Skate Canada names teams for 4CC and Junior Worlds

[danafan]

Skate Canada Names Teams for 2024 ISU Championships

CALGARY, AB (January 14, 2024) – Following the completion of the 2024 Canadian National Skating Championships, Skate Canada has named its teams for two upcoming ISU Championships. The week-long championships were held at Calgary’s WinSport Arena from January 8-14, 2024 and featured junior and...

skatecanada.ca

Athletes competing at the 2024 ISU World Figure Skating Championships in Montreal, Canada, will be announced at a later date.

Four Continents Team

Women
Sara-Maude Dupuis
Justine Miclette
Madeline Schizas

Men
Wesley Chiu
Conrad Orzel
Roman Sadovsky

Pair
Kelly Ann Laurin & Loucas Éthier
Lia Pereira & Trennt Michaud
Deanna Stellato-Dudek & Maxime Deschamps

Ice Dance
Laurence Fournier Beaudry & Nikolaj Soerensen
Marjorie Lajoie & Zachary Lagha
Piper Gilles & Paul Poirier

Junior Worlds Team
Women
Lulu Lin
Kaiya Ruiter

Men
Anthony Paradis
Aleksa Rakic

Pair
Ava Kemp & Yohnatan Elizarov
Martina Ariano Kent & Charly Laliberté-Laurent

Ice Dance
Alisa Korneva & Kieran MacDonald
Chloe Nguyen & Brendan Giang
Layla Veillon & Alexander Brandys

 

[danafan]

ISU lists for 4CC are updated with the Canadian entries.

https://results.isu.org/events/fsevent00117464.htm

No subs listed in women's or pairs (even though there are skaters with minimums) but Newnham listed as a sub in mens and three subs listed in dance (Lauriault/LeGac, Bachynska/Beamount and Fabbri/Ayer)

 

[fan]

And Hetti Shi gets the annual skate Canada FU (see last year’s Bombardier treatment…)

 

[Karen-W]

Lmao. I know people here like to rag on Rakic's poor technique but passing him over for the 4CCs team in favor of Sadovsky is madness. Nope nope nope. You would never see this kind of asinine decison-making out of the JSF, KSF or USFS. This is right up there with the FFSG assigning Aymoz to both Euros and Worlds despite his meltdowns at both the GPF and French Nationals and at least with Aymoz you can see the rationale in the sense that Kevin HAD made the GPF and HAD finished 4th at Worlds & Euros last season. Sadovsky does NOT have that sort of track record and it really doesn't matter if he was injured early in the fall or had a string of bad luck when it came to his travel woes for the two late fall Challengers he WD from. Tell him to call it a freakin' season and assign your up-and-coming junior guy who finished SECOND at Nats, by a WIDE margin over the bronze medalist, to 4CCs. Rakic earned the opportunity to get MORE WS points by competing at 4CCs than he'll ever get by competing at Jr Worlds. Plus, he deserves the chance to be in the conversation for one of the 2 Worlds spots that Canada has this year. Utter folly from Skate Canada by not naming him to the 4CCs team.

Also, as far as Ruiter is concerned - Skate Canada DID screw up in giving her the WYOG assignment, whether "by all accounts she really wants that opportunity" or not - I have yet to see one article or interview from her indicating that the WYOG was one of her goals this season. This is when you sit the skater and her coach down and you say "look, we need to set you up for success next season, and going to 4CCs is going to get you way more WS points than either the WYOG or Jr Worlds again, so, prepare to go to Shanghai." They already screwed her last season in sending her to Jr Worlds instead of 4CCs - though that was at least somewhat understandable given she was coming back from a major injury and hadn't competed much during the fall at all.

Michael Slipchuck and his team really need to be replaced because they continue to make very boneheaded decisions that are absolutely shooting their up-and-coming skaters in the boots.

 

[haribobo]

Justice for Matthew Newnham!

