ISU to evaluate feasibility of 2020-21 skating season

[Bellanca]

Rich assholes, movie stars

One and the same for most of them... trust me on this, one and the same.

Also, a "season" is vital to the skaters and ice dancers for many reasons. Still, this particular season should not be considered the be-all-end-all to the extent coaches, skaters, fans, etc., find themselves engaging in and doing silly things to participate in watered-down events. For the athletes, they should concentrate on staying healthy, focused, and smart; their competitive future depends on it.

 

[Gris]

Cup of China released its time schedule.

I'm surprised to see they are still planning to have a gala.

 

[taz'smum]

Cup of China released its time schedule.

I'm surprised to see they are still planning to have a gala.

Not really surprising as internally, China is C19 free, so no need for social distancing.

 

[Sylvia]

China, Russia, France & Japan all listed Galas in their preliminary GP event schedules (I've copied out the schedules from their respective Announcements into this Kiss & Cry thread): https://www.fsuniverse.net/forum/th...s-published-in-the-6-gp-announcements.107666/

Skate Canada is the only GP that has scheduled all virtual meetings/round table discussions (scroll to page 10): https://www.isu.org/docman-document...-skate-canada-international-announcement/file

 

[morqet]

Cancelled: 2020 Skate Canada International

In consultation with the City of Ottawa and the Government of Ontario, Skate Canada has made the difficult decision to cancel the 2020 Skate Canada International. The event was scheduled to take place from October 30-31, 2020 in Ottawa, Ont., at TD Arena. We are incredibly thankful for the...

skatecanada.ca

Skate Canada is now cancelled.

 

[Orm Irian]

I'm frankly amazed at the rather full entry list for Warsaw Cup, given Poland's increasingly bad lurgi situation. But I expect entries to be whittled down a lot over the next few weeks, even if the event isn't cancelled, and I'm seriously wondering whether Golden Spin will get to go ahead.

 

[Sylvia]

I'm frankly amazed at the rather full entry list for Warsaw Cup, given Poland's increasingly bad lurgi situation. But I expect entries to be whittled down a lot over the next few weeks, even if the event isn't cancelled

I've started a competition thread for Warsaw Cup in Kiss & Cry: https://www.fsuniverse.net/forum/threads/2020-warsaw-cup-nov-12-15.107673/

Event site: http://cspol2020.pl/en
Entries as of Oct. 14: http://www.isuresults.com/events/fsevent00110241.htm

 

[cholla]

Grenoble under curfew for at least 4 weeks... 9 p.m. : everybody home. Uho

 

[Sylvia]

Copying over from the Australian news thread:

This message was posted on the 2021 Four Continents Facebook page:

Due to the *********-19 *********, tickets for the ISU Four Continents Figure Skating Championships 2021 have been postponed until further notice. Thank you for all the inquiries and we will keep you notified of the progress of this event.

Link to today's post: https://www.facebook.com/4CC2021.Sydney/posts/200580981495990

I think the part bolded by me below is new? https://www.croskate.hr/efsc2021/tikets

Due to Covid-19 restrictions ticket sale for the ISU European Figure Skating Championships® [25-31 January 2021] is postponed [FAQ still says "We are forced to wait until November 1, at least until it is confirmed what number of spectators will be allowed at the ice rink."].
The Organizing Committee would like to create a secure environment for all the spectators, while also wanting to create a fantastic experience for our skating fans.
According to the new measurements that are in force, there is no audience allowed at the Practice Ice rink at this point and for the Competition arena the number spectators will be limited.
The Organizing Committee sincerely apologizes for any inconvenience this may cause but we hope for your understanding in these uncertain times.
Please be so kind to follow our web site for any new updates

I had posted links to the four ISU Championship Announcements on Oct. 1 earlier in this thread: https://www.fsuniverse.net/forum/th...21-skating-season.107193/page-35#post-5869047

 

[Sylvia]

Tweeted by Phil Hersh 2 hours ago: https://twitter.com/olyphil/status/1316462437894418438

@USFigureSkating just reconfirmed to me that Skate America still is a go for Oct. 23-25 in Las Vegas and added that, despite cancellation of Skate Canada, @jasonbskates has decided to stay at his Canada training base rather than deal with travel issues to get to Skate America.

 

[Orm Irian]

Tweeted by Phil Hersh 2 hours ago: https://twitter.com/olyphil/status/1316462437894418438

Jason Brown has more sense and better risk assessment capability than the whole of USFS, it seems.

