2024-25 USFS International Assignments

[marshallpond]

Just fyi, Chinese visas are not as hard as people are making them out to be. They take 3-4 business days and there’s a rush one day service at embassies. The visas are good for 10 years even if you change passports. The USFS would’ve been able to make the switch for any skater who had been to China in the previous 10 years or who was able to get to an embassy on Monday.

Anyway: I hope this doesn’t put too much pressure on von Felten.

Normally JGP skaters travel on Monday, arrive at hotel/register to the event on Tuesday, practice on Wednesday and start to compete Thursday/Friday/Saturday, and depart early Sunday

With Joline having a Swiss visa, it means she can follow this sched and not lose out even a day waiting for the visa. Hoping she’d bring in the same magic as she did in Slovenia!

 

[Stephanie]

I noticed that all the names for Tayside Trophy that were listed on the USFS International Assignments page are gone...!? In the meantime Mia's name is still listed for Wuxi, China.

2024-25 International Assignments and Results

2024-25 International Assignments and Results

usfigureskatingfanzone.com

I think they are working on the updates, but why they removed all the names?　A mistake？

For whatever reason, the Tayside assignments were never on the USFS website.

 

[SkateFanBerlin]

I think she’s currently in Switzerland as she was supposed to fly to Scotland from Switzerland. She never flew back to the US

Still it`s a 6 hr time difference. And, maybe a grueling set of connections between Switzerland and Wuxi.

 

[tony]

Still it`s a 6 hr time difference. And, maybe a grueling set of connections between Switzerland and Wuxi.

She's young and she's probably thrilled about the sudden opportunity. If people on FSU want to write dissertations about how she skates after the fact, then that's on them. Regardless of the result, it's the last JGP and the only option.

 

[Stephanie]

Still it`s a 6 hr time difference. And, maybe a grueling set of connections between Switzerland and Wuxi.

If she's in Switzerland, there's a nonstop from Zurich to Shanghai, which is one of the proposed arrival airports listed in the Wuxi announcement: https://isu.org/docman-documents-li...ments-165/34056-jgp-chn2024-announcement/file

ETA: the other US skaters will be dealing with an at least 12 hour time difference (Mia would have been 15)

 

[YukiNieve]

OK, then I got confused with something else.

 

[Karen-W]

I noticed that all the names for Tayside Trophy that were listed on the USFS International Assignments page are gone...!? In the meantime Mia's name is still listed for Wuxi, China.

2024-25 International Assignments and Results

2024-25 International Assignments and Results

usfigureskatingfanzone.com

I think they are working on the updates, but why they removed all the names?　A mistake？

The Swiss passport seems critical, as they wouldn't have been able to do the uber duper last minute switcheroo for a US passport holder.

Have they ever put the names of those doing Tayside? I don’t recall seeing them.

For whatever reason, they Tayside assignments were never on the USFS website.

Correct - the Tayside Trophy assignments have never been listed. We only know them because Tayside Trophy organizers have them available on their Sportity account.

Still it`s a 6 hr time difference. And, maybe a grueling set of connections between Switzerland and Wuxi.

If she's in Switzerland, there's a nonstop from Zurich to Shanghai, which is one of the proposed arrival airports listed in the Wuxi announcement: https://isu.org/docman-documents-li...ments-165/34056-jgp-chn2024-announcement/file

Ehhhh, that non-stop from Zurich to Shanghai is about $3800.

According to Google Flights, the bet is British Airways that is about $1300 and that goes from Zurich to Heathrow with a 3hr 40 min layover, then Heathrow to Shanghai. It's a long trip no matter what but, that's the fastest/cheapest option available on short notice. The train ride from Shanghai to Wuxi is about 2 hours.

 

[Private Citizen]

Still it`s a 6 hr time difference. And, maybe a grueling set of connections between Switzerland and Wuxi.

There are direct flights from Zurich to Shanghai on Swiss.

 

[Karen-W]

There are direct flights from Zurich to Shanghai on Swiss.

And they are also 3x the cost of getting one with a layover at Heathrow on British Airways. The USFS isn't so flush with cash that they're going to pick the direct flight that costs nearly $4k over the one with one fairly short layover at Heathrow.

 

[Private Citizen]

And they are also 3x the cost of getting one with a layover at Heathrow on British Airways. The USFS isn't so flush with cash that they're going to pick the direct flight that costs nearly $4k over the one with one fairly short layover at Heathrow.

The fare in this case could vary a lot -- e.g., are they booking a Zurich to Shanghai one-way, a round-trip (and then changing her original flight back to Boston?), or are they booking a Zurich to Shanghai to Boston multi-city trip?

