2025-26 Pairs General Discussion: Who Wants to Lift Forever?

[Karen-W]

Did Miura/Kihara and Conti/Macii actually say they are skipping Worlds and/or retiring? I missed that.

P.S. In post-Oly free skate remarks that I read, Hase/Volodin also didn't commit to another 4 years, instead giving the standard "We'll talk about it" response.

I'm guessing that Miura/Kihara will skip Worlds - what else do they have to win/prove?

I'm also guessing that Conti/Macii will skip Worlds this year due to her knee injury.

I put Hase/Volodin in the same category as Efimova/Mitrofanov - taking it one season at a time for now.

 

[Belsornia]

I'd guess that several of the mid-pack teams will be sitting down after Worlds (and maybe a holiday) and considering whether they want to put their bodies and their bank accounts through it for another four years. And likely some of them will decide that they're content with their careers and having achieved the big ambition of becoming Olympians they're ready to move on.

I'm wondering about Hocke/Kunkel too. They're still pretty young but they've had some injury issues and she's been competing at this level for a long time. And we know that the lack of funding has been an issue for them - Is Hase/Volodin's medal likely to have improved the situation for the DEU?