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

Ice dance cousins Anaëlle Kouevi and Yann Homawoo making their mark in figure skating
USA's Kouevi and Homawoo are only 15 and 16 years old but have already been skating together longer than some veteran ice dance teams. The cousins paired up in 2019 and have since brought a fresh, diverse perspective to the figure skating junior circuit.

Full Olympics.com article here (Jan 3):
https://www.olympics.com/en/news/ic...ouevi-yann-homawoo-making-mark-figure-skating
 
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kwanfan1818 said:
D/W didn't "stay out of it." They made a choice. It may have been the right one for a number of reasons, personal and professional, but it was a choice. Shpilband didn't retire, and it's hard to imagine that if he had potential US Olympic champions that the right physical training conditions would have been assembled.
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If you count "your coaches break up and you keep skating with one of them" as "not staying out of it," then it's essentially impossible for anyone to stay out of it by that metric. Unless they were supposed to quit in order to successfully stay out of it.
 
AYS said:
There were rumors at the time of the great rupture that the Shib's parents played a key role in his banishment from the rink.

Looking back on some old threads from that time, I see that there were also reports of the Shibs fighting during training. It makes me wonder whether that was really fighting or mainly Alex berating Maia.
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Theatregirl1122 said:
If you count "your coaches break up and you keep skating with one of them" as "not staying out of it," then it's essentially impossible for anyone to stay out of it by that metric. Unless they were supposed to quit in order to successfully stay out of it.
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It sounds to me as though they came to the rink to do their work and had lives outside of the ice rink without getting in the drama and mess to me the same way I go to work and come home to my family life, hobbies, and joys. It's absurd even if meant in jest to say that they would have to quit to successfully stay out of it. Like any other job, they had to pivot as best they could to do what would work best with them.
 
jackson said:
It sounds to me as though they came to the rink to do their work and had lives outside of the ice rink without getting in the drama and mess to me the same way I go to work and come home to my family life, hobbies, and joys. It's absurd even if meant in jest to say that they would have to quit to successfully stay out of it. Like any other job, they had to pivot as best they could to do what would work best with them.
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Are you not capable of understanding that I was responding to a specific comment?
 
Theatregirl1122 said:
If you count "your coaches break up and you keep skating with one of them" as "not staying out of it," then it's essentially impossible for anyone to stay out of it by that metric. Unless they were supposed to quit in order to successfully stay out of it.
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Quitting would be not staying out of it, too.

Everyone who is staying with Belbin and Zuerlein and posing for supportive pictures and posting hearts is not staying out of it, either. "Staying out of it" doesn't mean just not fighting on Instagram.'

None of them, except possibly the Shibutanis, was interested in being put into a position to have to choose.
 
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Re-posting from the 2026 U.S. Nationals forum in Kiss & Cry:

Ice-Dance.com has published 2 "New Team Series" articles on Junior medal contenders Jasmine Robertson and Chase Rohner: https://www.ice-dance.com/site/new-team-series-jasmine-robertson-chase-rohner/

And Jane Calhoun and Mark Zheltyshev: https://www.ice-dance.com/site/new-team-series-jane-calhoun-mark-zheltyshev/

IDC's Novice Dance preview/Q&A with all 5 teams: https://www.ice-dance.com/site/prev...-head-to-st-louis-for-2026-u-s-championships/

[ETA - just saw that @ice coverage posted this above yesterday - thank you! :)] Olympics.com's article on the Junior ice dance cousin team of Anaëlle Kouevi, 15, and Yann Homawoo, 16, who, like Robertson/Rohner and Calhoun/Zheltshev, made their JGP debut earlier this season: https://www.olympics.com/en/news/ic...ouevi-yann-homawoo-making-mark-figure-skating
 
I understand how rumors, especially negative clickbait, when repeated often enough can morph into seemingly "acceptable-enough" lore. But the "foaming at the mouth" extent that false statements regarding the Shibutani's has been compounding has clearly entered into defamatory territory.

