Italian figure skating news & updates

[kwanfan1818]

Right now the starting groups based on the current WS and announced/usual suspects are:

• Last group: Hendrickx, Sakamoto, Y. Kim, Lee, Mihara, Gubanova
• Penultimate group: Kurakova, Levito, Petrokina, Schott, Watanabe, Schizas
• Rest of later half:
  • If 29-30 entries: Glenn, Repond, C. Kim
  • If 31-32 entries: Gutmann
  • If 33-34 entries: Sauter, if she gets the SP minimum of if the ISU lowers it, or, if not, Tennell

Next in line is Taljegard.

 

[Karen-W]

Right now the starting groups based on the current WS and announced/usual suspects are:

• Last group: Hendrickx, Sakamoto, Y. Kim, Lee, Mihara, Gubanova
• Penultimate group: Kurakova, Levito, Petrokina, Schott, Watanabe, Schizas
• Rest of later half:
  • If 29-30 entries: Glenn, Repond, C. Kim
  • If 31-32 entries: Gutmann
  • If 33-34 entries: Sauter, if she gets the SP minimum of if the ISU lowers it, or, if not, Tennell

Next in line is Taljegard.

There are already 32 guaranteed entries, I believe.

AUT, BEL 1, BEL 2, BUL, CAN, CYP, EST, FIN, FRA, GBR, GEO 1, GER 1, GER 2, HUN, ITA, JPN 1, JPN 2, JPN 3, KOR 1, KOR 2, KOR 3, LAT, MDA, NED, NOR, POL, SLO, SUI, SVK, USA 1, USA 2, USA 3

There are 3 others who have the TES mins, but haven't competed this season or are currently injured - CHN (Zhu), CZE (Brezinova - entered at Bellu Memorial in two weeks), and GEO 2 (Urushadze).

And there are 11 other countries with skaters attempting to get the TES mins necessary to compete: BEL 3 (Hovine), CZE (Vrankova), ESP (Kolly-Millasson & Ruiz Manzano), GRE (Voulgari), IND (Prasad), ISR (Seniuk), LTU (Afinogenova & Aglinskyte), NZL (Hong), ROU (Beschea & Sauter), SWE (Aav, Ling & Taljegard), and UKR (Gozhva).

It wouldn't surprise me if there wind up being 35-36 entries, but at this point, I highly doubt the ISU is going to lower the TES mins.

 

[kwanfan1818]

I get that there are intentions to send those guaranteed entries, but some countries are, to paraphrase what Emily Blunt's character said in The Devil Wears Prada, one stomach virus away from having no one to send.

Which is why I made some caveats.

 

[Sylvia]

Team Italy's 2023 Worlds results:

SILVER Charlene GUIGNARD / Marco FABBRI ITA 2 2 219.85 (3 ISU PBs! 88.21 RD, 131.64 FD)
G/F were interviewed before 2023 Europeans at the Music on Ice show in Bellizona, Switzerland - article by @reut, published on April 12:
http://absoluteskating.com/index.php?cat=interviews&id=2023guignardfabbri

BRONZE Sara CONTI / Niccolo MACII ITA 3 3 208.08 (3 ISU PBs! 73.24 SP, 134.84 FS)
Photos shared by Sara: https://www.instagram.com/p/Cqkbstns_eQ/ & https://www.instagram.com/p/CqSnWWgMvBD/

9. Matteo RIZZO ITA 13 7 256.04
12. Daniel GRASSL ITA 8 14 244.43
17. Lara Naki GUTMANN ITA 23 13 178.43 (123.21 in FS)
18. Victoria MANNI / Carlo ROETHLISBERGER ITA 18 17 162.97

World Team Trophy press release (April 11):

Figura, l’Italia in Giappone per il World Team Trophy

Si terrà a Tokyo, in Giappone, dal 13 al 16 aprile, il World Team Trophy, competizione a squadre...

www.fisg.it

 

[Karen-W]

Conti/Macii plan on keeping their FS for next season, but will be getting a new SP - https://www.instagram.com/p/CrDECOloN5r/

And Grassl plans on getting a new FS from Richaud, no decision on the SP yet - https://www.instagram.com/p/CrDS_2aI57b/

 

[Gris]

noemi on Instagram: "Hi everybody :) We are super excited to announce our partnership. We will be competing for team Italy ! 🇮🇹"

598 likes, 74 comments - noemi.tali on April 17, 2023: "Hi everybody :) We are super excited to announce our partnership. We will be competing for team Italy ! 🇮🇹".

www.instagram.com

New dance team for Italy: Noemi Tali / Noah Lafornara (previously represented USA with Romy Malcolm), which means Tali / Frasca have split.