Bummer that Fee-Ann, Foster, and/or Shiryaeva couldn't be assigned to 4CC since they never got min scores. I think Hetty is too young for 4CC.

Rakic already has senior min scores so I am unbothered about him not being at 4CC- they have some very weak options for Jr Worlds without him. He can still get named to Senior Worlds although I am sure they are hoping for some kind of resurgence from Roman or Conrad at 4CC

 

[Colonel Green]

And Hetti Shi gets the annual skate Canada FU (see last year’s Bombardier treatment…)

Shi doesn’t really have a triple Lutz, which is a prohibitive issue in junior this year, where it’s the required solo jump. It wouldn’t make any sense to send her to Junior Worlds.

Lmao. I know people here like to rag on Rakic's poor technique but passing him over for the 4CCs team in favor of Sadovsky is madness. Nope nope nope. You would never see this kind of asinine decison-making out of the JSF, KSF or USFS. This is right up there with the FFSG assigning Aymoz to both Euros and Worlds despite his meltdowns at both the GPF and French Nationals and at least with Aymoz you can see the rationale in the sense that Kevin HAD made the GPF and HAD finished 4th at Worlds & Euros last season. Sadovsky does NOT have that sort of track record and it really doesn't matter if he was injured early in the fall or had a string of bad luck when it came to his travel woes for the two late fall Challengers he WD from. Tell him to call it a freakin' season and assign your up-and-coming junior guy who finished SECOND at Nats, by a WIDE margin over the bronze medalist, to 4CCs.

Rakic really isn’t any more consistent than Sadovsky in competition, and has much worse components and poor technique. It’s doubtful that Roman will pull it together, in my opinion, but I see why they chose to take a flier on him given the circumstances.

 

[Karen-W]

Justice for Matthew Newnham!

Bummer that Fee-Ann, Foster, and/or Shiryaeva couldn't be assigned to 4CC since they never got min scores. I think Hetty is too young for 4CC.

Pretty sure that Landry, Foster and Shiryaeva never had a senior B to try and get the 4CCs mins. I'm too lazy to go look up the Cranberry results so feel free to correct me if one of them was there and just didn't earn the mins.

 

[Karen-W]

Rakic really isn’t any more consistent than Sadovsky in competition, and has much worse components and poor technique. It’s doubtful that Roman will pull it together, in my opinion, but I see why they chose to take a flier on him given the circumstances.

Rakic is also quite a bit younger than Sadovsky, who has had plenty of time and opportunities to get his competition head together. Yet there is always some excuse from his team. It was already old in 2022 and it's even more offensive to the rest of the field now, especially the skaters who did beat him and have the mins.

 

[haribobo]

Correct, I meant they never got the min scores since they were never sent out. Their minimum required score rule is only serving to keep all their promising skaters at home until years go by and suddenly they have no other options.

 

[Karen-W]

Correct, I meant they never got the min scores since they were never sent out. Their minimum required score rule is only serving to keep all their promising skaters at home until years go by and suddenly they have no other options.

I mean, at least they graciously allowed any skaters who wanted to enter Cranberry Cup to do so at their own expense this year, but what if you didn't have the time or money because you were focused on the JGP or live on the other side of the country? The USFS at least supports their developing skaters by having 1-2 senior Bs where entry isn't dictated or controlled by the Int'l Committee (LPIDI, Cranberry, John Nicks IPC, Kings Cup Int'l). If Skate Canada wants to go that same route then they should encourage Patinage Quebec or one of the other sections to turn one of their late summer comps into senior B in the same way as those events in the US - Quebec Ete Championnats already attracts a substantial int'l field in ice dance and I'm sure plenty of pairs teams and singles skaters would make a mid-August trip to Montreal to try and get TES mins early in the season.

 

[jlai]

Re Matthew his scores were close to Roman’s. I do wonder about Rakic.

