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

PRlady said:
T/M would be smart to retire. Who knows when Russians will skate internationally again, and their rally appearance and names in CAS case will be well-known to judges and fans. Also, the automatic :blocjudge may disintegrate given where some of the usual countries are regarding Russia.
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In-form T/M don't need bloc judging.
 
Carolla5501 said:
Can someone tell me why in a discussion on US pairs we seem to be fixated on the Russians. Could you please take your Russian discussion over to the Russian figure skating thread?
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I don't think fixated is the proper word. The subject is discussed, because lack of Russian pairs improves the results outlook for U.S. (and other) pairs and, maybe, whether or not some of the pairs will continue.
 
nylynnr said:
I don't think fixated is the proper word. The subject is discussed, because lack of Russian pairs improves the results outlook for U.S. (and other) pairs and, maybe, whether or not some of the pairs will continue.
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Russian athletes should not under any circumstances be welcomed back to competition in any sport until it can be proven that widespread state doping in that country no longer exists. Every single athlete must come out squeaky clean in order to be able to compete internationally. Period. Enough of this Russian cheating.
 
clairecloutier said:
An update on Smirnova/Siianytsia, as they look toward Junior Worlds next week:

usfigureskatingfanzone.com

Smirnova and Siianytsia Confront a Season of Adversity - U.S. Figure Skating Fan Zone

In April, Team USA pairs skaters Anastasiia "Nastyia" Smirnova and Danil Siianytsia will compete for the second time at the ISU World Junior Figure Skating
usfigureskatingfanzone.com usfigureskatingfanzone.com
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After so much stress, I really hope they have a good competition at Junior Worlds and are able to perform what they have trained. And get to see family.
 
moebius said:
Mary Lou had to compete against a strong Romanian team, so it wasn't quite a free ticket to the podium
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Ecaterina Szabo was in good form. Her compatriot and domestic competition, Lavinia Agache was a bit off her game IIRC.

It is possible that MLR would have been on the IAAF podium w/ everyone present which would have been a BFD. I doubt she would have topped Olga Mostepanova and Hana Ricna had the competition of her life at the 'Alternate Games' in Olomouc. But MLR may have beaten everyone else - Natalia Yurchenko was not having a great competition and Maxi Gnauck was beatable in 1984 (except on UB).

Sorry for the OT. I've been dying for an excuse to talk about how 1984 would've shaken out w/ everyone present. Carry on ......
 
For people wondering if there's an asterisk on Mary Lou's 1984 gold medal, it is a frequent off-season topic on gymnastics boards. Many people are quite hostile to her because they feel she doesn't acknowledge the very large asterisks on her win.

But they always forget that in the 14 months leading up to the Olympics, she was practically undefeated internationally and had faced most of the top Soviets.
 
Coco said:
For people wondering if there's an asterisk on Mary Lou's 1984 gold medal, it is a frequent off-season topic on gymnastics boards. Many people are quite hostile to her because they feel she doesn't acknowledge the very large asterisks on her win.

But they always forget that in the 14 months leading up to the Olympics, she was practically undefeated internationally and had faced most of the top Soviets.
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Yes, unlike K/F who have never been on the podium internationally, excluding GP events, but just happened to be lucky that the top 5 teams in the world are absent.
 
moebius said:
Yes, unlike K/F who have never been on the podium internationally, excluding GP events, but just happened to be lucky that the top 5 teams in the world are absent.
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A) Their Worlds scores actually would’ve had them just off the podium in fourth at the Olympics.
B) It’s normal for several top skaters to be missing at post Olympic worlds.
C) Are you going to try to discredit every athlete who wins post Olympic Worlds because many of the Olympic medalists didn’t show up?
D) How do you know the Russians weren’t doping, considering the widespread nationwide doping in that country? Are they actually better athletes, or is it because of performance-enhancing drugs?
E) The Chinese chose not to attend. Are all the other competitors from other countries supposed to just roll over and not compete?
 
moebius said:
Yes, unlike K/F who have never been on the podium internationally, excluding GP events, but just happened to be lucky that the top 5 teams in the world are absent.
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Gosh, because K/F had exactly ONE season together before this one - and that one happened to have just Worlds, no 4CCs/Euros for them to podium at, and this year, like in every other Olympic year, the 4CCs countries had their Olympic teams skip 4CCs. Where exactly, apart from Stockholm 2021 and Beijing, were they supposed to "podium internationally"?

