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

[kwanfan1818]

The optics re: the Shibs' comeback are sucky.

 

[ice coverage]

... But giving them a free ride to nats does not equal giving them a free ride to the olympics. ...

No one is I am not assuming that a free ride to Nats equals a free ride to Olympics.

ETA: Sorry, I should not have tried to speak for others.​

Giving the Shibs a free ride to Nats in itself makes me uncomfortable as to how USFS is reacting to their comeback.

 

[just tuned in]

It is a great story for the once-every-four-years fans. I want a team of Shibs, GrePar and Browns. Sue me.

 

[Rukia]

Noted what?? Your previous post made no mention of their free bye to Nats.

lol i went and reread it and in my brain it was more obvious than how i actually wrote it so that's on me

i'm not trying to be rah rah pro-shibs, I'm just not worried about them as of right now. I have an ideal olympic team and I think they can all make it regardless of what the shibs are doing

 

[haribobo]

SENIOR DANCE
Zingas/Kolesnik 193
Brown/Brown 187
Pate/Bye 186
Wolfkostin/Tsarevski 180
Neset/Markelov 176
Cui/Rogers 176
Peal/Peal 169
Koncius/Shchepetov 167
Mullen/Mullen 163
Pham/Spiridonov 162

To skate - Green/Parsons, Carreira/Ponomarenko, Chock/Bates, Bratti/Somerville, Shibutanis

JUNIOR DANCE
DANCE
Aboian/Veselukhin 160 Dallas
Robertson/Rohner 156 JGP ITA
Stapert/Korotcov 142 JGP ITA
Vaclavicoka/Lissauer 142 Challenge Cup
Chen/Chitipakhovian 140 Challenge Cup
Deych/Hu 137 JGP Thailand
Kouevi/Homawoo 134 LPIDC
Fugate/Fugate 130 Detroit
Calhoun/Zheltyshev 129 LPIDC
Fischer/Fischer 128 LPIDC
Feige/Middlekauff 128 LPIDC
Carhart/Bledsoe 123 LPIDC
Epps/Gilman 121 Challenge Cup

 

[just tuned in]

JUNIOR DANCE
Aboian/Veselukhin 160 Dallas
Robertson/Rohner 156 JGP ITA
Stapert/Korotcov 142 JGP ITA
Vaclavicoka/Lissauer 142 Challenge Cup
Chen/Chitipakhovian 140 Challenge Cup
Deych/Hu 137 JGP Thailand
Kouevi/Homawoo 134 LPIDC
Fugate/Fugate 130 Detroit
Calhoun/Zheltyshev 129 LPIDC
Fischer/Fischer 128 LPIDC
Feige/Middlekauff 128 LPIDC
Carhart/Bledsoe 123 LPIDC
Epps/Gilman 121 Challenge Cup

Epps/Gilman skates for ISR now.

 

[Karen-W]

Challenge Cup, the last NQS competition for Ice Dance, was held this weekend. The US Ice Dance Final is being held in conjunction with Pacific Coast Sectional Singles on Nov 3-9.

The following teams currently have Byes through the 2025-26 Ice Dance Final to Nationals:

Senior = 8 (likely 10 total)
Brown/Brown (2025 Top 5), Carreira/Ponomarenko (2025 Top 5), Chock/Bates (2025 Top 5), Green/Parsons (2025 Top 5), Neset/Markelov (3 int'ls), Shibutani/Shibutani (2018 Olympic medalists), Wolfkostin/Tsarevski (3 int'ls), Zingas/Kolesnik (2025 Top 5)

Presumably Pate/Bye will pick up a 3rd int'l assignment after their Lombardia win, but as of this moment, they do not have a Bye to Nationals and will need to compete at the Ice Dance Final.

Bratti/Somerville just withdrew from Nebelhorn, so they only have their 2 GPs at this moment, however, one of those is SCI which is the weekend before the Ice Dance Final and this should qualify them for a travel bye. Or they could be assigned to Warsaw Cup or Tallinn Trophy which would get them back to 3 international assignments and an automatic Bye.

There are 9 teams who have competed in the NQS this season who will be vying for 5 open places at 2026 US Nationals.