 

[Aaron MB Fan]

Regarding Sadovsky being selected for 4CCs, I think this comes down to scoring potential. If, and it’s a massive massive if (which I acknowledge as a big fan of his skating), Roman were to skate clean or at least close to his PB, he is far more competitive than Rakic. Sadovsky has the highest PB of any active Canadian men’s skater by a large margin. I think while there is doubt and no natural successor to lead Canadian Men’s skating, Skate Canada will often roll the dice with Sadovsky and hope and pray that he one day has his Paul Wylie moment. Skating close to his PB, he would be close to a Top 10 score at Worlds and I believe his PB wasn’t even clean. If he could ever go clean, he would be very competitive scoring wise. Unfortunately, it’s an if I worry might never occur, but it did one day for Wylie when it counted most, so who knows?

The downside of this approach is that future talent like Rakic don’t get the formative opportunities to gain experience, learn and grow.

 

[honey]

I have questions about how recovered Roman even is. He said before nationals he didn’t even plan on trying the 3A in the long. That indicates to me either he’s not fully recovered, or he is so unreliable with that jump currently that he knows it’s not even worth it to try in the free skate.

Either way, that’s not exactly a wild vote of confidence in his ability to skate clean programs even in practice right now. I’m not sure I’d have gambled on him going to 4CC right now. Scoring potential I’m sure is the reason he got the assignment, but it doesn’t seem to me that there is any reason to believe this will go any differently than nationals did.

 

[screech]

I'm assuming SC is using 4CC as the determining factor for the second man going to Worlds, along with Wesley.

 

[AngieNikodinovLove (ANL)]

Skate Canada Names Teams for 2024 ISU Championships

CALGARY, AB (January 14, 2024) – Following the completion of the 2024 Canadian National Skating Championships, Skate Canada has named its teams for two upcoming ISU Championships. The week-long championships were held at Calgary’s WinSport Arena from January 8-14, 2024 and featured junior and...

skatecanada.ca

Four Continents Team

Women
Sara-Maude Dupuis
Justine Miclette
Madeline Schizas

Men
Wesley Chiu
Conrad Orzel
Roman Sadovsky

Pair
Kelly Ann Laurin & Loucas Éthier
Lia Pereira & Trennt Michaud
Deanna Stellato-Dudek & Maxime Deschamps

Ice Dance
Laurence Fournier Beaudry & Nikolaj Soerensen
Marjorie Lajoie & Zachary Lagha
Piper Gilles & Paul Poirier

Junior Worlds Team
Women
Lulu Lin
Kaiya Ruiter

Men
Anthony Paradis
Aleksa Rakic

Pair
Ava Kemp & Yohnatan Elizarov
Martina Ariano Kent & Charly Laliberté-Laurent

Ice Dance
Alisa Korneva & Kieran MacDonald
Chloe Nguyen & Brendan Giang
Layla Veillon & Alexander Brandys

I guess I’m not understanding. Does their national women’s champion Kaiya not have the minimums for senior worlds or four continents?

And is that four continents ice dance team nailed down? Really they are competing?

 

[danafan]

I guess I’m not understanding. Does their national women’s champion Kaiya not have the minimums for senior worlds or four continents?

This is being discussed in a few other threads. Ruiter has the minimums for 4CC but she’s been assigned to youth Olympics which overlaps with 4CC. They haven’t named the world team yet so she could be named to it pending achieving the TES minimums. We don’t know yet.

And is that four continence ice dance team nailed down? Really they are competing?

They were named to the team after GPF. They did list three subs though so stay tuned with teams actually go.

 

[AngieNikodinovLove (ANL)]

This is being discussed in a few other threads. Ruiter has the minimums for 4CC but she’s been assigned to youth Olympics which overlaps with 4CC. They haven’t named the world team yet so she could be named to it pending achieving the TES minimums. We don’t know yet.



They were named to the team after GPF. They did list three subs though so stay tuned with teams actually go.

