2022-23 US Pairs Discussion - Second to None!

[AngieNikodinovLove]

Skate America. BTW, I forgot to post a link to these 2 practice clips back in late August when Alexa shared an effortless-looking 3S and 3T+2T+2T when she was briefly in Chicago: https://www.instagram.com/p/Ch2cmoCOlu_/

Interesting it says she was in Park Ridge Illinois, the city where I was born and also where Hillary Clinton grew up. Fun facts. I know Alexa is from Addison Illinois herself.

 

[Sylvia]

KUDOS to Daniel Tioumentsev on attaining one of his major goals outside of skating! https://www.instagram.com/p/CirfAVMOQu7/

This past year has been full of surprises ,excitement and many challenges, Especially this past month. While I’m still pursuing my passion in skating and continuing to go to school to major in engineering. I have also been secretly working on another interesting life goal involving my passion in space flight. With that being said, I would like to officially announce a new career start @spacex as a Propulsion Technician. Something I’ve been literally dreaming of since the last space shuttle launch back in 2011. ( it’s been a decade…. literally ) I’m supper excited about this incredible opportunity and to be joining the Falcon teams, help continue the pursuit of making humanity multi-planetary. Thank you so much to those that have supported me and my decision in this epic new adventure!!!!

He and Sonia Baram have been training hard since their golden JGP debut in Ostrava - I saw recent Instagram story clips of them landing throw triples in practice (on one foot by her) - both triple toe loop and loop!

 

[Frau Muller]

If they get to SkAm, I hope that Plazas/Fernandez get snazzier, more colorful costumes as Captain & Ms America. The plain black unitards with little gold letters won’t cut it; this isn’t a test skate. Red, White & Blue, please!

https://twitter.com/BRMarvelNews/status/1349905121443016706

 

[Wyliefan]

Plazas is portraying Black Widow, I heard.

 

[ice coverage]

FWIW: "Ellie Kam & Danny OShea" are on the skater list for Broadmoor Skating Club's Fire and Ice exhibition on Sep 23.

Fire and Ice – Broadmoor Skating Club

broadmoorskatingclub.com

 

[kirkbiggestfan]

Ellie competed with Ian Meyh at the cup of Colorado... just 6 weeks ago.

 

[Karen-W]

Ellie competed with Ian Meyh at the cup of Colorado... just 6 weeks ago.

Doesn't mean that they couldn't have decided to part ways...

 

[TanithandBenFan]

Alexa and Chris were on David Santee's podcast. Chris announced he's the new skating director at Oakton Ice Arena in Illinois. Wonder if this means Alexa might retire after this season.

90. Alexa and Christopher Knierim

Listen to this episode from Santee on Skates on Spotify. Alexa & Christopher Knierim are American former pair skaters. They are 2018 Olympic bronze medalists in the figure skating team event, two-time Four Continents medalists (2016 silver, 2014 bronze), three-time Grand Prix medalists, and...

open.spotify.com

 

[Sylvia]

Alexa and Chris were on David Santee's podcast. Chris announced he's the new skating director at Oakton Ice Arena in Illinois. Wonder if this means Alexa might retire after this season.

Great for Chris! It seems logical that Alexa will be returning to her hometown of Chicago after she finishes competing.

The following article is from the October 2022 issue of SKATING magazine:

‘A Great Opportunity’ - U.S. Figure Skating Fan Zone

Fresh off an historic Olympic season and hectic offseason, World pairs champions Alexa Knierim and Brandon Frazier are getting dialed in for the start of the 28th

usfigureskatingfanzone.com

 

[skatfan]

Alexa and Chris were on David Santee's podcast. Chris announced he's the new skating director at Oakton Ice Arena in Illinois. Wonder if this means Alexa might retire after this season.

90. Alexa and Christopher Knierim

Listen to this episode from Santee on Skates on Spotify. Alexa & Christopher Knierim are American former pair skaters. They are 2018 Olympic bronze medalists in the figure skating team event, two-time Four Continents medalists (2016 silver, 2014 bronze), three-time Grand Prix medalists, and...

open.spotify.com

Sounds like it. She’s accomplished pretty much everything she set out to do and if they want children this is the time.

