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

[Karen-W]

I agree that USFS shouldn’t have sent S/N to get a 3rd spot. However, many (All?) of the other US Teams are pretty inconsistent and under the pressure of trying to qualify another entry might not have had these same results. I still think a different team should have been sent, but I’m not convinced these teams would score the same at an Olympic Qualifier either .

Well, seeing that both McBark and ChanHowe have now twice scored higher than Nagaoka/Moriguchi did to secure the 3rd spot, I feel very confident either of them would have succeeded in scoring more than enough points to finish in the top 3 spots at the Olympic qualifying competition. It's not as if Nagaoka/Moriguchi is a team of model consistency either. Also, ChanHowe have now beat AkoRakh pretty decisively at two competitions.

 

[AngieNikodinovLove (ANL)]

I don’t know what I missed in the play-by-play thread last week, but I just watched Ellie and Danny short program. They are being co coached by Mozer?

 

[AngieNikodinovLove (ANL)]

oh dear, the free program was a baffling surprise. One of the worst covers of sweet dreams I ever heard and then it goes into Eleanor Rigby? What do these two songs have to do with each other. Then some other song at the end. Everybody wants to rule the world? OK. Wish I could say I’d like this free program, because I do like them, but this……wow

 

[zebobes]

You know, all of the US teams could have gotten their act together earlier to fight for the third spot. In a way, I think that the pressure of ONLY having two spots is forcing all of the teams to really get their A game together. It's hard to say if these teams really could have gotten it together earlier in the season. Now they are all skating like they have something to prove, and it will make the final selection all the more exciting.

 

[farahfan]

You know, all of the US teams could have gotten their act together earlier to fight for the third spot. In a way, I think that the pressure of ONLY having two spots is forcing all of the teams to really get their A game together. It's hard to say if these teams really could have gotten it together earlier in the season. Now they are all skating like they have something to prove, and it will make the final selection all the more exciting.

In the end I hope the selection process sends two pairs who are consistent and will skate their very best. Olympics is the one time every four years that the world pays attention to figure skating and the casual observer cares about jumps landed, not how hard you've been working on the jumps.

 

[Karen-W]

You know, all of the US teams could have gotten their act together earlier to fight for the third spot. In a way, I think that the pressure of ONLY having two spots is forcing all of the teams to really get their A game together. It's hard to say if these teams really could have gotten it together earlier in the season. Now they are all skating like they have something to prove, and it will make the final selection all the more exciting.

I call bullshit to this line of reasoning.

1) the USFS stacked the deck to get the result they wanted for the Skate to Milano assignment when they made the choice to use an early August Champs Camp simulated comp as the ONLY deciding factor, without even allowing for the possibility of a change to that assignment after the John Nicks IPC.

2) the USFS did this knowing exactly WHY ChanHowe had been off the ice for 4 months - and certainly Spencer's decision to join the Army's WCAP was something they were well aware of and had been in the works since before Nats last winter - it also explains why they were left off the 4CCs team and why they weren't called in for Worlds after Danny showed up in Boston with an injured foot that turned out to be broken.

3) the USFS made this choice also knowing that PlaFern were just back on the ice less than 2 months earlier following Max's rehab from his own surgery.

4) the USFS has not been transparent about the results of their Champs Camp simulated comp - so we don't really have any idea just how close it was between ShiNagy and the other teams in attendance.

5) the USFS stuck to their guns with that Skate to Milano assignment going to ShiNagy even after they were decisively beaten by McBark and ChanHowe at John Nicks - a ChanHowe team who really came back up to speed in the month between Champs Camp and John Nicks.

6) McBark proved, a week after Skate to Milano, that their John Nicks score wasn't a fluke when they still managed to put up a respectable 183+ score at Nebelhorn.

7) ChanHowe then went out and improved their 183 score from John Nicks with a 10 point increase at Trialeti. And PlaFern improved by 10+ points also in the same time frame with their 178+ at Tayside.

One could make a reasonable argument that PlaFern certainly weren't ready by Skate to Milano to necessarily fight for the potential third spot, but there is nothing in the performances we've seen from either McBark or ChanHowe both before and after Skate to Milano that would indicate they weren't capable of winning that spot had they been awarded the assignment had the USFS not decided that the SOLE determination for that spot would be an extremely early simulated competition held under the cover of secrecy. The USFS knew they were hindering the chances of other teams being fully prepared and ready for that single shot they gave them at a point in the season when most teams aren't close to ready. Not even ShiNagy acquitted themselves all that well a week before Champs Camp when they put up a 170.77 at the domestic Glacier Falls NQS - which makes me question even their own preparedness for that baffling Champs Camp simulated comp.

 

[kwanfan1818]

I just don’t get why Shin/Nagy were such pets, but I never understand the club factions and USFS cliques and sub-cliques.