FWIW, the skates they put out there in Montpellier would have most likely landed them on the podium had the expected teams showed up. Sui/Han were NOT going to Worlds and I don't think Tarasova/Morozov would have either. They would have handily beaten Peng/Jin, who only placed ahead of them them by 2 points in Beijing. And they probably would have come close to Boikova/Kozlovskii or outright beat them. I said it at the time of their FS and I'll stand by it still, three weeks later - Alexa & Brandon would have been on the podium in Montpellier even with Mishina/Galliamov and 2 other Russian teams there.
 
Karen-W said:
Gosh, because K/F had exactly ONE season together before this one - and that one happened to have just Worlds, no 4CCs/Euros for them to podium at, and this year, like in every other Olympic year, the 4CCs countries had their Olympic teams skip 4CCs. Where exactly, apart from Stockholm 2021 and Beijing, were they supposed to "podium internationally"?

FWIW, the skates they put out there in Montpellier would have most likely landed them on the podium had the expected teams showed up. Sui/Han were NOT going to Worlds and I don't think Tarasova/Morozov would have either. They would have handily beaten Peng/Jin, who only placed ahead of them them by 2 points in Beijing. And they probably would have come close to Boikova/Kozlovskii or outright beat them. I said it at the time of their FS and I'll stand by it still, three weeks later - Alexa & Brandon would have been on the podium in Montpellier even with Mishina/Galliamov and 2 other Russian teams there.
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The only contra factual is psychological: would K/F perform that well with the Russian teams there. No way to know but I suspect they expected to finish behind them, which subtly affects performance.
 
Alexa and Brandon, and fourteen other pairs were at the World Championships, and they skated. Alexa and Brandon won.

Speculative discussions about other scenarios are just that. What if there had been a super team at Worlds last year, let's invent one, and they had won so on and so forth.

Teams that weren't there are quite irrelevant to the competition.

Don't show up, you don't figure in the results. That's going to be an on-going reality for figure skating.

What I don't like is the word "podium" becoming a verb. :shuffle:

language changes blah blah blah... ;_
 
just tuned in said:
^ "fewer" syllables. And while we are OT: "alright" is all wrong.
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Yeah, that’s the point. I legit don’t care about the rules and “podiuming” is still one of the most irritating words I’ve ever seen.

I’m a big proponent of “alright,” but only because it’s the only word I ever had marked as incorrect on an elementary school spelling test and I’m still bitter.
 
I couldn’t make it to an evening with the champions last night. Any videos or feedback on Mitrofanov and his new/temporary show partner?
 
kirkbiggestfan said:
I couldn’t make it to an evening with the champions last night. Any videos or feedback on Mitrofanov and his new/temporary show partner?
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I was at the show last night, so I got a chance to see Hazel and Misha. It looks like they have a good height/size differential and decent speed together. Beyond that, I can only say that they look like a new pair. Obviously, they don't have the matching lines yet that more experienced pairs will have, nor any big elements. I think we'll have to wait and see how they look in the fall (if they continue together and compete in the fall).
 
Isabelle Martins made a long IG post about the end or her partnership with Ryan Bedard and her plans going forward - she is looking for a new partner.

www.instagram.com

Isabelle Martins ⛸ on Instagram: "An important chapter of my life has come to a close… I would like to officially announce the end of our partnership. Ryan has decided to make a change and try something new. Although, it was devastating he needed t

isabelle_skates on April 11, 2022: "An important chapter of my life has come to a close… I would like to officially announce the end of our partnership. Ryan has decided to make a change and try something new. Although, it was devastating he needed to make the change before Junior Worlds, I...
www.instagram.com www.instagram.com
 
Karen-W said:
Isabelle Martins made a long IG post about the end or her partnership with Ryan Bedard and her plans going forward - she is looking for a new partner.

