Madison Chock and Evan Bates Withdraw from 2020 Skate America

[gsk8]

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado (Oct. 9, 2020) - Madison Chock and Evan Bates have withdrawn from 2020 Skate America, U.S. Figure Skating announced today.

The duo won their second U.S. title at the U.S. Championships in 2020.

“After much consideration, we have decided to withdraw from Skate America,” Chock and Bates said. “Our training and preparation have been affected by the pandemic and at this time we are 100% focused on our preparation for the 2021 Toyota U.S. Figure Skating Championships. We will be staying at our training base in Montreal, but will certainly miss the thrill of competition and seeing our U.S. Figure Skating family. We wish everyone good health and good luck!”

The 2021 Toyota U.S. Figure Skating Championships are scheduled to take place in San Jose from Jan. 11-17, 2021.

 

[heartyxo]

I'm not surprised but I will miss them they're by far my favourite current dance team.

I'm surprised they didn't mention the fact that they're injured in their press release, since that's likely the main reason they're out. But then this is also the team that managed to compete injured for a whole season and not have it be revealed until the olympics, so..

 

[Dogo]

This is for the best. I much rather have them take this slowly, recuperate, not go through quarantine, and come back stronger and injury free to (hopefully ) win US Nationals again!

 

[jersey1302]

if they're training in Montreal im surprised they aren't doing skate canada

 

[Kittosuni]

if they're training in Montreal im surprised they aren't doing skate canada

They are actually injured & that is most likely the reason they are not competing until nationals.

 

[anonymoose_au]

Interesting...if they leave Canada to go to US Nats I wonder if they'll have trouble getting back in. I remember hearing I took Jason Brown three tries to get back after a visit to the US. And we all know what happened to Zhenya Med.

The Nats aren't until January I guess, so fingers crossed the situation is better by then!

 

[Kittosuni]

Interesting...if they leave Canada to go to US Nats I wonder if they'll have trouble getting back in. I remember hearing I took Jason Brown three tries to get back after a visit to the US. And we all know what happened to Zhenya Med.

The Nats aren't until January I guess, so fingers crossed the situation is better by then!

A lot of things can change within that time frame especially that elections will be over by then.

 

[Bookseller]

Interesting...if they leave Canada to go to US Nats I wonder if they'll have trouble getting back in. I remember hearing I took Jason Brown three tries to get back after a visit to the US. And we all know what happened to Zhenya Med.

The Nats aren't until January I guess, so fingers crossed the situation is better by then!

Jason was allowed back in Canada on his second attempt, with different paperwork and at a different entry portal. Hawayek and Baker had entered a day or two before at the same entry portal, which is why Jason drove from Chicago to Buffalo to gain entry closer to Toronto. On his second attempt, he had statements from both Skate Canada and Skate Ontario, as well as USFS.

 

[Amei]

They are actually injured & that is most likely the reason they are not competing until nationals.

They seem to always be injured or coming back from injury

 

[skylark]

I'm not surprised but I will miss them they're by far my favourite current dance team.

I'm surprised they didn't mention the fact that they're injured in their press release, since that's likely the main reason they're out. But then this is also the team that managed to compete injured for a whole season and not have it be revealed until the olympics, so..

And that was ultimately disastrous for them. I think they've learned to take their time to heal an injury completely. I'll miss them, though. They've reached that stage in their partnership when they know each other so well, know what works for them. That makes them always a pleasure to watch. Watching the ISP programs makes me excited to see the progress of the other ice dancers, though. Lots of good skating.

 

[DSQ]

I think this is smart. More training time and there are no world standing points. Skate America is just US Nats 1.0 so I don’t blame them.

 

[heartyxo]

https://www.espn.com/olympics/story...e-dancers-prepare-skate-america-pandemic-easy

From a new article:
Their injury over the summer was definitely pretty minor- they only had to take 2 weeks off due to it. But after that they found out that they got exposed to COVID and had to quarantine again for 2 weeks. Thankfully they were both completely fine. That, alongside adjusting to getting back to training, definitely explain why they withdrew, and it seems to be a good decision.

 

[dancelion21]

https://www.espn.com/olympics/story...e-dancers-prepare-skate-america-pandemic-easy

From a new article:
Their injury over the summer was definitely pretty minor- they only had to take 2 weeks off due to it. But after that they found out that they got exposed to COVID and had to quarantine again for 2 weeks. Thankfully they were both completely fine. That, alongside adjusting to getting back to training, definitely explain why they withdrew, and it seems to be a good decision.

The article also confirms that they originally planned for a new free dance, but after getting back on the ice and training, they realized there wouldn't be enough time to polish it, so they went back to last year's free dance. That's probably a smart choice since they lost training time due to injury on top of the time lost from the pandemic.