2022 Olympic Team Event

[Coco]

I am shamelessly starting this thread to see if anyone will do the work of tallying points or explaining the qualifications process.

The rest of us can add much speculation over who will be selected for the event from the big federations.

 

[skatingguy]

I am shamelessly starting this thread to see if anyone will do the work of tallying points or explaining the qualifications process.

The rest of us can add much speculation over who will be selected for the event from the big federations.

The Wikipedia page for the event will probably be up and running by the end of the year, and the process of qualifying a team starts with the European Championships next year.

Figure skating at the 2022 Winter Olympics - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[GoneWithTheWind]

I am shamelessly starting this thread to see if anyone will do the work of tallying points or explaining the qualifications process.

The rest of us can add much speculation over who will be selected for the event from the big federations.

I'm not going to claim to know how the qualification process works, but whilst bored and waiting for Worlds and Junior Worlds, I’ve been playing around with some statistics and one of the things I did was do some calculations about the team event, using the countries from 2020 Worlds who have a skater/skaters in each discipline (there are 9). I’ve calculated what their team score would be, using season’s bests, and assigning points for each placement (10 for first, down to 2 for ninth). Not sure if this is of interest to anyone but me, but thought I'd share it just in case!

The final result was:

1 Russia 74

2 USA 65

3 Japan 49

4 Canada 48

4 China 48

4 France 48

7 Italy 45

8 Germany 35

9 Great Britain 20



Interestingly, the results after the short programs had France tying Japan for 3rd:

1 Russia 37

2 USA 32

3 Japan 25

3 France 25

5 China 24

6 Canada 23

7 Italy 22

8 Germany 18

9 Great Britain 10



Conditions: This was based on the top scoring skater for each country in each discipline, and only used skaters who are set to compete at this year’s Worlds, as would be the case for the Olympic Team Event. Obviously, we don’t know who will actually compete in the Team Event, as not all of the top skaters always take part, for many reasons. For most of the countries, using the same 4 skaters/teams works in their favour, rather than substituting in one skater for SP and a different skater for the FP. Also, I’m not sure what is used to tie-break two country that have the same overall score, so have just listed them as ‘tied 4th’.



Full Calculations for those interested:

