2025-26 Grand Prix Assignments Discussion

[Karen-W]

Well, pencil in the ShibSibs for 2 GP assignments (see the US Ice Dance thread for the news). There will be some non-host fed teams who lose out on a 2nd GP assignment with this news.

 

[litenkyckling]

Well, pencil in the ShibSibs for 2 GP assignments (see the US Ice Dance thread for the news). There will be some non-host fed teams who lose out on a 2nd GP assignment with this news.

do they qualify for 2 spots, or will they get the host SkAm spot?

 

[tony]

Well, we know with the world standings updated:

Guaranteed:
Chock & Bates - 2
Carreira & Ponomarenko - 2
Green & Parsons - 2
Zingas & Kolesnik - 1
Bratti & Somerville - 1
Brown & Brown - 1
Pate & Bye - 1
Neset & Markelov - 1

Wolfkostin & Tsarevski ? IIRC the WJC medalist thing didn't guarantee anything moving forward.

With Shibutanis certainly getting 2 if that's what they want, that's 13 spots. Z/K, B/S, Browns probably getting seconds spots. Maybe W/T get 2 and that's that.

 

[Karen-W]

Well, we know with the world standings updated:

Guaranteed:
Chock & Bates - 2
Carreira & Ponomarenko - 2
Green & Parsons - 2
Zingas & Kolesnik - 1
Bratti & Somerville - 1
Brown & Brown - 1
Pate & Bye - 1
Neset & Markelov - 1

Wolfkostin & Markelov Tsarevski ? IIRC the WJC medalist thing didn't guarantee anything moving forward.

With Shibutanis certainly getting 2 if that's what they want, that's 13 spots. Z/K, B/S, Browns probably getting seconds spots. Maybe W/M get 2 and that's that.

It won't affect the US teams who were already guaranteed 2 or 1 assignment. WolfTsar aren't getting any at all (unless they get the SkAm host TBD spot) - they're too far down the SB list (41) & not in the WS Top 24.

ZingKol will get a 2nd because they're on both the SB and WS Top 24 - and pretty high up on each - WS 10/SB 12. I just can't see the USFS expending capital to get either the Browns or BraSom a 2nd GP over the likes of any of other teams who are on both the WS & SB Top 24 lists.

There are too many teams in the WS Top 24 and/or SB Top 24 for teams who are only on one of those lists to get 2, and there will be 2 teams who are in both the WS/SB Top 24 lists who would have expected 2 who are only getting 1 now.

WS/SB Top 24 (position on WS & SB listed after the team, host fed teams marked by *)
Reed/Ambrulevicius 7/11
Turkkila/Versluis 9/6 *
Zingas/Kolesnik 10/12 *
Demougeot/Le Mercier 13/17 *
Taschlerova/Taschler 14/16
Mrazkova/Mrazek 16/18
Orihara/Pirinen 17/13 *
Lim/Quan 18/21
Janse van Rensburg/Steffan 23/20

SB Top 24 (position on SB listed after each team, host fed teams marked by *)
Bratti/Somerville 15 *
Brown/Brown 19 *
Fabbri/Ayer 22 *
Pate/Bye 23 *
Bekker/Hernandez 24

WS Top 24 (position on WS & SB listed after each team, host fed teams marked by *)
Neset/Markelov 19/26 *
Lauriault/Le Gac 20/27 *
Tali/Lafornara 21/28
Fradji/Forneaux 22/47 *
Grimm/Savitskiy 24/46

If you list the teams out in order of SB, it's pretty clear that LimQuan and JvRStef are the two teams on both the WS/SB lists that will only get 1 GP. Maybe an argument could be made to give BraSom a 2nd over the Mrazkovi, Taschlers or DemLeM (all lower on the SB list), but it won't be DemLeM since they're from a GP host fed and I don't see BraSom getting a 2nd GP as the 6th best US team over either Czech team what with those teams being Czechia's ONLY GP entries and Prague hosting Worlds next year.

 

[Karen-W]

do they qualify for 2 spots, or will they get the host SkAm spot?

They qualify as a Comeback Team and I'd be surprised if they're assigned to SkAm.

Right now, my projection list has them down for NHK & Finlandia.

From the 2024-25 GP Announcement - https://isu-d8g8b4b7ece7aphs.a03.az...General-Announcement-2024-25-1742973255-8.pdf

c) “Come-Back” Skaters/Couples: Skaters/Couples who were previously seeded (placed 1 to 6 within the past 10 years at a ISU World Figure Skating Championships) and subsequently did not participate in one or more competitive seasons will be given priority consideration to re-enter the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating for selection of up to 2 assignments if they commit in writing to participating in two ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating events and if such return is announced and confirmed by the date of the annual Selection Meeting. Such so called “Come Back Skaters/Couples” will not substitute any of the Seeded Skaters/Couples, mentioned under a). “Come Back Skaters/Couples” must not fulfil the requirements of the minimum Grand Prix score and would be considered for selection as an Organizing ISU Member Choice. A come back under this clause is allowed only once in their competitive career for any Skater/Couple.

