2024-25 US Pairs Discussion - Triple-Twisting Through Tornado Alley

[Tinycities]

Oh I’m just saying it doesn’t particularly bother me either way. If it’s for love or otherwise, their choice. They’re both consenting adults well into their 20s. The WASA ones were significantly more questionable due to a multiple of reasons.

 

[Theatregirl1122]

I've said that a secret marriage would be the most hilarious outcome and I stand by this statement, HOWEVER if this turns out to be the case again, I really do think USFS needs to say something at this point even if it's just "we don't meddle in the private lives of our skaters" because let's be real here, this is happening so much at this point.

I really don't think saying that would help much. Also, green card marriages are a tail as old as time. I don't think being secret married would be a good way to pass your immigration interview, NGL. We have some posters with experience with that who might be able to say.

What USFSA should be opposing is the marriage of anyone under 18, even if it is technically legal, or coercion of any kind.

 

[Karen-W]

So, if it does turn out to be true that they're married, I'm not sure it's fair to call it a "secret" marriage. It may be that everyone at SCoB and their family knows about it and have known about it the entire time. The fact that they didn't share the information with the general public doesn't make it a "secret" - it just means they're choosing to keep their personal life separate from their skating life. As others have noted, neither Alisa nor Misha are particularly active on social media with their lives - they're under no obligation to tell us what they're doing off the ice.

ETA - now that I think about it, Misha has gone over to Finland since they partnered up and posted about the trip on his IG. I thought it was merely for training, but perhaps there was another reason.

 

[farahfan]

So, if it does turn out to be true that they're married, I'm not sure it's fair to call it a "secret" marriage. It may be that everyone at SCoB and their family knows about it and have known about it the entire time. The fact that they didn't share the information with the general public doesn't make it a "secret" - it just means they're choosing to keep their personal life separate from their skating life. As others have noted, neither Alisa nor Misha are particularly active on social media with their lives - they're under no obligation to tell us what they're doing off the ice.

ETA - now that I think about it, Misha has gone over to Finland since they partnered up and posted about the trip on his IG. I thought it was merely for training, but perhaps there was another reason.

I was watching the US pairs and ice dance competitions with two friends who are brand new to figure skating (yay! new fans), and it's funny, the one question they had was, "How many of these pairs are couples in real life?" I gotta say, my answer was very fumbled...

 

[Rukia]

So, if it does turn out to be true that they're married, I'm not sure it's fair to call it a "secret" marriage. It may be that everyone at SCoB and their family knows about it and have known about it the entire time. The fact that they didn't share the information with the general public doesn't make it a "secret" - it just means they're choosing to keep their personal life separate from their skating life. As others have noted, neither Alisa nor Misha are particularly active on social media with their lives - they're under no obligation to tell us what they're doing off the ice.

ETA - now that I think about it, Misha has gone over to Finland since they partnered up and posted about the trip on his IG. I thought it was merely for training, but perhaps there was another reason.

its' funnier if it's secret though let me have my fun

 

[Trillian]

So, circling back to Efimova's citizenship status - someone over at GoldenSkate is claiming she & Misha are indeed married. Nothing to back it up and, as others have pointed out, still doesn't seem like she'd get her passport in time for the Olympics.

Honestly, I know all the references are to 2026, but the marriage thing makes some sense if 2030 is the goal. If she came to the U.S. in 2023 without having started the process at all, 2030 might be iffy (though not impossible)…unless there’s something to speed up the timeline. If they’re married and nothing else slows the process down, 2030 goes from cutting it close to very do-able.

Regardless of the nature of their relationship, it’s totally possible that they live together. I’m pretty sure Jimmy Ma has referred to both of them as his roommates.

If they did get married for citizenship reasons, I would consider it a totally different situation than the CO dance teams - we’re not talking child brides and obviously questionable power differentials here. It’s whatever, as far as I’m concerned. But not a great look for USFS if the media latches onto the story. So if anyone at a high level is encouraging this as a regular thing, they should probably…not. For the optics, if nothing else.

 

[kwanfan1818]

If they got married in 2023 -- or even up to the recent revelations -- would they even have known about the dance marriages?

