U.S. Pairs 2021-22 season - News & Updates, Part X

[Karen-W]

You are making a distinction between nonbinary and transgender that does not exist. Transgender means having a different gender than the one you were assigned at birth. It does not specifically mean identifying as a binary gender. Transgender is an umbrella term that includes nonbinary, genderqueer, etc. While not all nonbinary people would specifically use the label transgender for themselves, laws that target transgender people fundamentally and explicitly target nonbinary people as well as all people who do not fall neatly into the gender binary. This is a fact. Whether it had to do with Tim's choice to move or not, the laws in the state of Texas target all transgender people whether they identify as men, women, nonbinary, genderqueer, or something else.

And none of this matters since it really is NONE OF OUR BUSINESS why Timothy and partner moved from Dallas to Chicago. Asking the question, putting it out in the ether, only begets needless speculation that is NOT based on any factual information from Timothy. Until and unless they choose to share their reasons for moving, it's really just gross speculation from fans and we are the last people who have any right to speculating much less knowing anything beyond what they choose to share.

 

[Theatregirl1122]

And none of this matters since it really is NONE OF OUR BUSINESS why Timothy and partner moved from Dallas to Chicago. Asking the question, putting it out in the ether, only begets needless speculation that is NOT based on any factual information from Timothy. Until and unless they choose to share their reasons for moving, it's really just gross speculation from fans and we are the last people who have any right to speculating much less knowing anything beyond what they choose to share.

Okay, but I am still asking you to use the words correctly.

 

[Trillian]

And none of this matters since it really is NONE OF OUR BUSINESS why Timothy and partner moved from Dallas to Chicago. Asking the question, putting it out in the ether, only begets needless speculation that is NOT based on any factual information from Timothy. Until and unless they choose to share their reasons for moving, it's really just gross speculation from fans and we are the last people who have any right to speculating much less knowing anything beyond what they choose to share.

People speculate all the time about why skaters might have made a move - there’s been a lot of recent discussion about how Russia’s invasion of Ukraine might have impacted various skaters’ training plans, and that’s not exactly an apolitical situation. I would consider potentially harmful gossip to be “so-and-so moved because she hated her coach,” not this.

Timothy has been open about their gender identity. The state of Texas has been open about the legislation they’ve passed. No one is revealing private information or claiming any knowledge of personal motives. People are just commenting on the relative safety and legal protections a person will likely have living in one place instead of the other place. This really isn’t that different from a lot of other conversations.

 

[Willin]

Honestly I don't think Timothy's transfer would have to do with much other than jobs. Skating is growing in Dallas, but there's still not much elite talent. In Chicago there's a ton of skaters who could go elite, but not enough elite coaches to meet all their needs. The synchro scene is also wanting more pair's coaches to help with pairs elements. I could see Timothy being recruited heavily by Chicagoland clubs in search of more coaching prowess.

 

[Ena Grins]

I'm the original poster wondering if Timothy's move could be related to the political environment in Texas. And yes, I was aware Timothy's from Iowa, as a former resident of both Iowa and Illinois myself In all likelihood it did have to do with opportunities or being close to family. I get the sense they also had an extremely supportive and fulfilling training environment with Ashley and her family. But we'd have to be blind to ignore that political environments may not also have an impact.

Although Texas's current law may be targeting trans youth and the families and professionals who try to provide them supportive and affirmative care, these types of laws are often one step towards others that target other queer or gender non-conforming individuals.

Why is wondering if a move is related to a sociopolitical environment so much grosser than wondering if a move is related to job opportunities or being closer to family?

 

[Trillian]

Honestly I don't think Timothy's transfer would have to do with much other than jobs. Skating is growing in Dallas, but there's still not much elite talent.

To be fair, the Dallas area had a ton of talent over a decade or so - they just moved en masse to Boston a couple of years ago. The coaches and skaters from that group have all talked about ice time getting more and more limited due to shifting focus to hockey. Because of that, I’d imagine it would be a tough place to launch a coaching career regardless of the talent pool. Ashley is fortunate to be able to work with her parents.

