Little Girls in Pretty Boxes

[manduh]

I'm writing on this book for school, and was just wondering if anyone wanted to help me :) So do you know... What's the oldest starting age for an elite skater/who is it? What's the age of the oldest person you personally know who got at least one triple? When did he/she start skating? If you know/are a senior or junior skater, how often do they/you practice? What's the longest it's taking a (current) elite skater to get to triples?

If you can help, it's much appreciated. If not, thanks for reading anyway, haha.

[littlekateskate]

This sounds like a great question for fsuniverse are you a member? Maybe FSWER could ask it, i think he is a member over there.

Would you be interested in knowing who the youngest people were as well? I dont have the answers but I know i would be curious :)

[Query]

My a lot of people like getting forums to help them do their homework! Is it wrong to help them?

There is a pretty good coach at a local rink, does triple jumps. Don't know his competitive history, but someone said he started skating at 19. But he obviously uses his strength, doesn't have the pure grace of the little girls who just seem to take off effortlessly into triples.

I've mentioned before, I met a gal about age 30. Was practicing triple axels, after skating less than a year. Don't know if she bothered competing. Apparently almost effortless, with fabulous height and distance. But she'd been a member of a national ballet troop since childhood, had learned different styles of triple jump there, on both feet. So what was a little extra half rotation, on just one foot, with the advantages of gliding through the jump instead of having to create and absorb all that momentum instantly, while pointing ballet style? She doesn't really count - she had prior athletic experience, to put it mildly, in an equally competitive athletic endeavor.

I've met a lady in her 60's who competes in USFSA Adult Nationals. Does doubles. She wants to do a triple before she turns 70. Don't know when she started. A lot of older adults compete in Adult Nationals.

Then there is the Ice Princess - but that was Disney.

[Sessy]

None i know personally (well, I met Kevin once), but perhaps usefull:

Kevin van der Perren, Belgian champion plus number three europeans last year I think, started aged 9. He'd not been skating before that. He's got a quadruple toeloop and a triple axel.
Johnny Weir started at 12 but I've heard he'd been roller skating before that sometimes?

If you wanna go back in history a little bit more, Alexei Mishin - Evgeni Plushenko's trainer (as well as Axelei Yagudin's and that of an other olympic champion, forgot the name) - Alexei Mishin only started skating at 15.
I'm not sure which jumps he had (he was a pairs skater) but he kicked ### out of some olympic champions so he must've had a full pack of goodies (obviously back then triples were done far less anyway, you have to make a correction for those several decades)

[Skittl1321]

It's not a starting age- but Angie Lien competed at Nationals this year- she's 26. Considering the girls who won were almost half her age, I think the fact that she's still there is pretty impressive.

[Schmeck]

I don't have any info on the questions asked, but wanted to point out that book was written years and years ago - a follow-up on the girls mentioned would be interesting, wouldn't it?