In any case, skaters have the option to pay the difference. I believe the USFS also has a certain amount of certificates for free travel on United, a sponsor, which is in the same alliance as Swiss. Not sure if they could use one of those?

In this case, I would actually pay for the direct flight, given two back-to-back competitions and having to get from Shanghai to Wuxi. Unless they're getting her on a flight today, she's going to lose all of Monday and Tuesday to travel if she takes the flight with a connection. With the direct flight, she'll be in Wuxi late morning on Tuesday.

ETA: Ljubljana airport has decent connections, and it may make more sense to fly directly from there if they can find something cost-effective. Maybe they even got her out today.

 

[marshallpond]

The USFS isn't so flush with cash that they're going to pick the direct flight that costs nearly $4k over the one with one fairly short layover at Heathrow.

So true. I remember when the ice dance alternate 1 were asked to compete in Gdansk last year in a fairly short period of time that USFS was giving the team airfare tickets with something ridiculous as 5 layovers or something just to get tickets the same price as they purchased for the rest of the team a month or so before. The family of the team shouldered the extra cost that USFS is not willing to pay to get the team fly to Warsaw and take the bus from there. USFS has a strict budget and will allow the skater the faster/more expensive route if the skater agrees to shoulder the price difference.

 

[Karen-W]

The fare in this case could vary a lot -- e.g., are they booking a Zurich to Shanghai one-way, a round-trip (and then changing her original flight back to Boston?), or are they booking a Zurich to Shanghai to Boston multi-city trip?

In any case, skaters have the option to pay the difference. I believe the USFS also has a certain amount of certificates for free travel on United, a sponsor, which is in the same alliance as Swiss. Not sure if they could use one of those for these?

In this case, I would actually pay for the direct flight, given two back-to-back competitions and having to get from Shanghai to Wuxi. Unless they're getting her on a flight today, she's going to lose all of Monday and Tuesday to travel if she takes the flight with a connection. With the direct flight, she'll be in Wuxi late morning on Tuesday.

Well, we are also presuming they're looking at flight options from Zurich. While I'm sure the plan was to have her go from Ljubljana to Zurich this week between the JGP and Tayside she was still in Ljubljana as of 12 hrs ago. Best guess, travel day to Zurich is supposed to be today. Probably now they'll do one night in Zurich and get a flight to Shanghai on Monday.

You do make some good points about the sense of going with the direct flight v. one with a layover - and I hadn't realized that Swiss & United are in the same alliance - that could be a positive factor as well.

However she gets there, I'm really impressed with the USFS for pulling the trigger and making the switch. I honestly didn't think they'd do it since they don't usually make those switches for JGP assignments once a skater is listed and they haven't notated "placeholder" behind their name.

 

[Private Citizen]

So true. I remember when the ice dance alternate 1 were asked to compete in Gdansk last year in a fairly short period of time that USFS was giving the team airfare tickets with something ridiculous as 5 layovers or something just to get tickets the same price as they purchased for the rest of the team a month or so before. The family of the team shouldered the extra cost that USFS is not willing to pay to get the team fly to Warsaw and take the bus from there. USFS has a strict budget and will allow the skater the faster/more expensive route if the skater agrees to shoulder the price difference.

That's terrible. I do feel like there should be a limit -- like not forcing skaters to do more than two additional layovers or spend more than 10 additional hours in transit v. the quickest route. Skates still have to go in checked luggage, correct? Five connections is asking for trouble.

 

[Karen-W]

Normally JGP skaters travel on Monday, arrive at hotel/register to the event on Tuesday, practice on Wednesday and start to compete Thursday/Friday/Saturday, and depart early Sunday

With Joline having a Swiss visa, it means she can follow this sched and not lose out even a day waiting for the visa. Hoping she’d bring in the same magic as she did in Slovenia!

Just looking at the JGP Wuxi colored time schedule and the Women's SP is on Friday morning with the FS scheduled as the last event on Saturday, so the competition schedule also works in her favor as far as dealing with the travel challenges.

 

[jlai]

Honestly the cheapest way to send skaters to competition is to not switch them out last minute, but then switching improves the odds of medaling or making jgpf.
I think it is a matter of which is more important. Saving money so you have more $$ for your program in other expenses? Or jgp success?
I don't have preference one way or the other. But I have to think these late switches can only be afforded by large feds with $$$

 

[her grace]

Honestly the cheapest way to send skaters to competition is to not switch them out last minute, but then switching improves the odds of medaling or making jgpf.
I think it is a matter of which is more important. Saving money so you have more $$ for your program in other expenses? Or jgp success?
I don't have preference one way or the other. But I have to think these late switches can only be afforded by large feds with $$$

Hardly any feds made switches this season even when it would have been advantageous to their JGPF chances. It seems that even the large feds have decided that the JGP results are not worth that kind of investment.

