2025-26 U.S. Ice Dance News, Updates & Discussion - Backstreet Boys & Spice Girls

[OrioleBeagle]

Not with the way things have played out this week. There's very clearly a lot of disharmony at IAM original recipe and they've had their best senior seasons with Scott, Maddie & Adrian at IAMO. They have all the benefit of working with Montreal but none of the mess that comes with Marie-France doing squat to develop decent material for teams who aren't on her favorites list.

Personally, I'd like to see Madi & Evan move back to Michigan & join forces with MIDA - Tanith & Greg need help in all the areas where Madi & Evan excel - packaging, design, etc. And they can bring Jean-Luc, Olivia & Tim with them.

Good idea!

 

[Taso]

Not with the way things have played out this week. There's very clearly a lot of disharmony at IAM original recipe and they've had their best senior seasons with Scott, Maddie & Adrian at IAMO. They have all the benefit of working with Montreal but none of the mess that comes with Marie-France doing squat to develop decent material for teams who aren't on her favorites list.

Personally, I'd like to see Madi & Evan move back to Michigan & join forces with MIDA - Tanith & Greg need help in all the areas where Madi & Evan excel - packaging, design, etc. And they can bring Jean-Luc, Olivia & Tim with them.

Olivia and Tim, and thus Jean-Luc, aren't about to move to the US.

 

[angi]

Not with the way things have played out this week. There's very clearly a lot of disharmony at IAM original recipe and they've had their best senior seasons with Scott, Maddie & Adrian at IAMO. They have all the benefit of working with Montreal but none of the mess that comes with Marie-France doing squat to develop decent material for teams who aren't on her favorites list.

For the love of god, can we please stop singling out Marie France when we talk about IAM? She is not even the only choreographer there, not to mention some teams at IAM did get outside choreography in the past, so it's clearly an option some teams can use if they choose to.

Personally, I'd like to see Madi & Evan move back to Michigan & join forces with MIDA - Tanith & Greg need help in all the areas where Madi & Evan excel - packaging, design, etc. And they can bring Jean-Luc, Olivia & Tim with them.

I can't think of a worse thing than having this many skaters lead a school together. Not to mention that, aside from Jean-Luc, who choreographed for a few teams (at least once with Olivia's help), for all we know, none of these people have any of the necessary qualities to be coaches. I think it's great that skaters stay involved with the sport, and we've seen great examples of successful skaters turn into great coaches, but I think people tend to forget that you need much more than a successful skating career to be a good coach.

 

[kwanfan1818]

If you are a small coaching team, combined, you have to be great at everything, or have consultants/send your teams for specialized training. What @Karen-W suggested was expanding the team at MIDA, so that each can specialize in the things they do best, which includes addressing their absurd-for-that-level packaging and concept weaknesses. No one is suggesting that Chock take over coaching twizzles.

 

[Allskate]

Personally, I'd like to see Madi & Evan move back to Michigan & join forces with MIDA - Tanith & Greg need help in all the areas where Madi & Evan excel - packaging, design, etc. And they can bring Jean-Luc, Olivia & Tim with them.

Madi made a comment about possibly being at the next Olympics "in some capacity." I don't think it will be skating. I think they just finished their last competition. I think it will be coaching (and costume design for Madi).

I would like to see Madi and Evan come back to the U.S. and coach. Even if it's not with MIDA, I think it would be good to have more skaters being developed and coached somewhere other than IAM.

They may prefer to be closer to their family, especially if they have kids. But, they seem to really like Patrice, so it wouldn't shock me if they started helping with coaching at IAM.

 

[VGThuy]

Maybe they’re in no hurry to move back to the U.S. It seems they took to Montreal very well.

 

[Vagabond]

Madi made a comment about possibly being at the next Olympics "in some capacity." I don't think it will be skating.

Chock (or Chock  and Bates) instead of Wynne would be a win.

 

[Wyliefan]

I really, really hope that Christina and Anthony stay at IAMO. It's seems to me that there is a much healthier environment compared to IAM.

They love Scott and Madi. Christina especially adores working with Madi. I don't think you could pry them loose with a crowbar.

 

[Willin]

Personally, I'd like to see Madi & Evan move back to Michigan & join forces with MIDA - Tanith & Greg need help in all the areas where Madi & Evan excel - packaging, design, etc. And they can bring Jean-Luc, Olivia & Tim with them.

I can't imagine they're very happy with the IAM team right now given the result and the obvious politicking IAM did for FB/C that ultimately was their downfall. In fact, it seems a lot of teams are unhappy there but stay there because they know they have to be there to win.

I do think moving back to Michigan to help MIDA with packaging would be a huge boost to that camp. It may also make sense on a personal level if they plan to have kids given that Evan's parents live there.

 

[kwanfan1818]

Or Belbin and Zuerlein could move to Montreal. Belbin is a bi-lingual Canadian citizen and could set up shop there tomorrow, unless a judge doesn’t allow her to bring her son out of the US to live.

 

[jackson]

Apparently Dimitri Soloviev as well? Boy Chock and Bates have been around forever.

J'accuse! I think Marie France fixed the whole thing (Allegedly) and hope Chock and Bates appeal and launch an investigation!

 

[Allskate]

The ISU is now responding to the scoring controversy:

“It is normal for there to be a range of scores given by different judge in any panel and a number of mechanism are used to mitigate these variations,” the ISU said, adding it has “full confidence in the scores given and remains completely committed to fairness.”

ISU defends Olympic ice dance scoring after French judge's margin swings gold to French team over US

The International Skating Union defends Olympic ice dance judging after a French judge’s scores swung the gold medal race.

apnews.com

I don't think that saying that the French judge's repeated and large variations are "normal" is going to help the situation. Ignoring the way that judges can avoid the mitigation efforts also is a problem. It's just not good for the sport.

Or Belbin and Zuerlein could move to Montreal.

Why would they do that?

 

[kwanfan1818]

Why would they do that?

Montreal is a major international city. The exchange rate, however long that lasts. Belbin is a Canadian, too. Quebec funds its athletes. Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer.