For Japan's Shimada, already a skating star, the Olympics remain a long way off

Mao Shimada after her winning short program at the World Junior Championships, (ISU photo)

What more is there to say about Mao Shimada?

Only that it is too bad the new minimum age rules for international events will keep the 16-year-old Japanese skater from competing in the 2026 Olympics, notwithstanding her having won a record third straight World Junior Figure Skating Championship Saturday in Debrecen, Hungary.

She did it a free skate score of 156.16, highest in the world since the 2021-22 season, seniors and juniors included  - even though junior free skates have one fewer scoring element than senior.

She did with a total score of 230.84 that ranks second in the world this season.  It trails only the 231.88 of her countrywoman, Kaori Sakamoto, winner of the last three senior world titles.  Shimada’s score was the highest ever at junior worlds, topping her 224.54 from two years ago.

She did it with a triple Axel and quadruple toe loop, both of stunning quality, the latter the only clean quad toe landed by a woman in international competition this season.

She did it by 40.31 points over Shin Jia of South Korea, runner-up for the fourth straight year – by far the largest women’s winning margin in the 49 seasons since the World Juniors debuted in 1976.

The previous biggest gap from first to second at junior worlds was 22.67 by South Korea’s Yuna Kim in 2006.

Shimada’s ineligibility for the 2026 Olympics did not seem consequential when the International Skating Union changed its minimum age requirements in 2022, following the doping imbroglio surrounding then 15-year-old Russian Kamila Valieva in the 2022 Olympics.

In 2022, 15-year-olds could still compete in senior international events, provided their 15th birthday was before July 1 of the upcoming season.

That has now changed to 17, with the same July 1 proviso.

Shimada won’t be 17 until October 30.

Certainly, you can’t make rules based on one person – in this case, a person who had yet to begin even junior competition when the new rule was passed.

And the situation has remained clearcut since then.

It nevertheless recalls what happened to another countrywoman, Mao Asada, before the 2006 Olympics.  That was more confusing.

Back then, the rules allowed skaters to compete at 14 in senior events other than worlds and the Olympics, for which the minimum was 15.  Asada won the senior Grand Prix Final during an Olympic season in which she defeated all of the eventual Olympic medalists – but she did not turn 15 until three months after the cutoff date.

The ISU eventually realized how ridiculous the 14/15 inconsistency was and made 15 the minimum for all senior events.

And while you can’t legislate ex-post facto to cover a case such as that of Shimada (who will be 17 at the time of the 2026 Olympics), perhaps a change could be made at the next ISU Congress, which is after the Olympics.

For a brief period back in the day, a medalist at the World Junior Championships earned senior status.  That exception was eliminated before the 2000-01 season.

With the age minimum for seniors at 17 and that for juniors at 13, there could be other cases of a skater spinning wheels in juniors. A variation on the previous junior medalist idea might work and preserve the idea that 17 should be the minimum age, with a minor caveat:

*A World Junior champion should be granted senior status for one season if the skater turns 17 before or during his or her first senior season – and the skater must be 17 by that season’s World Championships or Olympics to compete in either.

That way, a skater with a doping issue at the Olympics would not be covered by the World Anti-Doping Code’s “protected persons” language for athletes under 16, like Valieva at Beijing in 2022.  The Court of Arbitration for Sport cited that language as the first item in its ruling not to impose a provisional suspension on Valieva, allowing her to compete in the women’s singles event.

That way, a tremendously gifted skater like Shimada won’t have to wait until age 21 for an Olympic debut.

“Of course I want to compete at the Olympics but I have time,” Shimada told Olympics.com last week.  “I want to experience as much as possible between now and then.  I hope to do well at all the competitions so I can get to the Olympics and do well there, too.”

Yes, Shimada lacks artistic and skating skills refinement compared to some of the top seniors.  Yet she has two scores this season better than those of anyone in the world except Sakamoto.

Said Saturday’s bronze medalist, Elyce Lin-Gracey of the U.S., 17, who has skated at the senior level the rest of the season: “Everyone her is so technical.  I feel; like the juniors are a lot stronger technically.”

For better or worse, technical prowess (notably big jumps) wins competitions.  And there seems little doubt Shimada, unbeaten as a junior the last three seasons, already has enough to be a medal contender at senior events.  She was second behind Sakamoto in the senior division of this season’s Japanese Championships, where the international age rules don’t apply.

The ISU raised the age in an attempt to reduce the pressure on young women.  But imagine the pressure that will build on Shimada over the next four years.