Figure Skating: 10 Skaters to Watch for the Upcoming Season

4. Polina Tsurskaya (RUS), Ladies

Every season, it seems, a new Russian girl comes into the junior international and tears that scene up. Last fall, that girl was Polina Tsurskaya. She started the Junior Grand Prix season with a bang. Winning the first event of the series by ten points, she followed that by winning her second by over twenty points. Both programs  featured difficult triple-triple combinations, plus a ridiculously hard triple lutz-triple toe-double toe combination in the free on top of that. Not to mention a sophistication beyond her years. Tsurskaya took the Junior Grand Prix Finale in similar fashion, earning record-high free program and combined scores. She finished fourth in the super competitive field of Russian Nationals, went to the World Junior Championships as the prohibitive favorite for gold… And then sprained her ankle in practice and was forced to withdraw.

Word is Tsurskaya is currently still struggling to recover from the injury and possibly also dealing with growth issues. It may even take her out of the Junior Grand Prix this year. But there’s nothing there she hasn’t conquered already. Considering she’s eleven days too young to compete at Senior Worlds this year, this is a time where she can recover and position herself to take the Olympic season by storm. She’ll likely favorite for gold at this year’s Junior Worlds. Plus she’ll want to finish as high as she can at Russian Nationals. (In the past, that has been won by girls too young to go to Worlds.) To win it, she’d have to beat more than one of the world’s best. But if she did it, she would officially have to be counted as among them, if she isn’t already.

Next: Maria Sotskova (RUS), Ladies