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Skaters must be over 17 to compete at senior degree from the 2023-24 season
The Worldwide Skating Union (ISU) is poised to make historic amendments to its guidelines which can elevate the age restrict for senior skaters from 15 to 17, in accordance with a report.
A proposal to vary the age laws has been included on the agenda of the 2022 ISU Congress scheduled for June, Match TV has stated.
The contentious matter has been rigorously mentioned in recent times, with many officers supporting the thought of elevating the age restrict for junior skaters who’re presently eligible to enter senior occasions from 15.
The outlet reported that ISU members have supported the thought of steadily elevating the age restrictions forward of the 2023-2024 season.
Below the phrases of a submission from the Norwegian Skating Affiliation, athletes can be authorized for senior occasions from the age of 17 in single skating, and from 16 for pairs and in ice-dance occasions.
In response to the proposal, any determine skater who participates in main occasions in 2023, together with the European and World Championships, can be allowed to stay at senior degree for the 2023-2024 season – even when they don’t meet the age standards.
If the proposal is formally authorized, it might drastically change the facility steadiness in girls’s skating, on condition that the self-discipline has been historically dominated by rivals who’re 15 or 16.
4 of the previous six Olympic tournaments because the 1998 Nagano Video games have been received by teenage feminine skaters, all of whom have been below 18 on the time of their triumph.
All the Russian feminine skaters who’ve claimed probably the most prestigious trophies in recent times, together with World and Olympic medals, have been below the brand new proposed age restrict of 17.
The favourite to win gold in Beijing, Kamila Valieva, will solely flip 16 in April, and Russia has a protracted legacy of manufacturing determine skaters who can compete on the world stage from a really younger age.
Russian determine skating icon Alina Zagitova clinched the Olympic title in South Korea on the age of 15. Anna Shcherbakova was 16 when she celebrated her sensible win eventually 12 months’s World Championship.
Evgenia Medvedeva, Yulia Lipnistkaya and Adelina Sotnikova have been additionally below 17 after they claimed main titles in determine skating.
The minimal age barrier has lengthy been a widely-discussed difficulty in determine skating, with some specialists insisting that youngsters who have not reached puberty have an unfair organic benefit over their grownup rivals, who’re a lot taller and heavier.
It’s believed that strategies for touchdown enormously troublesome mixtures of jumps are extra simply acquired by youthful, slim-bodied, smaller ladies.
The historical past of determine skating has seen many examples of athletes whose expertise declined as they moved from the junior to senior ranges of competitors.
The prospect of elevating the age restrict will probably be mentioned on the 2022 ISU Congress which can happen from June 6 to 10 in Phuket, Thailand.
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