2025-26 USFS International Assignments

It will be very interesting to see the men given the questions for that third Olympic spot. I'm thinking that the women's comp may help with 4CC and Worlds-after-Olympics slot discussions.
 
Glad to see Ava with another assignment. Each one is a step back towards where she needs to be. Not expecting anything much from her this season, but I hope she plans to stay in and keep building back up next cycle.
 
Don`t know what to make of the men. They both could use clean program practice. Amatuer at this but no Tomoki because he`s had all the comps that could help get him 3rd man?
 
And Williams/Lewer are now listed as withdrawn from Warsaw Cup next week on the USFS Int'l Assignments page. :(
 
Kiki5375 said:
Yes every skater can do up to 2 GPs and 3 Challengers and Tomoki already did all of that. He is done until Nationals
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There’s a chance he could show up at Midwestern Sectionals, despite his bye to nats, just to try to show continuing improvement. Finishing top two there (or is it top two across all sections) gives some small number of points in the calculations IIRC.
 
Entries are up on USFS for CS Golden Spin of Zagreb...

Men: Sanchez, Martynov
Women: Lin-Gracey, Tennell, Zeigler
Pairs: Liu/Bedard, Plazas/Fernandez, Shin/Nagy
Dance: Brown/Brown, Carreiera/Ponomarenko, Neset/Markelov


So this will give Martynov a bye to nats, right? He didn't go to Midwestern sectionals this week, so I assume that is why. That seems dangerous though, if he misses it for some reason then he doesn't earn that bye?

If this does give him a bye to nats, would they increase the field to 19, or drop one of the "Next Best Scores" from the previously posted bye list? Then again, will Pulkinen even be going? Because that will definitely keep the field at 18 anyway if he doesn't.
 
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on the ISU site it was Naumov, Torgashev and Martynow with Pulkinen and Sanchez as subtitutes... Andrew has only one challenger this season. After the GP in Japan did not go so well for him this challenger would have been good to show something better before nationals
 
Capt. DeSoto said:
Entries are up on USFS for CS Golden Spin of Zagreb...

Does this give Martynov a bye to nats? He didn't go to Midwestern sectionals this week, so I assume that is why. That seems dangerous though, if he misses it for some reason then he doesn't earn that bye?
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I am confused.... why does Zagreb not count like all the other challengers? Is it different? And why do they put 3 skaters and 2 sub on the men's entrylist in Zagreb but none in warsaw? And why do they send Martynov to Zagreb if he will miss Nationals then? Maybe my brain is too small but I cannot find the logic
 
Kiki5375 said:
I am confused.... why does Zagreb not count like all the other challengers? Is it different? And why do they put 3 skaters and 2 sub on the men's entrylist in Zagreb but none in warsaw? And why do they send Martynov to Zagreb if he will miss Nationals then? Maybe my brain is too small but I cannot find the logic
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It hasn't ever counted toward Nats Byes. I believe it's because it is held after all of the Sectional comps have been completed. In years past, both Tallinn Trophy & Warsaw Cup have been held earlier in November, while Sectional comps are happening, so they've been included in the comps that count toward a Nats bye, but the USFS has also, generally, not assigned anyone to those events who doesn't already have a bye to Nats.
 
ice coverage said:
Per USFS criteria, Golden Spin of Zagreb is specifically excluded from the list of events that count toward an international bye (although earlier Challengers do count).

Martynov continues to be in the starting order for Midwestern Sectionals. Senior Men SP is scheduled for Thursday November 20.
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Whoops, I was wrong on all counts. My brain is fried today because I’m now remembering seeing him listed for sectionals. My bad. I obviously forgot about the Zagreb exclusion too (which seems to be there to head off the exact question I was asking). Thanks.
 
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Karen-W said:
It hasn't ever counted toward Nats Byes. I believe it's because it is held after all of the Sectional comps have been completed. In years past, both Tallinn Trophy & Warsaw Cup have been held earlier in November, while Sectional comps are happening, so they've been included in the comps that count toward a Nats bye, but the USFS has also, generally, not assigned anyone to those events who doesn't already have a bye to Nats.
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So why take Max and Andrew out of Zagreb? They both have a bye for Nationals and Zagreb counts for the Olympic team calculation thing which they are both fighting for.
 
