2025-26 US Pairs Discussion - Milano-Bound By Way of Beijing & St. Louis

Jonas said:
Little late chiming into this discussion, but I just got caught up watching the John Nicks performances. I didn't read the protocols too closely; I just watched. Inexplicably and intangibly, I felt most at ease and was most drawn in watching Shin & Nagy.

Totally understand how Chan & Howe should've been sent to Beijing based on their higher scores, but I don't believe they would've fared better. Fourth year into this Olympiad and I've yet to see Chan land a clean sbs 3toe in competition. (If she has I certainly don't remember.)

So, right now my money is on Shin & Nagy over Chan & Howe as the 2nd pair sent to Cortina.

I will definitely agree that McBeath & Parkman should've been assigned to Skate America based on their medal showing. I'm still waiting for them to really put it all together though.

Your thoughts...
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They screwed their own pooch with the way they skated in Beijing. If they'd been a close 4th at Skate to Milano, then I could see a case being made for them, but they have struggled every time they've been given a major international assignment.

Also, the first year of this Olympic cycle, Emily was having some degree of success with her 3T, and she did manage one clean one the following season.

2022 SCI SP - 3T clean
2023 US Nats SP - 3T clean
2023 4CCs FS - 3T clean
2024 Worlds SP - 3T clean

We'll see how the rest of the season plays out, but I don't see ShiNagy beating any of the teams they lost to at Nats last year, and they may not even beat PlaFern or LiuBed either.
 
Jonas said:
Interestingly Liu & Bedard are using the same music in their FS, but I find Shin & Nagy's more impactful. Sorry, not sorry, AngelaNikodinovLove! ;)
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Lol hahahhahahahah

I’m not worried. I think Chelsea and Ryan are going to rock this season. Hopefully they get some assignments somewhere soon though.

Ryans lifts have really improved over the last year
 
To say I was surprised by how good Chelsea and Ryan were at John Nicks is an understatement. Besides the fact that they are a brand new team, I always thought that Ryan was pretty much dead weight in his prior partnership. He looked to me like a different skater with Chelsea. Really looking forward to seeing more of them this season.
 
carriecmu0503 said:
They also only have one Grand Prix and were passed over for Skate America in favor of Shin and Nagy.
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To be fair there, they should be next(?) on the Grand Prix alternates list and they have a high shot of getting one that way. Better to give the host event to another team.
 
tony said:
To be fair there, they should be next(?) on the Grand Prix alternates list and they have a high shot of getting one that way. Better to give the host event to another team.
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They are 1st on the GP Alternates List, so I think they stand a reasonably good chance of picking up a 2nd assignment. ChanHowe are currently 4th on the GP Alternates List and may not get a 2nd. They also resoundingly outscored ShiNagy at John Nicks.

Honestly, I'd probably give McBark the SkAm host spot, if only because then they won't have the travel challenge with back-to-back GPs since their first GP is CoC. That would move ChanHowe up to 3rd and quite likely to pick up a 2nd GP - there are 4 teams with GP assignments (2 with 2 each) whom I've got my eye on as potential withdrawal - SuiHan, GoluGM, KamO & FlorWang. There are any # of permutations possible depending on who is on the GP List if & when any of fthose teams withdraws.

It does seem as though ShiNagy are merely listed as a placeholder right now. Kapeikis was interviewed by Golden Skate at Nebelhorn and he said his goal is to get the SkAm host spot. Someone in the pbp thread posited a theory that the ISU has a deadline for the GP hosts to name their TBD spots - we saw Canada, Finland, the JSF & the USFS all confirm their TBD spots on the same day, but the USFS only announced the Browns as having secured the TBD spot. The USFS still has TBD listed for both the Men's & Pairs spots & haven't made any announcements about those two spots.
 
US SENIOR PAIRS 2025-26
Efimova/Mitrofanov 193 (John Nicks&Nebelhorn)
McBeath/Parkman 187 (John Nicks)/183 Neb
Chan/Howe 183 (John Nicks)
Liu/Bedard 174 (Golden West)
Shin/Nagy 171 (Glacier Falls)/165JNP/158 OLQ
Plazas/Fernandez 167 (Kinoshita)
Williams/Lewer 159 (JGP Latvia)
Moss/Galbavy 146 (JGP THA)
Cooke/Kennedy 127 (Mid Atlantics)
Fitzpatrick/Bearinger 125 (John Nicks)
Flores/Wang 122 (John Nicks)
McFarland/Andjorin 107 (Skate Detroit)
 
Circling back to the GP Alternates and SkAm host TBD discussion... credit to @tony for correctly predicting McBark would, indeed, pick up a 2nd GP, so no need to give them the SkAm host TBD spot.

As I noted, one of the teams I had my eye on for potential withdrawal from at least one GP assignment, GoluGM, withdrew today from GPdF and the FFSG has already invited McBark to fill that vacant spot.

ChanHowe (NHK) are now sitting in the 3rd Alternate position (could move up if they improve their score at Trialeti Trophy next week). Ahead of them are ChtWoz (Finlandia) and VLDigs (SCI). Odds are pretty good that ChanHowe will pick up a 2nd GP, likely SCI.

The rest of the US Pairs teams are pretty far down the Alternates list and won't move up since none are assigned to Trialeti Trophy. Still not sure I agree with ShiNagy being temporarily/placeholder assigned to SkAm - I'd rather see it go to LiuBed who beat them at John Nicks, but LiuBed may well wind up at SkAm if FlorWang aren't able to compete.
 
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Karen-W said:
Circling back to the GP Alternates and SkAm host TBD discussion... credit to @tony for correctly predicting McBark would, indeed, pick up a 2nd GP, so no need to give them the SkAm host TBD spot.

As I noted, one of the teams I had my eye on for potential withdrawal from at least one GP assignment, GoluGM, withdrew today from GPdF and the FFSG has already invited McBark to fill that vacant spot.

ChanHowe (NHK) are now sitting in the 3rd Alternate position (who could move up if they improve their score at Trialeti Trophy next week). Ahead of them are ChtWoz (Finlandia) and VLDigs (SCI). Odds are pretty good that ChanHowe will pick up a 2nd GP, likely SCI.

The rest of the US Pairs teams are pretty far down the Alternates list and won't move up since none are assigned to Trialeti Trophy. Still not sure I agree with ShiNagy being temporarily/placeholder assigned to SkAm - I'd rather see it go to LiuBed who beat them at John Nicks, but LiuBed may well wind up at SkAm if FlorWang aren't able to compete.
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Flores/Wang have been posting training videos so it seems like they should be ready.
 
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