She has one of those names you remember—long, melodic, a little complicated. I remember Scott Hamilton gushing over her at the Torino Olympics three years ago; watched her expectantly for another year or so in the Senior GP events. So when I saw it on the list of competitors today at Junior Worlds, I was admittedly a little confused: what is Elene Gedevanishvili doing there?
Winning the short program, that’s what.
And she’s not the only one there this week despite competing at the senior level most of the time. Ashley Wagner turned in an SP she probably would have preferred to do at Senior Nationals, and is currently in 2nd place. Russia’s Alena Leonova and the U.S.’s Katrina Hacker both competed on the Senior GP circuit this past season, and are now in 3rd and 5th, respectively. Over on the men’s side, Senior GP’er Adam Rippon took Gold yesterday—actually defending a junior world title he’d already won last year. (Curran Oi dropped from 3rd to 5th after yestrerday’s free skate; Ross Miner finished 10th.)
While I doubt this is an all-new phenomenon, I just have to wonder what it’s like all the way around. Do senior skaters mind being sent “backwards” if they’re sent to Junior Worlds? Do junior skaters resent the fact that they don’t stand much chance at their own event? Or does everyone just take everything in stride?
They probably do, and perhaps that’s the only way to fly…but is everyone and everything benefiting as they should? Feel free to leave a comment; I’m curious what people think.
In the meantime, here’s Gedevanishvili’s 2006 Olympic appearance as the Clip of the Day. (Sorry I couldn’t find Scotty’s commentary; only the Eurosport edition was handy.)
P.S. A shout-out is necessary to Team USA with regards to Ice Dance… they finished 1-2-4, missing a medals sweep by only ½ a point!
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2 comments:
Ashely Wagner mentioned that she was doing Junior Worlds to get more world ranking points, and hopefully get 2 GP assignments, so I see the strategy. However, I feel for skaters like Alexe Gilles and Angela Maxwell who deserved to go last year, and still have not been invited to Junior Worlds, while Caroline Zhang has gone 3 times. I wish they had a rule that medalists must move on to Senior.
That's what I was thinking, too... I guess I'd assumed there WAS such a rule until now. Seems like a rule of common sense, doesn't it? How lousy would it have been if Adam Rippon had NOT successfully "defended" his Junior World title?
But I think I've joked before about how there is sometimes little room for common sense in this sport!
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