I am not family or friend of the family. As an officer of a USFS sanctioned club for many years, I have direct knowledge of facts and the truth regarding several topics. I've never previously made it a practice to post, but at this point it is frankly no longer morally tolerable to not set the record straight.

1. The Shibutani's did not have any role in the break-up of the Shpilband/Zoueva coaching partnership. Shpilband's separation from the Arctic Edge Arena was in fact not caused by any of the skaters training with both coaches as has been stated and published repeatedly by both parties. Detailed legal claims remain largely confidential and the case was ultimately settled out of court. Both Meryl Davis and Charlie White were deposed. The Shibutani's were not involved in the decision and notably no members of the family were deposed.

2. The statement that the Shibutani's are substantial contributors to USFS - is blatantly false. Confirmed with the federation.

3. The family has never sought to own or invest in a skating rink. At a Hall of Fame event at 2023 Nationals, when I asked the father if he was aware that people believed the family had sought to own or underwrite a rink or training center, he found it absolutely flabbergasting. He thought it sadly familiar yet disturbing that so much effort gets put into fabricating false narratives aimed at undermining Maia and Alex's hard work and unprecedented achievements.
 
Harbourview said:
I understand how rumors, especially negative clickbait, when repeated often enough can morph into seemingly "acceptable-enough" lore. But the "foaming at the mouth" extent that false statements regarding the Shibutani's has been compounding has clearly entered into defamatory territory.

I am not family or friend of the family. As an officer of a USFS sanctioned club for many years, I have direct knowledge of facts and the truth regarding several topics. I've never previously made it a practice to post, but at this point it is frankly no longer morally tolerable to not set the record straight.

1. The Shibutani's did not have any role in the break-up of the Shpilband/Zoueva coaching partnership. Shpilband's separation from the Arctic Edge Arena was in fact not caused by any of the skaters training with both coaches as has been stated and published repeatedly by both parties. Detailed legal claims remain largely confidential and the case was ultimately settled out of court. Both Meryl Davis and Charlie White were deposed. The Shibutani's were not involved in the decision and notably no members of the family were deposed.

2. The statement that the Shibutani's are substantial contributors to USFS - is blatantly false. Confirmed with the federation.

3. The family has never sought to own or invest in a skating rink. At a Hall of Fame event at 2023 Nationals, when I asked the father if he was aware that people believed the family had sought to own or underwrite a rink or training center, he found it absolutely flabbergasting. He thought it sadly familiar yet disturbing that so much effort gets put into fabricating false narratives aimed at undermining Maia and Alex's hard work and unprecedented achievements.
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Thank you.
 
Rukia said:
ok but none of that absolves Alex of his abusive behavior so
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I am not saying it's right but brothers and sisters fight, and as the John Q public, it's none of our business. Our only business/obligation as skating FANs is to watch skating and judge just that their skating. I don't like how he treated his sister, but I also would be embarrassed if people had videos of my brother and I fighting when we were younger. BTW, I have witnessed a lot of fight among partners back in the day, and they were not brother and sister - You can't imagine the half of it!
 
And I'll add Alex's behavior was at a rink, i.e. a public place. Public behavior is open to question.

In our social media age, USFS has encouraged skaters to post and share their lives (on and off ice) with fans. TV fluff pieces have always focused on who skaters (all athletes) are as people. When USFS and USOPC try to pair up athletes with sponsors, they're not just selling their athletic ability. My point being, off-ice image/personality is a big part of promotion of athletes and sports to fans and prospective fans. What athletes do and say when the cameras stop rolling is fair game.
 
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jackson said:
I am not saying it's right but brothers and sisters fight, and as the John Q public, it's none of our business. Our only business/obligation as skating FANs is to watch skating and judge just that their skating. I don't like how he treated his sister, but I also would be embarrassed if people had videos of my brother and I fighting when we were younger. BTW, I have witnessed a lot of fight among partners back in the day, and they were not brother and sister - You can't imagine the half of it!
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This was not a fight. It was abuse.