1st - RUSSIA

LADIES

short Kostornaia 85.45 10

free Trusova 166.62 10

MEN

short Aliev 101.49 8

free Aliev 184.44 8

PAIRS

short Boikova/Kozlovskii 82.34 10

free Boikova/Kozlovskii 152.24 10

DANCE

rhythm Sinitsina/Katsalapov 88.73 9

free Sinitsina/Katsalapov 131.69 9

Total placement score after SP: 37

Total placement score: 74



2nd - USA

LADIES

short Tennell 75.93 8

free Tennell 147.04 8

MEN

short Chen 110.38 9

free Chen 224.92 10

PAIRS

short Cain/LeDuc 76.23 7

free Cain/LeDuc 139.66 7

DANCE

rhythm Hubbell/Donohue 85.93 8

free Chock/Bates 129.01 8

Total placement score after SP: 32

Total placement score: 65



3rd - JAPAN

LADIES

short Kihira 81.35 9

free Kihira 151.95 9

MEN

short Hanyu 111.82 10

free Hanyu 212.99 9

PAIRS

short Miura/Kihara 62.41 4

free Miura/Kihara 117.43 4

DANCE

rhythm Komatsubara/Koleto 61.45 2

free Komatsubara/Koleto 95.75 2

Total placement score after SP: 25

Total placement score: 49



Tied 4th - FRANCE

LADIES

short Meite 62.43 6

free Meite 111.44 3

MEN

short Aymoz 96.71 6

free Aymoz 178.92 7

PAIRS

short Hamon/Stekalin 57.35 3

free Hamon/Stekalin 103.25 3

DANCE

rhythm Papadakis/Cizeron 90.03 10

free Papadakis/Cizeron 136.58 10

Total placement score after SP: 25

Total placement score: 48



Tied 4th - CHINA

LADIES

short Chen 57.17 3

free Chen 118.6 5

MEN

short Jin 98.48 7

free Jin 176.1 5

PAIRS

short Sui/Han 81.27 9

free Sui/Han 147.47 9

DANCE

rhythm Wang/Liu 77.45 5

free Wang/Liu 119.3 5

Total placement score after SP: 24

Total placement score: 48



Tied 4th- CANADA

LADIES

short Pinault 57.59 4

free Bausback 117.19 4

MEN

short Nguyen 87.01 5

free Nguyen 178.69 6

PAIRS

short Moore Towers/Marinaro 76.36 8

free Moore Towers/Marinaro 138.96 8

DANCE

rhythm Gilles/Porier 83.92 6

free Gilles/Porier 126.43 7

Total placement score SP: 23

Total placement score: 48



7th - ITALY

LADIES

short Tornaghi 62.41 5

free Tornaghi 124.89 7

MEN

short Grassl 85.42 4

free Grassl 168.27 4

PAIRS

short Della Monica/Guarise 70.48 6

free Della Monica/Guarise 123.96 6

DANCE

rhythm Guignard/Fabbri 84.66 7

free Guignard/Fabbri 123.69 6

Total placement score after SP: 22

Total placement score: 45



8th - GERMANY

LADIES

short Schott 64.09 7

free Schott 120.93 6

MEN

short Fentz 80.41 3

free Fentz 149.6 3

PAIRS

short Hase/Seegert 70.43 5

free Hase/Seegert 118.42 5

DANCE

rhythm Muller/Dieck 67.79 3

free Muller/Dieck 106.02 3

Total placement score after SP: 18

Total placement score: 35



9th – Great Britain

LADIES

short McKay 52.47 2

free McKay 89.67 2

MEN

short Hallam 67.61 2

free Hallam 127.99 2

PAIRS

short Jones/Boyadji 52.57 2

free Jones/Boyadji 96.98 2

DANCE

rhythm Fear/Gibson 76.67 4

free Fear/Gibson 118.68 4

Total placement score after SP: 10

Total placement score: 20


PS: this is my first post on FSU, so I hope it works!?

 

[skatingguy]

Whole Post

Welcome, and that looked like a lot of work.

Team Event qualifications are outlined here:

https://www.isu.org/docman-documents-links-2/2022-beijing/qualification-systems-3/22994-figure-skating-v1-0/file

Side Note - did we know that they reduced the number of pairs entries to 19 (was 20) & the number of ice dance entries to 23 (was 24)? I might have missed this information last summer.

 

[Deleted member 40371]

I'm not going to claim to know how the qualification process works, but whilst bored and waiting for Worlds and Junior Worlds, I’ve been playing around with some statistics and one of the things I did was do some calculations about the team event, using the countries from 2020 Worlds who have a skater/skaters in each discipline (there are 9). I’ve calculated what their team score would be, using season’s bests, and assigning points for each placement (10 for first, down to 2 for ninth). Not sure if this is of interest to anyone but me, but thought I'd share it just in case!

The final result was:

1 Russia 74

2 USA 65

3 Japan 49

4 Canada 48

4 China 48

4 France 48

7 Italy 45

8 Germany 35

9 Great Britain 20



Interestingly, the results after the short programs had France tying Japan for 3rd:

1 Russia 37

2 USA 32

3 Japan 25

3 France 25

5 China 24

6 Canada 23

7 Italy 22

8 Germany 18

9 Great Britain 10



Conditions: This was based on the top scoring skater for each country in each discipline, and only used skaters who are set to compete at this year’s Worlds, as would be the case for the Olympic Team Event. Obviously, we don’t know who will actually compete in the Team Event, as not all of the top skaters always take part, for many reasons. For most of the countries, using the same 4 skaters/teams works in their favour, rather than substituting in one skater for SP and a different skater for the FP. Also, I’m not sure what is used to tie-break two country that have the same overall score, so have just listed them as ‘tied 4th’.



