Who's retiring after Worlds?

[pangtongfan]

I also don't think Leonova will retire. She is solid enough that I think she can be picked at least the 3rd spot on the Russian team for the next couple of seasons. Polina showed that it can be dangerous to send several talented but inexperienced skaters to a major event. I think the Russian Fed is done with Ksenia but they should support a skater like Alena who uses every ounce of her talent to achieve great results.

Yes, I really think Leonova will make the Russian Olympic team in 2014, which means atleast 1 of the 3 wunderkids will be left off, maybe even 2 if a Polina makes it. They will want a reliable and solid veteran skater who can help ensure them getting 3 spots, and who can step in and medal if teammates and others falter. An entire team with almost no Senior World experience at the Olympics will be to scary a proposition for the Russian leaders.

[pangtongfan]

Joubert is not retiring. He's said repeatedly that he'd going to continue until Sochi (and that he wants to try and win CoC). As for KvdP, he's said he'd retire so many times before that it's hard to tell what he's going to do.

I think Czisny's days of federation support are over. Her future is in shows, not competitions.

Athletes say one thing and do another all the time. In Brian's case he will probably come to his senses and realize his Worlds experience, skating out of his skin (for this point of his career anyway) and coming 4th in front of his home crowd is far and away as good as it will get. He definitely isnt going to win a major medal again, he was light years behind the top 3 and he cant skate any better than he did at Worlds, and his PCS will be far lower in any other place than France. Based on his PCS the rest of the season he probably would have finished 6th overall (at best) even with the same performances if he skated anywhere else. As we saw this year even medaling at Europeans will be hard for him from now on. He seems like a smart guy and I expect upon reflection he will realize his Worlds experience is the best note to end his distinguished amateur career on. We will see though.

[sky_fly20]

^^

sad to say for now, Polina K. is a bit of a headcase
I have doubts yet who will be the better Polina, Shelepen or Korobeynikova
I think Shelepen has an edge because she is like Miki Ando on jumps, has full arsenal of 3-3 jumps (3S-3T, 3F-3T, 3Lz-3T) but Shelepen needs better skating skills and artistry, I saw a clip but I lost it, she was attempting a quad salchow.

and if Leonova can medal at worlds why not Shelepen ? LOL

[pangtongfan]

Rightly or wrongly Leonova gets very high PCS which Shelepen sure as heck wont be getting anytime soon, barring major improvements. Leonova is also a consistent and stable competitor, which Shelepen is far from. You can have the jumps but if you dont do them all in competition it doesnt matter much. Shelepen cant even beat out frigging Makarova for a spot on the World team right now, so obviously at the moment she is much worse than Leonova.

It will be interesting to see if any of the Polinas can put themselves into serious contention for a Russian World team anytime soon with the 3 wunderkids and Leonova all clearly above them at the moment.

[Mrs. P]

I don't think Suzuki is retiring, but I don't think she will be competing after Sochi season either. She will pursue her career as a pro skater and choreographer.

She did NOT have a LONG break in her career. She could not compete for one season, then it took four more seasons for her to come back to GPS. If her body is any "younger" than average 27 years old skaters, that's because she is very self-disciplined and takes good care of her body and mind.

She might make the Olympic team once again, you never know. Asada's future looks more uncertain now. Murakami also has problems with her jump technique, which won't be fixed unless she leaves her current coach, Ms. Yamada.

I agree Akiko is super healthy too. And I also think that she is less reckless as far as her technical content, i.e. she doesn't overwork her body. I'm sure the 3-3 we saw from her this season was actually several seasons in the making, same with the 2A-3T, which she introduced last season.

I think she practices yoga too, right?

[silverlake22]

Rightly or wrongly Leonova gets very high PCS which Shelepen sure as heck wont be getting anytime soon, barring major improvements. Leonova is also a consistent and stable competitor, which Shelepen is far from. You can have the jumps but if you dont do them all in competition it doesnt matter much. Shelepen cant even beat out frigging Makarova for a spot on the World team right now, so obviously at the moment she is much worse than Leonova.

