It's a shame about Shin and Nagy.
He's a great skater but seems to be living up to his reputation. The extra pressure from
the USFS obviously favoring them, and then backtracking, hasn't helped either, I'm sure.
How on earth did the USFS backtrack on them?
At no point during their two seasons together have ShiNagy beaten KamO, EfiMit, McBark or ChanHowe - not at any international comps where those teams faced each other nor at Nationals in 2025 or 2026. Despite that unavoidable fact, the USFS chose to send them to 4CCs in 2025 after they finished FIFTH while McBark, the silver medalists, were sent to the Road to Milano test event. At the time, it also seemed inexplicable as to why ChanHowe were passed over for 4CCs too but in retrospect we know it was because Spencer was headed off to basic training.
Then, the USFS used a CLOSED, simulated competition at Champs Camp to determine the Skate to Milano assignment instead of waiting until later in August - mind we sent teams to compete at Robin Cousins Cup the third week of August and only KamO skipped John Nicks IPC at the beginning of September. A decision that was questionable at the time given that PlaFern had only been back on the ice about 7-8 weeks and ChanHowe about 5 weeks. And, lo and behold, ShiNagy "won" this simulated competition "handily" according to Meagan Duhamel's leak to Dave Lease - though because it was a closed event no protocols were ever released and we'd just seen them the week before at Glacier Falls only manage a 170-ish score due to multiple errors.
Then after they LOST at John Nicks IPC to not only EfiMit, McBark, ChanHowe and the brand new team of LiuBed (meanwhile PlaFern also scored higher at their Challenger in Japan than ShiNagy did at John Nicks), the USFS still doubled down on sending them to Skate to Milano. Clearly McBark were ready to compete since they did Nebelhorn the week after Skate to Milano, though by then it didn't matter because ShiNagy failed to secure the third spot.
Oh, and based on the Champs Camp simulated competition, the USFS put their names down as filling the SkAm TBD host spot when the ISU deadline arrived in late September, even after they'd bombed badly at Skate to Milano, and kept them in that spot while giving them a 4th int'l assignment at IceChallenge to try and 1) earn the Worlds CTES mins (which they failed to do at GPdF but they did finally manage at this Sr B) and 2) beat ChanHowe's 193.70 posted at Trialeti Trophy. How embarrassing to then lose to that brand new team of LiuBed a SECOND time in two months. At that point, and only at that point, did the USFS "backtrack" by taking away the SkAm TBD host spot and giving it to ChanHowe - hard to argue since ShiNagy hadn't managed, by that point, to beat ChanHowe's lowest score to that point in the season.
And yet, the USFS still tossed them the bone of a 5th int'l assignment (more than any other US pairs team this season) - Golden Spin - where they barely pipped past ChanHowe's then SB of 193.70 with a whopping 194.00 score; so they came into Nationals with a miniscule edge in that regard, but an even bigger edge because they clearly had the backing of some powerful figures within the USFS (Troy Goldstein & the SCoNY if Dave Lease is to be believed). And they had a fantastic SP that put them in the driver's seat - and not just because of ChanHowe's disastrous SP. They couldn't keep it together during the FS and the results were what they were.
They didn't beat any of the four teams who are clearly better right now, at this point in time, than they are. As a team, there was/is certainly potential there but there were obvious weaknesses with their triple twist, their spins (both SBS & pairs combo), their death spiral (which they had invalidated at least twice during the season), their throws (just as inconsistent as any other US pairs team), and even their FS program composition with a throwaway choreo sequence.
On paper alone, when they skated about as clean as can be expected (-.80 GOE on the SP throw; q & < on the SBS jumps in their FS) like they did at Golden Spin, they could still only muster a 194.00; meanwhile the other four teams ahead of them were scoring 200+ when mostly clean (EfiMit & KamO) and in the high 180s-low 190s range with major errors in at least one program (ChanHowe & McBark).
It's hard for me to feel like the USFS backtracked on them - more like the USFS jumped on their bandwagon WAY too fast and was still willing to ride that wagon even after 2026 Nats by naming them as Worlds 1st Alternates over ChanHowe. Most of us ChanHowe truthers weren't interested in litigating that slight since ChanHowe made the Olympic team & would at least have the opportunity to improve their SB & earn WS points in Milan, which they did. And ShiNagy were certainly in a good position even without the Worlds assignment, to get 2 GPs next season, so they would have continued to receive support & assistance from the USFS - hopefully with less pressure to deliver medals as they worked on improving those weaker pairs skills that cost them the Olympic spot this season (which is really what it boiled down to in the Nats FS - their GOE on most of their elements was as much the difference in beating ChanHowe as that last lift that came down early).
Honestly, this feels like just another, repetitive chapter in the Balazs Nagy story - fails to have stunning success within the first two seasons of a new partnership & he takes off - maybe for greener pastures, maybe not - either way, he never sticks with a partnership long enough to go anywhere. He's talented but he's no Brandon Frazier or Danny O'Shea, both of whom skated for years with one partner before finding ultimate success & Olympic gold with their last partners.
As it is, there's lots of speculation floating around about who is available for Audrey (March 12, 2004), Starr (June 23, 2001) and, potentially, Ellie (Dec 20, 2004).
As far as I can tell/have read, the following pairs guys are in the market for partners -
Danny Neudecker - March 2, 1996
Mark Sadusky - February 19, 1998
Balazs Nagy - July 9, 1998
Timmy Chapman - September 25, 2000
Aaron Felberbaum - January 7, 2005
Jon Maravilla - February 5, 2005
Might be in the market?
Danylo Siianytsia - September 9, 2000
Should be in the market -
Keyton Bearinger (he's the stronger skater in his partnership with Linzy Fitzpatrick) - January 20, 1999
Personally, I'd love it if Audrey were to make the move do Detroit and learn better twist technique from Jim Peterson & Amanda Evora. The idea of Audrey & Keyton is an intriguing one to me. Who knows what Starr's plans are - if she wants to move to Colorado Springs then Sadusky could be a good option. I also wouldn't mind seeing the Oakton team (Chris, Alexa & Tim) taking on the development of a new senior team and Felberbaum has proven to be a pretty decent pairs guy as he's developed in juniors.
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at Worlds in 2 weeks! (So yes, IMHO, it's too early to get excited for 2027 yet 
)
I hope their wonderful outings at the Olympics will give them lots of confidence and joy and the desire to skate another beautiful, heartfelt free skate and a another good SP too.