On the downside of their careers.

[icarus]

"FIGURE SKATING (2/2): Even though the Russians are a shadow of what they were two years ago and the Canadians have disappeared, getting back on the gold standard will be tough for the Americans, who didn't hear their anthem last time. If the Hello Kitty Generation (Mirai Nagasu, Caroline Zhang, Rachael Flatt) matures or former world champ Kimmie Meissner rights herself, the women at least should get a silver. So should dancers Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto, who did it in 2006. That could be all, though.

Evan Lysacek and Johnny Weir will be on the downside of their careers in 2010, when Wakefield's Stephen Carriere could be the man. And the pairs won't break the Chinese hammerlock. As the sport has become more aerial, the Asians are on the rise."

Evan Lysacek and Johnny Weir will be 24 and 25 years old in 2010.

On the downside of their careers.

24.

Comments

[crownglass39.livejournal.com]

24!
That's just sad that you have to give up your entire childhood to get anywhere in sports.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Er. John's age in Out Of Bounds may be just a tad unbelievable. I've been running across this a lot.

There are skaters who compete at the national level into their late twenties. Scott Smith's been competing 10 years at Nationals and he's 27. He took sixth place this year. Todd Eldredge competed in the Olympics at age 30 I think it was.

But, wow. To have the two national champions just dismissed out of hand like that because they'll be rusting 24-year-old hulks....

[crownglass39.livejournal.com]

If people give you a hard time with John in OOB, tell them to suck on an egg. It's fanfic. It's wonderful. If you can't pretend for a few minutes that he's the skating version of The Rookie, then they don't deserve to be reading it.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

No one's giving me a hard time but me. You should see the dithering I've done on this question. It's been a regular squirrel cage.

[rabidfan.livejournal.com]

It's painful to watch certain sports at the Olympics. Skating, yes, but also gymnastics. They're all babies. They over work their poor bodies so that when they reach their late 20's they already have ruined knees and bad backs. It's just so wrong...and I don't see why it is allowed. If no children competed those left wouldn't have any more or less advantage. They'd just be old enough to make an informed decision about the sacrifices involved.

[jackoweskla.livejournal.com]

That was part of the reasoning (or so it was said at the time) why an age limit was imposed at the Olympics -- you have to be 16 to compete at the Olympic level. (I think it changed in '98, because Tara Lipinski was... reverse grandfathered in.) I have to disagree with some of what you're saying. I know many people who compete in the state and national level in gymnastics, and have since they were younger, and I'm sure they all knew the sacrifices involved. However, to a lot of my friends, the idea was that you competed while you were young and healthy, and then you could go to college and have a career and still be marketable. If you take it slow and compete until later in life, it's going to be harder to hit the real world running.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

I can't see how people could succeed at a sport if they didn't start young. Johnny Weir started skating when he was 13, but he was a rare talent. Physically, our bodies peak in our 20s.

[roaringmice.livejournal.com]

My coach started skating when he was 11, and he won US Nationals. But he'd done gymnastics at a very high level before he made the switch, so that helped him.

[moojja.livejournal.com]

That is so sad, but it's a tough sport. But it's harder for the woman, Kimmie Meissner is only 18 years old, and most people have already written her off. At 16 she was World Champion, and now at 18 she's 7th at US Nationals. And people is wondering if her career is over.

[roaringmice.livejournal.com]

I know people talk about ladies skating and worry that we've created a sport where only the very young can succeed, but I'm not sure that's true. What I really think has happened is that the older skaters grew up under the old, 6.0 scoring system, at least in good part. So now that judges are marking down for certain things they didn't before, like which edge a jump takes off on, and whether or not it was fully rotated, poor technique that got by under the old 6.0 and early COP systems is coming back to bite older female skaters, like Kimmie, in the arse.

It's not that Kimmies jumps have gotten worse, in reality. She's doing them the same way this year as she did when she won Worlds. It's that she's lately been downgraded for jumps that were never downgraded before, and that seemed to take some of the life and confidence from her. Then, when she tried to fix the technique, the whole thing kind of blew up in her face.

And the thing about Kimmie that's killer is that COP has made her overall skating *better* than it was when she won worlds. The arms and hands are better, she's got stronger transitions, her positions are harder and better, etc. But now they're grading her jumps correctly. They didn't before.

I think Kimmie and her coaches should let her jumps go back to her old, flawed technique, for the rest of the season. Let her flutz and underrotate, but make the rest as good as it can be. Don't try to correct the technique until the off season. Then work like hell for next year.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Huh. That's very interesting. I can see how that would happen. Did you hear she fired her coach? I wonder about doing that right before Worlds....

[roaringmice.livejournal.com]

She went to Richard Callaghan right after Nationals, so by Worlds, she'll have been with him for about 3 months.

Normally, I'd be with you on the worry, but Callaghan's an excellent coach, and I think he may be able to help her.

[fullygoldy.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure gymnasts don't regularly make it to 24 these days ::sigh::
But hey, biatheletes and curlers don't seem to have much of an age limit at all :)

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Curling. The sport for the ages. All ages.

[roaringmice.livejournal.com]

Elvis Stojko, Todd Eldredge, and Mike Weiss all competed until fairly late in their 20's. That's far less unusual for men, in the modern era, than it is for the ladies, where most of them have either made it or not by the time they are 18. Dance is a bit more forgiving, with some skaters in their early (a couple in their mid!) thirties competing at the elite level, and winning medals.

Another unusual, older, elite pairs team was the Suideks. I think Suidi was 30 or 31 when they retired, and Dorota was 32? And of course John Baldwin, the old man of skating, I believe he's 30+ now. He's been competing at the national/world level, singles or pairs, FOREVER. And in reality, it wasn't until fairly recently that he's really broken through - switched to pairs, found his nitche, and started winning medals.

So your John's age, in reality - yes, it's a bit unusual, but for a male skater, it's not unheard of. I wouldn't stress about it. It can work, especially in his case, where he HAS the jumps - that's an important point. He has the jumps, and has had them for some time. It's not really that he's trying to learn new jumps, or even new jump technique, at this "late" age. He's got the jumps, and is now working on artistry - again, not so unusual a flow for a male skater.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Oh, thank god.

I want to kiss you right now. What a relief. I've been so worried about this....

[roaringmice.livejournal.com]

I do accept kisses as payment. ; )