And I'm appalled that I've read in other places that what Alex did was ok because they're family, which implies that any abuse is ok because it's within a family.
 
Alilou said:
This was not a fight. It was abuse.

And I'm appalled that I've read in other places that what Alex did was ok because they're family, which implies that any abuse is ok because it's within a family.
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Exactly. Plus, one of the reasons Alex is so heavily criticized (aside from the obvious reason, which is the abuse) is that the Shibutanis spent their entire careers carefully putting together the most pristine and calculated brand of the perfect siblings who always "choose each other" (a line that became their go-to in recent interviews). So when the reality is so far from the image they've been pushing through their PR, and people start feeling that they're being gaslit into accepting Alex's behavior as some kind of a sibling quarrel instead of the textbook emotional abuse it was, the backlash is not only expected, but also reasonable.
 
angi said:
Exactly. Plus, one of the reasons Alex is so heavily criticized (aside from the obvious reason, which is the abuse) is that the Shibutanis spent their entire careers carefully putting together the most pristine and calculated brand of the perfect siblings who always "choose each other" (a line that became their go-to in recent interviews). So when the reality is so far from the image they've been pushing through their PR, and people start feeling that they're being gaslit into accepting Alex's behavior as some kind of a sibling quarrel instead of the textbook emotional abuse it was, the backlash is not only expected, but also reasonable.
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Listen, I think that it's well beyond any of us to state, unequivocally, that the "we choose each other" is a carefully crafted PR brand for them. That may very well have been true when they were still young enough to have been presented with a choice - kind of like how Anthony Ponomarenko CHOSE to remain with Christina Carreira 7-8 years ago when Igor was allegedly trying to get him to dump her & partner with someone else. We don't even know what is currently true about the Shibutani partnership. Maia may very well still be actively choosing to skate with her brother rather than dump his sorry a$$ and live her own life.

At best, we can be bothered and disturbed by what we saw in that video but none of us are inside their family dynamic and they may very well believe, even to this day, that they are choosing each other. The PR professional may simply be working with what they've got as far as branding and image because that's what the family is giving them.

I'm one of the more outspoken cynics around here and all I'm willing to venture on the topic of the Shibutanis relationship (siblings, parents, the entire family) is that it appears to be toxic in ways that many here believe they would separate themselves from if they found themselves in the same situation. But families are complex and I'm really happy none of you have ever met so many of the families I know, including my own, because y'all are seriously living on the edge of judgmental sanctimony.
 
Alex Shibutani chose to treat his sister for over half an hour abusively. It wasn't a reality show clip where the producers are trying to create a false narrative, rather it was raw footage.

I agree with @angi that if you're curating one image, and your behavior contradicts it, there's no surprise when you fall. And when you make a living at making your life public, no one has to like what they see or support you or wish you well or abstain from schadenfreude.
 
Harbourview said:
The family has never sought to own or invest in a skating rink. At a Hall of Fame event at 2023 Nationals, when I asked the father if he was aware that people believed the family had sought to own or underwrite a rink or training center, he found it absolutely flabbergasting. He thought it sadly familiar yet disturbing that so much effort gets put into fabricating false narratives aimed at undermining Maia and Alex's hard work and unprecedented achievements.
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Wonder why the local skating community in Michigan (these are skaters that trained at Canton and Ann Arbor with the parties involved - so not parent level of politics, but not naive to it either) was spreading that rumor in the first place then... I heard it from multiple skaters who trained at those rinks in real time. There were concerns it would disrupt some of the synchro scene/comps.

So perhaps it was some malignant rumor, but perhaps he (and you) should look to your own rink/club as the source.