I’m more surprised that he’s taken a bigger job in skating. Had hoped he’d pursue his interest in cars.

 

[Karen-W]

Alexa and Chris were on David Santee's podcast. Chris announced he's the new skating director at Oakton Ice Arena in Illinois. Wonder if this means Alexa might retire after this season.

90. Alexa and Christopher Knierim

Listen to this episode from Santee on Skates on Spotify. Alexa & Christopher Knierim are American former pair skaters. They are 2018 Olympic bronze medalists in the figure skating team event, two-time Four Continents medalists (2016 silver, 2014 bronze), three-time Grand Prix medalists, and...

open.spotify.com

Possibly. Or Brandon might relocate also if they want to continue competing. Guess we'll find out when we find out.

 

[happycamper2554]

Possibly. Or Brandon might relocate also if they want to continue competing. Guess we'll find out when we find out.

Brandon lives in the Chicago area when he and haven trained there. So I think it could be a possibility.

 

[Karen-W]

Brandon lives in the Chicago area when he and haven trained there. So I think it could be a possibility.

I also think, at some point, they might not need as much one-on-one, day-to-day coaching from Todd & Jenni. Chris is coming into his own as a coach, plus Rockne Brubaker is still in the Chicago area. They have options if they want to continue competing.

 

[Lacey]

Love the idea of Rockne Brubaker coaching any of them or others, he's a fabulous skater, pairs skater!

 

[Sylvia]

Smith/Deng's ISU personal best scores are all from Ostrava (140.72 / 54.39 / 86.33); nevertheless, CONGRATS to them on being the first unofficial qualifiers for the JGP Final in Torino!!

As expected at last week's Baltic Cup in Gdansk, Sonia Baram/Daniel Tioumentsev also have qualified for the JGP Final despite having issues in both programs. They received only base level for a lift that went awry in the SP; in the FS, he fell after slipping off his 3S landing edge while she did the planned 3S+2A seq., she fell on the throw triple loop which is a new element for them this season, and then their sbs 3T, landed out of unison, got a 'q' call.
On a positive note, their 171.36 from winning the gold in Ostrava is the highest total score of all the pairs that competed in the series.

Final standings of the 6 pairs that qualified for the Final:
2 Cayla SMITH / Andy DENG USA 13 (140.72) + 15 (137.23) = 28 (277.95) - 4th highest total combined score
3 Sophia BARAM / Daniel TIOUMENTSEV USA 15 (171.36) + 11 (152.49) = 26 (323.85) - 2nd highest total combined score

 

[Sylvia]

July 23:

Emily Chan/Spencer Howe scored 59.19 in their first outing of their SP yesterday at Skate Detroit and I'm thrilled that they brought back & adapted their 2019-20 debut season FS music to the lovely "Je crois entendre encore" (violin version) from Bizet's The Pearl Fishers! (I never got to see the program in person at 2020 Nationals because they WD.)

Starting at 8:40 in this new podcast interview, Spencer & Emily talked about how their SP music this season changed from a pop song to their first season's music from The Pearl Fishers to returning to "Nyah":
GOEing into Detail with Emily Chan and Spencer Howe uploaded October 16, 2022 on Anything GOEs' YT channel (28 mins.): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8yVifvp2Xo

Anna talked to American pairs team Emily Chan and Spencer Howe about their partnership, injuries, and what to do in Boston!

Chan/Howe's Grand Prix debut will be at Skate Canada International (#2) and NHK Trophy (#5) will be their second GP.

 

[clairecloutier]

A short interview with U.S. pairs coach Jim Peterson:

Coach Spotlight: Jim Peterson

Jim Peterson is a familiar face to U.S. pairs skating fans. He’s been a leading coach in the discipline for many years now. At his former base in Ellenton, Florida, Peterson worked with a number of…

adivinesport.com

 

[Sylvia]

Re-posting from the Grand Prix Assignments thread - siblings Maria Mokhova/Ivan Mokhov (this is the first year she is old enough for senior internationals) are late replacements today at Skate America for Smirnova/Siianytsia:

They [S/S] were assigned to GP Espoo when the assignments first came out. Presuming they are healthy in another 6 week, then they will certainly make it to that event. The bigger problem is that now, due to their withdrawal from SkAm, they are back to having only 2 international assignments and don't have a bye to Nats. Additionally, they didn't compete in any of the NQS events this summer, so I'm not sure what the USFS will do on that front, but that's a discussion for the US Pairs thread.

