US Olympic Team Announced

[GoneWithTheWind]

USFS announced its pairs selections for the Olympics:

Ashley Cain-Gribble & Timothy LeDuc
Alexa Knierim & Brandon Frazier

Alternates:
Calalang/Johnson
Lu/Mitrofanov
Chan/Howe

Huge congratulations to Ashley, Timothy, Alexa and Brandon!

Source: https://www.usfigureskating.org/new...2022-us-olympic-figure-skating-team-nominated

2022 World Championships
Ashley Cain-Gribble and Timothy LeDuc
Alexa Knierim and Brandon Frazier

Alternate 1 – Jessica Calalang and Brian Johnson
Alternate 2 – Audrey Lu and Misha Mitrofanov
Alternate 3 – Emily Chan and Spencer Howe

2022 Four Continents Championships
Emily Chan and Spencer Howe
Audrey Lu and Misha Mitrofanov
Katie McBeath and Nathan Bartholomay

No alternates

2022 World Junior Championships
Isabelle Martins and Ryan Bedard
Anastasiia Smirnova and Danil Siianytsia

Alternate 1 – Catherine Rivers and Timothy Chapman (pending minimums)
Alternate 2 – Cate Fleming and Chase Finster

Source: https://www.usfigureskating.org/new...r-continents-and-world-junior-teams-announced

 

[GoneWithTheWind]

I'm so pleased for Ashley and Timothy especially, I've enjoyed their skating for the whole quad, and am so excited that they achieved their goal. CG/L and K/F was my dream Olys team, so I'm really happy!

I'm a little surprised that Calalang/Johnson didn't get the Worlds assignment as a bit of a consolation prize, especially as this effectively ends their season (unless they get called as an alternate), however, I'll be pleased to see CG/L and K/F at Worlds as well.

 

[Greta]

I’m most surprised by the junior selections. I guess Baram/Tiomentsev don’t have minimums? Do we know why Kam/Meyh pulled out after a good short program?

 

[GoneWithTheWind]

I guess Batam/Tiomentsev don’t have minimums?

Yes, sadly they don't. US Nats was only their second (?) comp together, I think.

 

[Greta]

Yes, sadly they don't. US Nats was only their second (?) comp together, I think.

They looked great considering that! Obviously still development to do and the matching wasn’t awesome, but I sure hope they’ll stay together and get more assignments next year.

 

[norwegianfairytale]

I actually think Starr has made a lot of progress this season, I guess her selection is not based on Nationals alone but the whole season. Her jumps looks better this season and her programs are great. She had a bad SP for sure in Nashville but her FS was quite good. Harrell isn´t the most stable skater either and Kate does not have the minimum. All though, as I have mentioned before in this thread I find it odd that Gabbie is listed as 3rd alternate for Olympics and got a spot for 4CC as well, neither did Lindsay or Amber. I get that they think it´s unlikely that Gabbie will need to go to Beijing because she is 3rd alternate, but I think it´s risky and since they left Lindsay and Amber out of 4CC they could have done the same with Gabbie and nobody would think about it and Harrell could have gotten a spot for 4CC along with Starr and Shin and everybody would be happy. Since Hanna is the first alternate though she might go to 4CC if somethings happen.

 

[GoneWithTheWind]

They looked great considering that! Obviously still development to do and the matching wasn’t awesome, but I sure hope they’ll stay together and get more assignments next year.

He's 20 and she's only 13, so sadly they may struggle to remain together long term... However, even if they don't stay together long, at least they're both getting valuable pairs and competition experience.

 

[norwegianfairytale]

Btw it seems they do the same for pairs and ice dance, 1 alternatives are sitting out 4CC but 2 and 3 can go.

 

[noskates]

So happy for Brandon and Alexa. And I have no doubt whatsoever that had they been able to compete this week they would have walked away with the win. Feel kind of sorry for Brian and Jessica - and wonder why they weren't sent to 4CCs.

 

[sworddance21]

So happy for Brandon and Alexa. And I have no doubt whatsoever that had they been able to compete this week they would have walked away with the win. Feel kind of sorry for Brian and Jessica - and wonder why they weren't sent to 4CCs.

My guess is they weren't sent to 4CCs because the likelihood of them being called on to compete in Beijing is high, given the current COVID situation.

