Pairs Discussion Thread 2021-22

[text_skate]

Looking at the roster, my thoughts:
2 spots for Georgia (likely)
2 spots for Spain (hope for - I like both teams)
Very much rooting for Ziegler/Kiefer to go out on a high note. It was so sad, they weren't able to fulfil their dream and reach the final at OG

 

[Karen-W]

Looking at the roster, my thoughts:
2 spots for Georgia (likely)
2 spots for Spain (hope for - I like both teams)
Very much rooting for Ziegler/Kiefer to go out on a high note. It was so sd, they weren't able to fulfil their dream and reach the final at OG

No way do Broda/Betegon Martin earn two spots for Spain next year. They are lucky there are only 18 teams competing rather than 21, otherwise they'd be competing with Danilova/Tsiba and Jones/Boyadji to not make the FS.

 

[skylark]

It’s been a lackluster season for them at best. And seemingly emotionally draining. Their LP in Beijing was a nice closing moment for them. They may feel at peace with that being their final memory. Once you’ve mentally moved on it’s difficult to keep it going. I respect their decision and am somewhat touched that they are giving up their spot to their close friends Walsh and Michaud.

I've been thinking also that Kirsten and Michael might be including that in their decision -- that they're giving way for Walsh/Michaud to compete at Worlds. After all the outrage/upset KMT put out around the time of nationals, it seems only fair.

All season I've been wondering if their lackluster showings might not have been partially due to having announced their retirement at the beginning of the season. On the one hand, just putting that big "The End" on it could have added pressure on them. Or, conversely, it might have dimmed their motivation a bit. Any thoughts? I seem to recall it was Michael who said last summer that his plans were to immediately go into coaching. So maybe in his head, he was already there.

My mother used to get so "high" getting all the kids ready to travel to grandma's for the week-end that, as my sister and I laughed later, mother was already "outa there" long before we could get in the car. Watching Michael, I wondered if he was already "outa there."

 

[aml78]

I've been thinking also that Kirsten and Michael might be including that in their decision -- that they're giving way for Walsh/Michaud to compete at Worlds. After all the outrage/upset KMT put out around the time of nationals, it seems only fair.

All season I've been wondering if their lackluster showings might not have been partially due to having announced their retirement at the beginning of the season. On the one hand, just putting that big "The End" on it could have added pressure on them. Or, conversely, it might have dimmed their motivation a bit. Any thoughts? I seem to recall it was Michael who said last summer that his plans were to immediately go into coaching. So maybe in his head, he was already there.

My mother used to get so "high" getting all the kids ready to travel to grandma's for the week-end that, as my sister and I laughed later, mother was already "outa there" long before we could get in the car. Watching Michael, I wondered if he was already "outa there."

They were hit hard by the James/Radford news. It derailed the beginning of their season and they just never recovered.

 

[Sylvia]

They were hit hard by the James/Radford news. It derailed the beginning of their season and they just never recovered.

I don’t believe either Moore-Towers or Marinaro have commented publicly on possible injury issues affecting their season? (though @Colonel Green has posted about it)

 

[Areski]

They were hit hard by the James/Radford news. It derailed the beginning of their season and they just never recovered.

But eventually both pairs made it into the Olympics so I think this theory does not hold water.

 

[Fadeevfanboy]

But eventually both pairs made it into the Olympics so I think this theory does not hold water.

It does hold water potentially. Moore & Towers & Marinanaro may have already felt they weren't clearly the Canadian #1 anymore or the one Skate Canada were putting most of their hopes behind. James & Radford were a new and totally unproven team, but a team of two much more accomplished pair skaters. Eric Radford is a legend, and definitely a favorite of Skate Canada. It made sense if your mentality was already shifted by their return. Even if it is unfortunate if that happened.

 

[Sylvia]

Safina/Berulava may not be there, but the other Georgian pair, Metelkina/Parkman are just as good, IMO.

Georgia swapped in Safina/Berulava for Metelkina/Parkman (S/B are in Bergamo, Italy right now & maybe M/P also?): https://results.isu.org/events/wc2022_Pairs.htm

 

[~tapdancer~]

Any news on Barquero/Zandron from Spain? I really enjoyed them from Olympics.

 

[Sylvia]

Any news on Barquero/Zandron from Spain? I really enjoyed them from Olympics.