The Mokhovs placed even lower than S/S at Finlandia a couple weeks ago. Additionally. S/S withdrew from Nebelhorn because of a minor injury they were recuperating from, so my guess is the injury has flared up again.

It's a great opportunity for the Mokhovs, and I'm very happy for them. Hopefully, they will be able to bounce back from a disappointing Finlandia competition. Additionally, this earns them a bye to Nats (US Classic, Finlandia, SkAm).

 

[Karen-W]

Another situation where the USFS might have to play a bit fast and loose with its NQS document to get Smirnova/Siianytsia to Nationals, presuming they're healthy. Either they'll edit their doc to include the last 2 Challengers (Warsaw Cup & Golden Spin) and then assign SmirSiia to one of those; or perhaps they'll use the Finlandia score to "qualify" them for the Pairs Final in three weeks and have them skate there to officially qualify for Nats.

My bet would be on them adding Warsaw Cup & Golden Spin to the list of international comps that qualify for bye purposes, especially since there is a similar issue on the Women's side with Bradie not currently qualifying for a bye. If she doesn't make the GPF then she'd need a 3rd qualifying assignment - it would be a lot easier to assign her to Golden Spin than to retroactively pretend that Trophee Metropole Nice Cote d'Azur meets any part of the criteria.

 

[Sylvia]

Phil Hersh's article on Knierim/Frazier:

For Alexa Knierim, Brandon Frazier, a world pairs' title is reason to skate on

Alexa Knierim and Brandon Frazier, who became the first U.S. figure skaters to win a world pairs' title since 1979, are back and headline Skate America.

olympics.nbcsports.com

Or should they keep competing to see how much more they could do, both in terms of tangible results and the intangible quality that makes a pair more than two individuals skating together?
When Knierim, 31, and Frazier, 29, sat down in early July to discuss those questions, after two months with Stars on Ice in Japan and the United States, their tour skating would play a significant part in the answers.
“It made sense on our timeline to move on,” Knierim said. “We had done everything we could in two years.
“Yet it felt like it could be sad or disappointing to end a really talented career together so soon. Being on tour had opened our eyes to how in synch and unified we were on the ice. So there was a little bit of curiosity, a feeling of ‘What else are we capable of?’”

How hard is it to skate two clean pairs programs in a global championship? According to skatingscores.com, in the 22 world and Olympic events under the scoring system first used at those events in 2005, only 15 of the 66 medalists and eight of the champions have had no negative GOEs. [...]
When Knierim saw two-time Olympian David Santee after the Olympics, he congratulated her for winning the world title “the way you did it, with two fantastic programs, being able to have your best skating with your highest achievement.”
“People can say, ‘This one wasn’t there, that one wasn’t there,'” Knierim said. “That didn’t stop the feeling of genuine gratification that we did it.’’

 

[Wyliefan]

On Ice Perspectives has a clip of Knierim/Frazier's new SP to "Separate Ways" from the soundtrack of 'Stranger Things" season 4.

On Ice Perspectives ❄️🎥 on Instagram: "It’s Time… 🕰 ⛸ Alexa Knierim & Brandon Frazier 🇺🇸 #alexaknierim #brandonfrazier #pairskating #iceskating #figureskating #strangerthings"

10K likes, 98 comments - oniceperspectives on October 17, 2022: "It’s Time… 🕰 ⛸ Alexa Knierim & Brandon Frazier 🇺🇸 #alexaknierim #brandonfrazier #..."

www.instagram.com

 

[Sylvia]

On Ice Perspectives has a clip of Knierim/Frazier's new SP to "Separate Ways" from the soundtrack of 'Stranger Things" season 4.