Full Calculations for those interested:

1st - RUSSIA

LADIES

short Kostornaia 85.45 10

free Trusova 166.62 10

MEN

short Aliev 101.49 8

free Aliev 184.44 8

PAIRS

short Boikova/Kozlovskii 82.34 10

free Boikova/Kozlovskii 152.24 10

DANCE

rhythm Sinitsina/Katsalapov 88.73 9

free Sinitsina/Katsalapov 131.69 9

Total placement score after SP: 37

Total placement score: 74



2nd - USA

LADIES

short Tennell 75.93 8

free Tennell 147.04 8

MEN

short Chen 110.38 9

free Chen 224.92 10

PAIRS

short Cain/LeDuc 76.23 7

free Cain/LeDuc 139.66 7

DANCE

rhythm Hubbell/Donohue 85.93 8

free Chock/Bates 129.01 8

Total placement score after SP: 32

Total placement score: 65



3rd - JAPAN

LADIES

short Kihira 81.35 9

free Kihira 151.95 9

MEN

short Hanyu 111.82 10

free Hanyu 212.99 9

PAIRS

short Miura/Kihara 62.41 4

free Miura/Kihara 117.43 4

DANCE

rhythm Komatsubara/Koleto 61.45 2

free Komatsubara/Koleto 95.75 2

Total placement score after SP: 25

Total placement score: 49



Tied 4th - FRANCE

LADIES

short Meite 62.43 6

free Meite 111.44 3

MEN

short Aymoz 96.71 6

free Aymoz 178.92 7

PAIRS

short Hamon/Stekalin 57.35 3

free Hamon/Stekalin 103.25 3

DANCE

rhythm Papadakis/Cizeron 90.03 10

free Papadakis/Cizeron 136.58 10

Total placement score after SP: 25

Total placement score: 48



Tied 4th - CHINA

LADIES

short Chen 57.17 3

free Chen 118.6 5

MEN

short Jin 98.48 7

free Jin 176.1 5

PAIRS

short Sui/Han 81.27 9

free Sui/Han 147.47 9

DANCE

rhythm Wang/Liu 77.45 5

free Wang/Liu 119.3 5

Total placement score after SP: 24

Total placement score: 48



Tied 4th- CANADA

LADIES

short Pinault 57.59 4

free Bausback 117.19 4

MEN

short Nguyen 87.01 5

free Nguyen 178.69 6

PAIRS

short Moore Towers/Marinaro 76.36 8

free Moore Towers/Marinaro 138.96 8

DANCE

rhythm Gilles/Porier 83.92 6

free Gilles/Porier 126.43 7

Total placement score SP: 23

Total placement score: 48



7th - ITALY

LADIES

short Tornaghi 62.41 5

free Tornaghi 124.89 7

MEN

short Grassl 85.42 4

free Grassl 168.27 4

PAIRS

short Della Monica/Guarise 70.48 6

free Della Monica/Guarise 123.96 6

DANCE

rhythm Guignard/Fabbri 84.66 7

free Guignard/Fabbri 123.69 6

Total placement score after SP: 22

Total placement score: 45



8th - GERMANY

LADIES

short Schott 64.09 7

free Schott 120.93 6

MEN

short Fentz 80.41 3

free Fentz 149.6 3

PAIRS

short Hase/Seegert 70.43 5

free Hase/Seegert 118.42 5

DANCE

rhythm Muller/Dieck 67.79 3

free Muller/Dieck 106.02 3

Total placement score after SP: 18

Total placement score: 35



9th – Great Britain

LADIES

short McKay 52.47 2

free McKay 89.67 2

MEN

short Hallam 67.61 2

free Hallam 127.99 2

PAIRS

short Jones/Boyadji 52.57 2

free Jones/Boyadji 96.98 2

DANCE

rhythm Fear/Gibson 76.67 4

free Fear/Gibson 118.68 4

Total placement score after SP: 10

Total placement score: 20


PS: this is my first post on FSU, so I hope it works!?

Well done, however only 5 teams qualify for the LP part of the team event. The 1st to 5th will still score from 10 to 6 points respectively. As a result the variability in score of teams in the LP section is low. This will be Japan a lot, Canada ladies will also do better if they qualify for the LP section of the team event.

