Dance - Free

[Buttercup]

It'll be a whole new ballgame then. The top Russians will be K/N and we may see them zoom to the top of the pack just on that basis. They will be 24 and 28 in 2010, so I don't see them staying in through Sochi (but you never know). D/W will be the top US team, V/M the top Canadians, P/B the top French and C/L the top Italians.

I'm not sure P/B will stick around until 2014. They'll definitely stay past the Olympic season, but in the past Nathalie said she wasn't sure about staying on until Sochi, and Fabian will be 29 at Vancouver 2010 (Nathalie will be 26). The other teams are a bit younger so I imagine they'll stay for the full Olympic cycle. Throw in S/B as well, because they certainly won't finish out of the top ten next year, and the Zaretskis if they improve their choreo.

The US has some really good junior teams that will likely start transitioning to seniors, I wonder what they'll do with all those ice dancers? They can't send everyone to Worlds! The top Russian junior team has apparently split (the ones who won bronze at JW), does anyone know if there are any young Russian teams on the horizon?

[chuckm]

The US has some really good junior teams that will likely start transitioning to seniors, I wonder what they'll do with all those ice dancers? They can't send everyone to Worlds! The top Russian junior team has apparently split (the ones who won bronze at JW), does anyone know if there are any young Russian teams on the horizon?

The US younger teams are Chock / Zuerlein, the Hubbells, the Shibutanis and Gilles / Donohue. The Shibutanis won't be eligible for Worlds until the 2010-2011 season.

Of the Russians, the most promising from last season IMO were Riazanova / Guerreiro, but they have split, and Riazanova has been teamed with Senior ice dancer Ilia Tkachenko. The other young teams from this past season weren't nearly as good: Pushkash / Kiselev (16,19), Antipova / Kudashev (16, 18), Monko / Khaliavin (17, 18), Sinitsina / Zhiganshin (16, 16), Zenkova / Sinitsin (14, 16). Another promising couple, Telegina / Adoniev, have also split.

[LaLola]

Where did you see the press conference?

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