The Junior Grand Prix Final is always a competition that skating enthusiasts watch with great intrigue. After all many World and Olympic medalists went through this gauntlet in their junior careers and gave us a glimpse of what’s to come. Success on the junior circuit doesn’t always lead to senior success, but there’s no doubt that some of the names you’ll see this week in Grenoble will be on those big-time podiums in the future.
Junior Grand Prix Final predictions
Official hashtag: #JGPFigure | Unofficial hashtag: #JGPFinal
Junior Women predictions
GOLD Mao Shimada JPN
SILVER Kaoruko Wada JPN
BRONZE Yuseong Kim KOR
4. Yihan Wang CHN
5. Ami Nakai JPN
6. Stefania Gladki FRA
Of all of the disciplines, this is the one that seems to have a clear-cut favorite. Mao Shimada is bidding to become the first skater to ever win three Junior Grand Prix Final titles in any discipline, and once again, she’s been dominant in the JGP. In fact, she held the highest total score by any woman, senior or junior, for most of the season until Kaori Sakamoto overtook her at NHK Trophy last month. She’s coming off another win at Japan Juniors, where Kaoruko Wada set herself up very well with a silver medal there in her first season as a junior. Yuseong Kim is fresh off a strong performance at a ranking competition in South Korea just last weekend, so she will be coming in competition-ready.
Junior Dance predictions
GOLD Noemi Maria Tali/Noah Lafornara ITA
SILVER Iryna Pidgaina/Artem Koval UKR
BRONZE Katarina Wolfkostin/Dimitry Tsarevski USA
4. Celina Fradji/Jean-Hans Fourneaux FRA
5. Darya Grimm/Michail Savitskiy GER
6. Elliana Peal/Ethan Peal USA
With the exception of Katarina Wolfkostin/Dimitry Tsarevski, who took the opportunity to move to juniors after the age limit change over the off-season, the rest of this field is a rematch of teams who all competed at Junior Worlds last year. The horizon has shifted quite a bit, though, with both Noemi Maria Tali/Noah Lafornara and Iryna Pidgaina/Artem Koval making some big strides this season to take the top two junior scores of the season so far. But really, anything can happen here—these teams are really well-matched.
Junior Men predictions
GOLD Rio Nakata JPN
SILVER Minkyu Seo KOR
BRONZE Jacob Sanchez USA
4. Yanhao Li NZL
5. Sena Takahashi JPN
6. Lukas Vaclavik SVK
The unpredictability of the men extend to the junior ranks. This is a very talented set of qualifiers here, and each of these guys have had some real highlights so far this season. But all of them have been susceptible to inconsistency, which is going to make this event quite the toss-up. In fact, the top scores earned by five of these men are separated by all of nine points. Of all of the, Rio Nakata has the strongest all-around package, including a quad toe. Like Yuseong Kim in the women’s event, Minkyu Seo is also coming off a strong performance at the domestic ranking competition last weekend. Jacob Sanchez, Yanhao Li, and Sena Takahashi are all right there as well.
Junior Pairs predictions
GOLD Jiaxuan Zhang/Yihang Huang CHN
SILVER Jazmine Desrochers/Kieran Thrasher CAN
BRONZE Olivia Flores/Luke Wang USA
4. Sae Shimizu/Lucas Tsuyoshi Honda JPN
5. Romane Telemaque/Lucas Coulon FRA
6. Julia Quattrocchi/Simon Desmarais CAN
Coming off their first win at Chinese Nationals last week, Jiaxuan Zhang/Yihang Huang are looking to win the first Junior Grand Prix title for China since 2013, when both Boyang Jin and Xiaoyu Yu/Yang Jin won that year. Their closest competition look to be Jazmine Desrochers/Kieran Thrasher, but World junior silver medalists Olivia Flores/Luke Wang know how to turn it up as the season progresses. Sae Shimizu/Lucas Tsuyoshi Honda have made massive improvements over the past year and bring their big side-by-sides here.