Same very short teaser clip (from the beginning of the program) also is on YT: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/T6hat2cTBe0

 

[AngieNikodinovLove]

Same very short teaser clip (from the beginning of the program) also is on YT: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/T6hat2cTBe0

Oh my goodness, she looks like Lynn Holly Johnson from ice castles

 

[ice coverage]

Another situation where the USFS might have to play a bit fast and loose with its NQS document to get Smirnova/Siianytsia to Nationals, presuming they're healthy. Either they'll edit their doc to include the last 2 Challengers (Warsaw Cup & Golden Spin) and then assign SmirSiia to one of those; or perhaps they'll use the Finlandia score to "qualify" them for the Pairs Final in three weeks and have them skate there to officially qualify for Nats. ...

FWIW, Smirnova/Siianytsia absolutely have an official bye to U.S. Pairs Final -- no bending of rules necessary.

ADVANCEMENT TO SECTIONAL SINGLES FINAL, U.S. PAIRS FINAL AND/OR U.S. ICE DANCE FINAL
For junior and senior events: Any member of the U.S. Figure Skating Team, defined in rule ICR 3.05, who has
been assigned to and competes at an international assignment classified as an ISU Grand Prix, ISU Junior
Grand Prix and or ISU Challenger Series event.
• Refer to the approved list of international competitions within this document

https://www.usfigureskating.org/sites/default/files/media-files/2023QualifyingByeAdvancementCriteria.pdf

Sorry that S/S had to withdraw from Skate America.

 

[Karen-W]

FWIW, Smirnova/Siianytsia absolutely have an official bye to U.S. Pairs Final -- no bending of rules necessary.

ADVANCEMENT TO SECTIONAL SINGLES FINAL, U.S. PAIRS FINAL AND/OR U.S. ICE DANCE FINAL​

For junior and senior events: Any member of the U.S. Figure Skating Team, defined in rule ICR 3.05, who has​

been assigned to and competes at an international assignment classified as an ISU Grand Prix, ISU Junior​

Grand Prix and or ISU Challenger Series event.​

• Refer to the approved list of international competitions within this document​

​

https://www.usfigureskating.org/sites/default/files/media-files/2023QualifyingByeAdvancementCriteria.pdf

Sorry that S/S had to withdraw from Skate America.

Oh, good! Glad to see that they at least have a bye to the Pairs Final! Hopefully they can compete there and, easily, qualify for Nationals.

 

[Sylvia]

It appears the partnership of Hazel Collier (who has qualified for next month's Eastern Sectional Singles Final in junior) and Misha Mitrofanov did not work out - SCoB shared this clip of Mitrofanov praticing a lift with Brooke Barrett (8th in Junior Pairs at 2022 Nationals with Levon Davis): https://www.instagram.com/reel/Cj3j_ISAMPb/

 

[Karen-W]

Cross-posting from the GP assignments thread...

And the USFS Int'l Assignments page shows McBeath/Bartholomay as withdrawn from SCI next week as of today...

2022-23 International Assignments and Results

2022-23 International Assignments and Results

usfigureskatingfanzone.com

Crossing my fingers that they'll be replaced by either of our two pairs teams based in Michigan - Plazas/Fernandez and the Mokhovs.

On the plus side, McBeath/Bartholomay do have a bye to Nationals by virtue of their 5th place finish at Nationals last year, but I am worried that we won't see them compete before then. Their 2nd GP assignment is MKJW in 3 weeks.

 

[Sylvia]

Smirnova/Siianytsia's Instagram story message: "We are really disappointed to miss our first Grand Prix especially since it is here in the U.S. Good Luck to Everyone @ SKATE AMERICA"

Fingers crossed for them and for McBeath/Bartholomay that both teams will be able to compete in their 2nd Grand Prix assignment (and first-ever GP for Katie).

ETA that Nate B. doesn't post much on social media - his latest clip back in early October shows the Meno/Sand group on the ice/by the boards, watching Baram/Tioumentsev competing in their 2nd JGP in Gdansk: https://www.instagram.com/reel/CjYKwiWsz7l/

 

[haribobo]

Knierim/Frazier up to 1st (from 4th I think) in ISU World Standings. Mokhova/Mokhov up to 34th (from about 51st) and Plazas/Fernandez up to 35th (from around 49th).

 

[AngieNikodinovLove]

Question the short program costumes for Alexa and Brandon are not my favorite. Hers is better than his. His looks like blood vessels. But in the comments on YouTube someone explain that they are referencing Stranger Things with their costumes? I don’t watch that show, I was just wondering what that’s about