It will be interesting to see if any of the Polinas can put themselves into serious contention for a Russian World team anytime soon with the 3 wunderkids and Leonova all clearly above them at the moment.

If Shelepen switches to Morozov I think she could start getting very high PCS...

[drivingmissdaisy]

sad to say for now, Polina K. is a bit of a headcase

I was really surprised how low her PCS scores were. This is the same girl who got 114+ and Europeans for her LP and she comes to Nice and gets markedly lower scores on the 2nd mark. It seems momentum from these regional events like 4CC/Euros doesn't translate to success at Worlds, as we saw lower marks for a lot of skaters like Ashley and others who don't have a long history of successful results.

[tulosai]

Yes, I really think Leonova will make the Russian Olympic team in 2014, which means atleast 1 of the 3 wunderkids will be left off, maybe even 2 if a Polina makes it. They will want a reliable and solid veteran skater who can help ensure them getting 3 spots, and who can step in and medal if teammates and others falter. An entire team with almost no Senior World experience at the Olympics will be to scary a proposition for the Russian leaders.

I agree with this for the most part but spots aren't determined at the Olys but at the World championships afterwards, so who they send to the Olys won't impact if they have 2 or 3 spots the next year. I personally think it's 50/50 if Leonova will make the Oly team. The next 2 seasons are VERY important for Tuk, Sot, and Lip... especially with puberty coming into play. Sot's jumps weren't there this year. She has to get them back. However, she is the one who may have already 'survived' puberty. Liza and Julia fared better in general on the jumps, but either or both might be drastically impacted by puberty. There are also the Polinas to think of.

All that said, I do think Russia knows what it has in Alena: someone who is definitely past puberty and can still jump, and who also pulls decent PCS is nothing to scoff at. If she can keep her triple triple she is in good shape.

[Becki]

Well.... SOCHI 2014 is only round the corner I would have thought most will try and stay for that, it is only 1 more worlds before that and 2 european championships.... BUT hey I know the training is very hard, you see so more injuries now...

The only one i know is retiring is Kevin Van Der Perren, Jenna may retire but she did say she still has the burning ambition after changing her training and coaching regime and maybe give another olympics a go.. as she did not do well in Vancouver.

The others we will wait and see, I hope Alissa sticks around, I am sure she can come back from that..she was beautiful last year. I am sure Jeremy will stick around too and Valentina - her goal is to make it to her first olympics.

Not sure on Brian.... Maybe he should take his great 4th place and run... He has had a glorious career. BUT still has the mantle to medal at EURO's ..not sure on WORLD or OLYMPIC LEVEL.

Let's hope we get a few more comebacks!!

Lysacek
Weir (he will be back)
Plushenko (Is back but has injury issues)
Ando (??)
YuNa (??)
Rochette (?? - her technical arsenal is still evident)

Lepisto (I am afraid we lost Laura :((

Joubert was a former World Champion (2007) and several time medalist. He just couldn't hold it together at the Olympic level.

[paircheck]

pairs:

Zhang/Zhang ... i think the injurys give them no future...
Pang/Tong.... both chinese pairs feel the pressure of the junior world champs S/H and vice junior champs Y/...they look oldfashioned in both progamms @ worlds
Kemp/King... coach change this season gave them some new things (2A, 3LTw) but they don t qualify again
Popova/Massut.... i don t know if she wanna stay with him... i remember his reaction after lp @ europeans...
Kavaguti/Smirnov... hard to say... depends on the treatments by thei federation...

[FlattFan]

K/S weren't that bad. They messed up 2 lifts, so it was entirely possible that they can fix that. Easily get bronze this year without the freak falls.
People actually thought their PCS were a bit lower.
Pang/Tong skated like 4th place in China and still managed to place 4th at World. They have no reason to retire until after Sochi. When they are clean, their PCS will be huge, no matter what.

