So, after listening to the episode last night, I went through every single senior & junior ice dance tech panel for the season and there are 5 tech panels which didn't include anyone from the Worlds 2025 Top 5 (USA, CAN, GBR, ITA) or potential Olympic Top 5 (USA, CAN, FRA, GBR, ITA) nations. No, I don't think for one second that there will be a French person on the tech panel even though LopBri weren't top 5 last year (they did, after all, medal at Euros).
Here are the options:
1) Nepela -
TC - Pethes HUN, TS - Grincova SVK & Krystskaya POL
2) Trialeti -
TC - Pethes HUN, TS - Fraser-Lukanin AZE, Gijtenbeek NED
3) Trophee Metropole Nice Cote d'Azur -
TC - Baumann GER, TS - Akimova UKR, Gijtenbeek NED
4) Warsaw -
TC - Budner-Szuman POL, TS - Fraser-Lukanin AZE, Gustafsson FIN
5) Tallinn -
TC - Baumann GER, TS - Grincova SVK, Gustafsson FIN
My bet is either the Nepela or Trialeti panel is the Olympic panel -
@thvu specifically name-dropped Pethes while he & Tony were discussing this tidbit. Germany & Finland both have teams in the ice dance event and the easiest way to avoid any accusations is to just not have any of the panel members have any competitors in the event. I lean a little more toward Trialeti because Poland may wind up with a team in the Team Event.