In her first season under the flag of Kazakhstan, Sofya Samodelkina will compete in the Junior Grand Prix series, where she successfully qualified by winning the national summer championship. The idea is good, because in this way she will be able to declare herself at an important and prestigious tournament in the near future. However, not everything is so simple.
Plushenko’s pupil will probably have a harder time fighting with rising foreign single skaters than with the adult leaders. Foreign youngsters are much less afraid of ultra-C elements, but at the same time they strive to achieve a balance between technical and artistic components in their programs. Moreover, the medalists of all junior stages of last year’s Grand Prix scored more points in total than Samodelkina at the recent tournament in Kazakhstan.
On the skater’s debut in a new country:
Samodelkina had an unsuccessful debut with Kazakhstan. Are the skater’s prospects dim?
It seems that the former Russian will have a very difficult time getting onto the podium in such a competition. We tell you which of the young foreigners poses the greatest threat to Sonya.
Japan’s rivals
As in the adult competitions, the leadership among juniors after the Russian ban was taken over by a 15-year-old Japanese representative, Mao Shimada. Unlike her older colleague, three-time world champion Kaori Sakamoto, Mao does not rely solely on the purity of her performances and the favour of the judges. In her free program, she regularly performs a triple axel and a quadruple toe loop, remaining out of reach of her competitors for two years.
The only tournament where the girl has not yet managed to take gold is the Japanese Adult Championships. But, as they say, everything is ahead. Now it is much more important for Mao to stay at the top of the junior categories, because she will not reach the top level soon. She probably wants to add a third top prize to her collection of two gold medals from the World Junior Championships. And at other competitions she hardly plans to lower the bar.
How Shimada won the 2024 World Cup:
The former Russian trixel athlete was left without a medal at the Junior World Championships! The Japanese won with a quad
To defeat Shimada, Samodelkina will definitely need a strong ultra-si. Earlier, she just announced that she ideally hopes to do a triple Axel in the short program and a quadruple jump in the free program (most likely the Salchow, which she showed in the video of Plushenko’s training in Los Angeles) and another trixel. At the same time, it is necessary to understand that in case of flawless performances by Sophia, such content may not be enough to defeat Mao. Foreign referees have known the Japanese star for years, and Plushenko’s student was last seen on the international stage in 2021. You should not count on high bonuses for elements (GOE) and components in such a situation.
In addition to Shimada, the young Japanese are particularly dangerous among the youngsters: 16-year-old Ami Nakai, 14-year-old Rena Uezono and 16-year-old Ikura Kushida. Nakai has a triple axel and Uezono shows miracles of progress, having only started skating six years ago, but already won bronze at the last World Junior Championships. Kushida, although she often makes mistakes, is in favour with the referees. It is obvious that, all things being equal, the new Kazakh singles player will drop down the rankings.
South Korea’s rivals
Talented single skaters are also growing in Korea who will not reach the podium without a fierce fight. The most successful of them is the three-time junior world vice-champion, 16-year-old Jia Shin. The lack of ultra-C prevents her from taking the coveted title of the strongest junior on the planet, but otherwise she is truly magnificent. She glides smoothly and elegantly at high speed, feels the music, jumps with ease and delights with excellent rotations and beautiful positions. In the recent national Grand Prix qualifiers, Jia came in first place with a total of 201.08 points. Despite being in the middle of summer, she is quite ready to conquer international competitions, although of course she has some polishing and cleaning up to do in her programs.
Jia Shin
Photo: Toru Hanai – International Skating Union/International Skating Union via Getty Images
The charming 15-year-old twin sisters Yu Jae Kim and Yu Sung Kim are also in good shape for work. Both of them jump triple axel and were not afraid to try it at the Grand Prix qualifying tournament. Yoo Jae unfortunately fell, Yoo Sun came out, but fell with simpler jumps. But with the non-jumpers they have a complete order: all rotations are at the fourth maximum level of difficulty, the step sequence is at the third.
As Samodelkina’s performances at the Kazakhstan Championships showed, betting solely on jumps is a losing strategy. Korean women have enough energy to perform every step of their performances with high quality. Even without ultra-si, Sonya still doesn’t have enough stamina to shine between jumps.
Rivals of Europe
Surprisingly, even among young Europeans, Samodelkina has someone to fear. Especially in the near future, if she collides with someone at the Junior Grand Prix, without having time to perform programs with stable ultra-si. Then another former Russian, 15-year-old Inga Gurgenidze, competing for Georgia, stubbornly assaults the triple axel, and it is possible that she will land it cleanly at the most inopportune moment for Sonya.
Finnish 16-year-old skater Ida Karhunen sensationally took fourth place at this year’s World Junior Championships, showing the best results of her career. If she continues to skate fairly cleanly in the new season, the jury will surely increase its components, which will help her not to lose ground in the competition.
Ida Karhunen
Photo: Toru Hanai – International Skating Union/International Skating Union via Getty Images
14-year-old Anastasia Brandenburg is another promising European figure skater. And with Russian roots. Nastya skates for her native Switzerland and trains there, but for the second year in a row she has been doing summer training in the Tutberidze group. The fruits of this cooperation were clearly visible last season: the girl took sixth place in her debut at the World Junior Championships. If it weren’t for the unfortunate mistake in the cascade of the free program, she would have risen even higher.
It is not yet known, but it is likely that the rising Italian star, 18-year-old Sarina Dzhus, will not abandon junior competitions next season, but will combine them with adult competitions. She cannot boast of serious content, but in the absence of Samodelkina’s ultra-si, she definitely cannot be discounted. In Italy, Sarina has high expectations and she herself hopes to live up to them.
It is obvious that Sofia Samodelkina has no fewer rivals among the youngsters than among the adults. It will not be easy for her to achieve success, but the taste of victory will only become sweeter. Will she be able to defeat them all? Undoubtedly. But this requires a lot of work right now.
