Canada's skating program without Chan, Virtue-Moir

Blades of Passion said:

Thank you to this thread for reminding me of another point of evidence I wanted to make, with regards to how having successful skaters isn't usually enough to make figure skating lucrative in a country (much less growing the sport as a whole, not just creating more skating interest solely for their own countrymen). After 2012 Worlds, Patrick Chan was a 2-time World champ and Virtue/Moir were 2-time World champs plus the reigning Olympic champs. You'd think that with 2013 Worlds in Canada and with these massively successful Canadian skaters, it would have been a huge deal. But it wasn't.

Click to expand...

anyanka said:

Briefly, it may look like this:

Dance: W/P lead the way, they came within a hair of becoming world champions (is the expression "by the skin of their teeth"?). If they improve, they could surpass their Italian rivals and become world champs in a year or two (the flow of Russian teams notwithstanding). Gilles / Poirier and Islam / Paul are both very promising. I always forget Poirier already went to the 2010 OG with former partner Vanessa Crone, so he's already an experienced competitor. We should anticipate at least two or even three teams all within the top ten from Canada at 2015W.

Pairs: D/R will lead this season at least, but MT/M v2 and possibly Dylan M with Lyubov might work out. We will presume that D/R will set the pace. Look for at least D/R to place top 5 or on the podium at 2015W, and possibly at least one more team in the top 10.

Men: Reynolds should be stepping up, but Nguyen made waves for winning world juniors and performing ably at both nationals and worlds. He should take his time to develop consistency and advance through the rankings so that he can handle pressure a bit at a time. Balde has already proven himself to be a crowd-pleasing exhibition skater, hopefully that will also translate well into competition. It's possible that both Reynolds and Nguyen can place in top 10, but with so many rising up from the junior ranks it's tough to say at this point how they will place.

Ladies: Will be the most interesting, with Osmond now out for at least the first part of the season if not more (get well soon Kaetlyn!). We can presume either Daleman or Chartrand to rise, but they're young and don't have the experience or depth of another country with a much deeper field, such as Russia, Japan or the US. We will have to take a wait-and-see approach? It looks like a blank slate and open season this year in this discipline.

Thoughts?

Click to expand...

phaeljones said:

Ya. Well stated. I think so. Generally.

My qualification is that although Reynolds should step up, I wonder whether he will. He can, I think, but will he? Reynolds is a skater I love when he is on but he has to turn a new leaf to step up and be consistent. I believe and hope he can, but he has to be different than before. It is not the end of the world though if he does not. We may be in for a lull in podium finishes for the men this year (if Reynolds doesn't step up), but, really, this year can be still be fruitful if Nam is able to use the senior experience to rachet up his technique, polish and flair for all that senior stuff that separates the men from the boys. Looking at the skating situation in a quad context, Skate Canada will obviously try to get three of the male skaters to qualify for the next Olympics, and I would bet you that two of those skaters will be Nguyen and . . . Sadovsky. (Remember: the quad is four years, but everything revolves around the quad.) By then, Sadovsky will be ready along with Nguyen. The third might be Reynolds, or it might be Chan (but that is all up to Chan) even, but I bet you dollars to donuts Nguyen and Sadovsky will be two of them, and they will be our pillars for men. (This is in the context of the quad, but you can see the ducks being lined up already.) It will be interesting, as well, to see how Rogozine develops under Tom Z. My sixth sense is that, as much as I despise Tom Z and don't like to see any skater train under him after what happened to Farris, these two might be suited for each other in a productive fulfilling way. As a longshot, Rogozine might have some surprisingly better skates this year but, even so, even if he raises eyebrows, I still say in the quad equation for Canada, it will be Sadovsky and Nguyen. It will be their progression over a the next several year period that will define Canada's position in men's skating, I think.

Click to expand...