Thank You

 

[euterpe]

Kaiya is #44 on ISU World Rankings. YOG doesn't award any ISU Ranking points. Even if she could somehow earn World TES minimums, a B International at best could earn her 250 points, which would move her up only to #40. She'd wind up in one of the earlier groups.

Anyway, I don't trust Skate Canada to send her to an international before Worlds. Kaiya has already been to two WJCs (2020 and 2023), so why send the current Canadian champion to YOG and still another WJC? Seems to me she's getting the Fiona Bombardier treatment.

 

[Samurina]

Kaiya is #44 on ISU World Rankings. YOG doesn't award any ISU Ranking points. Even if she could somehow earn World TES minimums, a B International at best could earn her 250 points, which would move her up only to #40. She'd wind up in one of the earlier groups.

Anyway, I don't trust Skate Canada to send her to an international before Worlds. Kaiya has already been to two WJCs (2020 and 2023), so why send the current Canadian champion to YOG and still another WJC? Seems to me she's getting the Fiona Bombardier treatment.

well kaiya has been given many chances this year and she still has not gotten the Min Score for the SP. Also even if she gets there, there is no way she is going to be as competitive as sending Schizas. i think its good to send her to WYOG as its often a competition skaters like to go to and will give her experience competing on a large stage without the pressure and implications of 4CC and/or Worlds.

 

[Karen-W]

Yes, @euterpe - if I was her team, I would refuse the JWC assignment and request a senior B in February to try and earn the SP TES min she needs for Worlds. Going to JWC is just settling instead of fighting and demanding that the federation support their National Champion.

 

[Vagabond]

Yes, @euterpe - if I was her team, I would refuse the JWC assignment and request a senior B in February to try and earn the SP TES min she needs for Worlds. Going to JWC is just settling instead of fighting and demanding that the federation support their National Champion.

And if Skate Canada declined the request, then what?

Skate Canada might be more concerned about earning more than two entries on next season's Junior Grand Prix than it is about sending a skater to Worlds who is unlikely to qualify for the Free Skating.

 

[Karen-W]

well kaiya has been given many chances this year and she still has not gotten the Min Score for the SP. Also even if she gets there, there is no way she is going to be as competitive as sending Schizas. i think its good to send her to WYOG as its often a competition skaters like to go to and will give her experience competing on a large stage without the pressure and implications of 4CC and/or Worlds.

Bullhockey. She had one Sr intl last season and 3 this season, one of which (Cranberry) she would have had to fund herself since Skate Canada didn't pay for any of their skaters to compete there. Her other two were ACI in mid-September and SCI in late October. Why wasn't she sent out to at least one additional Challenger or European senior B in November? That is NOT "plenty of chances" no matter how you slice it.

WYOG is a pointless competition as far as her future development as a competive skater - and I'd be shocked if the audiences in Gangwon are much larger than the ones she's skated in front of at JWC last year or SCI this year - ie not even close to a full house. It is NOT a comparable event to Worlds or the actual real Olympics, despite what some of you would like to tell yourselves. She absolutely should have been sent to 4CCs instead if WYOG and it's unconscionable that Skate Canada allowed that choice to be made by Ruiter and her team.

 

[Karen-W]

And if Skate Canada declined the request, then what?

Skate Canada might be more concerned about earning more than two entries on next season's Junior Grand Prix than it is about sending a skater to Worlds who is unlikely to qualify for the Free Skating.

Please - Ruiter couldn't earn them 2 entries per JGP last season and she certainly isn't going to manage that feat against the likes of Shimada, Shin, Zhang, or the Swiss girls at JWC. She also hasn't competed junior all season and has been only going to senior events. She is the national champion and should be sent to both 4CCs and Worlds (pending TES mins). The Canadian fed is acting about as idiotically as the Spanish fed did with their initial ice dance assignments.