Kiki5375 said:
So why take Max and Andrew out of Zagreb? They both have a bye for Nationals and Zagreb counts for the Olympic team calculation thing which they are both fighting for.
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They haven’t been able to solve this on the ice. I have it on good authority that they’re being invited to Colorado Springs where they will be locked together in a dimly-lit conference room with nothing but a single broken pool cue on the floor in the middle of the room. Two men enter. One man leaves.
 
Kiki5375 said:
So why take Max and Andrew out of Zagreb? They both have a bye for Nationals and Zagreb counts for the Olympic team calculation thing which they are both fighting for.
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They may have told the USFS they didn't want to compete at Golden Spin. The initial ISU entries are always fluid, especially the later in the season we progress.

What I find interesting is that the USFS Int'l Assignments page still doesn't have any women listed for Tallinn Trophy next week. Sarah Everhardt said in her mixed zone interview at NHK that her next comp would be Tallinn, so it's rather intriguing no women are listed on the USFS' page.
 
Karen-W said:
They may have told the USFS they didn't want to compete at Golden Spin. The initial ISU entries are always fluid, especially the later in the season we progress.

What I find interesting is that the USFS Int'l Assignments page still doesn't have any women listed for Tallinn Trophy next week. Sarah Everhardt said in her mixed zone interview at NHK that her next comp would be Tallinn, so it's rather intriguing no women are listed on the USFS' page.
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She is on the ISU entrylist but with 3 other US girls... USFS likes last minute changes I guess
 
USFS' International Assignments page was updated today (Nov. 18) with their Golden Spin entries: https://usfigureskatingfanzone.com/...26-international-assignments-and-results.aspx

Women: Lin-Gracey, Tennell, Ziegler
Men: Martynov, Sanchez
Pairs: Liu/Bedard, Plazas/Fernandez, Shin/Nagy
Ice Dance: Brown/Brown, Carreira/Ponomarenko, Neset/Markelov

ETA: Sorry, I somehow missed seeing @Capt. DeSoto's post #220 above!

Tallinn Trophy and Santa Claus Cup are part of the self-funded international opportunities for ISP skaters so that's likely why those entries are not posted by USFS in their entirety yet.
 
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Sylvia said:
Tallinn Trophy and Santa Claus Cup are part of the self-funded international opportunities for ISP skaters so that's likely why those entries are not posted by USFS in their entirety yet.
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Tallinn Trophy is a Challenger event for seniors - why would it be part of the self-funded int'l opportunities?
 
Karen-W said:
Tallinn Trophy is a Challenger event for seniors - why would it be part of the self-funded int'l opportunities?
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I think fully-funded vs. self-funded is on a skater-by-skater basis, not fully one way or the other when it comes to the lesser internationals (including the non-CS portion of a CS).
 
Santa Claus Cup (Budapest, not Brno) is now up on USFS, it's quite a large team. USFS still hasn't fixed the date listed though, it's actually November 26th-30th according to both ISU and HunSkate. So, there's no overlap with Golden Spin. I'm surprised that Zeigler is going to both this and Golden Spin, I wonder if that's a mistake in their listing (I assume they meant to take her off of Santa Clause Cup in favor of Golden Spin, but for now this list is gospel).

Seniors
Women: Erne, Machida, Ziegler
Dance: Bratti/Somerville, Flores/Jepsen, Peal/Peal

Juniors
Women: Chao, Clarke, Jurka, Shao
Men: Azadpour, Brooks, Farrington
Dance: Calhoun/Zheltyshev

Advanced Novice
Women: Gropp, Zhang
Men: Koppel
Dance: Leitan/Leitan, Lukanin/O'Brien
 
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For anyone wondering about the feasibility of Zeigler actually going to both competitions, her last SCC competition would be Sunday around noon, and the first skate for Golden Spin is Thursday morning (with practices starting on Wednesday). It's only a 3.5 hour straight drive between the two cities. So it's quite doable, and somewhat low stress if you don't have to deal with airports.
 
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Santa Claus Cup will be the international debuts for:

Kendall Erne and Erica "YN" Machida in Senior;
Jasmine Clarke in Junior;
Grace Zhang, Daniel Koppel, and Natalie & Nathan Leitan in Adv. Novice.

And this will be the first international outside the USA for Ryan William Azadpour in Junior and Tera Gropp in Adv. Novice (she won Intermediate gold at Mids yesterday & Adv. Novice bronze at Cranberry Cup in August).
 
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