Unfortunately, Laura tested positive for a banned substance during the Olympics - last page of the GSD news thread:

Adverse Analytical Finding for Spain's Laura Barquero after Olympics Pairs SP

Thank you. So 18 months would likely be the minimum amount of suspension time in Laura's case as well? Depends on the degree of fault that her lawyers can establish on her behalf. Johaug initially argued a No Fault or Negligence and that was nixed by CAS. They did find No Significant Fault...

www.fsuniverse.net

This is why Dorota BRODA / Pedro BETEGON MARTIN will make their Worlds debut for Spain.

 

[~tapdancer~]

Thanks, Sylvia. I remember that happening after the Olympics and was just wondering if anything had come of it yet. I hope it all works out for her.

 

[Sylvia]

Also wondering what's up with Pfund/Santillan. They were named to the Swiss Euros team then withdrawn. I was hoping they'd make it to Montpellier.

Jessica Pfund & Joshua Santillan had hoped to be named to their first World team by the Swiss federation but explain what happened in their blog post as well as their immediate & future plans (March 17):

Final Blog – Joshica’s Blog

 

[Sylvia]

"With many top athletes missing from the 2022 world figure skating championships, the Canadian pairs team [James/Radford] speaks with Dylan Moscovitch and Asher Hill about how that affects the tone of the event." - 5 min. video: https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/2014336579605

 

[Sylvia]

Cain-Gribble/LeDuc's pre-Worlds media call recapped in 5 tweets: https://twitter.com/fsonline/status/1504153978208145408

Excerpt:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1504157751739666438

 

[Sylvia]

Today Ioulia Chtchetinina announced the end of her 3-season partnership with Hungary’s Mark Magyar: https://www.instagram.com/p/CbVYTB9I2xm/

Their ISU bio: http://www.isuresults.com/bios/isufs00108383.htm

ETA that she says she will “mostly be in Switzerland” from March-May and is available for on and off ice lessons: https://www.instagram.com/p/CazVPE-oAjU/

 

[Karen-W]

Today Ioulia Chtchetinina announced the end of her 3-season partnership with Hungary’s Mark Magyar: https://www.instagram.com/p/CbVYTB9I2xm/

Their ISU bio: http://www.isuresults.com/bios/isufs00108383.htm

Not necessarily a surprise as he has a young son and it seemed pretty clear he was probably ready to move on after this season.

 

[Sylvia]

Two new French pairs announced:

Océane Piegad (she's new to pairs previously skated with Rémi Belmonte. most recently at 2021 CS Warsaw Cup) and Denys Strekalin on Feb. 4, 2022 - their joint IG account: https://www.instagram.com/piegad_strekalin

Coline Keriven and Tom Bouvart (believe he's new to pairs) today, to be coached by Bruno Massot in Caen and Claude Perri in Paris: https://www.instagram.com/p/CbX4QMmorOJ/

 

[Sylvia]

We're down to 14 pairs at Worlds with 4 withdrawals before the SP draw:

Anastasia GOLUBEVA / Hektor GIOTOPOULOS MOORE AUS 1 (debut) - reportedly she could not get a visa
Jelizaveta ZUKOVA / Martin BIDAR CZE - her ankle has not healed enough since the Olympics, according to Czech Skating: https://www.instagram.com/p/CbKw4iLq-5F/
Sara CONTI / Niccolo MACII ITA 11 (debut) - he tested positive: https://www.instagram.com/p/CbZ6hVxsRdK/
Rebecca GHILARDI / Filippo AMBROSINI ITA - she tested positive: https://www.instagram.com/p/CbZr88BLiAQ/

 

[Wyliefan]

KMT says she had a bad case of the crud right after the Olympics.

https://twitter.com/Kirsten_MT/status/1506065280069480449

 

[Belsornia]

KMT says she had a bad case of the crud right after the Olympics.

https://twitter.com/Kirsten_MT/status/1506065280069480449

How does KMT manage to come across so perky even when she's writing about being horribly ill?

Also, I have been on FSU how long and I only now realised that the perky gremlin has a perky ponytail and isn't a guy in a weird hat.

