Pairs Discussion Thread 2021-22

[wickedwitch]

Pairs is my favorite discipline when it's good. And the past two days, it's been very, very good. I can't get over the quality of skating we saw from the top 9 teams.

I think 1994 probably edges it out for a better competition, but unlike with 1994, I agree with the results today.

 

[Amantide]

Pairs is my favorite discipline when it's good. And the past two days, it's been very, very good. I can't get over the quality of skating we saw from the top 9 teams.

I think 1994 probably edges it out for a better competition, but unlike with 1994, I agree with the results today.

1994 M&D all the way.

 

[Amy L]

love this

VK.com | VK

vk.com

 

[Karen-W]

World Standings have been updated as of today - Sui/Han dropped to #3 despite winning the Olympics !

https://results.isu.org/ws/ws/wspairs.htm

Assuming S/H skip Worlds, C-G/L will be in the final group for the SP as they've moved up to #5. K/F are #8 (yay) and M/K are #11 now, which leaves them just missing the penultimate SP group (GhiAmb are #9).

 

[Spun Silver]

@clairecloutier, your predictions weren't too far off. R/K and J/R underperformed your expectations and K/F exceeded them. Otherwise you were mainly right. ?

Olympics 2022: Pairs Preview & Predictions - A divine sport

The past week’s events in figure skating have almost rendered predictions pointless. Because who could have predicted that the biggest Olympic women’s favorite in recent memory would have a positive drug test days before her individual event? Or that she would be allowed to compete, despite...

adivinesport.com

 

[Sylvia]

Meagan Duhamel did an IG Live with Kelly Rippon (Adam's mom) yesterday -- she talked about the Olympic pairs competition and also spent a good amount of time explaining various pairs elements that's worth a listen if you're interested:
Link: https://www.instagram.com/tv/CaLjp8vFs-e/

 

[Fadeevfanboy]

World Standings have been updated as of today - Sui/Han dropped to #3 despite winning the Olympics !

World Standings have always been kind of lunacy in a way. Thanks for displaying a huge confirmation of this.

 

[Sylvia]

World Standings have been updated as of today - Sui/Han dropped to #3 despite winning the Olympics !

https://results.isu.org/ws/ws/wspairs.htm

Assuming S/H skip Worlds, C-G/L will be in the final group for the SP as they've moved up to #5. K/F are #8 (yay) and M/K are #11 now, which leaves them just missing the penultimate SP group (GhiAmb are #9).

@haribobo posted "before & after Olympics" pairs info in the "ISU World Standings Have Been Updated" thread in GSD:

ISU SB SCORE
Sui/Han 4 to 1
Peng/Jin 6 to 5
Knierim/Frazier 9 to 6
Safina/Berulava 22 to 15
Della Monica/Guarise 26 to 25

WORLD STANDINGS
Mishina/Galliamov 1 STAY
Tarasova/Morozov 2 STAY
Sui/Han 3 STAY
Boikova/Kozlovskii 4 STAY
Cain-Gribble/LeDuc 7 to 5
Peng/Jin 5 to 6
Moore-Towers/Marinaro 6 to 7
Knierim/Frazier 17 to 8
Ghilardi/Ambrosini 8 to 9
Miura /Kihara 12 to 11
Della Monica/Guarise 10 to 12
Hase/Seegert 11 to 13
James/Radford 23 to 21
Safina/Berulava 22 to 23
Barquero/Zandron 27 to 26
Kops/Krasnopolski 64 to 45

 

[Sylvia]

Re-posting here from the Canadian Pairs thread:

At the Olympics it was

1. Sui/Han
2. Tarasova/Morozov
3. Mishina/Galliamov
4. Boikova/Kozlovskii
5. Peng/Jin
6. Knierim/Frazier
7. Miura/Kihara
8. Cain-Gribble/Leduc
9. Safina/Berulava
10. Moore-Towers/Marinaro
11. Barquero/Zandron
12. James/Radford

Re. James/Radford:

Only K/F, M/K and CG/L will be at Worlds of the teams who beat them. If you put Metelkina/Parkman in S/B's place, that's still 5th. Not that everyone will skate the same as at the Olympics, but yes top 5 is definitely possible.

Makes things verrrrry interesting!

 

[LeafOnTheWind]

What alternate reality are we living in? SMH at the very strange pairs podium potential. I don't put an asterisk by the names of the winners but I feel sorry for any US team following this year when NBC goes on and on about the last time a US pair medaled at Worlds.

 

[Frau Muller]

TOP 8 FOR KRASNOPOLSKI!!!
What has to happen to allow two Israeli pairs at 2023 Worlds?

 

[Sylvia]

What has to happen to allow two Israeli pairs at 2023 Worlds?

