2020-21 ISU Grand Prix season - Assignments Announced

[Fried]

Look at what happened in Berlin! Millions demonstrated against the strict rules. I believe the humanity must learn the life with COVID because the economic crises is going to make much more problems than the virus.

Please don't spread the fake propaganda of corona denier and conspiracy theorists! There were no millions, there were around 17,000 participants! I live in Berlin and I hate that all these idiots always have to come from all over the country to my city to chant their garbage.
In addition, the rules here are not strict. Mask requirement when shopping and on public transport. Fewer people in restaurants / pubs / cinemas. Only the clubs and brothels have to remain closed. Compared to other countries, it is completely relaxed here. Far too relaxed if you ask me. In the parks here you can see them party all night long as if there were no Coronavirus.
These demonstrators are just stupid, ungrateful, and selfish.

 

[DSQ]

I wonder why... * looking at protests in the middle of a pandemic* .....

Anyway, we can't hide forever. Other sport events moved on, people go on vacation, to work, kids go to school. Only your immune system is going to protect you from viruses, waiting for a vaccine is a waste of time.

We had protests in Scotland too (In support of BLM) and in the month following there was no uptick in cases, in fact it continued to drop. So don’t blame protests.

 

[plushyfan]

Please don't spread the fake propaganda of corona denier and conspiracy theorists! There were no millions, there were around 17,000 participants! I live in Berlin and I hate that all these idiots always have to come from all over the country to my city to chant their garbage.
In addition, the rules here are not strict. Mask requirement when shopping and on public transport. Fewer people in restaurants / pubs / cinemas. Only the clubs and brothels have to remain closed. Compared to other countries, it is completely relaxed here. Far too relaxed if you ask me. In the parks here you can see them party all night long as if there were no Coronaviris.
These demonstrators are just stupid, ungrateful, and selfish.

Oh, thank you for your realy story. Sometimes I don't know what to believe. I read how grateful the Germans were for handling the situation so well in the country and today I received this news that millions were at the demonstration. They wrote the goverment's propaganda wants to lie about the real numbers.- This was suspicious because I don't think the German goverment and other western goverment lies about this case. I wanted to say where the democracy as on high level as in Germany or Sweden, Netherlands, etc..

Thank you again.

 

[nussnacker]

That's why there will be (I assume) testing before and after competitions and quarantines for individuals if needed plus rigorous measures in place (like no audience, masks, etc). You put "public" in danger by going to work everyday as well. You even have people going on vacations these days...

I don’t go to work, luckily I work from home. Which I think every company should be doing.
There’s a difference between necessity and everything else.
Some things are worth taking calculated risks in the midst of a pandemic, but sport isn’t something I’d put among that. Sport events, entertainment etc are not worth the risk in my book.
Even if the situation is contained, relaxing borders and regulations too much can lead to another spike. Look, Japan is hit by a second wave now, they’re shutting it down again.
The situation all over the world is still pretty fragile, it’s just not worth it.

 

[drivingmissdaisy]

If you organize an event, you want it to happen, as you have invested a lot of money into it. If there is no event, you must pay back a lot of money to sponsors, TV stations, merchandise manufacturers and the like. Needles to say, you might have booked a venue that has no more use for you, yet must be paid for.
This ultimately leads to bankruptcy, therefore you will force the event, no matter what.

All of this is true, but there might be options to minimize risk. It's likely that the events will be closed to public audiences. Maybe a few events have to be cancelled or moved away from virus hotspots.

I am most concerned about older members of the athletes' coaching teams, as they are most vulnerable to severe complications. Even if they don't travel to events, they can contract covid if athletes or coaches bring the virus back.

 

[lariko]

:thumbsup: And what is the figure skating without the Russians???

Well, the Russians are probably the only country that can fill in the whole GP event in every field and even have people who didn’t make it? and there is a few competitors from the former USSR who train in Moscow or St. Petersburg. If they can guarantee the safety in the framework of the competition, it’s going to be sort of a Russian show-down? Maybe?

What of France though?

 

[Fried]

Oh, thank you for your realy story. Sometimes I don't know what to believe. I read how grateful the Germans were for handling the situation so well in the country and today I received this news that millions were at the demonstration. They wrote the goverment's propaganda wants to lie about the real numbers.- This was suspicious because I don't think the German goverment and other western goverment lies about this case. I wanted to say where the democracy as on high level as in Germany or Sweden, Netherlands, etc..