 

[Sylvia]

Cross-posting Gilles/Poirier's CBC video interview here & in the SCI cancelled thread: https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/1806952003545

ETA:

Article by The Canadian Press' Lori Ewing in the Toronto Star with quotes from Kirsten Moore-Towers and Michael Slipchuk: https://tinyurl.com/y3wxtsdv
Excerpts:

The Canadian championships are scheduled for Jan. 11-17 in Vancouver, and will likely be held with no fans, according to Skate Canada’s high performance director Mike Slipchuk.
...
“With the skaters who are tracking for Olympics, we’re really (telling them) ‘You’re in a kind of a year-and-a-half plan to Beijing,’” Slipchuk said. “And whatever competitive opportunities that we can have them do this year, it’s a bonus, And then hopefully next year, we get into more of a semi-normal or normal system.”
Slipchuk said if there’s a silver lining to the forced break, it’s that athletes have had the chance to get fully healthy, plus focus on skills they wouldn’t have had the time for otherwise.
“When we’ve been out on athlete visits, we’ve seen new jumps, basic skating has improved . . . and it’s only going to make them better as we move forward,” he said.

Moore-Towers and Marinaro plan to “compete” in the Skate Canada Challenge, which in a regular season would be a qualifier for bigger national events. The Challenge was scheduled for Edmonton, but has been replaced by a remote event that will have skaters perform their programs at their home arenas, but under competitive rules, with full costumes, etc., then submit video.
“It’s a different situation that we’re trying to navigate just like everybody else, we miss Team Canada and all the opportunities we have to see our teammates and to take advice, and to get better and improve our craft because ultimately our big goal is Olympics and regardless of what happens now, we hope to still be our best there,” Moore-Towers said. “And so we need to figure out what the best way is to to continually improve in the best way we can right now.”

The change in format for the Skate Canada Challenge was announced on October 7 and the press release was linked from here: https://www.fsuniverse.net/forum/th...ying-season-announcement.107562/#post-5874269

 

[cholla]

Grenoble under curfew for at least 4 weeks... 9 p.m. : everybody home. Uho

Sorry for the self-quote but... the good news this morning is that the curfew doesn't apply to sport competitions. Let's see how it all turn out.

 

[Deleted member 221]

There's a cost and a benefit to everything - accepting risk means weighing the costs and benefits of both options, considering mitigation strategies, and not letting fear drive decisions.

Ice rinks are open. Airplanes are flying. Hotels are open. Larger events, sporting and otherwise, are already happening. Of course Skate America can and should go ahead, just as various European events have. This is a typical level of risk in a post-C*vid world.

Crossing a (closed) international border is a very different, atypical level of risk. I wouldn't do it either if I were Jason Brown.

 

[Japanfan]

Has there been an announcement that Skate America has been cancelled?

I would think it must have been. And I don't think many people want to go to the US at this time.

 

[misskarne]

Has there been an announcement that Skate America has been cancelled?

I would think it must have been. And I don't think many people want to go to the US at this time.

Quite the reverse. USFS are pushing on with it, of course.

I think one of the truly frustrating things is that Skate Canada may well end up being the only GP actually cancelled, when the reality is that at least three more of them should be. But ya know, if we beat our chests and shout political slogans the virus can't get us, right?

 

[MsZem]

Quite the reverse. USFS are pushing on with it, of course.

I think one of the truly frustrating things is that Skate Canada may well end up being the only GP actually cancelled, when the reality is that at least three more of them should be. But ya know, if we beat our chests and shout political slogans the ***** can't get us, right?

It would be prudent to cancel some of the events, but we won't know for certain if they should have been canceled until afterwards. The Tour de France turned out fine. The Giro... didn't. The MLB season started with multiple positive tests, but has since gone well and they're well into the postseason by now.

It's also a question of what kind of public health measures the organizers are taking. Nebelhorn, very reasonably, had no audience. The French Masters did (does anyone know if there were any cases linked to that?)

 

[gkelly]

Has there been an announcement that Skate America has been cancelled?

I would think it must have been. And I don't think many people want to go to the US at this time.

I thought it was only including people who are already in the US.

Whether they want to go to Las Vegas is another question.

 

[marbri]

I thought it was only including people who are already in the US.

Whether they want to go to Las Vegas is another question.

Aren't the US dance teams that train in Canada going to SA?

 

[Rukia]

Aren't the US dance teams that train in Canada going to SA?

They are scheduled to yes. I have to think they are at least looking at all potential scenarios though...