 

[Karen-W]

Looking ahead to next season (but not starting a new thread because we still have Jr Worlds), here are the seeded teams for the GP next season:

Assuming the same criteria for GP seeding is applied to next season... This is going to be REALLY interesting:

Seeded 1-6 (guaranteed 2) if any of these teams retire then the teams in the Seeded 7-10 group move up in order to Seeded 1-6 status
1 - Knierim/Frazier USA
2 - Miura/Kihara JPN
3 - James/Radford CAN
4 - Safina/Berulava GEO
5 - Hase/Seegert GER
6 - Walsh/Michaud CAN

Seeded 7-10 (guaranteed 2) - if any of these teams retire then the teams ranked 11 & lower move up in order to Seeded 7-10 status
7 - Ziegler/Kiefer* AUT
7 - Kovalev/Kovalev FRA
8 - Danilova/Tsiba NED
10 - Jones/Boyadji* GBR
9 - Broda/Betegon Martin ESP
12 - Kops/Krasnopolski* ISR
Teams crossed out have announced their retirements

 

[Karen-W]

Vaananen/Akulov FIN are no longer skating together per Milania's IG post today -

Watch this story by Milania Kristiina Väänänen on Instagram before it disappears.

2,429 Followers, 1,728 Following, 14 Posts

instagram.com

 

[Gris]

Biography Removed - Ice Partner Search

I have removed my biography from Ice Partner Search.

www.icepartnersearch.com

Dorota Broda is on IPS.

 

[Amy L]

So now we're possibly back down to zero Spanish pairs if Baquero doesn't get her suspension lifted I loved that there were so many OES pairs this year but we probably won't see that number again until it gets closer to the 2026 O's.

 

[Karen-W]

So now we're possibly back down to zero Spanish pairs if Baquero doesn't get her suspension lifted I loved that there were so many OES pairs this year but we probably won't see that number again until it gets closer to the 2026 O's.

Hell, at the rate these teams are splitting up, we'll be lucky to have 6 seeded teams on the GP this fall - assuming James/Radford and Hase/Seegert both retire that is. Between the usual post-Olympic attrition and the likelihood that Russian skaters will be banned (or unable to obtain visas for countries like France, Canada, the USA and Japan), there are a lot of teams that are going to receive two assignments. It's going to be a really interesting season...

 

[Colonel Green]

Hell, at the rate these teams are splitting up, we'll be lucky to have 6 seeded teams on the GP this fall - assuming James/Radford and Hase/Seegert both retire that is.

The Germans were continuing, last I heard.

 

[Karen-W]

Biography Removed - Ice Partner Search

I have removed my biography from Ice Partner Search.

www.icepartnersearch.com

Dorota Broda is on IPS.

Spanish Fed posted an announcement today that Pedro is training as a pharmacist, so it sounds like he is retiring.

RFEDH on Instagram: "⛸️ @dorotabroda & @pedrobetegon separan sus caminos Pedro se dispone a seguir su formación como farmacéutico, mientras que Dorota ha iniciado la búsqueda de nueva pareja sobre el hielo ¡Mucha suerte a ambos con vuestros proyect

196 likes, 10 comments - fedhielo on April 12, 2022: "⛸️ @dorotabroda & @pedrobetegon separan sus caminos Pedro se dispone a seguir su formación como farmacéutico, mientras que Dorota ha iniciado la búsqueda de nueva pareja sobre el hielo ¡Mucha suerte a ambos con vuestros proyectos y gracias...

www.instagram.com

 

[Sylvia]

Just a heads up that the World Junior Championships 2022 subforum in the Kiss & Cry section of this forum is currently open to all - the Skating ISU's YouTube channel is scheduled to livestream the Junior Pairs SP at 11:30 am Eastern time tomorrow (Thursday, April 14 after the Junior Men SP, and play-by-play threads will be created in the subforum.