Thank you again.

You are welcome! If you are interested, here is a article. I hope the Google translator reproduces it correctly for you. What bothers me the most about these demos are the strikingly large number of right-wing extremists. It's a shame.

https://www.tagesschau.de/faktenfinder/corona-demo-berlin-109.html

 

[StitchMonkey]

We had protests in Scotland too (In support of BLM) and in the month following there was no uptick in cases, in fact it continued to drop. So don’t blame protests.

I have seen reports that they may have actually helped the spread as people were avoiding the protests... go figure.

Also a lot of them were wearing masks, at least around here. It is almost like being less identifiable when you are protesting the police is a good idea pandemic or not! Plus social distancing makes the crowds look larger...

 

[StitchMonkey]

Just found this in there

"Competitors shall not count towards the Minimum Total Elements Scores applicable for ISU Championships (Point 3 below to be considered in this respect)."

Ok so what is even the point? Honestly I think giving skaters the chance to earn minimum TES so they have the chance to go to worlds so they have a chance to earn Olympic births should be a top priority over GP events.

yes i am still salty over Donovan missing the TES by .2 points and really want him to get a chance to try this season. I am sure there are countless other skaters in similar places.

And no standing points either... I fear we are going to see a lot of one event gold medalists qualifying for the grand prix and trying to not go...i don't see many skaters doing two events.

This is worse in some ways than nothing. Honestly i was just hoping for a few events in November/December mostly for TES and testing programs once. That would have been likely pulled off, but now they are going to try to do this...

 

[drivingmissdaisy]

Just found this in there

"Competitors shall not count towards the Minimum Total Elements Scores applicable for ISU Championships (Point 3 below to be considered in this respect)."

Ok so what is even the point? Honestly I think giving skaters the chance to earn minimum TES so they have the chance to go to worlds so they have a chance to earn Olympic births should be a top priority over GP events.

I don't see the point of having minimum TES this season. How would a comeback skater like Gracie, or a first year senior who didn't skate well as a junior last year, even qualify? My guess would be that the ISU eventually waives the minimum score requirement for the big events this year.

 

[kan01]

I don’t go to work, luckily I work from home. Which I think every company should be doing.
There’s a difference between necessity and everything else.
Some things are worth taking calculated risks in the midst of a pandemic, but sport isn’t something I’d put among that. Sport events, entertainment etc are not worth the risk in my book.
Even if the situation is contained, relaxing borders and regulations too much can lead to another spike. Look, Japan is hit by a second wave now, they’re shutting it down again.
The situation all over the world is still pretty fragile, it’s just not worth it.

Unlike you, skaters go everyday outside of their homes to the respective rinks to work on figure skating and at least some will go to whatever-if any-competition we'll have this autumn/winter. So I guess it is worth it for them.

 

[StitchMonkey]

I don't see the point of having minimum TES this season. How would a comeback skater like Gracie, or a first year senior who didn't skate well as a junior last year, even qualify? My guess would be that the ISU eventually waives the minimum score requirement for the big events this year.

Good point on the comeback skater. I guess they could do the GP but skip worlds?

And with the junior example... junior scores don't count, so any due to be first year seniors this year currently have no way to earn the minimums.

I am ok with waiving the minimum TES... or just make it the same as 4cc/Euros as a compromise. But something has to give.

Then you have cases like Tursynbayeva who was injured last year. I don't know if her appearance at the Shanghai Trophy counts for minimums, in which case the arguable reigning silver medalist currently may not be qualified for worlds and may not get the chance to get the scores. She could realistically get two spots even... and she may have to go to Nebelhorn for her chance to go to the Olympics. This is just madness.

 

[ruga]

Hopefully ISU lets skaters keep minimums from 18/19 season and makes junior scores count. After all, they're usually not as big as senior ones.

 

[haribobo]

Hypothetical Men Fields
USA- Chen, Krasnozhon, Camden, Tomoki, Torgashev, Naumov, Brezina, Messing, Zhou
CAN- Brown, Nguyen, Sadovsky, Gogolev, Nadeau, Orzel, Phan
FRA- Uno, Rizzo, Grassl, Vasiljevs, Ponsart, Fentz, Fa, Aymoz, Shimada
CHN- Jin, Han Yan, Cha
JPN- Tomono, Kagiyama, Sato, Tanaka, Yamamoto, Sumoto, Hanyu
RUS- Danielian, Aliev, Samarin, Ignatov, Lazukin, Kolyada, Mozalev, Gumennik, Kerry, Moris K.

