at Budapest Trophy scoring quite well. So internationally, Logan's results look good this season, plus she is junior champ. On paper, she is deserving of the 1st alt spot. Potential is a subjective thing and in a way I can see the selection committee not wanting to go that route.

There are more than one deserving skater for junior world, which is a good thing. There will be disappointment whoever USFS chooses. Either way, unless the alternates end up making their way to junior worlds (hope not), it's moot (no difference in funding either)

And yes, the national results make it hard to skip J. Lee

 

[AngieNikodinovLove (ANL)]

ETA maybe USFS will surprise me and give her a SA host spot

I was just going to chime in here with this, I don’t agree with USFS decisions, most of the time, including the TBD spots at skate America.

USFSA rivals skate Canada with their decision making in my opinion

 

[Karen-W]

I was just going to chime in here with this, I don’t agree with USFS decisions, most of the time, including the TBD spots at skate America.

USFSA rivals skate Canada with their decision making in my opinion

SkAm 2024 is certainly a possibility but she'll be in competition for that spot with Elyce, Clare and Starr - hard to see her getting the pick over two Tammy Gambill skaters and one of the USFS' social media/diversity stars.

 

[AngieNikodinovLove (ANL)]

SkAm 2024 is certainly a possibility but she'll be in competition for that spot with Elyce, Clare and Starr - hard to see her getting the pick over two Tammy Gambill skaters and one of the USFS' social media/diversity stars.

This season Starr received two Grand Prix assignments that were not skate America… are her standings not high enough this season to secure that for next season?

Now that I think about it one of them may have been to replace someone else

 

[AngieNikodinovLove (ANL)]

Being in Colorado Springs, and all that, does Tammy really have that much power over the USFSA’s decisions? I guess so? That’s it …… I want Robin Wagner in here…

 

[Vagabond]

Coupe de Printemps for Sarah!!!

That assignment would be quite a coup.

 

[Karen-W]

This season Starr received two Grand Prix assignments that were not skate America… are her standings not high enough this season to secure that for next season?

Now that I think about it one of them may have been to replace someone else

Starr was WS 27 and SB 28 last season. Hard to say where she'll end up this year - currently she is WS 29 and SB 52. At best, I think she'll maybe get 1 GP initially but even that might not happen since we still have Worlds and there are plenty of skaters who will be there who can bump her down the WS further.

 

[Jammers]

It's time to start looking to the future and getting skaters like Elyce and Sarah as many assignments as possible. I'm sure Ava will have 2 GP's next season but wasting SA spots on skaters like Starr reminds me of when the USFS kept giving SA to Caroline Zhang when she was on the downside of her career. The US probably has their deepest group of young talented skaters coming up in over a decade so i hope they spread out the assignments and not waste them again.

 

[zebobes]

The thing that worries me about Josephine is that in her short at Nationals, her solo jump was a loop, when in juniors, the lutz is the required jump this year. Why didn’t they feel confident enough to use the lutz at Nationals? When she goes to junior worlds, not only will she have to deal with the stress of knowing she didn’t skate well last year at JW, she will also have to deal with changing her layout for the first jump.

 

[Ena Grins]

Dance: I think they got it right. My heart says Hauer/Starr, but my head says Peals earned this based on the selection criteria. Hauer/Starr just didn't have a body of work this season and when you think about Hauer/Starr's great result at junior worlds last year (8th), the Peals have been equally strong internationally this year (7th in the JGP standings) and the Peals beat them in the head-to-head at nationals. The U.S. has a wonderful, large group of amazing ice dancers, and one way to keep teams around is for each team to believe they will be rewarded when they skate well. The Peals earned it this time.

Yeah, I think if Hauer/Starr had placed ahead of the Peals at Nationals, they'd be on the team. But it would be hard to justify their placement this year with the limited info we had.

 

[haribobo]

I think Logan didn't put a foot wrong with her results all season so I completely think there is no problem with her being first alternate. I also think Sarah could easily have been named to the team or 1st alternate with her amazing skates at Nationals and been justified. What this could all be leading up to is Sarah rightly being named as a senior Worlds alternate, pending minimums of course. Maybe there is some senior assignment in the ether for her...otherwise seeing her season end here is somewhat devastating.

 

[love skating]

I think I agree with all the Junior World selections, but just like many of you here.. disagree with the order of some of the alternates - wishing them all good luck!

 

[her grace]

Any predictions/thoughts on senior world alternates? I'd do

men: 1) Torgashev 2) Naumov 3) Ma
women: 1) Ziegler 2) Everhardt 3) Lin-Gracey
pairs: 1) Liu/Nagy 2) Martins/Bedard 3) Mokhova/Mokhov
ice dance 1) TBD 2) TBD 3) Pate/Bye

 

[Sarah]

Any predictions/thoughts on senior world alternates? I'd do

men: 1) Torgashev 2) Naumov 3) Ma
women: 1) Ziegler 2) Everhardt 3) Lin-Gracey
pairs: 1) Liu/Nagy 2) Martins/Bedard 3) Mokhova/Mokhov
ice dance 1) TBD 2) TBD 3) Pate/Bye

Everhardt doesn’t have her senior minimums, correct? I suspect Lin-Gracey will be higher as a result.

 

[Karen-W]

Any predictions/thoughts on senior world alternates? I'd do

men: 1) Torgashev 2) Naumov 3) Ma
women: 1) Ziegler 2) Everhardt 3) Lin-Gracey
pairs: 1) Liu/Nagy 2) Martins/Bedard 3) Mokhova/Mokhov
ice dance 1) TBD 2) TBD 3) Pate/Bye

I expect the USFS will, for the most part, follow Nats results.

Men: 1) Torgy, 2) Naumov, 3) Ma
Women: 1) Ziegler, 2) Seo, 3) Andrews
Pairs: 1) Liu/Nagy, 2) Martins/Bedard, 3) Mokhovs
Dance: 1) Green/Parsons, 2) Pate/Bye, 3) Zingas/Kolesnik

It would be one thing if ZingKol were moving the needle internationally over GreenP and outscoring them by a decent margin as Torgy has done over Naumov, but they aren't, so GreenP will get the 1st alternate nod and PateBye the 2nd alternate spot.

With women, I think the Jr Worlds assignments tell us all we need to know. Never ever underestimate Tammy Gambill's ability to get her skaters opportunities. Ziegler proved she should be 1st alternate but after the way Everhardt got bumped to #2 for Jr Worlds, I expect Seo to get the #2 spot and, at that point, it's easy to just finish up with Andrews who was the next highest finish at Nats who is age-eligible and has the Mins. The USFS isn't sending anyone out to get the TES mins who doesn't have them and if they were hot on Everhardt, they'd have at least gotten her into Challenge Cup (either as a participant or as a reserve if the field is currently full like they have with Martins/Bedard).

 

[Rukia]

Men: 1) Torgy, 2) Naumov, 3) Ma
Women: 1) Ziegler, 2) Seo, 3) Andrews
Pairs: 1) Liu/Nagy, 2) Martins/Bedard, 3) Mokhovs
Dance: 1) Green/Parsons, 2) Pate/Bye, 3) Zingas/Kolesnik

I pretty much agree with this. Womens really does get a little murky after Ziegler, but in the end I don't think it matters much past her anyway. They're all likely to do about the same lol.