 

[Willin]

@kwanfan1818 I think of the teams, they have by far the most potential. Nagy is one of the best (if not the best) young pairs guys in the US, Shin has solid jumps, and they look well matched. On top of that, they're coached by a team that coaches many top pairs teams including the arguable Olympic favorites. I don't think it's wrong that USFS has a lot of hope in them.

I think what is wrong is that their coach himself said he had a 3-year-plan for them to be truly competitive and yet USFS started trusting them on the start of year 2.

 

[Karen-W]

@kwanfan1818 I think of the teams, they have by far the most potential. Nagy is one of the best (if not the best) young pairs guys in the US, Shin has solid jumps, and they look well matched. On top of that, they're coached by a team that coaches many top pairs teams including the arguable Olympic favorites. I don't think it's wrong that USFS has a lot of hope in them.

I think what is wrong is that their coach himself said he had a 3-year-plan for them to be truly competitive and yet USFS started trusting them on the start of year 2.

I'd argue the USFS started putting their eggs in that basket in year 1 when they sent them to 4CCs despite finishing 5th at US Nats. There was no good reason to send them to 4CCs over McBark, IMO.

 

[Jarrett]

I'd argue the USFS started putting their eggs in that basket in year 1 when they sent them to 4CCs despite finishing 5th at US Nats. There was no good reason to send them to 4CCs over McBark, IMO.

Do we even know if that was the case with M&B going to the Olympic test skate event the same week and medaling there?

 

[Karen-W]

Do we even know if that was the case with M&B going to the Olympic test skate event the same week and medaling there?

Choices were made. They could have sent ShiNagy or WilLew.

 

[Jarrett]

Choices were made. They could have sent ShiNagy or WilLew.

Yes and we have no idea how those decisions were made and if the teams had any choice in those assignments. lol Who would have thought Ava would voluntarily skip Nationals and go to 4CC years back?

 

[PRlady]

I'd argue the USFS started putting their eggs in that basket in year 1 when they sent them to 4CCs despite finishing 5th at US Nats. There was no good reason to send them to 4CCs over McBark, IMO.

There is one good reason. Shin/Nagy can go to the Olympics and McBark almost certainly can’t (unless he has the same fairy godmother at USCIS that Efimova thinks she has.) That being the case, you build up the team that can go if needed, not the one who can’t.

 

[Karen-W]

There is one good reason. Shin/Nagy can go to the Olympics and McBark almost certainly can’t (unless he has the same fairy godmother at USCIS that Efimova thinks she has.) That being the case, you build up the team that can go if needed, not the one who can’t.

Or you send them to the Milano test event so they can get a feel for the venue.

It's not as if either team was going to gain much by way of WS points going to 4CCs or the Sr B test event.

 

[TanithandBenFan]

If we have to abbreviate names, can we call Katie and Daniil McPark and not McBark? McBark makes them sound like some kind of canine cartoon character.

 

[Rukia]

If we have to abbreviate names, can we call Katie and Daniil McPark and not McBark? McBark makes them sound like some kind of canine cartoon character.

it's the latest mcdonald's dessert

 

[Kateri]

McBark makes them sound like some kind of canine cartoon character.

I thought that was the whole reason for doing it!

 

[Karen-W]

I thought that was the whole reason for doing it!

Nah, someone else accidentally called them that earlier this year and I liked it. It's not as if calling them McPark is much better - that just makes me think of a McDonald's Playland, lol.

 

[TanithandBenFan]

I’m not a fan of a lot of the abbreviations - like ChoBat - there are only four more letters to add for their actual names. Is it necessary lol. GrePa sounds like grandpa.

 

[Lizziebeth]

I am not a fan of abbreviations either. Sometimes they do not look like their names at all (to me) so I get confused. Initials of last names make more sense to me.

 

[Karen-W]

I am not a fan of abbreviations either. Sometimes they do not look like their names at all (to me) so I get confused. Initials of last names make more sense to me.

Yeah, no, not when we have two G/Ps in ice dance alone and we lived through about a million D/S' at one point.

 

[her grace]

D/S was the best.

 

[TanithandBenFan]

If there’s a question about identity between a couple of teams I don’t think it’s that much more effort to type out the full names Unless you’re posting 500 times a day….

 

[kwanfan1818]

I get using name mash-ups when there are multiples of the same initials and the context isn’t clear, but they still remind me of the Super Couples trend from Days of Our Lives.

Says a mega fan of the DelSchoes.

 

[VALuvsMKwan]

Nah, someone else accidentally called them that earlier this year and I liked it. It's not as if calling them McPark is much better - that just makes me think of a McDonald's Playland, lol.

I hope they didn't leave their cake out in the rain.

 

[TanithandBenFan]

I get using name mash-ups when there are multiples of the same initials and the context isn’t clear, but they still remind me of the Super Couples trend from Days of Our Lives.

Says a mega fan of the DelSchoes.

The classics like DelSchoes and DomShab are treasured parts of the dance lore! Just feels like it’s being overdone in the current scene. Nobody was calling Tessa and Scott VirMo back in the day lol.