 

[Tahuu]

There may be a fierce fight for silver and bronze by team USA, FRA and CHN. Based on personal feeling of possible skater's strength, skater's resting for individual events, team's desire for a medal, and China's host advantage, my guesstimate is:

1. RUS 67
SP 34: Aliev 6 KOSTORNAIA 10 BOIKOVA/KOZLOVSKII 9 SINITSINA/KATSALAPOV 9
FS 33: Aliev 6 Trusova 10 TARASOVA/MOROZOV 8 SINITSINA/KATSALAPOV 9

2. USA 62
SP 30: Chen 9 Liu 7 Cain-Gribble/LeDuc 6 CHOCK/BATES 8
FS 32: Zhou 8 Liu 9 CALALANG/JOHNSON 7 CHOCK/BATES 8

3. FRA 61
SP 28: AYMOZ 7 SERNA 3 JAMES/CIPRES 8 PAPADAKIS/CIZERON 10
FS 33: AYMOZ 7 MEITE 7 JAMES/CIPRES 9 PAPADAKIS/CIZERON 10

4. CHN 58
SP 26: Jin 8 Chen 2 SUI/HAN 10 WANG/LIU 6
FS 32: Jin 9 Zhu 6 SUI/HAN 10 WANG/LIU 7

5. JPN 53
SP 23: HANYU 10 KIHIRA 9 MIURA/KIHARA 2 KOMATSUBARA/KOLETO 2
FS 30: UNO 10 SAKAMOTO 8 MIURA/KIHARA 6 KOMATSUBARA/KOLETO 6

 

[skatingguy]

No way is Hanyu doing the team event.

 

[Tahuu]

Hanyu did it in Sochi. He didn't do it in PyeongChang due to injury recovery. For his warm-up and get his psychi over Chen, and helping team JPN to pass team CAN and qualify for the FS, there is a good chance he'll do it in Beijing.

 

[Colonel Green]

Hanyu did it in Sochi. He didn't do it in PyeongChang due to injury recovery. For warm-up and get his psychi over Chen, there is a good chance he'll do it in Beijing.

Hanyu will be 27 in 2022. Obviously we don't know what condition he'll be in, but it's very plausible that he'll be focused on preserving stamina.

I'm not going to claim to know how the qualification process works, but whilst bored and waiting for Worlds and Junior Worlds, I’ve been playing around with some statistics and one of the things I did was do some calculations about the team event, using the countries from 2020 Worlds who have a skater/skaters in each discipline (there are 9). I’ve calculated what their team score would be, using season’s bests, and assigning points for each placement (10 for first, down to 2 for ninth). Not sure if this is of interest to anyone but me, but thought I'd share it just in case!

I did something like this last year with the results for the 2019 World Championships, using every nation that had entries in all four disciplines and going with the highest-placing finisher as their entry (I also bent the methodology somewhat by including Japan, even though they didn't have a pair in Saitama, because they're an important factor for the singles, so I just used the pair score from WTT). The podium was Russia, the USA, and France, with Canada and China being the other two countries to make the long program. There were only nine teams using this measure.

I liked approaching it this way because there's some degree of the freak happenstance of competition involved (for instance, James/Cipres finishing lower than they might on average be expected to because of a bad short; or Italy coming third in the men's short, even if it wasn't enough to get them to make the free skate because their lady bombed so hard).

 

[Braulio]

I don't see:

• James/Cipres ever coming back
• Papadakis/Cizeron taking part of team event
• Hanyu wasting energy skating in the team event
• Hubbell/Donohue in the big mix to be team event material
• That whole russian entries allowed to compete, we don't know who will get the invitation like it happened in 2018

The posibility of Katsalapov wining another gold medal in the team event, 8 years after taking his first with another couple just makes me shake my head...

