This quad/season is over. What will happen in the next?

rfisher

Let the skating begin
Messages
76,317
Who would have predicted this quad? Stars rising. Stars falling. Drug drama. Injuries. This time 4 years ago, it looked like Savchenko's career was over with her never getting the elusive OGM. Stolbova/Klimov would be the golden team. Gracie Gold would live up to her name. Ice dance was wide open. Then......

My predictions: Russia will continue to dominate juniors.
Seniors: not a clue.
 
There will be retirements in the next 2 years. I see Montreal 2020 as the end of the road for some skaters - not just Canadians.

Ladies at Worlds has shown there is no 100% clear frontrunner there. One would have thought Zagitova had enough momentum to do it all, but even she isn't invincible. I do think the Russians will be the country to beat in ladies for the next quad, but they can be beaten. I also think Zagitova will reconsider completely backloading (though she'll still have most jumps in the second half). I also think that Kaetlyn will stay in until Montreal 2020 at the latest (hopefully Canada will have some strong ladies coming up by then)

I'd love for Sui/Han to dominate pairs, but I don't think there's a clear frontrunner there either. If T/M focus more on their strengths (though I applaud them for trying something different), they could be very difficult to beat. I don't think there's a clear third pair at this time.

Mens will depend a lot on Hanyu, though even this past quad, he wasn't unbeatable. There's a lot of men who have a real shot at winning events, though sadly (IMO) Canadian men won't really be in the mix for a little while (and Canadian mens events will be a complete crapshoot for the next little while).

Right now we're seeing no real challengers for the gold in dance. While I loved Moonlight Sonata, I still find P/C very overmarked in a lot of ways, but I digress. In dance, I think the biggest competition will continue to be over who places on the podium with them. I don't get the H/D love (I personally find them clunky and boring), but it seems judges have been wanting to have them up there the last few years, and now they've reached the podium.
 
I totally agree Screech; however, I think the retirements might come in the next couple of months. There are so many teams that I think are likely to retire. I also think it may mean that some teams that we expect to retire may not retire because of the opportunity.
 
I am very curious as to what will come from the proposed ISU rule changes, particularly in singles. :watch: Would they incentivize men to stop trying for a variety of quads and concentrate on the ones they do well? Would it encourage artistry (not sure how, if armography would truly be counted as TR :yikes:) How difficult would it be to skate a 4 minute FS vs. a 4 1/2 minute FS?

The proposed "athletic" and "artistic" programs change stands out as ridiculous. Also, I am not holding my breath for the ISU to actually use their own rules. I would guess that the GOE will now be the way to control results.
 
I hope that there’s serious changes to the scoring system to mitigate the injuries to young bodies and to limit doing things that are ugly (repeated anything) or make programs uneven (backloading).

Someone on a thread somewhere suggested raising the age for “ladies” to 18. With the scoring emphasizing skinny girls (and boys) rotating like crazy, I’m not so sure that isn’t a bad suggestion.
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top
Do Not Sell My Personal Information