The "Come-Back" Skaters/Couples part is listed in Section 2.1 Seeded Skaters/Couples, so it would appear they're considered a seeded team for purposes of the GP assignments and the USFS isn't obligated to assign them to SkAm. I think the USFS will do its best to protect both ChoBat and CarPon as seeded teams and send the Shibs elsewhere.

We still have no idea where FBCiz fit into the GP Assignments list since there's the missing clause for Returning Split Couples placed 1-6 in previous WCs - presumably that missing clause would go in Section 2.1 also and would be for the past 10 years, similar to the Come-Back Skaters/Couples clause, but who knows?

 

[BittyBug]

I must be missing something (which would not be surprising ), but there are six Grand Prix events and I thought that each country had a max of 2 entries except that a host has an extra slot, so isn't that 13 slots for the U.S.? And if so, where is the room for any of the teams guaranteed only one spot to pick up a second assignment?

I'm going by C/B, CPom, G/P and Shibs getting 2 assignments - that's 8 slots taken. And then there are 5 teams guaranteed at least one assignment.

 

[kwanfan1818]

Three entries is the max/country in any discipline in any event. So a max of 18/member for each discipline across all six events.

 

[BittyBug]

Well that explains it. Did it used to be 2 without regard to the host country bonus slot?

 

[Karen-W]

Well that explains it. Did it used to be 2 without regard to the host country bonus slot?

No, it's never been 2; it's always been 3 max.

 

[kwanfan1818]

The two limit is the number of GP’s a skater/team can do, aside from a period where seeded skaters/teams could do three, with one not counting towards GPF points. (But they got prize money and pushed down other skaters/teams, who got fewer points, less money, and one would have to skate in an earlier group.).

 

[farahfan]

This is nuts, but I wonder if the Shibs have citizenship with Japan. They’d be a shoo in for the Olympic team event. And still get their GP spots right?

 

[litenkyckling]

This is nuts, but I wonder if the Shibs have citizenship with Japan. They’d be a shoo in for the Olympic team event. And still get their GP spots right?

I'm pretty certain at a certain age (21 maybe?) you have to revoke your Japanese citizenship as they don't allow dual - so they likely don't have it anymore (assuming their parents ensured they had it as kids, which I would assume yes for ease of family travel etc).

 

[BittyBug]

Yes, didn't Chris Reed had to give up his U.S. citizenship when he turned 21?

 

[Vagabond]

Why would the Shibutanis want to skate for Japan, even if they could, when they can skate for the United States?

 

[Karen-W]

This is nuts, but I wonder if the Shibs have citizenship with Japan. They’d be a shoo in for the Olympic team event. And still get their GP spots right?

Pretty sure that even if there was a way for them to regain their Japanese citizenship, which @litenkyckling notes has most certainly been relinquished by both of them already, that their return to competitive skating wouldn't have come from the USFS if there was a country switch afoot.

 

[kwanfan1818]

Yuka Kavaguti said in an interview that she could apply to get back Japanese citizenship, which she renounced for Russian ten years or more after renunciation.

The Shibutani’s would have had to choose by age 22.

It would have been an interesting choice to compete for Japan, because they would be team gold would have been in sight, and they might have been the ones trying to qualify in Beijing.

But then USFS would be fuming, not sending out press releases.

 

[Vagabond]

Were the Shibutanis born to Japanese citizens? If not, they probably weren't eligible for Japanese citizenship themselves.

 

[farahfan]

Were the Shibutanis born to Japanese citizens? If not, they probably weren't eligible for Japanese citizenship themselves.

Their mother was born in Japan.
I realize they are committed to USFS but just speculating that Japan would have been a pretty much guaranteed ticket to the Olympics if they count on the citizenship. Did not know that dual is not accepted in Japan so it's likely they had no chance.

 

[Vagabond]

Their mother was born in Japan.

Thanks. Of course, she may have relinquished her citizenship at some point.

 

[kwanfan1818]

They were asked multiple times before he turned 22 if they would choose Japanese citizenship and skate for Japan, like the Reeds. They said no. If they were not Japanese citizens through their mother, I think they would have said so at the time. For one thing, it would have stopped the question cold.

 

[RoseRed]

Well that explains it. Did it used to be 2 without regard to the host country bonus slot?

It is 2 for the JGP, with 3 for the host for singles and dance. Maybe that's what you were thinking of.

Pairs has max 3 since only 4 JGP events have pairs.