www.instagram.com

Isabelle Martins ⛸ on Instagram: "An important chapter of my life has come to a close… I would like to officially announce the end of our partnership. Ryan has decided to make a change and try something new. Although, it was devastating he needed t

isabelle_skates on April 11, 2022: "An important chapter of my life has come to a close… I would like to officially announce the end of our partnership. Ryan has decided to make a change and try something new. Although, it was devastating he needed to make the change before Junior Worlds, I...
www.instagram.com www.instagram.com
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Isabelle Martins and Ryan Bedard skated together for SEVEN seasons, going back to their Juvenile national title in 2016 and competed in 4 JGPs - their Team USA profile: https://usfigureskatingfanzone.com/...er/-nbsp-isabelle-martins-and-ryan-bedard/506
M/B won five national medals:
U.S. junior silver medalists (2022, '21)
U.S. junior bronze medalists (2019)
U.S. intermediate bronze medalists (2017)
U.S. juvenile champions (2016)
Ryan has aged out of ISU Juniors and Isabelle, as she wrote in her IG post, has 3 more seasons of ISU Junior age eligibility so I really hope she can find a suitable partner to continue competing internationally. She got her 2A consistent in recent seasons and is getting closer with her 3S in competition.

Re. Fakhroutdinov/Neudecker, here's a relevant excerpt from an April 5th local New Jersey article before the Ice Dreams tour stop in Morristown, NJ this past weekend:
One of the local stars who will skate at Mennen, Sasha Fakhroutdinov, once appeared in a similar group number 20 years ago. Fakhroutdinov grew up skating at Ice House in Hackensack. She and her pairs partner, Danny Neudecker, recently relocated to the United States Olympic training center in Colorado Springs.
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F/N have been training with Drew Meekins and Natalia Mishkutenok at the World Arena since last year (they came close to qualifying for Nationals -- she was dealing with an injury most of this past season).

BTW, I haven't read (only quickly skimmed) or posted in this thread since before Worlds, so let me very belatedly say just how happy I am that Knierim/Frazier skated so well/up to their potential in BOTH programs in Montpellier and were able to win the World title. :) :cheer2:
 
Hazel and Misha officially announced as a new team by their coaches on IG. They’ve only been together two weeks.

www.instagram.com

𝐎𝐥𝐠𝐚 𝐆𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐯𝐚 & 𝐀𝐥𝐞𝐤𝐬𝐞𝐲 𝐋𝐞𝐭𝐨𝐯 on Instagram: "New pair team we are now 2 weeks together!!! • @misha_mitrofanov97 @hazelcolllier • “The start of something new Brings the hope of something great Anything is possible “ • • Follow Olgalexcoaching for

637 likes, 9 comments - olgalexcoaching on April 14, 2022: "New pair team we are now 2 weeks together!!! • @misha_mitrofanov97 @hazelcolllier • “The start of something new Brings the hope of something great Anything is possible “ • • Follow Olgalexcoaching for more! • • #johnwilson...
www.instagram.com www.instagram.com
 
Coco said:
For people wondering if there's an asterisk on Mary Lou's 1984 gold medal, it is a frequent off-season topic on gymnastics boards. Many people are quite hostile to her because they feel she doesn't acknowledge the very large asterisks on her win.

But they always forget that in the 14 months leading up to the Olympics, she was practically undefeated internationally and had faced most of the top Soviets.
Click to expand...
Why would she talk about asterisks on her win. She won.
 
TanithandBenFan said:
Hazel and Misha officially announced as a new team by their coaches on IG. They’ve only been together two weeks.

www.instagram.com

𝐎𝐥𝐠𝐚 𝐆𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐯𝐚 & 𝐀𝐥𝐞𝐤𝐬𝐞𝐲 𝐋𝐞𝐭𝐨𝐯 on Instagram: "New pair team we are now 2 weeks together!!! • @misha_mitrofanov97 @hazelcolllier • “The start of something new Brings the hope of something great Anything is possible “ • • Follow Olgalexcoaching for

637 likes, 9 comments - olgalexcoaching on April 14, 2022: "New pair team we are now 2 weeks together!!! • @misha_mitrofanov97 @hazelcolllier • “The start of something new Brings the hope of something great Anything is possible “ • • Follow Olgalexcoaching for more! • • #johnwilson...
www.instagram.com www.instagram.com
Click to expand...

Isn't Hazel only 16 years old? And Misha almost 25? That's a large gap in maturity and experience. Also with all the ethical issues and power imbalances we've seen in skating, that gap makes me feel "some type of way." I don't think this is a good match and I hope Misha finds a more appropriate partner.
 
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