Skating

[ti-amie]

Alysa/Ilia career trajectory as an example of what's expected for women vs men skaters

I hope I make myself understood and please bear with me. Also correct me if I'm wrong I've caught up with past events but I still only have been a committed fan since 2022.

I was thinking about how women vs men skaters are perceived and what's expected of them can very much be exemplified by these two skaters (also you can place almost any Russian junior and make the same example tbh) and it's incredible not everyone sees this.

As we all know, the age limit has been increased in the hopes of teaching sustainable technique and lengthening the careers of top skaters, notably top women.

Women are being (still now sadly) taught quads and ultra-c elements very young, when their bodies are not yet ready, in hopes of them peaking as young as possible and making a name for themselves. And everyone is impressed every time, talking about their age like that's and incredible feat (it is at any age, but younger it's actually easier, as we have seen, but harder to maintain), lately we've seen that discourse with the new Canadian Junior champion, with Russian junior nationals, with Sophie Joline von Felten, and with Mao Shimada.

Why do I bring Alysa into the comparison?

Well Alysa is about one year younger than Ilia. And by age 14 we had seen her land a quad, a triple Axel, both in the same program, become American champion and everyone was talking about the upcoming prodigy. And then at 16 she was burnt out and decided to retire. And it had become a usual path for many female skaters, bombard them with ultra-c elements, make a name for themselves, win one big title and then be to tired or injured to continue. (I'm very grateful she was able to challenge this pattern by resting and coming back with a different approach with better examples of a sustainable career)

In comparison, Ilia, despite always being around and winning nationals in the lower levels, he wasn't being bombarded by media, and wasn't as noticed around the same time (2020). As far as I read, he landed his first quads after the pandemic, and then it became the upwards trajectory that we all saw.

I also noticed not many men in the Junior Circuit are doing many quads, when in comparison the women's Junior Circuit is girl after girl trying a triple Axel (it might be an exaggeration but yk what I mean)

So we have two skaters of a similar age, both at some point called "the future of the sport" and vastly different trajectories, vastly different expectations, vastly different peaking times (although Alysa is peaking again and we love to see it), the major difference being their gender.

While quads are celebrated in 12-year-old girls, with boys they'd all rather wait. While 16-year-old girls (and everyone else) are anxiously waiting the opportunity to compete in the Senior Circuit, boys turn senior at 18/19.

I'm not sure how to end this, and maybe this has been discussed before in this sub. Again, correct me if I got any wrong info. I hope with the changes we're seeing this starts to change and we get great female skaters with strong technical content that keep it for years.

I think that's it

[skatingfan]

I would point out that the US had World & Olympic Champion Nathan Chen in the men's event as Malinin was coming up, and no one of a similar stature in the women's event so there was more attention on Liu.

[Owendonovan]

Lots of parallels to gymnastics. No boy is looked at before they're 18 and every 13 yo girl with promise is scrutinized to be the next big thing.