Men's Roster Presumptive | Golden Skate

Men's Roster Presumptive

MissIzzy

Final Flight
Joined
Dec 26, 2006
Now that all the Olympic spots have officially been given out in the men's event, and I do not believe there will be any immediate handing back of spots, here is what we can gather for what the roster will look like, with skaters locked, probable, and possible, with four alternates listed(in at least one discipline in 2006, the third alternate made it to the Olympics):

1. USA: Evan Lysacek, locked
2/3. USA: Jeremy Abbott and Johnny Weir, frontrunners over Adam Rippon, Brandon Mroz, Stephen Carriere, and Ryan Bradley
4. CAN: Patrick Chan, locked
5. CAN: Vaughn Chipeur, frontrunner over Jeremy Ten, Kevin Reynolds, and Shawn Sawyer
6. FRA: Brian Joubert, one recent IceNetwork article implied he may already be officially qualified, locked either way
7. FRA: Florent Amodio, frontrunner over Yannick Ponsero and Alban Preaubert
8. CZE: Tomas Verner, locked
9. CZE: Michal Brezina, in theory would have had to made top 16 in the World and Top 8 at Europeans this year. As there was only one spot at Worlds last year hopefully the first requirement will be waived. For the second, hopefully he'll make it, but it might not be enforced anyway
10. ITA: Samuel Contesti, locked
11. ITA: Karl Zalenka, very probable
12. JPN: Daisuke Takahashi, locked
13. JPN: Nobunari Oda, locked
14. JPN: Takahiko Kozuka, locked
15. KAZ: Denis Ten, locked
16. KAZ: Abzal Rakimgaliev, is there anyone to challenge him?
17. RUS: Evgeny Plushenko, locked
18. RUS: Sergei Voronov, slight frontrunner over Andrei Lutai
19. BEL: Kevin van der Perrrn, locked
20. SWE: Adrian Schultheiss or Kristoffer Berntsson, if either of them can satisfy the Swedish skating federation
21. ESP: Javier Fernandez, locked
22. SLO: Gregor Urbas, locked
23. UKR: Anton Kovalevski, locked
24. POL: Przemysław Domański, apparently already named
25. SUI: Stephane Lambiel, in theory needs to score more than 192 at Europeans, or possibly just at Swiss Nationals, but really, even in the extremely unlikely event that he doesn't, it doesn't seem likely he won't go
26. AUT: Viktor Pfeifer, locked
27. GER: Stefan Lindemann, may be challenged by Peter Liebers, also may be required to finish at least top 8 in Europeans, and the German federation has enforced its requirements in the past
28. PRK: Song Chol Ri, persumably(how many other skaters are there? Any?)
29. ROU: Zoltan Keleman, locked
30. FIN: Ari-Pekka Nurmenkari, very probable

Alternates:

1. BLR: Alexandr Kazakov
2. EST: Viktor Romanenkov
3. GBR: Matthew Parr, may be challenged by Elliot Hilton
4. CHN: Jialing Wu
 

snowflake

I enjoy what I like
Record Breaker
Joined
Nov 10, 2008
Looks like number 2 in Nebelhorn, Ivan TRETIAKOV, will challenge the russians.
 

SamuraiKike

Medalist
Joined
Jan 26, 2008
I wonder if the KAZ federation has any extra criteria like CZE or GER or will they just send Rakimgaliev anyways since they already have the spot.. I like Abzal, he has talent but he's faaar from olympic levetl at this moment. Kazakov, the first alternate, is much better. Does anyone know??

MissIzzy I agree with basically everything you posted but I'll add that Zelenka may be challenged by Bacchini if he's not well recovered from his injuries and that there are more russian guys fighting for the 2nd spot (Borodulin, Menshov, Tretiakov, Uspenski.).

It's sad no chinese man is going ... Long gone are the days of Chengjiang LI and Min Zhang.
 

snowflake

I enjoy what I like
Record Breaker
Joined
Nov 10, 2008
I wonder if the KAZ federation has any extra criteria like CZE or GER or will they just send Rakimgaliev anyways since they already have the spot.. I like Abzal, he has talent but he's faaar from olympic levetl at this moment.

What's wrong with Abzal's skating "at this moment"? I mean he made it to the final in worlds 2008 and he is not old(17).
 

SamuraiKike

Medalist
Joined
Jan 26, 2008
What's wrong with Abzal's skating "at this moment"? I mean he made it to the final in worlds 2008 and he is not old(17).