Cui/Rogers - 175.21 - Skate Detroit
Peal/Peal - 169.08 - Skate Detroit
Koncius/Shchepetov - 164.61 - Dallas Classic
Mullen/Mullen - 163.73 - Challenge Cup
Pham/Spiridonov - 162.98 - Skate Detroit
Yi/Savelev - 144.94 - Dallas Classic
Melillo/Schapfel - 123.53 - Challenge Cup
Kowar/Schwappach - 114.39 - Dallas Classic
Hessel/Klaber - 63.22 - Lake Placid - note they are the only team to have not achieved the US Nats CTES min of 65.

Junior = 0 (likely 2 total)
None of the Junior teams have earned a Bye yet as the JGP is only half complete, however Robertson/Rohner are a near lock for the JGPF and Aboian/Veselukhin are looking to be quite strong to also qualify for the JGPF.

The following teams have not competed in the NQS but have at least 1 int'l assignment and a bye to the Ice Dance Final - Calhoun/Zheltyshev (they competed at LPIDI not LP NQS). There are 15 teams who will not earn a Bye to Nats & have competed in the NQS this season, which gives us a grand total of up to 16 teams competing for 10 open places at 2026 US Nationals - any teams with Byes are added to the 10 who qualify for Nats.

Vaclavikova/Lissauer - 142.98 - Challenge Cup
Chen/Chitipakhovian - 140.19 - Challenge Cup (this should be good enough to get them added to the ISP, btw!)
Kouevi/Homawoo - 134.00 - Lake Placid
Fugate/Fugate - 130.14 - Skate Detroit
Fischer/Fischer - 128.64 - Lake Placid
Deych/Hu - 128.54 - Dallas Classic
Feige/Middlekauff - 128.30 - Lake Placid
Stapert/Korotcov - 125.94 - Dallas Classic
Carhart/Bledsoe - 123.83 - Lake Placid
O'Brien/Tong - 115.30 - Challenge Cup
Kirsanov/Peng - 110.85 - Challenge Cup
Huang/Mintz - 108.60 - Skate Detroit
Aisin/Moore - 106.79 - Challenge Cup
Wheelahan/Jin - 86.55 - Dallas Classic
Rodriguez/Gutman - 70.03 - Challenge Cup

Novice = 0
There are 5 open places at 2026 US Nationals. A grand total of 13 teams have competed in the NQS this season who will be vying for those spots at the Ice Dance Final. SOOOOOOO many sibling teams!

Li/Zhu - 123.83 - Challenge Cup
Lukanin/O'Brien - 120.41 - Challenge Cup
Leitan/Leitan - 107.24 - Challenge Cup
Kartashov/Kartashov - 103.87 - Lake Placid
Chang/Chen - 100.71 - Challenge Cup
Waugh/Jacoby - 95.52 - Challenge Cup
Urban/Dehart - 92.92 - Lake Placid
Blackstone/Light - 88.77 - Challenge Cup
Stone/Stone - 82.66 - Dallas Classic
Rudedenman/Rudedenman - 80.66 - Challenge Cup
Sago/Sago - 78.57 - Dallas Classic
Ashcroft/Ashcroft - 67.77 - Lake Placid
Hollis/Hollis - 62.03 - Lake Placid

Seriously - we have a LOT of sibling teams, lol. Of the 50 teams competing at the Senior, Junior & Novice levels 13 are sibling teams. Czechia's got some catching up to do, lol.

 

[Theatregirl1122]

lol i went and reread it and in my brain it was more obvious than how i actually wrote it so that's on me

i'm not trying to be rah rah pro-shibs, I'm just not worried about them as of right now. I have an ideal olympic team and I think they can all make it regardless of what the shibs are doing

I have an IDEAL IDEAL Olympic team, and that's defs 100% impossible. For one thing, I don't think CarPoms are going to the Olympics as reigning national champions.

But my ideal realistic Olympic team is decently likely.

