Chock/Bates weren't going anywhere without serious injury or other life trauma after three World Championships in a row, and until Fournier Beaudry and Cizeron teamed up and came out in top form, they themselves were the only things between them and Olympic gold, especially after Gilles' cancer diagnosis. Chock/Bates (additionally), Guignard/Fabbri, and Gilles/Poirier would also be important to the hopes of Team Event medals in 2026 looking back at it as if we were in 2022, when teams were assessing their future, even if this might have been more aspirational for Canada. (And, back to 2025, moot, if Fournier Beaudry/Cizeron test the ice in the RD, and FRA overcomes the Pairs deficit to join JPN, USA, ITA, and GEO in the Finals.)
Given who might have been expected to be in for the quad based on 2022 and even 2023 results but aren't -- Messing (missed the Team Event in 2022, looked like he would skate until he was able to show his grandkids' sonograms in KnC), Kvitelashvili, Metelkina/Parkman, Safina/Berulava, Kazakova/Reviya, Fournier Beaudry/Sorensen -- and with Davis/Smokin switching from RUS to GEO after the Russa ban, it's become a different competitive landscape that could be predicted back then, especially if Fournier Beaudry/Cizeron playing spoiler in the TE RD, not something Lopareva/Brissaud would be, at least in this quad. (FB/C are supposedly undecided about the TE, but if they really don't want to skate, they'll agree to do the FD, and hope CAN is in the Final.) Whether Fear/Gibson were even in the RD mix for the TE was up-in-the-air back then, because it wasn't clear GBR would even earn three individual spots to form a team. Who knew if the ban on Russia and Belarus in ISU events would still be in effect for these Olympics, with so much
on the table.
It looks very different for GEO and ITA, with a GEO team of Gubanova, Egadze, Metelkina/Berulava, Davis/Smolkin, and for ITA, Gutmann establishing herself in place of a revolving door of Italian women, Conti/Macii never placing below 6th at a championship, Grassl excelling at GPF when his jumps weren't scrutinized, and Guignard/Fabbri. At this point, I think if Fournier/Beaudry skate the RD, that FRA will be in the Final and CAN will not, even with an FRA Pairs deficit in the SP, making the FD moot for Gilles/Poirier, but even if it's CAN in the Final without any chance for a medal, it should be Lajoie/Lagha in the FD, and I don't think, barring disaster, that the judges and tech panel will choose to suddenly give Lajoine/Lagha, or US #2 (if C/B don't have to skate for points in the FD), or Lopareva/Brissaud their due. (That would be in the individual event.)
In 2022, I thought Gilles/Poirier would be trying for full out Bourne/Kraatz: compete at the beginning of the next cycle when the reigning Olympic champions were out, and leave with a World Championship. (Once they stayed in, Gilles' cancer diagnosis could have gone either way, a time to reassess and bow out, or an Alexa Knierim Pairs Woman-like fierceness.) But then again, if Guignard/Fabbri had beaten Chock/Bates in 2023, they might have looked at the next three years and bowed out with a championship, hosting or not hosting the Olympics, or at least taking a couple of years off and then decide whether to try a comeback, based on the way the winds were blowing and how they were feeling. I'm not sure how much they thought about the Team Event, but I'm pretty certain they never expected they would be the only Italian team and wouldn't have the option to let ITA #2 take the FD, unless there was a medal on the line.
All teams have room to grow.
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