 

[Vagabond]

Please - Ruiter couldn't earn them 2 entries per JGP last season and she certainly isn't going to manage that feat against the likes of Shimada, Shin, Zhang, or the Swiss girls at JWC. She also hasn't competed junior all season and has been only going to senior events. She is the national champion and should be sent to both 4CCs and Worlds (pending TES mins). The Canadian fed is acting about as idiotically as the Spanish fed did with their initial ice dance assignments.

The issue is not earning two spots to each JGP event; it's earning more than two spots across the entire Junior Grand Prix. If Ruiter can't do  that, why bother sending her to anything else this season?

 

[Karen-W]

The issue is not earning two spots to each JGP event; it's earning more than two spots across the entire Junior Grand Prix. If Ruiter can't do  that, why bother sending her to anything else this season?

Because she is the SENIOR national champion and she had the 4CCs mins and is missing half the Worlds TES min. She should have an opportunity to earn the SP min again and go to Worlds rather than be sent back to JWC for a 3rd time. This is absolutely a similar scenario to when Ashley Wagner was going to be sent to JWC for a 3rd time and she said "nah, pass..."

 

[jlai]

Did we know one way of the other as to whether she actually stated her preference re 4cc?
As a top lady she was consulted re 4cc, or is that a false assumption?

 

[danafan]

Did we know one way of the other as to whether she actually stated her preference re 4cc?
As a top lady she was consulted re 4cc, or is that a false assumption?

Do you mean Ruiter? The YOG team was named on December 5th. Based on the quotes from the Skate Canada article, she is very excited about this opportunity.

“I feel honoured and beyond excited to be named to Canada’s Youth Olympic Games Team,” said Ruiter. “My dream, and what drives my training, is to represent Canada on the grandest stages in figure skating. With this opportunity, I get to compete on the same ice where my idol, Kaetlyn Osmond, won two Olympic medals. I am so proud, and I will do my best for myself, my family and Canada. Thank you to everyone who has supported me to make this dream come true.”

Presumably she knew when accepting this assignment she knew she would not be able to compete at 4CC. And she would have had to indicate her interest and fill in all the appropriate paper work with Skate Canada and the COC in order to be considered for the YOG assignment.

The world team will not be named until after 4CC. Ruiter could still be named to the team pending getting the minimums. We don't know yet.

 

[Private Citizen]

Didn't Ruiter herself select the WYOG? I'm mystified by her decision, but it sounds like it was her decision (with presumably full understanding of what it meant) v. a SC decision.

SC was probably relieved. Schizas is probably still the better bet for Worlds, with higher scoring potential when she's on. With only one spot at Worlds, this allows them to spread the wealth a bit.

If Ruiter wanted Worlds (which I agree she should), she needed to 1) advocate for herself a bit more, and 2) skate smarter to get the minimums! She's giving SC the easy way out by agreeing (even wanting) to skate juniors and not getting the minimums.

 

[Former Lurve Goddess]

Didn't Ruiter herself select the WYOG? I'm mystified by her decision, but it sounds like it was her decision (with presumably full understanding of what it meant) v. a SC decision.

SC was probably relieved. Schizas is probably still the better bet for Worlds, with higher scoring potential when she's on. With only one spot at Worlds, this allows them to spread the wealth a bit.

If Ruiter wanted Worlds (which I agree she should), she needed to 1) advocate for herself a bit more, and 2) skate smarter to get the minimums! She's giving SC the easy way out by agreeing (even wanting) to skate juniors and not getting the minimums.

I remember the Phaneuf situation in 2004 when apparently it was her team who wanted her at Junior Worlds over Senior Worlds. The decision looked pretty silly when Phaneuf won the silver (1st in the free!) at 4CC but then she only placed 10th at junior worlds. If Ruiter hadn't lost so much training/competition time to serious injury in 2021-22, perhaps this entire discussion would be moot.

 

[Habs]

I am still stunned at the passion some people have for Kaiya's assignments.