The 2012 World Junior Figure Skating Championships will be the World Junior Figure Skating Championships

World Junior Figure Skating Championships

The World Junior Figure Skating Championships is an annual figure skating competition sanctioned by the International Skating Union in which younger figure skaters compete for the title of World Junior Champion...

 for the 2011–2012 figure skating season

Figure skating season

The figure skating season is the period of time in which competitions are contested in the sport of figure skating. The skating season begins on July 1 of one year and goes until the end of June of the next. The seasons are referred to by the years they span...

. Commonly called "World Juniors" and "Junior Worlds", they are an annual figure skating competition

Figure skating competition

-International:* International competitions sanctioned by the International Skating Union. These competitions are held using ISU rules; skaters are entered by their respective national skating federations....

 in which elite figure skaters

Figure skating

Figure skating is an Olympic sport in which individuals, pairs, or groups perform spins, jumps, footwork and other intricate and challenging moves on ice skates. Figure skaters compete at various levels from beginner up to the Olympic level , and at local, national, and international competitions...

 compete for the title of World Junior Champion. The event will crown the World Junior Champions in the disciplines of men's singles, ladies singles

Single skating

Single skating is a discipline of figure skating, wherein a single person skates alone. Men's singles and ladies' singles are both Olympic disciplines and are both governed by the International Skating Union. The other Olympic figure skating events are pair skating and ice dancing...

, pair skating

Pair skating

Pair skating is a figure skating discipline. International Skating Union regulations describe pair teams as consisting of "one lady and one man." The sport is distinguished from ice dancing and single skating by elements unique to pair skating, including overhead lifts, twist lifts, death spirals,...

, and ice dancing

Ice dancing

Ice dancing is a form of figure skating which draws from the world of ballroom dancing. It was first competed at the World Figure Skating Championships in 1952, but did not become a Winter Olympic Games medal sport until 1976....

.

The event has been provisionally assigned to be held in Minsk, Belarus from 27 February to 4 March 2012..

Spots	Men	Ladies	Pairs	Dance
3
2

Qualification

The competition will be open to skaters from ISU Member Nations

International figure skating

Figure skating is a sport with participants all round the world. Originally based in European countries, the sport has experienced a major expansion in the countries of East Asia....

who have reached the age of 13 by July 1, 2011, but had not yet turned 19. The upper age limit for men competing in pairs and dance will be 21.

The term "Junior" refers to the age level rather than necessarily the skill level. Therefore, some of the skaters competing have competed nationally and internationally at the senior level, but are still age-eligible for World Juniors. Regardless of whether they have competed as seniors, all competitors perform programs that conform to the ISU rules for junior level competition in terms of program lengths, jumping passes, etc.