K/K place top 10.

So then Kops & Krasnopolski could both get new partners…

 

[Sylvia]

ISU World Championships 2022
Pairs Entries as of March 2: http://results.isu.org/events/wc2022_Pairs.htm

No. Name Nation
1 Anastasia GOLUBEVA / Hektor GIOTOPOULOS MOORE AUS 1 (debut)
2 Miriam ZIEGLER / Severin KIEFER AUT 2
3 Vanessa JAMES / Eric RADFORD CAN 3 (debut as a team)
4 Evelyn WALSH / Trennt MICHAUD CAN 3
Lori-Ann MATTE / Thierry FERLAND CAN 3 S (2nd alt.?)
Deanna STELLATO-DUDEK / Maxime DESCHAMPS CAN 3 S (1st alt.?)
5 Jelizaveta ZUKOVA / Martin BIDAR CZE 4
6 Dorota BRODA / Pedro BETEGON MARTIN ESP 5 (debut)
7 Camille KOVALEV / Pavel KOVALEV FRA 6 (debut)
8 Zoe JONES / Christopher BOYADJI GBR 7
Anastasia VAIPAN-LAW / Luke DIGBY GBR 7 S
9 Anastasiia METELKINA / Daniil PARKMAN GEO 8
Karina SAFINA / Luka BERULAVA GEO 8 S
10 Minerva Fabienne HASE / Nolan SEEGERT GER 9
Letizia ROSCHER / Luis SCHUSTER GER 9 S
11 Hailey KOPS / Evgeni KRASNOPOLSKI ISR 10 (debut for her)
12 Sara CONTI / Niccolo MACII ITA 11 (debut)
13 Rebecca GHILARDI / Filippo AMBROSINI ITA 11
14 Riku MIURA / Ryuichi KIHARA JPN 12
15 Daria DANILOVA / Michel TSIBA NED 13
16 Sofiia HOLICHENKO / Artem DARENSKYI UKR 14 (debut)
17 Ashley CAIN-GRIBBLE / Timothy LEDUC USA 15
18 Alexa KNIERIM / Brandon FRAZIER USA 15
Jessica CALALANG / Brian JOHNSON USA 15 S (1st alt.)
Emily CHAN / Spencer Akira HOWE USA 15 S (3rd alt.)
Audrey LU / Misha MITROFANOV USA 15 S (2nd alt.)

S - Substitute Entry
02/03/2022 11:12:29 UTC

 

[Karen-W]

TOP 8 FOR KRASNOPOLSKI!!!
What has to happen to allow two Israeli pairs at 2023 Worlds?

Well, top 8 might be a stretch, but top 10 is possible. Kops/Krasnopolski aren't terrible but... they'll need Hase/Seegert to have another bout of C19, and several other, better teams to skate poorly again (not out of the question) - Walsh/Michaud, Ghilardi/Ambrosini, Ziegler/Kiefer...

1-3) KniFraz, MiuKih, CG/LeD
4-8) JamRad, WalMich, MetPark, HaseSeeg, GhiAmbr
9-12) ZieKie, GoluGM, ZukBid, KopsKras
13-18) BroBM, KovKov, JonBoy, ConMac, DanTsi, HolDar

 

[SkateYourHeart]

I'm surprised KMT and MM chose not to go to worlds. Given that the Russian and Chinese teams are not competing, this would be one of their only chances for a world medal (although it's far from guaranteed) with Japan and at least one of the American teams and Georgia likely ahead of them.

 

[Karen-W]

I'm also surprised Hungary didn't send a pairs team. Not sure if Magyar is recovered from the crud that knocked Chtchetinina/Magyar out of the Olympics but Pavlova/Nagy have the mins, so I expected an entry.

Also wondering what's up with Pfund/Santillan. They were named to the Swiss Euros team then withdrawn. I was hoping they'd make it to Montpellier.

 

[Fadeevfanboy]

I'm surprised KMT and MM chose not to go to worlds. Given that the Russian and Chinese teams are not competing, this would be one of their only chances for a world medal (although it's far from guaranteed) with Japan and at least one of the American teams and Georgia likely ahead of them.

Yeah really surprising to me too. I think a lot of that is they aren't having a good year competing wise. If this was any of the last 3 years they go for sure as they have a huge shot in this field. With their skating and scores this season, I don't think they felt that great about their chances even in this field.

 

[Frau Muller]

Well, top 8 might be a stretch, but top 10 is possible. Kops/Krasnopolski aren't terrible but... they'll need Hase/Seegert to have another bout of C19, and several other, better teams to skate poorly again (not out of the question) - Walsh/Michaud, Ghilardi/Ambrosini, Ziegler/Kiefer...

