May I also add John & Jennifer Nicks of Great Britain to your impressive group.I agree with you that I want to see U.S. teams going further. That's why the missed opportunity at Worlds to have better placements and to bring home a third spot, kinda stings. And now with Canada's recent new pairing of two veterans who are bound to shake things up at the top, the missed opportunity at Worlds for K/F to resoundingly establish themselves hurts a bit more. I see that Brandon liked Meagan Duhamel's post stating how she feels blindsided by the new partnership of James/Radford. Personally, I like the palpable excitement of this new pairing.
BTW, there's a whole lot that goes into improving an entire pairs discipline. The individual athletes mostly have to work on managing their own careers. It's up to the U.S. federation to think about improving the discipline as a whole, and that just hasn't been U.S. fed's focus for far too long. In general, I think U.S. fed has tended to think that careers for athletes work themselves out automatically. At least, that's the way it seems they think.
Regarding your comments on the history I cited, here's more:
Please note that 6th to 8th has not been U.S. pairs history on the world stage since forever. LOL! As I pointed out, there has been a dearth of podium placements at Worlds and Olympics for U.S. pairs teams for about 18 going on 19 years (not counting last year of course). Being in the midst of that dearth, I'm sure makes it seem like it will go on forever. It certainly is part of the reason why fans tend to look down on the U.S. pairs discipline. But that disdain is unfair IMO. The U.S. pairs discipline's 19-year mark will match the record of same set by Canadian pairs during the 1960s and 1970s, when U.S. pairs teams were making the podiums at Worlds and Olympic, on occasion, generally in the silver and bronze categories. Meanwhile, the Russians were building their dominance in the 60s, 70s, and 80s, which of course never waned, even though it did fluctuate a bit at the top with the rise of Chinese pairs skating, and with the vibrant competitiveness of certain German and Canadian teams.
I find the entire history of pairs skating fascinating and neverendingly entertaining and enlightening. I wish Fours competitions would come back into vogue. Fours was particularly popular in Canada. U.S. and Canadian pairs skating parallels quite a bit. It was a U.S. team that broke through first on the Worlds stage post WWII. The devastation of Europe and the resultant immigration of a number of skating athletes led to opportunities for North American teams to break through, which they did in fine fashion, never looking back. Most North American teams (including singles skaters as well) were at first known for their athleticism/ athletic influence on the sport. A young brother/sister team from the U.S., Peter and Karol Kennedy, were the first North American pairs team to win Worlds, in 1950. Of course, the only other U.S. team to win Worlds is Tai Babilonia/Randy Gardner, in 1979. Babilonia/Gardner flourished in the 1970s. They were known for their athleticism and for their gorgeous unison and line.
In the early years post WWII, both the U.S. and Canada began flourishing in pairs skater internationally. But it was a Canadian team who broke through to win the Olympics for the first time for a North American team, Barbara Wagner/Robert Paul:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-cyFFTXF8kg (prior to this 1960 Olympics win, they'd won Worlds for three years, and a 4th time in 1960).
It was surely the advent of Wagner/Paul as World and Olympic champions which helped give Canada some of the strength of its pairs legacy. However, the U.S. has a strong pairs legacy as well, albeit without any U.S. team having won the Olympics. Canada has two winning Olympic teams in Wagner/Paul and Sale/Pelletier (albeit the latter was at first silver, then gold post scandal). It is quite interesting that both Canada and U.S. have both spent nearly identical years off Worlds and Olympic podiums in different eras, and yet both countries still have made important contributions to pairs, with Canada having the edge in prestigious accomplishments, particularly in recent history.
It pays to note though that before and after the breakthrough by the Kennedys in 1950, U.S. teams had a presence on the Worlds podium off-and-on. Karol & Peter Kennedy won an Olympic silver medal in 1952. The Kennedys also won four silver medals at Worlds in the late 1940s and early 1950s, in addition to their 1950 World gold medal. Prior to WWII, the U.S. had a decorated pairs team in Beatrix Loughran/ Sherwin Badger, who won silver at the 1932 Olympics, in addition to two bronze medals at Worlds (1930, 1932). Canada had a post-WWII winning pair team in the late 1940s in Suzanne Morrow/ Wallace Diestelmeyer who won Olympic bronze and World bronze in 1948. Ann Davies/Carlton Hoffner won World bronze in 1949, joining teammates, Karol & Peter Kennedy on the podium. A Hungarian team, Andrea Kekesy/ Ede Kiraly won gold that same year, in Paris. And so on. The stats are readily researchable.
Pairs skating in the early years pre- and post-WWI was dominated by German, Austrian, British, Hungarian and some Swedish and Finnish teams, and one fabulous French team, the Brunets! In addition, a U.S., a Norwegian and a Czech team reached the World podium during that period. Fascinatingly, during the first ever World championships in 1908, a Russian pairs team won the bronze medal! But it wasn't until 1962 when Ludmila Belousova/ Oleg Protopopov broke through at Worlds to win silver that another Russian team took the Worlds podium. Of course, Belousova/Protopopov (later The Protopopovs) were a revolutionary team who continued winning silver and then gold, later a bronze in the following years, and famously Olympic gold in 1964 and 1968. I would guess that the harsh effects of the Russian Revolution and later the World Wars is what interrupted Russia's ability to make headway in pairs skating, until the Protopopovs came along and changed pairs skating forever.
All of this history is readily available for anyone who is interested to research and to marvel at. I find it fun and instructive to look back.