 

[drivingmissdaisy]

I don't think Alysa would have gotten close to 219 at Worlds if you could have magically put her Lombardia programs on the ice in Stockholm. And she shouldn't. She doesn't have the technical elements or presentation quality of the Russian women. What you're saying is highlighting my problem with the selection criteria: scores aren't the same everywhere, and I don't think it makes sense to rank skaters based on scoring potential when you're only using one outlier event (Lombardia in Alysa's case) and comparing it to a completely different event where the scoring was much less generous.

The choice is either to use Nationals as the sole deciding event, or to factor other events in the selection process. Some judging panels are more generous than others, so I don't think that's an excuse to ignore certain scores. The fact is that Alysa landed the same number of clean 3-3's in the Nationals SP that Mariah and Karen have all season combined, so I don't see the argument that Mariah and Karen should be considered to be the on the same level in scoring potential.

 

[GoneWithTheWind]

Congratulations to the US Olympic Team!

Madison Chock & Evan Bates
Kaitlin Hawayek & Jean-Luc Baker
Madison Hubbell & Zachary Donohue

Alternates:
Green & Parsons
Bratti & Somerville
Wolfkostin & Chen

Source: https://www.usfigureskating.org/new...2022-us-olympic-figure-skating-team-nominated


2022 Worlds

Madison Chock & Evan Bates
Kaitlin Hawayek & Jean-Luc Baker
Madison Hubbell & Zachary Donohue

Alternates:
Green & Parsons
Bratti & Somerville
Carreira & Ponomarenko

2022 Four Continents
Emily Bratti & Ian Somerville
Christina Carreira & Anthony Ponomarenko
Caroline Green & Michael Parsons

Alternates:
Pate/Bye
McNamara/Spiridonov
Cesanek/Yehorov

2022 Junior Worlds
Oona Brown & Gage Brown
Angela Ling & Caleb Wein
Katarina Wolfkostin & Jeffrey Chen

Alternates:
Neset/Markelov
Carhart/Horovyi

Source: https://www.usfigureskating.org/new...r-continents-and-world-junior-teams-announced

 

[Greta]

So this is the only discipline so far with the first Olympic alternate traveling to 4CC? I wonder about the logic there.

 

[chuckm]

Sonia Baram is too young for Worlds / Olympics: she may be 13, but missed the July 1 cutoff. She skated singles and pairs at the Novice Champion Series and was top 3 in singles, so she skated at both singles and pairs at Junior Nationals. Daniel has one more year of junior eligibility, so look for them in the JGP next season.

 

[GoneWithTheWind]

So this is the only discipline so far with the first Olympic alternate traveling to 4CC? I wonder about the logic there.

I wonder if they think Green/Parsons stand a really good chance of winning which would set them up well for the next quad (and gain a lot of WS points too) so it's worth the risk?

 

[Jeanie19]

Have they announced the junior world selections?

 

[Greta]

Sonia Baram is too young for Worlds / Olympics: she may be 13, but missed the July 1 cutoff. She skated singles and pairs at the Novice Champion Series and was top 3 in singles, so she skated at both singles and pairs at Junior Nationals. Daniel has one more year of junior eligibility, so look for them in the JGP next season.

Thank you!

 

[cheerknithanson]

I wonder if they think Green/Parsons stand a really good chance of winning which would set them up well for the next quad (and gain a lot of WS points too) so it's worth the risk?

So I'm guessing if all goes well today, that might happen for Ilia Malinin as well.

 

[ramurphy2005]

So this is the only discipline so far with the first Olympic alternate traveling to 4CC? I wonder about the logic there.

I think they're playing it safe in case Brandon or Alysa aren't allowed into China. That's my only plausible explanation at the moment.

 

[ManyCairns]

I'm so pleased for Ashley and Timothy especially, I've enjoyed their skating for the whole quad, and am so excited that they achieved their goal. CG/L and K/F was my dream Olys team, so I'm really happy!

I'm a little surprised that Calalang/Johnson didn't get the Worlds assignment as a bit of a consolation prize, especially as this effectively ends their season (unless they get called as an alternate), however, I'll be pleased to see CG/L and K/F at Worlds as well.

Perhaps both Ash & Tim and Alexa & Brandon said they wanted to do both competitions.