 

[Marco]

I don't see:

• James/Cipres ever coming back
• Papadakis/Cizeron taking part of team event
• Hanyu wasting energy skating in the team event
• Hubbell/Donohue in the big mix to be team event material
• That whole russian entries allowed to compete, we don't know who will get the invitation like it happened in 2018

Whether P&C or Hanyu would compete in the team event will (I think) depend on their country's team medal chances. There is still plenty of resting time after the team event before their individual events start. Besides RUS and USA being clearly in front and 90% likely to be making the free (and securing gold and silver), the final 3 spots for the LP and the bronze is really up for grabs between JPN, FRA, CHN and CAN and competition is indeed quite tight.

J&C not competing in pairs will likely hit FRA's medalling chances very hard but P&C's participation and securing at least 2nd will likely at least allow FRA to qualify for LP. If P&C won't compete in the team event at all, I think FRA's qualification chances for the LP are all but gone.

JPN has a good chances to make the LP on the strength of their singles, and if so, the lowest their pairs and dance could place in the LP is 5th. Who knows what Takahashi's dance team can do, but I selfishly hope they can at least place ahead of the CHN team. Hanyu's participation and potentially at least securing 2nd in the men's portion might be key for JPN's qualification to the LP and to bronze. Perhaps they should have Hanyu do the short and Uno the LP.

CHN's chances will depend on how its lady will place relative to FRA and CAN. Jin needs to be 3rd in men and the pair obviously needs to be 1st. The dance team needs to place ahead of JPN which it currently should, but again, not sure about Team Takahashi.

CAN's pairs and dance are stable at around 3rd, so everything will depend on how the man and lady will place relative to FRA and CHN.

My guess of what would happen in the LP in mens, ladies, pairs and dance:

RUS: 3, 1, 2, 1 = 37
CHN: 4, 5, 1, 5 = 29
USA: 1, 3, 4, 2 = 34
CAN: 5, 4, 3, 3 = 29
JPN: 2, 2, 5, 4 = 31

Can't do one for the short as I don't know the last few qualifiers. Suffice to say I think RUS and USA are clear gold and silver favorites.

 

[Karen-W]

I don't think there is any chance that Sui/Han will compete in the team event, even if China does think they're in the medal hunt in that event. Pairs is the first competition after the team event and that is where S/H's focus will be. China will throw Peng/Jin up in the team event as they're just as capable of beating the rest of the pairs field (except maybe B/K by then) as S/H.

 

[Barbara Manatee]

I think Pap/Ciz would be making a mistake to skip the team event again. The winning dance team gets a huge boost of momentum and confidence. D/W and then V/M established a narrative that they would not be denied, in their own minds I think as much as with the judges, and it really carried them through to the gold.

 

[Karen-W]

I think Pap/Ciz would be making a mistake to skip the team event again. The winning dance team gets a huge boost of momentum and confidence. D/W and then V/M established a narrative that they would not be denied, in their own minds I think as much as with the judges, and it really carried them through to the gold.

I think it also set the Shibs up well in the fight for bronze, to have competed in the team event at the start of the Games last time.

 

[manhn]

If Russia wins the team event and S&K wins the dance, Nikita will tie V&M tie for most gold medals.

Will the US be lame again and use two different ladies and just one dance team?

 

[Colonel Green]

Will the US be lame again and use two different ladies and just one dance team?

Ice dance is, generally speaking, the discipline where it makes the least sense to split entries. The major teams come with a fairly well-defined ranking that makes it easy to determine approximately where they'll stack up, all things being equal. Unless you have a case where one team is noticeably better in the RD and the other in the FD.

 

[Marco]

I think Pap/Ciz would be making a mistake to skip the team event again. The winning dance team gets a huge boost of momentum and confidence. D/W and then V/M established a narrative that they would not be denied, in their own minds I think as much as with the judges, and it really carried them through to the gold.

Alternatively, if they lose to the Russians at the team event, they would be quite hard pressed to come out on top in the individual event.

 

[Marco]

I don't think there is any chance that Sui/Han will compete in the team event, even if China does think they're in the medal hunt in that event. Pairs is the first competition after the team event and that is where S/H's focus will be. China will throw Peng/Jin up in the team event as they're just as capable of beating the rest of the pairs field (except maybe B/K by then) as S/H.