 

[Karen-W]

Honestly the cheapest way to send skaters to competition is to not switch them out last minute, but then switching improves the odds of medaling or making jgpf.
I think it is a matter of which is more important. Saving money so you have more $$ for your program in other expenses? Or jgp success?
I don't have preference one way or the other. But I have to think these late switches can only be afforded by large feds with $$$

Very few feds have the, enviable, problem of having JGP spots across all 7 events or even 5-6 events where a circumstance like this one with Sophie may arise.

And then there's the KSF that will not deviate from their ranking competition results and give a skater who medals at an earlier JGP a 2nd one if they didn't earn it at their ranking competition, lol...

 

[Karen-W]

Hardly any feds made switches this season even when it would have been advantageous to their JGPF chances. It seems that even the large feds have decided that the JGP results are not worth that kind of investment.

Hmmmmm... I'm not sure there were many situations, apart from ice dance, where even the large feds could have made switches that would have been advantageous for JGPF chances. Even the ones that, on paper, seemed like a switch would be advantageous, didn't really matter or, in the end, negatively affect the skaters/teams in question.

Flores/Wang - 3rd at Latvia; could have switched them out for the smaller/weaker Czechia field, USFS held firm and kept them assigned to Turkiye where they finished 2nd and that's all they needed to secure their JGPF spot.

Grimm/Savitskiy - 3rd at Latvia; could have switched them out for smaller/weaker fields at Czechia or China, German fed held firm and kept them assigned to Turkiye where they won and secured their JGPF spot.

Pidgaina/Koval - 2nd at Turkiye; could have switched them out and had them compete back-to-back in Poland the following week with the MUCH weaker field, Ukrainian fed held firm & kept them assigned to the deep Slovenai field where they won & secured their JGPF spot.

Fradji/Forneaux - same as PidKov - 1st at Czechia; could have switched them out for either Poland or China, FFSG held firm knowing a 3rd place in Slovenia was all they needed to guarantee their JGPF spot, which they got with their 2nd place.

USFS - probably screwed the Mullens with the Slovenia assignment - but I'm guessing the USFS felt like the Mullens were competitive with both PidKov & FraForn and could very well come out on top; unfortunately, they skated a bit tight in the RD and were just far enough back to need big mistakes in order to pull up, which didn't happen.

None of the men's fields were necessarily uneven as we've neared the end - maybe the JSF could have switched Nakata and Kakiuchi, or the KSF could have switched Choi & Lee, but... Ehhhhh...

 

[jlai]

I think Russia is not in the picture. They would be the ones who can switch more easily since the comps are in Europe. Currently the larger feds that are winning are not in Europe, so, yeah, pretty expensive, and I would personally make better choices at the beginning and hope for the best, if I were a federation

 

[Stephanie]

Hmmmmm... I'm not sure there were many situations, apart from ice dance, where even the large feds could have made switches that would have been advantageous for JGPF chances. Even the ones that, on paper, seemed like a switch would be advantageous, didn't really matter or, in the end, negatively affect the skaters/teams in question.

Flores/Wang - 3rd at Latvia; could have switched them out for the smaller/weaker Czechia field, USFS held firm and kept them assigned to Turkiye where they finished 2nd and that's all they needed to secure their JGPF spot.

Grimm/Savitskiy - 3rd at Latvia; could have switched them out for smaller/weaker fields at Czechia or China, German fed held firm and kept them assigned to Turkiye where they won and secured their JGPF spot.

Pidgaina/Koval - 2nd at Turkiye; could have switched them out and had them compete back-to-back in Poland the following week with the MUCH weaker field, Ukrainian fed held firm & kept them assigned to the deep Slovenai field where they won & secured their JGPF spot.

Fradji/Forneaux - same as PidKov - 1st at Czechia; could have switched them out for either Poland or China, FFSG held firm knowing a 3rd place in Slovenia was all they needed to guarantee their JGPF spot, which they got with their 2nd place.

USFS - probably screwed the Mullens with the Slovenia assignment - but I'm guessing the USFS felt like the Mullens were competitive with both PidKov & FraForn and could very well come out on top; unfortunately, they skated a bit tight in the RD and were just far enough back to need big mistakes in order to pull up, which didn't happen.

None of the men's fields were necessarily uneven as we've neared the end - maybe the JSF could have switched Nakata and Kakiuchi, or the KSF could have switched Choi & Lee, but... Ehhhhh...

I would argue that Aboian/Veselukhin got a bit screwed, or at least unlucky, with their assignments. On the other hand, I assume there were visa considerations for him, plus they’re quite young and still a new team, so there’s lots of time for them.