 

[Rukia]

I have an IDEAL IDEAL Olympic team, and that's defs 100% impossible. For one thing, I don't think CarPoms are going to the Olympics as reigning national champions.

not with that attitude they're not

 

[her grace]

Brown/Brown seem to be emerging a bit ahead of the other 5th-9th placed teams so far this season. Getting the SA spot (and hence, a second GP) was huge for them.

Pate/Bye continue to be solid, but don’t seem to be gaining ground.

I’m interested in seeing how young seniors Neset/Markelov and Wolfkostin/Tsarevski place against each other. It looks like a head-to-head won’t happen until nationals, and I look forward to that battle.

Cui/Rogers look the best to me of the 10th-15th tier of teams.

Peals have had a decent sr debut this summer, they are skating with good confidence and showmanship. Next quad they should have more opportunities.

 

[PRlady]

Brown/Brown seem to be emerging a bit ahead of the other 5th-9th placed teams so far this season. Getting the SA spot (and hence, a second GP) was huge for them.

Pate/Bye continue to be solid, but don’t seem to be gaining ground.

I’m interested in seeing how young seniors Neset/Markelov and Wolfkostin/Tsarevski place against each other. It looks like a head-to-head won’t happen until nationals, and I look forward to that battle.

Cui/Rogers look the best to me of the 10th-15th tier of teams.

Peals have had a decent sr debut this summer, they are skating with good confidence and showmanship. Next quad they should have more opportunities.

I’m having a brain freeze. Did Morozov/Chen break up?

And although I much prefer Nes/Mar to W/T, I agree they should have a good rivalry next quad.

 

[Rukia]

I’m having a brain freeze. Did Morozov/Chen break up?

He has a suspension still, doesn't he?

 

[PRlady]

He has a suspension still, doesn't he?

I completely forgot.

 

[TheOGSkateGuard]

And when you compare it to the other US dance teams that they will fight for a spot, those teams have been continuously pushing themselves and being innovative with their material, and really pushing themselves technically as well.

But it’s not even the teams who are in the mix for that 3rd Olympic spot. The Browns, Wolfkostin/Tsarevski, and Neset/Markelov (who still hold the world record for junior RD, btw) have shown up this season with interesting, innovative free dances. It’s very clear they came home from Wichita and worked. Pate/Bye just won a Challenger—with a PSt4 call. And we still haven’t seen Bratti/Somerville.

These teams tend to be discounted in the conversation about the Shibs’ return, but Shibs have to work through them to have any shot of medaling at Nationals. I just don’t see that as a done deal just because of a couple of bronze medals won back when Leah Neset and Dimitri Tsarevski were an intermediate team.

(And it’s not looking good for Yi/Savelev, aka Marina’s #2, yo
even qualify for nationals. Dance Final is pretty stacked.)

 

[jackson]

I think the resentment of the Shibs is less about them and more that no one trusts the USFS to not have to some kind of sleazy deal in place to put the Shibs on the Olympic team over more deserving teams who skate better then them at Nats.

What theories and more importantly facts do you have with USFS that they would put them above any athletes who are younger/older and could bring in potential sponsors? You do have to remember that the Shibs were rumored to be donors of USFS but the power of social media has changes the game in a big way.

It is only a matter of time until one skater develops a major following as has happened in every field and that will change everything if skating is as corrupt as people are mentioning!

 

[Spiralgraph]

Whatever happens at Nationals I'm not even going to try to predict what the final ranking of teams will be. That's one poll I'll follow, but I don't have the courage or nerve to enter.

 

[deegee]

They've always done a good job of picking coherent and interesting rd choices. The parts on video look fine. Like not amazing but not bad. Alex looks like he's having a blast so good for him. Based on this I'm not any more concerned about the potential Olympic team than I was before lol.

where can one see these vids?

 

[Rukia]

where can one see these vids?

I don't think anyone has posted them anywhere so unless you are a patreon of Dave's you have to rely on the kindness of strangers

 

[Samurina]

(And it’s not looking good for Yi/Savelev, aka Marina’s #2, yo
even qualify for nationals. Dance Final is pretty stacked.)

I don't think this partnership is working, why in the same training camp are there such different levels in scoring? Ik they r married (but to give Savelev a passport) so is it j to give savelev citizenship and then partner w another person, it j seems confusing 2 me