1-3) KniFraz, MiuKih, CG/LeD
4-8) JamRad, WalMich, MetPark, HaseSeeg, GhiAmbr
9-12) ZieKie, GoluGM, ZukBid, KopsKras
13-18) BroBM, KovKov, JonBoy, ConMac, DanTsi, HolDar

Hey, their music is To dream the impossible dream. ️

 

[text_skate]

I would be thrilled if Hase/Seegert made top10. I'm not sure they can do it. Under pressure they have difficulties to perform.

 

[Kateri]

Safina/Berulava may not be there, but the other Georgian pair, Metelkina/Parkman are just as good, IMO.

 

[Barbara Manatee]

I'm surprised KMT and MM chose not to go to worlds. Given that the Russian and Chinese teams are not competing, this would be one of their only chances for a world medal (although it's far from guaranteed) with Japan and at least one of the American teams and Georgia likely ahead of them.

They may have decided not to go, stopped training, and went off to have fun before there was any indication the field would be so depleted.

 

[miffy]

Safina/Berulava may not be there, but the other Georgian pair, Metelkina/Parkman are just as good, IMO.

I’m so sad S/B won’t be there but hopefully M/P will do well. What is the reason for sending M/P after S/B have done so brilliantly at Euros and Olympics? Or was the decision made before that?

 

[AxelAnnie]

I’m so sad S/B won’t be there but hopefully M/P will do well. What is the reason for sending M/P after S/B have done so brilliantly at Euros and Olympics? Or was the decision made before that?

I don't think any of them will be there.

 

[Karen-W]

I’m so sad S/B won’t be there but hopefully M/P will do well. What is the reason for sending M/P after S/B have done so brilliantly at Euros and Olympics? Or was the decision made before that?

Metelkina/Parkman were originally assigned to Euros and they beat Safina/Berulava handily at Golden Spin, so I assume that there was some sort of injury issue which caused them to miss both Euros and then the Olympics. They are certainly well-positioned to finish top 5 at Worlds and earn the WS points to give them 2 GP assignments next season, and to also earn Georgia a 2nd pairs spot as well. Georgia is suddenly in a really good place, pairs wise, which is kind of amazing given that a year ago they had just MetPark who were new and unknown.

 

[miffy]

Thanks Karen, I remember them now it seems odd to base it off that when S/B were very new and have improved so quickly since then, and now have the higher PB, but if they were already named that explains it. I just hope they are ready and recovered - as you say, there is a big opportunity to get 2 spots for next year Top 5 seems a bit of a stretch, but who knows with the way this season is going

 

[aml78]

They may have decided not to go, stopped training, and went off to have fun before there was any indication the field would be so depleted.

It’s been a lackluster season for them at best. And seemingly emotionally draining. Their LP in Beijing was a nice closing moment for them. They may feel at peace with that being their final memory. Once you’ve mentally moved on it’s difficult to keep it going. I respect their decision and am somewhat touched that they are giving up their spot to their close friends Walsh and Michaud.

 

[maureenfarone]

I'm also surprised Hungary didn't send a pairs team. Not sure if Magyar is recovered from the crud that knocked Chtchetinina/Magyar out of the Olympics but Pavlova/Nagy have the mins, so I expected an entry.

Also wondering what's up with Pfund/Santillan. They were named to the Swiss Euros team then withdrawn. I was hoping they'd make it to Montpellier.

Here is a link to Jessica/Josh blog: https://joshica.net/blog/ They talk about training for Euros and then Lyndon Johnson tested positive for covid. Eventually, just before they were scheduled to depart, Josh tested positive also. Of course, because of Josh testing positive they withdrew from Euros. The blog ends with them hoping that they would be named to the Swiss World team. I'm really sad to see that they were not named to the team for Worlds. I've always liked them and gosh they have had such terrible luck with many injuries and now Josh having covid at the worst time.

 

[Sylvia]

Here is a link to Jessica/Josh blog:

Thanks for posting, @maureenfarone! Direct link to Pfund/Santillan’s post dated Jan. 10:

2022 Season Update – Joshica’s Blog

I’m sorry to hear that their names weren’t submitted for Worlds by the Swiss Ice Skating Federation.

 

[Sylvia]

Based on their recent Instagram stories, Safina/Berulava are in Italy now so they could be available to compete at Worlds for Georgia if Metelkina/Parkman cannot.

Safina’s post for International Women’s Day today (March 8) is from Bergamo: https://www.instagram.com/p/Ca1ses6O4Um/

 

[Sylvia]

Minerva Hase just shared some pics from Bergamo, Italy as well: https://www.instagram.com/p/Ca2x7fluzBU/?utm_medium=copy_link