Zhang/Zhang maybe retire. They have no chance at the podium. In fact, their chance of a podium is even less than T/T and T/T are the most inconsistent top pair I could think of.

[blue_idealist]

Athletes say one thing and do another all the time. In Brian's case he will probably come to his senses and realize his Worlds experience, skating out of his skin (for this point of his career anyway) and coming 4th in front of his home crowd is far and away as good as it will get. He definitely isnt going to win a major medal again, he was light years behind the top 3 and he cant skate any better than he did at Worlds, and his PCS will be far lower in any other place than France. Based on his PCS the rest of the season he probably would have finished 6th overall (at best) even with the same performances if he skated anywhere else. As we saw this year even medaling at Europeans will be hard for him from now on. He seems like a smart guy and I expect upon reflection he will realize his Worlds experience is the best note to end his distinguished amateur career on. We will see though.

He wasn't really LIGHT YEARS behind Hanyu. Hanyu sometimes doesn't land his jumps, if he hadn't (or even Takahashi for that matter) Brian could have been 2nd or 3rd. Of course Mr. Chan would still have been at the top.

Plus it looks like Brian was down and out with injury for a little while and is now slowly making his way back up the ladder.

[wonderlen3000]

Ando won't retire but she needs a new choreographer....please.

Didn't she broke off with Morozoo??? If that is true, things might end in sour note. Please Miki get a better choreographer...

[sky_fly20]

If Shelepen switches to Morozov I think she could start getting very high PCS...

actually this is not a bad idea, since Shelepen's PCS are horrendously low

Morozov will give her the Miki Ando 3.0 treatment ala Leonova, same choreo and music, it never fails
hey, like I said, If Leonova can medal at Worlds why NOT Shelepen who is capable of more jumps ?

[pangtongfan]

He wasn't really LIGHT YEARS behind Hanyu. Hanyu sometimes doesn't land his jumps, if he hadn't (or even Takahashi for that matter) Brian could have been 2nd or 3rd. Of course Mr. Chan would still have been at the top.

Plus it looks like Brian was down and out with injury for a little while and is now slowly making his way back up the ladder.

He is not "getting back". He was inspired by Worlds at home and skated out of his skin. He is still well past his prime and even his best skating with home cooked inflated scores cant medal amongst todays field.

As for your points:

1. Hanyu had a really bad short program which is very unusual for him. He still came from behind to easily pass Brian who skated his best in both programs. Hanyu usually skates better than that (considering both programs) not worse, while Brian will almost never skate that well at this phase of his career.

2. Takahashi was far ahead of Brian. He could have had several more major mistakes (in addition to his fall in the short) and still come out ahead.

3. This is the last major event in France in the near future. Brian will not get anywhere near the PCS he got at Worlds anywhere else. Look at his PCS the rest of the season, even considering he didnt skate as well, and you will get the idea. You seriously think he averages 8 or above in PCS anywhere but France at this point of his career, LOL!

4. If you want to do what ifs almost the entire field of contenders was below par apart from Chan and Takahashi (and Hanyu in the LP only, Brezina in the SP only). Brian probably skated closer to his current best than anyone, including even Chan and Takahashi. We can say what if Abbott, Brezina, Kozuka, Fernandez, Gachinski, and others had all skated their best. Would Joubert have even been in the top 10?

I dont go there as it is unrealistic to expect all to skate their best, but most competitions more of his competitors will skate better than they did here which wasnt exactly a good event for most, he will obviously be hard pressed to equal that kind of performance often or ever again, and he wont get the same PCS he did here anywhere else. All that said and he still wasnt really close to a medal (despite coming 4th overall). If he is at the 2013 Worlds and 2014 Olympics, he is most likely to be fighting just to be in the top 10 at best, not for a medal, Nice was much closer than he will ever come again, and I think he realizes that and wont see it as worth the bother.