A Few Final Things About 4CC; A Few New Things About Junior Worlds

+ Do you remember Cheltzie Lee, the Australian teenager that opened NBC’s coverage of ladies’ figure skating in Vancouver a year ago? She recently competed at Four Continents, and despite the lack of a triple lutz or flip, finished 10th in a field of 29. (Here’s the FS as the Clip of the Day.) The reason I mention this is that it’s pretty rare for anyone that’s not representing China, Japan, South Korea, the U.S., or Canada to break into the top 10 at this event. In fact, the last time it happened for Australia was five years ago—when Joanne Carter placed 8th in 2006. Personally I hope Lee gets somewhere soon where she can master the big-ticket jumps (if it’s still possible); I enjoy watching her and it’d be a shame if this turns out to be her biggest accomplishment outside of competing in Vancouver.

+ Admittedly I didn’t think much about the final scores of the men at this year’s U.S. Nationals until I spotted a Tweet from Jeremy Abbott last week…

Really wishing I had done a 2T at Nationals. I would give anything to go to Tokyo. If nothing else I'm fired up for next season! BRING IT!

And then I thought about them, looked them up, and saw that bronze medalist Ross Miner finished with 224.35… and Abbott finished with 224.16. Less than .2 dividing them. I believe a double toe (2T) has a base value of 1.4 points. So there you go. Also… ouch!! What a brutal realization.

+ And speaking of toe loops… the quadruple kind, in this case… I couldn’t help but notice that this event was the opposite of Europeans in terms of quad success. Only ONE of the top 5 men had a successful attempt, and that one (Yuzuru Hanyu) didn’t even make the Japanese Worlds team!

With that, we move on to Junior Worlds, which takes place this week in South Korea. Will you be tracking it this year? Representing the U.S. men will be Junior champ Max Aaron, as well as Senior top 10 finishers Keegan Messing (who finished 4th at J. Worlds last year) and Jason Brown. Representing the U.S ladies will be Agnes Zawadski (2nd at J. Worlds last year, and 4th at Senior Nats this year)… Christina Gao (8th at J.Worlds last year; 5th at Senior Nats two years running)… and current Junior Ladies champ Courtney Hicks. You can read much more about this week’s events via this article at icenetwork.com. We’ll check in and see how everyone’s doing as the week progresses.