Fair enough - but having P&J instead of S&H for the team event may mean placing 3rd behind the Russians and Canadians instead of 1st ahead of them - which could mean not qualifying for the LP or not medaling.

Don't forget they are competing at home. CHN traditionally cares more about team medals, judging from gymnastics.

 

[kwanfan1818]

Will the US be lame again and use two different ladies and just one dance team?

I don't think I saw the document for 2018 to see if it was the same as 2014, and, of course, even it if was, they can always change it for 2022, but in 2014, USFS published a document outlining the selection process for the team event. In theory, it ranked the disciplines from strongest to weakest, and then gave the highest ranked skater/team from the highest ranked discipline the option of doing the short, free, or both. Then they went to the next strongest discipline, and asked those skaters/teams. Of course, what the skater wants and what USFS wants can be two different things, but if the skater/team doesn't have the leverage, following what USFS wants is the only route to a medal and politik.

For 2014, it would have been Dance, Men, Ladies, Pairs. Davis/White wanted both, so Men and Ladies got the chance to do two, and then Castelli/Shnapir did both segments of Pairs. For 2018, if they did the same ranking, it would have been Men, Dance, Ladies, Pairs. That would have made it the Shibs' choice (or "choice") to do both.

Canada was didn't sub in anyone in 2018, which left nada for Weaver/Poje.

 

[Karen-W]

Fair enough - but having P&J instead of S&H for the team event may mean placing 3rd behind the Russians and Canadians instead of 1st ahead of them - which could mean not qualifying for the LP or not medaling.

Don't forget they are competing at home. CHN traditionally cares more about team medals, judging from gymnastics.

I just do not see China sacrificing Sui/Han's chances at home pairs gold for a team bronze at best. They'll take a risk that P/J can sneak in for a win in the SP, which could allow for a Japan or France with a weaker pairs team to push Canada out of the FP segment, and then count on a 2nd place finish to the Russians at worst for the FP.

 

[RoseRed]

I don't think I saw the document for 2018 to see if it was the same as 2014, and, of course, even it if was, they can always change it for 2022, but in 2014, USFS published a document outlining the selection process for the team event. In theory, it ranked the disciplines from strongest to weakest, and then gave the highest ranked skater/team from the highest ranked discipline the option of doing the short, free, or both. Then they went to the next strongest discipline, and asked those skaters/teams. Of course, what the skater wants and what USFS wants can be two different things, but if the skater/team doesn't have the leverage, following what USFS wants is the only route to a medal and politik.

For 2014, it would have been Dance, Men, Ladies, Pairs. Davis/White wanted both, so Men and Ladies got the chance to do two, and then Castelli/Shnapir did both segments of Pairs. For 2018, if they did the same ranking, it would have been Men, Dance, Ladies, Pairs. That would have made it the Shibs' choice (or "choice") to do both.

Canada was didn't sub in anyone in 2018, which left nada for Weaver/Poje.

Canada used two ladies. SC just chose not to use a second sub in another discipline, since their best were willing to do both.

 

[screech]

I think Pap/Ciz would be making a mistake to skip the team event again. The winning dance team gets a huge boost of momentum and confidence. D/W and then V/M established a narrative that they would not be denied, in their own minds I think as much as with the judges, and it really carried them through to the gold.

For V/M in particular, it was a chance to try out a new lift for Moulin Rouge instead of the 'suggestive' one, which it was determined didn't work as well, so they knew to go back to the other one for the individual event. IMO they still would have won the individual event, but the margin would have been a lot closer.

Canada was didn't sub in anyone in 2018, which left nada for Weaver/Poje.

I'm still bitter about that. I know they couldn't really decide to sub at the last minute once Canada was guaranteed to win, but Skate Canada should have had faith all along WeaPo would have done well enough for Canada to still win the gold.

 

[Barbara Manatee]

Alternatively, if they lose to the Russians at the team event, they would be quite hard pressed to come out on top in the individual event.

Yes, but if you want the big prize you have to take those risks. If you send the message to your competition and to yourselves that you think you won't win, chances are you've already lost.