In Chicago there's a ton of skaters who could go elite, but not enough elite coaches to meet all their needs. The synchro scene is also wanting more pair's coaches to help with pairs elements. I could see Timothy being recruited heavily by Chicagoland clubs in search of more coaching prowess.

Chicago’s interesting because there have generally been a few national or even international-caliber coaches there at any given time. I’ve always wondered what other factors are at play (limited ice time? hellish traffic?). There are a lot of families with serious money in the suburbs, so it seems like there would be potential for a stronger figure skating presence to develop.

 

[skatfan]

I've seen plenty of people ask something, presenting it as an innocuous wondering, with the full intent of it gaining traction and taking on a life of its own. I'm not accusing anyone (especially @skatfan) of asking that question with the intent of turning it into gossip-as-truth, but it does happen a

Oh please just stop. You totally were calling me out for this. You made assumptions about everyone else’s intentions. Also, stop pretending you are doing this to protect Timothy‘s privacy. You are not exactly the poster child advocate for the LGBTQIA community.

 

[Willin]

To be fair, the Dallas area had a ton of talent over a decade or so - they just moved en masse to Boston a couple of years ago. The coaches and skaters from that group have all talked about ice time getting more and more limited due to shifting focus to hockey. Because of that, I’d imagine it would be a tough place to launch a coaching career regardless of the talent pool. Ashley is fortunate to be able to work with her parents.



Chicago’s interesting because there have generally been a few national or even international-caliber coaches there at any given time. I’ve always wondered what other factors are at play (limited ice time? hellish traffic?). There are a lot of families with serious money in the suburbs, so it seems like there would be potential for a stronger figure skating presence to develop.

Rinks in Chicago are often public and run by cities/towns' park districts. There are a few private rinks, but many have to split time between public park activities (hockey, high school hockey, public events, private rentals, etc) to a much greater extent than other rinks and as a result have less control over ice time. Growing up I knew elite track skaters who would have to go to multiple rinks in one day for enough ice. Personally my rink closed for 1-3 months of maintenance/upgrades each year so I'd have to drive two towns over to train in the summer.

Edit: I forgot to add this - unlike other metros (Boston, LA, Detroit, etc.) where you have a one stop shop of elite coaches and you only need one rink to get all your coaching (you can even do all your lessons in one freestyle), in Chicago elite coaches are very spread out. So you may have your jump coach in Northbrook, your spin coach in Skokie, and your head coach in Wilmette. There are enough rinks but few enough elite coaches where each can have a sort of monopoly at each rink. Basically, driving around to rinks is also a huge factor.

There's also a lot more opportunities that are cheaper to skate other than elite, and many, many skaters choose that: ISI, local shows, elite synchro, etc. While families there do have a lot of money, a lot of them don't have as much as you'd think.

 

[Karen-W]

Oh please just stop. You totally were calling me out for this. You made assumptions about everyone else’s intentions. Also, stop pretending you are doing this to protect Timothy‘s privacy. You are not exactly the poster child advocate for the LGBTQIA community.

I never presented myself as such, take your and toss it in the trash can.

It's awfully rich of you to make any assumptions about my intentions while calling me out for doing the same. There are other sub-forums here that are probably a better place to express myself more fully on issues of privacy and culture, in general, but this is something that's been on my mind for a few weeks due to a personal project. There's a faction of the online fandom that seem to believe it is their place to extrapolate what little we do know about many skaters into some sort of silent commentary on a greater societal issue. All I'm saying is sometimes, an orange is an orange, or that we don't know what X is in the algebraic equation we're trying to solve because we're missing Y and Z to the Nth power since the skater in question has kept that information private, and maybe we should just back off with the "concerned" questions that are nothing more than a mask for being nosy.