Junior Pairs - Short Program Starting Order
StN. Name Nation
Warm-Up Group 1
1 Brooke McINTOSH / Benjamin MIMAR CAN (unranked)
2 Letizia ROSCHER / Luis SCHUSTER GER (WS 76-tie)
3 Oxana VOUILLAMOZ / Flavien GINIAUX FRA (WS 78-tie)
Warm-Up Group 2
4 Chloe PANETTA / Kieran THRASHER CAN (WS 70-tie)
5 Alyssa MONTAN / Filippo CLERICI ITA (WS 74)
6 Barbora KUCIANOVA / Lukas VOCHOZKA CZE (WS 63)
Warm-Up Group 3
7 Anastasiia SMIRNOVA / Danylo SIIANYTSIA USA (WS 42-tie)
8 Violetta SIEROVA / Ivan KHOBTA UKR (WS 62)
9 Karina SAFINA / Luka BERULAVA GEO (WS 21)
10 Anastasia GOLUBEVA / Hektor GIOTOPOULOS MOORE AUS (WS 59)

(Note: Isabelle Martins & Ryan Bedard, who split after U.S. Nationals, had a WS ranking of 58; this would have been their first Junior Worlds. )

 

[Sylvia]

Quad Salchow throw landed in practice by Oxana VOUILLAMOZ / Flavien GINIAUX, coached by Bruno Massot: https://www.instagram.com/p/CcSzvAJtHs-/

 

[Karen-W]

World Standings and Season's Best were updated after the Jr Worlds FS.

WS Top 24 (guaranteed 1 GP assignment) - I've extended the list since it seems pretty certain the 6 Russian teams in the top 24 won't be on the GP next season (and there's a 7th team that is ranked 29th), and crossed out the teams who have already split or announced their retirement.

* = 2 assignments guaranteed based on Worlds placement

1 Mishina/Galliamov RUS
2 Tarasova/Morozov RUS
3 Sui/Han CHN
4 Boikova/Kozlovskii RUS
5 Cain-Gribble/LeDuc USA
6 Knierim/Frazier USA*
7 Peng/Jin CHN
8 Miura/Kihara JPN*
9 Hase/Seegert GER*
10 Moore-Towers/Marinaro CAN
11 Ghilardi/Ambrosini ITA
12 Lu/Mitrofanov USA
13 Della Monica/Guarise ITA
14 James/Radford CAN*
15 Ziegler/Kiefer AUT
16 Walsh/Michaud CAN*
17 Pavliuchenko/Khodykin RUS
18 Calalang/Johnson USA
19 Chtchetinina/Magyar HUN
20 Artemeva/Nazarychev RUS
21 Safina/Berulava GEO*
22 Pepleva/Pleshkov RUS
23 Hocke/Kunkel GER
24 Jones/Boyadji GBR
25 Conti/Macii ITA
26 Chan/Howe USA
27 Smirnova/Siianytsia USA
28 Barquero/Zandron ESP - status unknown due to her drug suspension
29 Akhanteva/Kolesov RUS
30 Danilova/Tsiba NED*
31 Stellato-Dudek/Deschamps CAN

The following teams are on the SB Top 75 and had a total score of 132.65+ (60% of Knierim/Frazier's World Championship-winning total score), so they are eligible for GP assignments:

** = likely staying junior

19 Metelkina/Parkman GEO
29 Liu/O'Shea USA
32 Golubeva/Giotopoulos Moore AUS
34 Matte/Ferland CAN
35 McBeath/Bartholomay USA
38 Kops/Krasnopolski ISR
40 Petranovic/Souza Kordeiru CRO
41 Wang/Huang CHN
44 Pavlova/Nagy HUN
46 Zukova/Bidar CZE
47 McIntosh/Mimar CAN
48 Kovalev/Kovalev FRA*
51 Roscher/Schuster GER
52 Sierova/Khobta UKR**
53 Keriven/Pierre FRA
55 Holichenko/Darenskyi UKR
56 Caldara/Maglio ITA
57 Pfund/Santillan SUI
59 Martins/Bedard USA
60 Chernyshova/Windsor AUS
61 Vaananen/Akulov FIN
62 Broda/Betegon/Martin ESP*
63 Crafoord/Crafoord SWE

Hosts aren't bound by the total score minimum, so I fully expect that France will assign Keriven/Bouvart and Piegad/Strekalin to IdF, and I won't be surprised if both the USA and CAN keep at least 1 if not 2 host spots open for newly formed teams (Collier/Mitrofanov, Proft/Nadeau, etc).

So, all told, right now, there are 30 eligible teams from 14 countries for the 48 GP spots in pairs (really, probably closer to 42-44 since some of those host spots are going to be held back). It's going to be an interesting season, for sure.