Regarding Stepanova & Bukin . . .
My feelings & expectations are tempered. I don't know if or when we will see them again in international competition. I have doubts about it happening at any time before Russia pulls out of Ukraine or a peace agreement is signed.
But at the moment, I'll set the unknown aside and give my thoughts on S/B if they should return to international competition this season. If we do see them in the near future and S/K really are done (which I think they are), S/B will be #1 for Russia; and it would be folly to think they can't be competitive. (Zhulin or not). However, S&B have taken a season off. Not just internationally, but really off. They also missed the competition this year, and while I think there are early basic training reasons that would/will hold quality Russian skaters in good stead upon a return, I also think this was a big year for the dance teams trying to climb up to be competitive with the current top 3. I think this was a bad year to be off--for S/B, and at the end of the season for Hawayek/Baker & Wang/Liu.
Any climb that could have happened for S/B hasn't happened. Meanwhile, you've got teams that were in that fight all season making that move. Winning a dance here or a dance there. Snagging an upset when a top team wasn't ready. Scoring within a point or two of a team on the podium. Earning the seeding positions that might help teams grab opportune GPs next season. Earning the Worlds placements that will increase teams' PCS and GOE the next time they go out on the ice. Also, I don't know what the political outcome will be for Russian athletes. Their position may very well not be as strong as it once was. In dance, it is both naive to believe every political complaint and naive to believe that politics has no impact on results. For certain, there won't be any home GP with huge Rostelecom marks.
What this leaves me with is middle ground when it comes to expectations. (I had high hopes, you know. I thought this last year would be a great season for this relatively young team with more experience than the athletes below them. That they would push the field, get that big Russian #1 ranking bump, pass a few teams, and by doing so, probably clear the field somewhat at the top for this quadrennium). Now, I don't feel that way. If I were a Fear & Gibson, Hawayek & Baker, or Fournier-Beaudry & Sorensen fan, I would take any return by Stepanova & Bukin quite seriously. Those teams have never defeated S&B and should expect to have a fight on their hands there. If I were one of the three teams on the podium, though, I just wouldn't worry about it. I'd set my career goals for the quadrennium and the season and then let the team that skipped a whole year try to catch up.
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*Zhulin, I would just as soon not see again. His quotes about Nazarova & Nikitin seem to me the type of thing that should send one into the dungeons of no-one-needs-to-hear-from-you-ever-again-in-skating society.
) Doesn't appear that any of them have new partners yet, but not totally certain - maybe the IAM pull factor will help with that. Similarly Olivia Oliver now seems to be based with Zanni/Young Goose.
United States, are now part of the Ice Academy of Montreal in collaboration with their coaches, Joel Dear & Inese Bucevica.
