The last two weeks of the Junior Grand Prix, held in Ostrava and Riga respectively, have had some excellent performances and I think, particularly in the women's discipline, viewers have started to see clear stars emerge.
Here are some top moments
1. Mao Shimada and Jia Shin
The winners of the women's discipline in both Ostrava and Riga have been truly spectacular. In Ostrava, Mao Shimada shined, showing incredible speed and skating skills, and landed a beautiful triple axel (and attempted a quad) in her free skate. In a way, her skating feels very much like that of her older teammate's, Kaori Sakamoto, in the way she flys across the ice, but Mao definitely has graceful qualities. This past week in Riga, Jia Shin won gold. For the past year Jia has been gathering fans all of the internet, and it's easy to see why. Her skating is so graceful and so beautiful. However, in order for Jia to catch Mao, some of the speed across the ice, especially in and out of the jumps, has to improve. We'll likely see these two back-to-back at the JGP final in December, and it's up to anyone's guess who'll come out ahead...
2. Some solid Men's performances (That weren't from Japan or Korea)
Japanese men especially have emerged over the last year as the strongest men's contingent in the JGP series, but I found it interesting that at these past two competitions, other talents from other countries have found their way onto the podium. In Ostrava, while Japan held out for gold, Nikolaj Memola from Italy took the silver, and then came back in Riga to win gold. Andreas Nordeback from Sweden won bronze in Ostrava, and Rakhat Bralin from Kazakhstan won bronze in Riga. These podiums exemplified what I love most about the JGP- seeing interesting skaters from non-powerhouse countries find success.
3. Great Junior Dance teams (That don't train in Montreal?)
Mrazkova and Mrazek from the Czech Republic, and Grimm and Savitskiy from Germany won gold in the ice dance competitions in Ostrava and Riga. In the past, I feel like it's been expected that teams that train in the major ice dance training centers, either in Montreal or Detroit, will win along the circuit, and I thought it was fantastic to see new names and faces at the top of the podium. Mrazkova and Mrazek's rhythm dance was one of the more interesting ones I've watched this season, and the way she worked her costume into the dance was brilliant. And I think I'm obsessed with Grimm/Savitskiy's free dance- such an original take on a nutcracker program!
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