The 2021

World Junior Figure Skating Championships The World Junior Figure Skating Championships (''"World Juniors"'' or ''"Junior Worlds"'') is an annual figure skating competition sanctioned by the International Skating Union in which figure skaters within a designated age range compete for ...

were scheduled to be held from March 1–7, 2021 in

Harbin Harbin (; mnc, , v=Halbin; ) is a sub-provincial city and the provincial capital and the largest city of Heilongjiang province, People's Republic of China, as well as the second largest city by urban population after Shenyang and largest ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

. Figure skaters would have competed for the title of junior world champion in men's singles, ladies' singles,

pairs Concentration, also known as Memory, Shinkei-suijaku (Japanese meaning "nervous breakdown"), Matching Pairs, Match Match, Match Up, Pelmanism, Pexeso or simply Pairs, is a card game in which all of the cards are laid face down on a surface and tw ...

, and

ice dance Ice dance (sometimes referred to as ice dancing) is a discipline of figure skating that historically draws from ballroom dancing. It joined the World Figure Skating Championships in 1952, and became a Winter Olympic Games medal sport in 1976. Ac ...

. The competition would have determined the entry quotas for each federation during the 2021–22 ISU Junior Grand Prix series and at the 2022 World Junior Championships.

was announced as the host in October 2018. It would have been

's first time hosting Junior Worlds. On November 24, 2020, the

International Skating Union The International Skating Union (ISU) is the international governing body for competitive ice skating disciplines, including figure skating, synchronized skating, speed skating, and short track speed skating. It was founded in Scheveningen, Net ...

announced the cancellation of the event, citing "the

pandemic A pandemic () is an epidemic of an infectious disease that has spread across a large region, for instance multiple continents or worldwide, affecting a substantial number of individuals. A widespread endemic (epidemiology), endemic disease wi ...

developments and related impact on the organizers and participants." The event had never been cancelled before.

Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic

On July 9, the

General Administration of Sport of China The General Administration of Sport () is the government agency responsible for sports in mainland China. It is subordinate to the State Council of the People's Republic of China. It also administers the All-China Sports Federation and Chinese Oly ...

announced that no international sporting events would be held in

in 2020, except for

2022 Winter Olympics The 2022 Winter Olympics (2022年冬季奥林匹克运动会), officially called the XXIV Olympic Winter Games () and commonly known as Beijing 2022 (2022), was an international winter multi-sport event held from 4 to 20 February 2022 in Beij ...

test events. At the time, it was unclear whether the order could extend into affecting 2021 events. The

Chinese Skating Association The Chinese Skating Association (CSA) was founded in 1956. It hosts the annual Chinese Figure Skating Championships and the Cup of China. Notable people in Chinese figure skating *Yao Bin & Luan Bo Pairs team now coaches - first Chinese pair ska ...

was scheduled to host several events during the season, including the World Junior Championships. Earlier in the season, the CSA was the only federation to host a wholly domestic

Grand Prix Grand Prix ( , meaning ''Grand Prize''; plural Grands Prix), is a name sometimes used for competitions or sport events, alluding to the winner receiving a prize, trophy or honour Grand Prix or grand prix may refer to: Arts and entertainment ...

event, the 2020 Cup of China, due to the country's stringent quarantine restrictions during the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

. On July 20, the

2020–21 ISU Junior Grand Prix The 2020–21 ISU Junior Grand Prix was scheduled to be the 24th season of a series of junior international competitions organized by the International Skating Union. It was intended to be the junior-level complement to the 2020–21 ISU Grand Pri ...

series was cancelled. With the cancellation of Junior Worlds, there was effectively no season for juniors during the 2020–21 season. However, several juniors who were age-eligible for seniors competed on the senior Grand Prix and/or the 2020–21 ISU Challenger Series instead. The World Junior Championships were the second ISU Championship event during the 2020–21 season to be cancelled, following the cancellation of the 2021 Four Continents Championships on October 16. The ISU and various host federations had additionally cancelled several other events earlier in the season, including the Junior Grand Prix series, half of the Challenger Series events, and two Grand Prix events.

Qualification

Age and minimum TES requirements

Skaters who reach the age of 13 before July 1, 2020, but have not turned 19 (singles and females of the other two disciplines) or 21 (male pair skaters and ice dancers) are eligible to compete at the junior level. The ISU stipulates that the minimum scores must be achieved at an ISU-recognized junior international competition in the ongoing or preceding season, no later than 21 days before the first official practice day.

Number of entries per discipline

Based on the results of the 2020 World Junior Championships, each ISU member nation can field one to three entries per discipline.

Schedule

Entries

Member nations had yet to announce their selections at the time of cancellation.

References

External links

2021 World Junior Championships
at the

{{2020–21 in figure skating World Junior Figure Skating Championships

International figure skating competitions hosted by China