 

[PRlady]

So, if it does turn out to be true that they're married, I'm not sure it's fair to call it a "secret" marriage. It may be that everyone at SCoB and their family knows about it and have known about it the entire time. The fact that they didn't share the information with the general public doesn't make it a "secret" - it just means they're choosing to keep their personal life separate from their skating life. As others have noted, neither Alisa nor Misha are particularly active on social media with their lives - they're under no obligation to tell us what they're doing off the ice.

ETA - now that I think about it, Misha has gone over to Finland since they partnered up and posted about the trip on his IG. I thought it was merely for training, but perhaps there was another reason.

The immigration interviewer is going to ask him what Alisa’s mom likes to cook. I’m not kidding. In our case mom in law had already had dementia a while but DH said, she used to cook a good brisket.

 

[overedge]

Too bad they can't work out whatever problems they have like Hubbell & Donohue did.

I hear you, but at the same time, the problems might be too difficult to overcome. And there's not a lot of options for other partners at that level of competition, so they may be skating together while trying to get along as best as they can.

 

[Amy L]

I hear you, but at the same time, the problems might be too difficult to overcome. And there's not a lot of options for other partners at that level of competition, so they may be skating together while trying to get along as best as they can.

Tarasova&Morozov were like that. They dated for several years and even though they never got married officially Trankov described them as fighting like divorcees. They stayed together on the ice since they were considered "big/tall" and knew it'd be slim pickings even though they clearly didn't have a good rapport. Evgenia ended up with Klimov and he was a relative shortie so that wouldn't have worked on the ice.

 

[kwanfan1818]

I lived with someone for three years in the same town with his parents. We were over there at least once/month for lunch or dinner, and it's not that his mother was a bad cook, but not the OMG-her-chicken soup/lasagna/baba ganoush/fesenjan/fried chicken-was-amazeballs, and it would have been hard for me back then to describe what she cooked. I was more focused on the great stories his father used to tell about academia and the nice conversations we all had.

 

[MacMadame]

Am I the only one who finds all this talk of them maybe being married when there isn't a single indication of that a bit creepy?

ETA I consider the "news" from GS to be the same as us joking about it in the PBP.

 

[Wyliefan]

her-chicken soup/lasagna/baba ganoush/fesenjan/fried chicken

That would be one heck of a dish.

 

[myhoneyhoney]

WAIT… who is Chan’s bf???

 

[danafan]

WAIT… who is Chan’s bf???

Aleksandr Selevko

 

[farahfan]

Random pair question: is there a reason why Mitrofanov and McBeath didn’t pair up? They were both looking for partners at the same time and McBeath is the same size as Efimova. I know there’s a lot that goes into making a partnership, just wondering if it’s known whether they had a tryout or something.

 

[Karen-W]

Random pair question: is there a reason why Mitrofanov and McBeath didn’t pair up? They were both looking for partners at the same time and McBeath is the same size as Efimova. I know there’s a lot that goes into making a partnership, just wondering if it’s known whether they had a tryout or something.

Well, I'd presume that neither was interested in a cross-country move.

 

[BrightSkates]

Ugh please tell me that all of the Pairs FS (*at least) will be uploaded somehow because I wanted to replay the FS and it's already gone

The FS was Saturday & it's barely Tuesday I hate peacock

 

[MacMadame]

Ugh please tell me that all of the Pairs FS (*at least) will be uploaded somehow

That never happens.

 

[A.H.Black]

Ugh please tell me that all of the Pairs FS (*at least) will be uploaded somehow because I wanted to replay the FS and it's already gone

The FS was Saturday & it's barely Tuesday I hate peacock

The USFS youtube channel may have them available next year just before Nationals. This year they had 2024 available for a week before Nationals started - the downside being they deleted the music audio for most of the performances (if not all) because of the music copyright issues, I suppose.

Peacock has been taking down the videos after 2 days for since last year at this time. Sorry you didn't see that.

Finally, if you recorded the TV broadcasts on a dvr (or know someone who did), you will be able to see them.

 

[BrightSkates]

The USFS youtube channel may have them available next year just before Nationals. This year they had 2024 available for a week before Nationals started - the downside being they deleted the music audio for most of the performances (if not all) because of the music copyright issues, I suppose.

Peacock has been taking down the videos after 2 days for since last year at this time. Sorry you didn't see that.

Finally, if you recorded the TV broadcasts on a dvr (or know someone who did), you will be able to see them.