 

[nlloyd]

I never presented myself as such, take your and toss it in the trash can.

It's awfully rich of you to make any assumptions about my intentions while calling me out for doing the same. There are other sub-forums here that are probably a better place to express myself more fully on issues of privacy and culture, in general, but this is something that's been on my mind for a few weeks due to a personal project. There's a faction of the online fandom that seem to believe it is their place to extrapolate what little we do know about many skaters into some sort of silent commentary on a greater societal issue. All I'm saying is sometimes, an orange is an orange, or that we don't know what X is in the algebraic equation we're trying to solve because we're missing Y and Z to the Nth power since the skater in question has kept that information private, and maybe we should just back off with the "concerned" questions that are nothing more than a mask for being nosy.

I honestly don't understand where you're coming from with this concern for Timothy's privacy. If people were speculating about Timothy's gender or sexual identity and they hadn't come out, I would understand it. However, people are simply speculating about why Timothy moved and that speculation isn't particularly personal, in my opinion. It simply brings together the environment in which Timothy found themself with their self-professed identity. Both are publicly known facts. Worst case scenario, in your approach, is that people say Timothy left Texas because it was not welcoming to transgender people. If there's an element of truth in it, I can't see Timothy being upset. If it's completely incorrect, same thing, because underlying it all is the fact that Texas is not welcoming to transgender people. Timothy is not responsible for that and neither would their leaving Texas for that reason reflect badly on them. It's just something LGBTQ+ people often need to do. For me it's similar to saying that many LGBTQ+ people leave rural areas to go to the cities because they are more welcoming.

 

[LilJen]

Here's a picture of participants at pairs camp this week:

https://twitter.com/USFigureSkating/status/1536030568877391873/photo/1

I see Alexei Letov, but no Chan/Howe or Collier/Mitrofanov? And Trudy Oltmanns, but no Smirnova/Siianytsia. (I may be missing people though, I'm not that great at recognizing faces.)

Chase Finster also doesn't seem to be there. I wonder if he is going to continue with pairs.

Will never understand why Alena and Sasha Lunin (coaches in Fort Wayne and both past pairs skaters for the USSR/its components) aren’t pictured or officially included in these kinds of photos.

 

[Sylvia]

Will never understand why Alena and Sasha Lunin (coaches in Fort Wayne and both past pairs skaters for the USSR/its components) aren’t pictured or officially included in these kinds of photos.

The Lunins' junior pair, Cayla Smith/Andy Deng, are in the group photo (ETA that it looks like only the participating skaters & instructors were pictured).

Kyoko Ina is not pictured in that group shot either but she was involved in helping organize the camp for USFS - here she is, along with Ashley Cain, talking in this video: https://twitter.com/PSM1Team/status/1535588552158941186
Same video is on YT (embedded here):

2022 U.S. Figure Skating Pairs Camp takes to the ice in Fort Wayne - News Story

www.parkview.com

 

[BittyBug]

I'm not surprised by the announcement but I am saddened because I just loved their skating and look on the ice so much.

 

[clairecloutier]

Jim Peterson announced on Facebook that Amanda Evora has been elected Vice President of U.S. Figure Skating.

Here's a link to his general page: https://www.facebook.com/jim.peterson.7792

 

[Sylvia]

Jim Peterson announced on Facebook that Amanda Evora has been elected Vice President of U.S. Figure Skating.

Amanda was elected to USFS' Board of Directors in late April as the USOPC Athletes Advisory Council representative (through 2024) and Felicia Zhang as the athlete representative for pairs (one-year term) - link to the 2022 Governing Council news thread: https://www.fsuniverse.net/forum/th...-recap-combined-report-of-action-link.109704/

BTW, Phil Hersh tweeted this on June 15 (linked in the 2022 Grand Prix Assignments discussion thread):
"Hearing ... reigning world pairs champions Alexa Knierim - Brandon Frazier have, as of now, indicated they want to skate Grand Prix this season..."