ETA: I should add that, as I said, I may be misremembering some details given the time has passed. I heard the Shibs were involved in the breakup but not as a cause - the cause I heard was all Marina vs. Igor and nothing of the skaters. That’s the most I heard of the legal drama of it all because the skaters I knew tried to keep legal drama private. You were actually the one to tell me that that was probably because their friends were deposed. But I did hear that the Shib’s parents did get very much caught in the middle of it - as did all the skaters, but they were the ones with their parents around most given age - that’s more what I meant as involved.

I would also say “throwing money around to get what they wanted” was not a reference to any bribing, donating, or other support to USFS or officials. I’ve never heard anything like that. It was a reference to the rumors above about their involvement in investing in a rink. It’s also a reference to ponying up money for extra lessons and ice time compared to other skaters - totally legal, and an easy way to gain favor in any coach’s eyes.

You’re free to find this defamatory- and I understand that. I find a lot of what is said about Alysa Liu’s father to be really terrible. But you need to understand that perhaps not everything is just completely made up junk either - and that internet rumors can start anywhere, even as in person gossip from people close to the source.
 
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Karen-W said:
Listen, I think that it's well beyond any of us to state, unequivocally, that the "we choose each other" is a carefully crafted PR brand for them. That may very well have been true when they were still young enough to have been presented with a choice - kind of like how Anthony Ponomarenko CHOSE to remain with Christina Carreira 7-8 years ago when Igor was allegedly trying to get him to dump her & partner with someone else. We don't even know what is currently true about the Shibutani partnership. Maia may very well still be actively choosing to skate with her brother rather than dump his sorry a$$ and live her own life.

At best, we can be bothered and disturbed by what we saw in that video but none of us are inside their family dynamic and they may very well believe, even to this day, that they are choosing each other. The PR professional may simply be working with what they've got as far as branding and image because that's what the family is giving them.

I'm one of the more outspoken cynics around here and all I'm willing to venture on the topic of the Shibutanis relationship (siblings, parents, the entire family) is that it appears to be toxic in ways that many here believe they would separate themselves from if they found themselves in the same situation. But families are complex and I'm really happy none of you have ever met so many of the families I know, including my own, because y'all are seriously living on the edge of judgmental sanctimony.
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Very well said!
 
Harbourview said:
I understand how rumors, especially negative clickbait, when repeated often enough can morph into seemingly "acceptable-enough" lore. But the "foaming at the mouth" extent that false statements regarding the Shibutani's has been compounding has clearly entered into defamatory territory.

I am not family or friend of the family. As an officer of a USFS sanctioned club for many years, I have direct knowledge of facts and the truth regarding several topics. I've never previously made it a practice to post, but at this point it is frankly no longer morally tolerable to not set the record straight.

1. The Shibutani's did not have any role in the break-up of the Shpilband/Zoueva coaching partnership. Shpilband's separation from the Arctic Edge Arena was in fact not caused by any of the skaters training with both coaches as has been stated and published repeatedly by both parties. Detailed legal claims remain largely confidential and the case was ultimately settled out of court. Both Meryl Davis and Charlie White were deposed. The Shibutani's were not involved in the decision and notably no members of the family were deposed.

2. The statement that the Shibutani's are substantial contributors to USFS - is blatantly false. Confirmed with the federation.

3. The family has never sought to own or invest in a skating rink. At a Hall of Fame event at 2023 Nationals, when I asked the father if he was aware that people believed the family had sought to own or underwrite a rink or training center, he found it absolutely flabbergasting. He thought it sadly familiar yet disturbing that so much effort gets put into fabricating false narratives aimed at undermining Maia and Alex's hard work and unprecedented achievements.
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Thanks for recently joining..This is a better spin than any Lucinda Ruh ever did.
 
After reading the recent discussion I went googling for an old article I recalled from 2012 and in the process stumbled upon this thread that links to sources as they go through what was out there at the time:

It's not the article I was looking for but it links to the original Detroit article that the Canadian article I was looking for appears to have taken quotes from.