There's nothing wrong, he's young and he has potential but I dont see him as olympian level yet (He's right now not even in the top 10 after the SP at JGP Belarus) and specially when he's basically going thanks to Denis Ten placement rather than his own merits. but if he goes that's great for him. An unforgettable experience:agree:
 

snowflake

I enjoy what I like
Record Breaker
Joined
Nov 10, 2008
There's nothing wrong, he's young and he has potential but I dont see him as olympian level yet (He's right now not even in the top 10 after the SP at JGP Belarus) and specially when he's basically going thanks to Denis Ten placement rather than his own merits. but if he goes that's great for him. An unforgettable experience:agree:

Yes, I saw. He is number 13, 2 falls, bad score, 41.69. But everyone in that age(and older :laugh:) have ups and downs. What I actually meant; did he have injure problems? I wish KAZ will send him! I hate when nations(like my own) have spots in olympics and don't use them.
 

ImaginaryPogue

Record Breaker
Joined
Jun 3, 2009
And does the Czech Republic have anyone to challenge Brezina for the second spot (Verner obviously has the first)? I presume the federation won't just not use it's second slot, and I don't know of anyone else who they could send.

MissIzzy, thanks for doing this. I was getting curious who we can expect to see at the Olympics.
 

i love to skate

Medalist
Joined
Dec 13, 2005
I wouldn't say Chipeur is ahead of Ten, Reynolds, and Sawyer. I think it really is only a race between Vaughn and Chipeur. I think Jeremy gets it.
 

cuttingedge

Spectator
Joined
Oct 27, 2009
Heh.

I'm not sure who's gonna get the second Canadian spot, but I think Chipeur is slightly ahead of Ten.

Judging from Chipeur's results in the Grand Prix events, it's not looking too good for him. He has done the worst compared to the other contenders for that second spot (the others being Ten, Reynolds and Sawyer) in terms of both placement and points. Here are their season bests thus far:

188.47 Kevin REYNOLDS - Cup of China 2009 (8th place)
179.58 Shawn SAWYER - Rostelecom Cup 2009 (8th place)
178.87 Jeremy TEN - NHK Trophy 2009 (10th place)
176.36 Vaughn CHIPEUR - NHK Trophy 2009 (11th) place)

Chipeur even scored an embarrassingly low 155.43 to place dead last at TEB. The other three still have one more grand prix event each, so it will be interesting to see who can make the best impression on the international scene before nationals in January. I think most are looking to Chipeur and Ten to fill the second spot, but I wouldn't count out Reynolds and Sawyer. It all depends on who steps up when they have to.
 

Meli_Huber

On the Ice
Joined
Feb 25, 2008
Germany

The German Men is not fix at the Moment.

Peter Liebers and Stefan Lindemann will fight for the spot at the German Championships.
The guy with the better placement will get the Ticket to the Olympics.
 

ImaginaryPogue

Record Breaker
Joined
Jun 3, 2009
Judging from Chipeur's results in the Grand Prix events, it's not looking too good for him. He has done the worst compared to the other contenders for that second spot (the others being Ten, Reynolds and Sawyer) in terms of both placement and points. Here are their season bests thus far:

188.47 Kevin REYNOLDS - Cup of China 2009 (8th place)
179.58 Shawn SAWYER - Rostelecom Cup 2009 (8th place)
178.87 Jeremy TEN - NHK Trophy 2009 (10th place)
176.36 Vaughn CHIPEUR - NHK Trophy 2009 (11th) place)

Chipeur even scored an embarrassingly low 155.43 to place dead last at TEB. The other three still have one more grand prix event each, so it will be interesting to see who can make the best impression on the international scene before nationals in January. I think most are looking to Chipeur and Ten to fill the second spot, but I wouldn't count out Reynolds and Sawyer. It all depends on who steps up when they have to.

And the answer? No one. Sawyer's the only man to crack 200, and he medalled, so I think he's the frontrunner for the second spot - momentum is on his side, and he's a previous Olympian, so maybe he'll handle the pressure of this season better than the other three (Chipeur seems to be regressing from last season, and I don't know what's going on with Ten).

But yeah, Chipeur's all but out.

Truthfully, I'm more curious about France. Amodio is one of those who I think can be an accidental star of the games (his story, his skills, the fact that he's quite cute); Ponsero is probably the most purely talented of the next three and Preaubert actually medalled in a reasonably deep field.
 
Last edited:
Joined
Aug 16, 2009
Takahashi is a lock for Japan? Oh, goody! I worried, because the only thing I saw him do was the Grand Prix final, and he wasn't at his best, but I love his skating so much that I hoped he would make it. I was pretty sure that Oda was in after his magnificent Grand Prix year, but I was concerned about Daisuke. Both of those men are wonderful, but there's something about Takahashi that makes him stand out to me. I hope he recovers completely and peaks just in time for Vancouver. I'd be thrilled if he turned out to be the winner.
 

silverlake22

Record Breaker
Joined
Nov 12, 2009
Is Michal Brezina now guaranteed an Olympic spot as he won Czech nationals, beating Tomas Verner? Or do we have to wait until Europeans to see if he gets a spot? I assume Tomas still has his spot even though he didn't win nationals.
 
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