 

[airgelaal]

Can't see Anastasiia Smirnova and Danil Siianytsia in any team for the next season. Any news?

Team USA Funding | U.S. Figure Skating

www.usfigureskating.org

 

[Stephanie]

Can't see Anastasiia Smirnova and Danil Siianytsia in any team for the next season. Any news?

Team USA Funding | U.S. Figure Skating

www.usfigureskating.org

It may just be that because they didn’t compete at nationals or medal internationally they didn’t qualify for any envelope funding. IIRC if/when they receive an international assignment they’ll be placed on the reserve team.

 

[airgelaal]

It may just be that because they didn’t compete at nationals or medal internationally they didn’t qualify for any envelope funding. IIRC if/when they receive an international assignment they’ll be placed on the reserve team.

They can be in a Team C:
- Placements 4th and lower at the 2022 ISU World Junior Figure Skating Championships

 

[Sylvia]

Added to the 2022-23 Team C envelope on USFS’ website: Anastasiia Smirnova & Danil Siianytsia

Removed from Team D: Cate Fleming/Chase Finster

ETA the 2022-23 Pairs Envelopes (will copy over when I start the new season thread):

TEAM A
Alexa Knierim & Brandon Frazier S-wd/O-6/W-1 (in ISP)

TEAM B
Emily Chan & Spencer Howe S4/4CC-3 (ISP)
Katie McBeath & Nathan Bartholomay S5/4CC-5 (ISP)
Valentina Plazas & Maximiliano Fernandez S6

TEAM C
Sonia Baram & Daniel Tioumentsev J1 (ISP)
Kate Finster & Matej Silecky S7 (still listed for now)
Anastasiia Smirnova & Danil Siianytsia S-wd/JW-4 (ISP)

TEAM D
Megan Wessenberg & Blake Eisenach J4
Cayla Smith & Andy Deng J5 (ISP)
Novice last season:
Margaret Church & William Church
Olivia Mendoza & Aiden Elswick
Estelle Schwab & Jaden Schwab

 

[Karen-W]

Added to the 2022-23 Team C envelope on USFS’ website: Anastasiia Smirnova & Danil Siianytsia

Removed from Team D: Cate Fleming/Chase Finster

ETA the 2022-23 Pairs Envelopes (will copy over when I start the new season thread):

TEAM A
Alexa Knierim & Brandon Frazier S-wd/O-6/W-1 (in ISP)

TEAM B
Emily Chan & Spencer Howe S4/4CC-3 (ISP)
Katie McBeath & Nathan Bartholomay S5/4CC-5 (ISP)
Valentina Plazas & Maximiliano Fernandez S6

TEAM C
Sonia Baram & Daniel Tioumentsev J1 (ISP)
Kate Finster & Matej Silecky S7 (still listed for now)
Anastasiia Smirnova & Danil Siianytsia S-wd/JW-4 (ISP)

TEAM D
Megan Wessenberg & Blake Eisenach J4
Cayla Smith & Andy Deng J5 (ISP)
Novice last season:
Margaret Church & William Church
Olivia Mendoza & Aiden Elswick
Estelle Schwab & Jaden Schwab

Thank goodness they caught the oversight and added Smirnova/Siianytsia! And removed one of the known split teams, lol.

 

[shan]

Thank goodness they caught the oversight and added Smirnova/Siianytsia! And removed one of the known split teams, lol.

Whew!! I was worried about them!!

 

[Sylvia]

I saw recent stories on Cain/LeDuc's joint Instagram that they were practicing a program for an upcoming show - turns out they're bringing back "Bella Belle" by The Electric Swing Circus (2018–19 SP) and noticed they were recently added to the Sun Valley's lineup (July 23): https://www.sunvalley.com/things-to-do/ice-shows/

Knierim/Frazier originally were scheduled to perform August 6 - can't remember the last time TWO U.S. pairs headlined in Sun Valley in the same summer!