Janet's List of Exciting Skaters You've Never Heard of Before

Well, my friends, the off-season is upon us. While that does mean there is great sadness in our hearts as we bid our farewells to an Olympic season, we must also remember that as a whole this season sucked. There were injuries, sicknesses, and withdrawals (from competitions) left and right. No one seemed to be able to skate a clean program at most of the events. Inevitably some people were left angry by the Olympic podiums. But don't worry, because now the fun show season is here! We can look forward to ice shows, amazing skaters getting together and having fun, and lots of other things that the athletes and the audiences will enjoy.

Since this hellish season is finally over, we can look ahead to what next season will bring. I'll be watching my favorites, of course. I'm looking forward to seeing how the rivalry between Nathan and Yuzu plays out. Unfortunately we already lost a few good names to retirement, including Patrick Chan, Misha Ge, Alexander Majorov, and Duhamel/Radford. Javier Fernández and Adam Rippon haven't officially retired yet, but the announcements are imminent.

But this post is not about everyone's favorite skaters. It's also not about the skaters everyone's going to miss. No, it is about the underdog skaters. Actually, let me back up a bit. Not all of the skaters I'll mention are underdogs, but they are ones I started the season off knowing very little about. I look forward to seeing what all of these skaters bring to the ice next season, hopefully with some new programs to keep things interesting.

First I want to direct everyone's attention to Vincent Zhou. Vincent is a 17-year-old US skater who started the season off very badly. Somehow he made the Olympic team and finished sixth there. He's still rather inconsistent, but I find his skating intriguing, if not phenomenal. I think he has loads of potential and I'm really looking forward to this next season with him.

Moving on, I'd like to look at Moris (Morisi?) Kvitelashvili. Moris is 23-year-old skater representing Georgia. He hasn't had the best season either, with so many mistakes at the Olympics that he finished 24th out of 24 skaters. The thing about Moris is, when he's good, he's great. He has these amazing, big, powerful jumps and a great presence when he's skating. The problem I see is that his nerves often get the better of him and once he falls, all his confidence gets sucked out and the program falls apart. I really want to see him do better this season, because I know he's capable of it.

Next up is Deniss Vasiljevs. Deniss is an 18-year-old Latvian skater who happens to be coached by Stephane Lambiel. That alone is enough reason for me to like him, but's that not why I do. There's something truly beautiful about the way Deniss skates. It's so unique and soulful, and while he's still a little rough around the edges, he's only 18. There's plenty of time for him to improve his technical content to match his lovely programs.

(I added a bonus Stephane in the picture for you. You're welcome.)

Next I want to draw attention to Matteo Rizzo. He's a 19-year-old Italian skater whose big moment this season was in the Olympic team event. He was one of the skaters who kept Italy in the running for a bronze medal, which is impressive. He definitely needs work in both technical and program components, but I have to admit I was pleasantly surprised by his skating this season. I'm excited to see where the next season takes him.

The second to last skater is Cha Jun-hwan. He's from South Korea and he's just 16 years old. He also happens to be coached by Brian Orser, which may or may not sway my opinion a little bit. I actually first saw him skate at the Olympics, but I was surprised by how well he handled the pressure, especially being in front of his home crowd. He's only 16 and clearly needs to work hard in the next couple of seasons, but my hope is that he progresses well and keeps rising closer to the top. It will be interesting to see if he's changed at all in the next season.

The final men's single I'll be looking at is Dmitri Aliev. Dmitri is another 18-year-old skater, this time from Russia. Ever since Evgeni Plushenko retired, there hasn't been another Russian man to fill his skates. Dmitri is not another Plushy, but he is my favorite Russian man currently. He really stepped up and delivered when his chance to go to the Olympics was on the line, and he had a great short program at the Olympics. Despite a fall that hurt his hip in the beginning of his free, I was impressed at how he powered through and fought for the program. He needs to work on both his technical and his program components, but I feel like next season he could actually be really good. Also, the way his hands tremble before he starts his programs kills me inside and I wish I could just tell him everything will be all right. Honestly, I wish I could do that with all these men I mentioned.

I'll try to make a post like this for the ladies too, but until then I hope you enjoy my list of men I'll be watching extra close this next season. There's lots of variety here, so maybe you'll find your new favorite skater in one of them.

If you still want some good, solid favorites to pay attention to next season, I'll leave you with these names:

1. Yuzuru Hanyu
2. Shoma Uno
3. Javier Fernández
4. Boyang Jin
5. Nathan Chen

Those men were the top five at the Olympics, which pretty much sums up how good they are. Each of them could have realistically won the gold. You're guaranteed to find at least one short and one free from each of them this season that was nearly flawless, so start digging on YouTube. If all else fails, just go onto the Olympic Channel and watch their Olympic programs. Trust me, I've seen them the Olympic programs at least twice since I watched them live, and they're worth it.

Please, though, give the other skaters a chance. They're not always amazing, and most of them aren't the complete package, but they have their good points. Otherwise I wouldn't be watching them, right? Actually, no. Give me any sort of skating and I'll watch it. It still doesn't mean I'll like it, which I definitely like these skaters. I'll even go so far as to say I prefer a couple of them to some other certain well-known, overhyped skaters, but I won't say which. That's not really fair to any of the skaters.

All right, I'm done rambling. Have a good night/day and I'll see you next time.

P.S. I'm not done rambling. Look at me, successful college student and procrastinator extraordinaire, writing another post less than a month after the last one. It is, you know, about skating again, but I don't care. I want to write about skating so I'm going to write about skating. if you enjoy figure skating, let me know and we can have a lengthy conversation about it. Now, I really should end this post here. Enjoy the pictures!