 

[jlai]

I think for every athletic competition, one may accidentally get knocked out at an early round through sheer bad luck or cannot make it to the final because of a tough oppponent early on; and there are those who luck into the "final" because of the easier draw they have. (Thinking tennis, for instance)

I guess that happens with every sport. Let's hope every team gets a fair share of good luck to carry them through the sport

 

[Karen-W]

USFS Int'l Assignments page finally has the Tayside Trophy entries listed. Except they put the men's entries in the women's entries column, lol.

 

[Sylvia]

USFS Int'l Assignments page finally has the Tayside Trophy entries listed. Except they put the men's entries in the women's entries column, lol.

They've made that mistake before, no big deal - fixed now: https://usfigureskatingfanzone.com/...25-international-assignments-and-results.aspx
Joonsoo Kim is listed as WD today 10/9.
Sept. 21:

The US is sending a large compliment of skaters/teams in all fields [to Tayside Trophy]:

Senior Men - William Annis, Joonsoo Kim WD, Yaroslav Paniot
Senior Women - Alex Evans, Brooke Gewalt
Senior Pairs - Naomi Williams/Lachlan Lewer [...]
Junior Men - Caleb Farrington, Kirk Haugeto, Zachary LoPinto
Junior Women - Sofia Bezkorovainaya, Jiaying Ellyse Johnson, Sophie Joline von Felten switched to the JGP in Wuxi
Junior Pairs - Saya Carpenter/Jon Maravilla, Addyson McDanold/Aaron Felberbaum, Reagan Moss/Jakub Galbavy

I was curious to find out who had been assigned, so sought out these fundraisers. I found Jessica Jurka's, who else is going to Nice?

Jessica Jurka: https://www.gofundme.com/f/trophy-metropole-nice-cote-dazur-2024
Vaclav Vasquez: https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-me-go-to-an-international-competition-in-france
Nicholas Brooks: https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-fund-nicholas-journey-to-represent-team-usa-in-europe

 

[Sylvia]

Nice Digerness’ post yesterday featuring clips of her and Mark Sadusky:

Nica Digerness on Instagram: "Mark and I have decided to start a Go Fund Me to offset some of the in high costs of skating, so that we can continue in the sport that we love, and hopefully qualify for another international competition. We have been w

262 likes, 3 comments - figuresk8rnica on October 8, 2024: "Mark and I have decided to start a Go Fund Me to offset some of the in high costs of skating, so that we can continue in the sport that we love, and hopefully qualify for another international competition. We have been working very hard...

www.instagram.com

ETA link to Mark’s own post:

Mark Sadusky on Instagram: "Hi everyone as Nica and I get ready for our second half of the season, we are starting a go fund me to hopefully raise a bit of money to offset our training costs! Our goals for the rest of the season are to qualify for na

mark.sadusky on October 8, 2024: "Hi everyone as Nica and I get ready for our second half of the season, we are starting a go fund me to hopefully raise a bit of money to offset our training costs! Our goals for the rest of the season are to qualify for nationals, hopefully get another...

www.instagram.com

Link: https://www.gofundme.com/f/nicas-and-dannys-skating-expenses

 

[YukiNieve]

Maybe we can start a thread dedicated to websites where skaters are asking for financial help?

(Not sure that would be the best idea - but I'm just wondering)

 

[Karen-W]

Maybe we can start a thread dedicated to websites where skaters are asking for financial help?

Yeah, seems like something more appropriate for the Trash Can where all the skater fan threads exist.

 

[Karen-W]

Elyce Lin-Gracey has received a 2nd GP assignment - Skate Canada (Nella Pelkonen FIN withdrew earlier this week).

 

[tangerine dream]

Elyce Lin-Gracey has received a 2nd GP assignment - Skate Canada (Nella Pelkonen FIN withdrew earlier this week).

And with that assignment, Elyce should get a BYE to nats.

 

[ice coverage]

And with that assignment, Elyce should get a BYE to nats.

Skate America already was Elyce's third international assignment that counts for a bye to Nats. (First two were Cranberry and Nebelhorn.)
The Skate Canada International assignment is great news for her, but not necessary for her bye.

[I have deleted my comments on an unrelated topic.]

 

[tangerine dream]

Skate America already was Elyce's third international assignment that counts for a bye to Nats. (First two were Cranberry and Nebelhorn.)
The Skate Canada International assignment is great news for her, but not necessary for her bye.

(BTW, Joonsoo Kim arrived in Scotland today, per indications on his Instastory, and I am scratching my head in light of his Tayside withdrawal. )

Thanks, I didn't realize Cranberry counted.