 

[Andrea82]

Italian Fed published the Single internal rankings ....now. We needed them during the season before selection for ISU Championships but better later than never.
Given the numbers, I make full sense of some of the weirdly worded criteria: a) competitions of "Campionato Italiano (Elite)" series are counted fully. And not just the top one, all of them (otherwise Indelicato's total wouldn't match) b) other national competitions are counted and factored by 0.9 (Negrello's score match only if we count the Trento Cup multiplied by 0.9) c) B international events are factored as 0.9

Ranking Competizioni - FISG - Federazione Italiana Sport del Ghiaccio

Ranking per ogni disciplina: Hockey, Para Ice Hockey, Figura, Velocità, Curling, Wheelchair Curling, Stock Sport.

www.fisg.it

 

[Andrea82]

There is a public tender open right now for the recruitment of 28 athletes to be assigned to the "State Police - Fiamme Oro" sports groups who will be classified in the role of agents and assistants of the State Police. It includes:

1 spot Figure Skating - Pairs, female athlete
1 spot Figure Skating - Pairs, male athlete
1 spot Figure Skating - Single, male athlete

So it should be Conti, Macii and Memola.

 

[Sylvia]

17 May 2023: https://www.isu.org/figure-skating/...itness-history-in-the-making?templateParam=15

Direct link to watch Skating ISU's video "To Our Angels with Sara Conti and Niccolo Macii" (3:32): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoE79cbTCHo

 

[Andrea82]

From his social media postings, he looks like Memola is doing a camp at Cricket Club in Toronto

 

[Karen-W]

New Italian dance team, provided he can get his release from Bosnia-Herzegovina...

Lavinia Casteller & Vladislav Kasinskii - training at YGA.

Instagram

www.instagram.com

 

[Sylvia]

Italy received 18 Grand Prix assignments on June 28, 2023:

Charlene GUIGNARD / Marco FABBRI (#3 FRA & #6 JPN)

Matteo RIZZO (#2 CAN & #5 FIN)
Daniel GRASSL (FRA & JPN)
Gabriele FRANGIPANI (#4 CHN & JPN)
Nikolaj MEMOLA (GP debut season in FRA & FIN)

Sara CONTI / Niccolo MACII (FRA & FIN)
Rebecca GHILARDI / Filippo AMBROSINI (CHN & JPN)
Irma CALDARA / Riccardo MAGLIO (#1 USA)
Lucrezia BECCARI / Matteo GUARISE (GP debut in CAN)
Anna VALESI / Manuel PIAZZA (FRA)

Lara Naki GUTMANN (CAN)

 

[Sylvia]

Re-posting @LoisAGOEs' observation here:

Sarina and Noemi Joos are not on the Swiss National team document. Both of their Instagram bios now have Italian flags on them. I suspect they have switched country representation although they haven’t officially announced it.

Sarina's Instagram is public: https://www.instagram.com/sarina_joos_/
Her ISU bio (http://www.isuresults.com/bios/isufs00108510.htm) indicates her last international was CS Warsaw Cup (Sarina won the silver) that ended on November 20, 2022.

Noemi Joos' ISU bio (she's 2 years younger and debuted on the JGP in Ostrava last year): http://www.isuresults.com/bios/isufs00110791.htm

 

[Sylvia]

From his social media postings, he looks like Memola is doing a camp at Cricket Club in Toronto

Earlier today Nikolaj Memola posted a clip of his 3A+3T at the Cricket: https://www.instagram.com/reel/CuccLCYN7ai/

 

[Sylvia]

Judith D. interviewed Matteo Rizzo for Golden Skate (July 9): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tnrUoDxMdMM
Excerpts from the detailed recap in the caption:

Rizzo explains the importance of his large team and talks about feeling "at home" with his long-time coach Franca Bianconi. He also talks about his relationship with his father, Valter, and how he has come to appreciate his father more and more as a coach over the years. [...]
Rizzo has prepared two new programs for the 2023-24 season. The short program to "Derniére Danse," choreographed by Massimo Scali, and the free skate to "Fix You" by Coldplay, choreographed by his long-time friend Luca Lanotte. He explains why both programs are already very special and dear to him and why he chose them. [...]
Rizzo plans on opening his 2023-24 season at his home event: the Challenger Series Lombardia Trophy 2023.

 

[Karen-W]

Italy wound up relinquishing 6 of their 14 JGP Men's spots and will have 8 total - 0 in Osaka; 1 in Bangkok, Istanbul, Budapest & Yerevan; 2 in Linz & Gdansk.

 

[Andrea82]

Italy wound up relinquishing 6 of their 14 JGP Men's spots and will have 8 total - 0 in Osaka; 1 in Bangkok, Istanbul, Budapest & Yerevan; 2 in Linz & Gdansk.

They are using 2 spots in Budapest.

 

[Karen-W]

They are using 2 spots in Budapest.