 

[RoseRed]

For V/M in particular, it was a chance to try out a new lift for Moulin Rouge instead of the 'suggestive' one, which it was determined didn't work as well, so they knew to go back to the other one for the individual event. IMO they still would have won the individual event, but the margin would have been a lot closer.

I'm still bitter about that. I know they couldn't really decide to sub at the last minute once Canada was guaranteed to win, but Skate Canada should have had faith all along WeaPo would have done well enough for Canada to still win the gold.

But then, exactly as you said, V/M wouldn't have had a chance to try out the new lift, to get the program out once on Olympic ice and build momentum, etc. They were never going to sub ice dance when V/M wanted to do both.

And also, coming in, they didn't know how the men would go. That was a huge points swing. It wasn't close in the end, but it really could have been.

Results something like this would have been totally plausible:

Men SP - Russia 3rd (behind Japan and USA), Canada 5th (Patrick with the same score, Russia and USA moved up)

And then the actual pairs (RUS-1, CAN-2), dance (CAN-1, RUS-3) and ladies (RUS-1, CAN-3) results.

That would have made the results after the short 33 points for Canada (6+8+10+8) and 36 for Russia (8+10+8+10).

Then all the same results as actually happened in pairs, men and ladies would have had the standings 61 points for Canada and 63 for Russia.

With V/M in, they would have tied for points (not sure how the tiebreakers would have gone). But W/P were not guaranteed to beat the Shibs or Bobrova/Soloviev.

 

[Tahuu]

I don't see:

• Hanyu wasting energy skating in the team event

Hanyu will be 27 in 2022. Obviously we don't know what condition he'll be in, but it's very plausible that he'll be focused on preserving stamina.

What energy conservation? Hanyu did 20-30 quad attempts at each 4CC official practice besides the runthrough. A warm-up team SP competition is the best practice for his individual competition days later.

 

[screech]

But then, exactly as you said, V/M wouldn't have had a chance to try out the new lift, to get the program out once on Olympic ice and build momentum, etc. They were never going to sub ice dance when V/M wanted to do both.

I knew I sounded kind of contradictory when I made my post, but alas, while I'm happy V/M got to do the test run, I still wish WeaPo had gotten to take part.

 

[Colonel Green]

I know they couldn't really decide to sub at the last minute once Canada was guaranteed to win, but Skate Canada should have had faith all along WeaPo would have done well enough for Canada to still win the gold.

Even aside from wanting to give Tessa & Scott every advantage going into the individual event, I really don't see why they would have had faith in that. Patrick was unreliable (as he had just vividly demonstrated in the short program, even though it didn't end up biting them in the ass thanks to Mikhail and Nathan's own screwups), Gabrielle had had a great nationals but a not-very-good season before that (and sadly, as it turned out, the team event free skate would be the high-water mark for her for the next couple of years), and Kaitlyn & Andrew themselves had just had a disaster in the short dance at nationals. Based on the season to that point they would have been thought likely to finish behind the Americans and the Russians, and possibly also the Italians. There's no way it made sense to throw away Scott & Tessa's guaranteed ten points.

 

[VGThuy]

If Russia wins the team event and S&K wins the dance, Nikita will tie V&M tie for most gold medals.

Will the US be lame again and use two different ladies and just one dance team?

I wouldn’t call it lame considering that was probably their best decision out of the team event.

 

[Coco]

Honestly, they should have used Mirai in both segments and let Bradie just focus on her major international championship debut.

I think peaking for the team event SP and then again for the ladies event ~2 weeks later hurt her. She had her weakest performance of the season at the Olympics (individual event), iirc.

I wish the US had used 2 dance teams.

 

[Colonel Green]

Honestly, they should have used Mirai in both segments and let Bradie just focus on her major international championship debut.

I think peaking for the team event SP and then again for the ladies event ~2 weeks later hurt her. She had her weakest performance of the season at the Olympics (individual event), iirc.

Bradie was not a realistic medal contender in the individual event, so I don’t see why she would have wanted to do that. In the team event she had a shot at a medal (and got one).

And frankly, if the US was only going to use one lady, it would have been Bradie, not Mirai. The latter was the bigger risk.