And it is a good thing I waited to do this one, because the ISU press release has revealed that of the three countries winning alternate spots, only one is keeping theirs; Austria and Finland are both giving theirs up. Austria doing so is not a surprise, the couple that earned it had already confirmed they will not be able to cross the citizenship barrier before Vancouver, and while Finland was less expected, I think it may be the Federation not finding their couple up to snuff. All couples, locked, probable, and possible:
1. RUS: Oksana Domnina & Maxim Shablin, locked
2. RUS: Jana Khokhlova & Sergei Novitski, locked
3. RUS: Ekaterina Rubleva & Ivan Shefer, slight frontrunners over Ekaterina Riazanova & Ilia Tkachenko, Ekaterina Bobrova & Dmitri Soloviev, and Kristina Gorshkova & Vitali Botikov
4. USA: Tanith Beblin & Benjamin Agosto, locked
5. USA: Meryl Davis & Charlie White, locked
6. USA: Emily Samuelson & Evan Bates, very probable
7. CAN: Tessa Virtue & Scott Moir, locked
8. CAN: Vanessa Crone & Paul Poirier, heavy frontrunners over Kaitlyn Weaver & Andrew Pojé
9. FRA: Isabelle Delobel & Olivier Scheonfelder, if she ever gets that baby out!
10. FRA: Nathalie Pechelat & Fabian Bourzat, locked
11. GBR: Sinead & John Kerr, locked
12. GBR: Philippa Towler-Green & Phillip Poole, should have to take at least silver at British Nationals with a score of 146.08 or higher, but I've been told this is very likely to happen
13. ITA: Frederica Faiella & Massimo Scali, locked
14. ITA: Anna Cappellini & Luca Lanotte, locked
15. ISR: Alexandria & Roman Zaretski, theoretically must make top ten at Europeans, but when their coach's father is head of the Isreali skating federation, he's been predicted to be flag-bearer, and the federation is even ordering them to do a Jewish OD because of the Olympics, you have to think they'll probably be sent no matter what happens
16. LTU: Katherine Copely & Devidas Stagniunas, if she can get citizenship, but since Lithuania has not handed this spot back, and I don't think the country has a team at the moment where both partners are native born, it seems likely they've got a plan for that
17. UKR: Anna Zadorozhniuk & Sergei Verbillo, heavy frontrunners over Alla Beknazaorva & Vladimir Zuev
18. JPN: Cathy & Chris Reed, locked
19. GER: Christine & William Beier, if they haven't just split again, or Carolina & Daniel Hermann, or possibly the ever-fussy German federation will just give this spot up
20. CHN: Xintong Huang & Xun Zheng, frontrunners over Xiaoyang Yu & Chen Wang
21. CZE: Lucie Mysliveckova & Matej Novak, in theory had to make the top 16 at Worlds and top eight at Europeans this year, but the Czech Republic didn't give up the spot here, so it definitely remains to be seen whether they'll enforce the second half of their requirements either
22. HUN: Nora Hoffman & Maxim Zavozin, does he have citizenship yet? It seems as if he will in time, anyway
23. EST: Caitlin Mallory & Kristian Rand, if she can get citizenship; a recent IceNetwork article made it sound as if this was not a problem
24. GEO: Allison Lynn Reed & Otar Japaridze, if she can get citizenship; that Georgia accepted the spot here seems like a good sign
Alternates:
1. GRE: Nikki Georgiadis & Graham Hockley, I believe he needs citizenship, but again, they've kept their rights as alternates, so maybe he's hoping to get it from the same place as Jessica Crenshaw
1. RUS: Oksana Domnina & Maxim Shablin, locked
2. RUS: Jana Khokhlova & Sergei Novitski, locked
3. RUS: Ekaterina Rubleva & Ivan Shefer, slight frontrunners over Ekaterina Riazanova & Ilia Tkachenko, Ekaterina Bobrova & Dmitri Soloviev, and Kristina Gorshkova & Vitali Botikov
4. USA: Tanith Beblin & Benjamin Agosto, locked
5. USA: Meryl Davis & Charlie White, locked
6. USA: Emily Samuelson & Evan Bates, very probable
7. CAN: Tessa Virtue & Scott Moir, locked
8. CAN: Vanessa Crone & Paul Poirier, heavy frontrunners over Kaitlyn Weaver & Andrew Pojé
9. FRA: Isabelle Delobel & Olivier Scheonfelder, if she ever gets that baby out!
10. FRA: Nathalie Pechelat & Fabian Bourzat, locked
11. GBR: Sinead & John Kerr, locked
12. GBR: Philippa Towler-Green & Phillip Poole, should have to take at least silver at British Nationals with a score of 146.08 or higher, but I've been told this is very likely to happen
13. ITA: Frederica Faiella & Massimo Scali, locked
14. ITA: Anna Cappellini & Luca Lanotte, locked
15. ISR: Alexandria & Roman Zaretski, theoretically must make top ten at Europeans, but when their coach's father is head of the Isreali skating federation, he's been predicted to be flag-bearer, and the federation is even ordering them to do a Jewish OD because of the Olympics, you have to think they'll probably be sent no matter what happens
16. LTU: Katherine Copely & Devidas Stagniunas, if she can get citizenship, but since Lithuania has not handed this spot back, and I don't think the country has a team at the moment where both partners are native born, it seems likely they've got a plan for that
17. UKR: Anna Zadorozhniuk & Sergei Verbillo, heavy frontrunners over Alla Beknazaorva & Vladimir Zuev
18. JPN: Cathy & Chris Reed, locked
19. GER: Christine & William Beier, if they haven't just split again, or Carolina & Daniel Hermann, or possibly the ever-fussy German federation will just give this spot up
20. CHN: Xintong Huang & Xun Zheng, frontrunners over Xiaoyang Yu & Chen Wang
21. CZE: Lucie Mysliveckova & Matej Novak, in theory had to make the top 16 at Worlds and top eight at Europeans this year, but the Czech Republic didn't give up the spot here, so it definitely remains to be seen whether they'll enforce the second half of their requirements either
22. HUN: Nora Hoffman & Maxim Zavozin, does he have citizenship yet? It seems as if he will in time, anyway
23. EST: Caitlin Mallory & Kristian Rand, if she can get citizenship; a recent IceNetwork article made it sound as if this was not a problem
24. GEO: Allison Lynn Reed & Otar Japaridze, if she can get citizenship; that Georgia accepted the spot here seems like a good sign
Alternates:
1. GRE: Nikki Georgiadis & Graham Hockley, I believe he needs citizenship, but again, they've kept their rights as alternates, so maybe he's hoping to get it from the same place as Jessica Crenshaw