I saw someone write on FSU that we had 78 hours but it was wrong haha. I genuinely hate that they take them down- what is the point in that?

 

[maureenfarone]

I saw someone write on FSU that we had 78 hours but it was wrong haha. I genuinely hate that they take them down- what is the point in that?

USFS said the videos would be up for 72 hours after the end of the competition which is the same thing they said last year. Unfortunately I found that most were gone at about 56 hours....same as last year.

 

[Carolla5501]

Peacock and United States figure skating apparently think there’s some kind of 48 hour free copyright exception that no one knows about but them. After 48 hours they get in copyright trouble.


BS they have to pay the copyright fees either way they just don’t want to deal with the tracking etc. after 48 hours

 

[Private Citizen]

Am I the only one who finds all this talk of them maybe being married when there isn't a single indication of that a bit creepy?

I don't find it creepy. Their evasive answers and weird body language when asked about citizenship gave an indication that something was up, and marriage is just about the only possible explanation as to why they could think the answer could be anything other than a definitive "no chance." You don't have to be a PR expert or a trial attorney to know that something was left unsaid in that press conference. My suspicions were raised instantly.

Green card marriages are nothing unusual, in skating or otherwise. And they're both adults, well past the age where people commonly get married.

ETA I consider the "news" from GS to be the same as us joking about it in the PBP.

The news came from a person who has been on Golden Skate for 14 years saying that a reliable source informed her that they got married. I think that's quite different than a joke, but YMMV.

 

[caseyedwards]

If they aren’t romantically involved a marriage for citizenship only should mean immediate deportation for her today. It is illegal

 

[PRlady]

If they aren’t romantically involved a marriage for citizenship only should mean immediate deportation for her today. It is illegal

Tell it to Melania.

 

[MacMadame]

The news came from a person who has been on Golden Skate for 14 years saying that a reliable source informed her that they got married. I think that's quite different than a joke, but YMMV.

Guess I need to keep up. I never go to GS and the last I heard, it was all a joke in the PBP threads.

 

[caseyedwards]

Tell it to Melania.

The only person Democrats want to enforce immigration laws against

 

[Karen-W]

Tell it to Melania.

You know, I said this earlier with regard to Alisa & Misha being rather circumspect in their general demeanor, and I'll stand by that with regard to the First Lady. We've talked about this with regard to Melissa Gregory & Denis Petukhov - how no one expected that marriage to last and here we are, twenty years on and they're quite good and solid in their marriage - which happens to be how long Melania & Donald have been married. We're not inside these relationships and it's a little distasteful to speculate on whether or not they are romantic - which is, I think, sort of what @MacMadame is driving at when asking if all of the speculation/discussion is a little creepy (feel free to correct me if I'm misinterpreting ).

What we do know is that, at least as far as the skating partnership is concerned, they connected immediately and within three days knew that they were a match. Who is to say that they didn't feel a similar personal connection? We simply don't know - and we don't even know if they are married - we just have some people online who are saying that's the case. And, if that turns out to be true... I'm kind of two minds on the subject.

How would the public have received the news of them being married? Just the way we are right now. There's no way the public wouldn't be cynically questioning the nature of their relationship, etc. And that's fair since it IS against the law if they got married for the sole purpose of expediting her citizenship application. By the same token, it really isn't any of OUR business, as fans, why they got married. If INS deems it suspect, well, she'll be waiting well beyond next December for her US passport.

For some reason, I feel like there's a double standard that fans are applying to would-be American skaters that isn't applied to teams from other countries - were there pages of discussion about Misato Komatsubara & Tim Koleto's marriage and the true purpose of it? Because, it certainly seems clear, looking back in the rearview mirror post-Komatsubara retirement, that their marriage was a business proposition & there was nothing romantic about it at all - and I'm pretty sure Japan has even stricter requirements and frowns on citizenship marriages at least as much as the US does.

 

[BittyBug]

...were there pages of discussion about Misato Komatsubara & Tim Koleto's marriage and the true purpose of it? Because, it certainly seems clear, looking back in the rearview mirror post-Komatsubara retirement, that their marriage was a business proposition & there was nothing romantic about it at all - and I'm pretty sure Japan has even stricter requirements and frowns on citizenship marriages at least as much as the US does.

Totally OT, but have they split?