______________________________________FreeKatie said:With the chinese nipping at their heels, do you think the Russians will be able to produce another winning team 4 years from now?
Are there any young Russian pairs worthy of passing the torch to?
Well, you never know. G&G won the '88 games, and in '84 they were only 5th at Junior Worlds, so you never know.slutskayafan21 said:No way will it be Obertas/Slavnov or a team that is not even a top junior team this year.
Chinese don't really have the depth in pairs. Couple of years back, I read there were only 7 pairs in china. These top three are all under BinYao, and I'm afraid that's all they have it now. They have to develop new teams.julietvalcouer said:Oh, I hope it ends. I really do. Though I hope that Moskvina doesn't retire--her skaters at least know how to act graciously (paging Oleg Vasiliev, Miss Manners is calling...) But I think that the Chinese are rising. Just looking at the three teams they sent, they have incredible depth. Russia, on the other hand, seems to be missing some of their old dominance. I don't know about the US--pairs has never really been our thing. But I am increasingly a fan of Yao Bin and his stable of pairs, and I'm rather hoping to see China at the top of the podium four years from now.
rob43 said:Well the pipeline isn't as full as it once was. T/M grew tremendously in the past 3 years- concievably this was the Oly that would end the trend, This is the first quad in a while that hasn't seen maultiple Russian pairs in the medals at the Olys and Worlds.
I think the Chinese looked pretty stocked right now- and beleive it or not I think the US will be returning to medal contention in the next few years when some of our younder skaters mature/adapt to COP.
I won't count the Russians out though. They have the best pairs coaches in the business and that has to count for a lot.