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Medal Count - Juniors
Medal Count - Seniors
No doubt about it, Russia pretty much owns skating now and for the foreseeable future. The U.S. still has some strength in Senior Men and Senior Dance, and a future hopeful in Junior Ladies and Junior Dance. Nevertheless, the picture is still fairly bleak. The U.S. has no strength in Pairs, and for the men no standout waiting in the wings after Nathan Chen, and no depth if Vincent Zhou goes fully "academic" and retires. The current crop of U.S. Ladies is a lost cause, except for Alyssa Liu, who is the only U.S. lady who seems to have decoded the Russian method of cranking out wunderkind. In Dance, the U.S. continues to rely primarily on the old warhorses. The pipeline has not dried, up, but it also does not seem as full as it was in the past quad. And speaking of wunderkind, it was interesting to see the Russian (Tutberidze) method that has been applied so successfully to the Ladies the last four years, now starting to show results with the Russian men.
Future Protective Headgear for Pair Skating |
The Junior and Senior Finals in Torino, Italy closed out the first half of the 2019/20 season. Given the number of entries and medals that went to Russia, this might as well have been Russian Nationals. Half the medals were captured by that country. The United States placed second in the medal count with five. The competition was held at the Palevela arena, which was used for the 2006 Olympic Winter Games. The events were well attended, with several thousand Japanese fans on hand to cheer on their idol Yuzuru Hanyo. Hundreds, if not thousands of Poohs were again sacrificed on the altar of the Hanyu cult after each of his performances. And as Turin is the chocolate "capital" of Italy, it was a unique and appropriate touch that the bouquets of flowers given the medalist during the awards ceremonies where made of chocolate.
Royal Palace in Turin Junior Grand Prix FinalSenior Grand Prix FinalSenior Grand Prix Final Medalists Exhibition Cast
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