Naomi Nari Nam was so amazing at age 13! Such charisma. I remember thinking at the time that she would be the one to dethrone Ms. Kwan. But as it turned out, this was her peak performance. The other baby ballerina, Sasha, was the one to challenge the Kween, albeit unsuccessfully.
So sad about Nari Nam - really makes me wonder if allowing youngsters to develop such competitive jumps at such an early age puts them at too great a risk for life-long injury.
It also didn't help that Nam learned those jumps at such an early age with such shitty technique. By the time there was time for her to work on technique, she had a pile of injuries. It seemed like she did what she wanted though anyway.
No one has asked me, but I'd make triple jumps (or at least 3-3 combinations) illegal at the junior level. And I'd bias the scoring so spins and footwork and speed/transitions counted for a much greater percentage of the final score than jumping so the jumps weren't the focus. How many former figure skaters have had hip surgery? If I had kids in figure skating, no matter how much I wanted them to be a star, they wouldn't be doing triple jumps until after puberty. Too fast, too soon has destroyed so many potentially great skaters.
Gosh, these are great. Is there anything better than US Nationals? So many memories.
ReplyDeleteNaomi Nari Nam was so amazing at age 13! Such charisma. I remember thinking at the time that she would be the one to dethrone Ms. Kwan. But as it turned out, this was her peak performance. The other baby ballerina, Sasha, was the one to challenge the Kween, albeit unsuccessfully.
ReplyDeleteSo sad about Nari Nam - really makes me wonder if allowing youngsters to develop such competitive jumps at such an early age puts them at too great a risk for life-long injury.
ReplyDeleteIt also didn't help that Nam learned those jumps at such an early age with such shitty technique. By the time there was time for her to work on technique, she had a pile of injuries. It seemed like she did what she wanted though anyway.
ReplyDeleteNo one has asked me, but I'd make triple jumps (or at least 3-3 combinations) illegal at the junior level. And I'd bias the scoring so spins and footwork and speed/transitions counted for a much greater percentage of the final score than jumping so the jumps weren't the focus. How many former figure skaters have had hip surgery? If I had kids in figure skating, no matter how much I wanted them to be a star, they wouldn't be doing triple jumps until after puberty. Too fast, too soon has destroyed so many potentially great skaters.
ReplyDeletewhere is tara lipinski's 1997 LP? i know not a lot of people like her, but that performance was brilliant.
ReplyDelete