Hypothetical Ladies Fields
USA- Bell, Tennell, Chen, Glenn, Starr, Ting, Gracie, Hanna, Hicks, Marin H?, YCLeung, Young You
CAN- Satoko, Daleman, Pineault, Bausback, Schumacher, Schizas, Mallet, Cotop, Bulawka, Yi Zhu
FRA- Paganini, Schott, Meite, Peltonen, Kiibus, Kurakova, Kihira
CHN- H Chen, Yelim Kim, Haein Lee, Eunsoo Lim
JPN- Wakaba, Kaori, Yokoi, Mako, Shiraiwa, Nitaya, Nagai, Yoshioka
RUS- Kostornaia, Trusova, Shcherbakova, Tuktamysheva, Samodurova, Medvedeva, Sinitsyna, Gubanova, Tursynbaeva, Guliakova, Tarakanova, Safonova, Ryabova

Hypothetical Pairs Fields- feel free to correct anyone who is in the wrong location or if I am missing anyone...

USA- Cain/Leduc, Kayne/Oshea, Calalang/Johnson, Knierim/Frazier, Tarasova/Morozov, Lu/Mitrofanov, Finster/Nagy
CAN- MT/M, Walsh/Michaud, Ruest/Wolfe, Brasseur/Daleman, Serafini/Tran, Miura/Kihara, Stellato/Deschamps
FRA- DM/Guarise, James/Cipres?, Hase/Seegert, Hocke/Kunkel, Ghilardi/Ambrosini, Ziegler/Kiefer (or RUS)
CHN- Sui/Han, Peng/Jin, Tang/Yang
JPN ?
RUS Boikova, Mishina, Pavliuchenko, Panfilova, Pleshkov, Kolesov, Nazarychev, Mironov

Hypothetical Dance Fields

USA- Carreira/Ponomarenko, Green/Parsons, Wolfkostin/Chen, Brown/Brown, Cesanek/Yehorov, McNamara/Spiridonov, Davis/Smolkin
CAN- Fear/Gibson, Papadakis/Cizeron, Chock/Bates, Hubbell/Donohue, Gilles/Poirier, FB/Sorensen, Wang/Liu, Hawayek/Baker, Lajoie/Lagha, Smart/Diaz, Lauriault/Legac, Soucisse/Firus, Reed/Ambrulevicius
FRA- Guignard/Fabbri, Kaliszek/Spoydriev, Urban Janse /Steffan, Demougeot/LeMercier
RUS- Sinkats, Stepanova, Morozov/Bagin, Zagorski, Nazarova/Nikitin, Konkina/Drozd, Shevchenko/Eremenko, Kazakova/Reviya, Mueller/Dieck, Thauron, Shpilevaya/Smirnov, Bazin, Narzynyy, Skpotcova/Aleshin

 

[lariko]

Wouldn’t Medvedeva be in Canada? I haven’t watch her moves lately, but I thought she was with Orser atm?

 

[StitchMonkey]

Hopefully ISU lets skaters keep minimums from 18/19 season and makes junior scores count. After all, they're usually not as big as senior ones.

Another perfectly reasonable and easily implementable option that the ISU is too blind to see.

 

[ruga]

Korean girls will probably be sent to China as their ladies field is not very strong.

 

[Ross74]

Wouldn’t Medvedeva be in Canada? I haven’t watch her moves lately, but I thought she was with Orser atm?

In Russia atm.

Also, Kurakova hasn't made it back to Canada yet, in Poland I think.
Did Zhou get back to Canada? The last pics I remember seeing of him were in the U.S.
I think Cha is still in Korea, and does anyone admit to knowing where Hanyu is?

 

[yume]

So it will be basically nats bis? Only USA and Canada have many foreign skaters who can make it look like international events (Russia have few but not that much)
So uninteresting.
Better to lose all that money but save skaters' health.

 

[Jontor]

What about the Grand Prix Final? Will it consist of the winners from each competition?

I don't think the athletes would be interested in competing in such a final. They will probably concentrate in preparaing for EC/4CC/Worlds.