V/M quotes found here:
torontosun.com

Virtue, Moir split with coach

Olympic champions Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir have parted ways with their long-time ice dance coach Igor Shpilband.
torontosun.com torontosun.com

But also in that article is a quote from Arctic Edge GM Craig O'Neill :

Shpilband claimed he was fired — and Arctic Edge GM Craig O’Neill told the Detroit Free Press that the club’s top three teams, which include Virtue and Moir and American rivals Meryl Davis and Charlie White, felt as if “Igor wasn’t there for them anymore.

“What it came down to was the kids didn’t want to skate there anymore with Igor,” O’Neill said. “Either they were leaving or Igor was leaving. We told him that the kids weren’t going to come back to the rink until we had this meeting with you.”

Obviously we will never know everything until someone decides to write a book one day and even then we would only know it from their perspective. My two cents is that by process of elimination the blame somehow fell on the Shibs because (1) V/M were away for six weeks ( vacation and CSOI ) when all the drama unfolded and (2) it was assumed the Davis/White were solidly an Igor team ( it wasn't widely known at the time Meryl and Fedor were a thing so people continued to assume their loyalties lay with Igor). So of the three top teams that leaves the Shibs. Who is does appear took the brunt of it.

If one goes through that reddit thread I linked at the beginning there you can see Charlie Whites mother commenting on someone calling the skaters brats. Defending them saying they were caught in the middle.

To me it looks like the genesis goes back to a battle between Marina and Igor for control and the rink went to the skaters ( top three teams ) to get their input to help them decide which coach to keep and which to fire. We know for sure V/M didn't want this to happen and struggled to make a choice ( comments at the time and years later ). They had real concerns at the time about how Marina would manage the two teams both vying for the same goal and Marina convinced them nothing would change. I suspect similar promises were made to Davis/White but also can't ignore the Fedor angle here. It may have been an easier choice for the Shibs because what we know of Igor he has favourites and I can't see the Shibs being a team he was that interested in.

So I don't think it helped the "rumours" that the Shibs were behind it when O'Neill is out there saying it's what "the kids" wanted, that if Igor wasn't gone they were leaving. So people didn't invent that out of thin air. But I do suspect the Shibs have been unfairly targeted as the source of the split etc.... I think that is clearly about the coaches infighting and the rink used the input of the skaters to decide which coach they were keeping. And maybe even make them the scapegoats to try to get out of whatever legal entanglements arose from ( I assume ) breaking the contract they had with Igor?
 
Without any other influence, why would the Shibs' input have meant anything anyway among the three? The only team the USFS would care about at that time was Davis/White and what they wanted: the Shibs had fallen off the Worlds podium, and they would have been a long shot to medal at a Sochi Olympics, with other teams catching up to the Shibs.

Unless Spilband was actively (more) toxic, it makes no sense for the three teams to want him gone. Even if he was 25% present, that's more than having one coach for all three teams. He could continue to be there for code-whoring the programs and technique. It makes more sense to me that the Sophie's Choice came from the coaches, and that the rink was trying to blame the skaters for legal reasons.

I get that there was a fundamental argument between Zoueva and Spilband about the way they wanted their training center to go, and allegedly Spilband proposed working with lower-ranked, developmental teams from around the world on the side, since she was not interested. It's not like anyone he'd be working at the time with would have become a threat to the top two teams, who were expected to retire in 2014 -- although, who knows, if V/M had won Sochi, because being a four-time gold medalist might have been enough incentive for Moir at least after a break -- and Zoueva and Shpilband didn't have the critical mass and feeder system that IAM and Tutberidze in Women's singles has. Bringing in international development teams to create that pipeline would have for the long term. It's not like co-coaching from different training centers was unheard of, although more common now.

As far as politiks are concerned, Spilband must have been hibernating for a long time, because for years after the split it hadn't seemed to help his top-level teams, aside from shopping for spare parts and putting Chock/Bates together, because they left him over time, until this year when Zingas/Kolesnik have broken through. Pate/Bye are yet to set the world on fire.
 
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