 

[Sylvia]

From the Skate America Announcement: https://www.isu.org/docman-document...and-prix-2020-skate-america-announcement/file

4.1 Meals and Lodging
The organizer will provide and cover the expenses for rooms and meals for all U.S. Competitors, beginning
with dinner from Monday, October 19, 2020 (due to COV*D Testing requirements) until breakfast on Monday,
October 25, 2020. The expenses for competitors from a GP Member will be covered by the respective GP
Member, while all expenses for rooms and meals for Skaters from other Members will be reimbursed by the
ISU.

For SA, ISR has 2 men & 1 pair based in USA; CAN has 1 man; CHN has 1 lady; HUN has 1 dance team.

 

[cholla]

It's also a question of what kind of public health measures the organizers are taking. Nebelhorn, very reasonably, had no audience. The French Masters did (does anyone know if there were any cases linked to that?)

It's hard to say for sure as a lot of the people who attended the competition weren't local. They were mostly skaters' families, even for the locals. The non-locals went back home in every direction, Paris, Lyon, Bordeaux, Nice, etc. But if some people had been infected at the rink during the competition, I assume we would know, because FS is a tiny microcosm and people love to talk. Villard de Lans dancers, coaches and staff are under quarantine right now. More exactly in isolation for 7 days. Nobody is sick. It is only a regular precautionary measure. One skater was a "cas contact", someone in their family tested positive (but was asymptomatic) so now everybody in the team has to be tested too. They are in insolation until the tests come back. It doesn't seem to be linked to Masters held two weeks ago as the + person wasn't there at the time.

 

[Marco]

If only there is a travel bubble between CHN and KOR. Cup of China needs the Korean ladies.

 

[Vagabond]

Boikova/Kozlovskii withdraw from the Russian Cup due to YKW:

Twitter

Russian pairs continue to get hit hard.

Bringing this here so that it doesn't clutter up #TTW.

If its skaters cannot keep themselves from getting infected, then the FSFR should not be staging competitions, be they domestic ones or the Petit Prix.

 

[Dobre]

More Moskvina skaters. This is just not OK. Everyone within 300 miles of Moskvina needs to go into quarantine.

 

[angi]

Do we know if the ISU is going to stream the GP events on their YouTube channel like they did last year?

 

[Sylvia]

Re-posting from the U.S. Pairs thread since it's on topic for this thread (thanks, @alilou):

Mervin Tran writes about travelling to Skate America:
Airplane ramblings:

Airplane Ramblings

docs.google.com

Here's his tweet from last night with the link: https://twitter.com/skate_moivo/status/1318034312692785152

Excerpt from Mervin:

So here we are; heading off a big ol' non-essential event. It's one of the few amateur sports that has been able to organize on this scale. Despite this "non essential" label, I do believe that what we're doing right now is kind of important to a lot of people. I hope we can facilitate this event successfully in this tricky environment. I know for a fact that the organizers of this event and that US Figure Skating has taken the utmost precautions when it comes to hosting Skate America. When I arrive, I will be immediately tested from the airport and then isolated to my hotel room until I get my results. During the event, we will be in a social bubble quarantined from the population of the city of Las Vegas. It's been made fully aware that we will not be given any warnings of misconduct. We will be ejected if we compromise the event in any way. Is this annoying? Yes. Is it necessary? Abso-f***ing-lutely.

Mervin's latest Instagram story (he's also skate_moivo on IG) -- showing him standing outside with the Orleans hotel in the background -- is captioned: "Test came back undetected! First obstacle completed."

 

[MsZem]

Re-posting from the U.S. Pairs thread:

Here's his tweet from last night with the link: https://twitter.com/skate_moivo/status/1318034312692785152

Excerpt from Mervin:

Mervin's latest Instagram story -- showing him standing outside with the Orleans hotel in the background -- is captioned: "Test came back undetected! First obstacle completed."

I agree with Mervin, and he's often thoughtful and eloquent in his posts. Sports may not be essential, but they are important.
People have had to give up so much these past few months, and whatever we can do that brings us joy (relatively) safely is worth a try. It's necessary for our well-being and our ability to cope.

Of course it requires a lot of precautions to run an event like Skate America, and I hope it'll prove to have been the right decision.

 

[clairecloutier]

Internationaux de France is canceled : https://twitter.com/InTheLoPodcast/status/1318239998798450688

 

[Sabine-Yuna]

Internationaux de France is canceled : https://twitter.com/InTheLoPodcast/status/1318239998798450688

Noooo. Poor skaters. I have no words.