by Virginia » Sun Feb 25, 2018 4:43 pm
So the time has come to start asking the questions. Who is going to worlds, and who will skip? Who is retiring?
Canada: Virtue and Moir, Duhamel and Radford, and Chan have all announced their retirements. Lubov and Dylan will get D&R's spot, presumably, which makes me happy because I love their skating (though I'm not blind to their technical weaknesses in the SBS jumps). Nam Nguyen is first alternate in men's and Soucisse and FIrus in dance. Daleman must feel like she has something to prove after that Olympic free program, but will Katelyn take her bronze and gold medals and retire, or is there still fire in her belly?
Russia: Harder for me to handicap them, but I assume that everybody will go on to worlds. I doubt the Russian federation will give them much choice if they want to remain involved in figure skating in Russia. The bigger questions surround Bukin and Stolbova (and their partners). Will the ISU be shown the evidence against them and uphold the Olympic ban? Or will they be allowed to compete at Worlds?
France: Well, I think Pap/Cis will stay in for sure, and will probably retake the World title in Milan. I hope James and Cipres stick around after this season, as I really love their skating, but she's 30, so I wouldn't blame her for wanting to step away. Mae Berenice? Don't know enough about her to speculate.
Italy: A home-country worlds is sure to get 100% attendance from the home team. But after that, I think we can wave goodbye to Kostner and to Cappellini/Lanotte. I'll be sorry to say goodbye to Carolina, but Anna and Luca frankly get on my nerves with their circus-clown grins, so I won't weep to see them go.
Japan: I think Hanyu, Una, Sakamoto and Miyahara will go to Worlds. I expect everyone to go on next year except maybe Hanyu -- he's only 23, but he's got 2 world titles and 2 OGMs. What more does he have to prove? Plus, the injuries are taking their toll.
I won't speculate about Japanese pairs and dance. But I think Miyahara may finally lose her status as favorite girl of the JSF. She gets no height on her jumps, and her sense of entitlement is way out of proportion to her skating ability or her competition results. I think Sakamoto, Mihara, and Higuchi are all better skaters -- I"m really impressed with Sakamoto. She reminds me of Kanako Murakami when she first burst onto the senior scene, with this endearing bubbly girlishness combined with solid technique and speed.
China: Like Russia, we're talking about a state-controlled system which gives the athletes less freedom, so I'm assuming that everybody will go to Milan whether they want to or not. I do wonder if Han Yan will hang up the skates after this season, though.
Zhang Hao seems to be the Miracle Man. As long as his body holds up, I suspect we'll see him out there throwing girls around. As a world-class Chinese athlete, he can count on all his expenses being covered and a paycheck from the government without worrying about corporate sponsorships like a Western athlete. He's guaranteed a coach job afterwards, too, so there's no reason not to keep skating as long as he can.
Germany: The only athletes here who I know much about are Savchenko and Massot, of course. I don't get the feeling that Aliona is done yet, but will Bruno be ready to end his career with an OGM? Will Aliona go partner-shopping again? Stay tuned, skating fans!
Other random skaters? Denis Ten? He needs to retire. His body clearly can't face the demands of the sport anymore, and watching him struggle is painful. Fernandez? I think he'll go to Worlds, but hard to say if he'll come back after that. He's being outjumped and he knows it, and he's a 26-year-old facing 23-year-old Hanyu, 20-year-old Uno, 18-year-old Chen and their ilk.
New skaters (to me, at least) who caught my eye: Dabin Choi. She really impressed me here. She's got Yuna's softness and flow combined with Yuna's big, effortless jumps. I thought she was undermarked, especially in the short, where she was ranked below Gabi Daleman (Gabi puts and hand down on a 3T-3T and scores higher than Cho's clean 3Z-3T? I don't think so.) I think she'll continue to move up the rankings.
Also Ryom and Kim of North Korea, whose technical skills are top-notch and whose packaging is way more sophisticated than I would have expected. (They have Beatles music in North Korea? Seriously?) They'll continue to climb the ladder, I think. I understand Meagan Duhamel is coaching them in Pyeongchang, and hopes to keep working with them this summer.
And finally, the USA: Zhou, Tennell, both Chens, Chock/Bates, Hubbell/Donahue, and both pairs will go to Milan for sure. Nathan Chen and the two dance teams, especially, have to redeem themselves for their mistakes at the Olympics, and they all have the potential to get onto the podium.
As the only American individual medalists in figure skating, the Shibs may get commercial offers that lure them away from Worlds. They've done ten seasons at the senior level and have won US titles, World silver and bronze and now two Olympic bronze medals. All that may be enough, especially for a 23-year-old and a 26-year-old still trying to finish their bachelor's degrees from the University of Michigan.
Now, Mirai Nagasu? I think we can conclude from her press remarks that she's done with competitive skating -- it sounds like she retired mentally after the team competition. I'm sure Ashley Wagner watched that ladies' event and thought, "I skated better than that at Sochi, and finished higher, and I could have done it again!". Ashley, of course, is first alternate for Worlds, but she's been swanning around Pyeongchang rather than training, so will she be able to get herself into competitive shape in three weeks? And will she try to come back next year? If she does, she may find a different welcome from USFS than she's had in recent years.
Adam Rippon has been remarking recently that he never wants to quit skating, but he's turned into a media darling, so I wonder if he'll be lured away by some tempting offer. On the other hand, he turned down that NBC commentating offer, and if he goes to Milan he and his buddy Ashley can have one last competitive swan song together, so maybe he'll go. I hope Jason Brown has been working on his quad technique back in Colorado, though, just in case!
WOW. Long post. Love to hear everyone else's thoughts!