My mistake! So, Italy relinquished 5 spots total and will use 9.

 

[Andrea82]

My mistake! So, Italy relinquished 5 spots total and will use 9.

I am actually surprised by the 1 in Bangkok rather than 2 in Istanbul.

 

[Karen-W]

I am actually surprised by the 1 in Bangkok rather than 2 in Istanbul.

Same! But maybe Zich wants to get his JGPs started early so that he can focus on Challengers later in the season?

 

[Karen-W]

It appears that Italy is holding their Junior National Team Testing this week at IceLab -

Ice Lab - Center of Excellence on Instagram: "Junior National Team Test Meeting 2023 🇮🇹 IceLab is glad to host this week the Junior National Team Test Meeting organised by Federazione Italiana Sport del Ghiaccio (@federazione_sport_ghiaccio ) . Her

87 likes, 5 comments - icelab_coe on July 12, 2023: "Junior National Team Test Meeting 2023 🇮🇹 IceLab is glad to host this week the Junior National Team Test Meeting organised by Federazione Italiana Sport del Ghiaccio (@federazione_sport_ghiaccio ) . Here the list of the #icelabteam athletes...

www.instagram.com

It appears that Anna Pezzetta is going to do another season on the JGP, which makes her ineligible as a GP alternate.

 

[Frau Muller]

My mistake! So, Italy relinquished 5 spots total and will use 9.

Italian men giving up spots? Is there a chance that Kirk Haugeto has Italian blood???

 

[Sylvia]

It appears that Anna Pezzetta is going to do another season on the JGP

Good move for Anna - I'm hoping she can improve the consistency on her huge jumps during the JGP.

ETA that last season she did 2 JGPs sandwiched between 2 ISU Challengers and already has her Worlds TES minimums for 2023-24.

 

[Frau Muller]

Italian men giving up spots? Is there a chance that Kirk Haugeto has Italian blood???

Haugeto carbonaro! La Donna e Mobile!

 

[Andrea82]

Bangkok JGP assignements

Raffaele Zich
Amanda Ghezzo (JGP debut and Junior international debut. She did some advanced novice events last season)
Giulia Paolino/Andrea Tuba

Paolino/Tuba is a new couple. She is American. She competed at Intermediate level with Noah Lafornara (who is now partnered with Noemi Tali) in 2019 US Nationals.

No much insights on the Italian JGP pool as they didn't nominate any alternate in Bangkok.

 

[Sylvia]

Giulia Paolino/Andrea Tuba

Paolino/Tuba is a new couple. She is American. She competed at Intermediate level with Noah Lafornara (who is now partnered with Noemi Tali) in 2019 US Nationals.

Link to their team Instagram account that they created in May: https://www.instagram.com/paolino_tuba_team/

Andrea, 20, previously competed with his sister through 2021 (1 JGP in 2019): http://www.isuresults.com/bios/isufs00106172.htm

 

[Andrea82]

Bangkok JGP assignements

Raffaele Zich
Amanda Ghezzo (JGP debut and Junior international debut. She did some advanced novice events last season)
Giulia Paolino/Andrea Tuba

Paolino/Tuba is a new couple. She is American. She competed at Intermediate level with Noah Lafornara (who is now partnered with Noemi Tali) in 2019 US Nationals.

No much insights on the Italian JGP pool as they didn't nominate any alternate in Bangkok.

Zich withdrew from Bangkok with no alternate to replace him. Also Italy didn't enter any men in Linz and Istanbul. With no entry in Osaka already announced, it leaves something like 5 spots for Zich, Nalbone and Barison? @Karen-W

Elena Agostinelli got the Istanbul spot. There are 2 further spots (Yerevan and Budapest). I guess for Pezzetta.
However, bizarre lack of subs...

Paolino/Tuba got the Istanbul spot too. Interestingly they got the 2nd spot before anybody else debuting. The subs in Istanbul are Petracchi/Basile (won Advance Novice Nationals last season), Pizzorni/Bucciarelli (did JGP Egna; 3rd at Junior Nationals) and Ventura/Frasca (new team). No Tali/Lafornara.
Italy have 5 spots overall in ID.

 

[LoisAGOEs]

Lafornara last competed for the US at Gdańsk last year, they won’t be eligible to compete until October.

 

[Andrea82]

Lafornara last competed for the US at Gdańsk last year, they won’t be eligible to compete until October.

Thanks. I totally forgot he did JGP circuit last season but I should have checked.
So potentially they can be in the mix for Yerevan, right?

 

[LoisAGOEs]

Thanks. I totally forgot he did JGP circuit last season but I should have checked.
So potentially they can be in the mix for Yerevan, right?

It’s a couple of days after the year mark so yeah, they would be viable if the fed wants to assign them.