Grand Prix Assignments 2023/24 released

[Jontor]

Replacement Lists
The replacement list is in ranking order of the top 75 from the Seasons Best List last season. If you win a Challenger event this season you can improve your placing on the replacement list.
As always, there is max 3 entries from each country in the GPs.

Women

1. Rika Kihira JPN 192.43 has one spot (can only replace a Japanese skater as the Japanese women have 3 entries in every competition)
2. Ekaterina Kurakova POL 190.44 has one spot
3. Ava Marie Ziegler USA 186.76
4. Seoyeon Ji KOR 184.14
5. Xiangyi An CHN 183.94 has one spot
6. Sarina Joos SUI 180.31
7. Lorine Schild FRA 179.00 has one spot
8. Lara Naki Gutmann ITA 178.43 has one spot
9. Lea Serna FRA 177.72 has one spot
10. Janna Jyrkinen FIN 176.96 has one spot
11. Rino Matsuike JPN 176.52
12. Maé-Bérénice Méité FRA 175.68
13. Hanna Harrell USA 175.55
14. Lindsay van Zundert NED 174.81 has one spot
15. Anna Pezzetta ITA 174.49
16. Sonja Hilmer USA 174.46
17. Gabriella Izzo USA 174.10
18. Gracie Gold USA 174.09
19. Olga Mikutina AUT 173.36
20. Clare Seo USA 172.62
21. Kaiya Ruiter CAN 172.42 has one spot
22. Gabrielle Daleman CAN 171.61
23. Sara-Maude Dupuis CAN 170.67 has one spot
24. Justine Miclette CAN 167.87
25. Alexia Paganini SUI 165.71
26. Julia Sauter ROU 165.62
27. Eva-Lotta Kiibus EST 165.21
28. Julia Lang HUN 165.07
29. Ahsun Yun KOR 163.82
30. Kristina Isaev GER 163.79

Last season, almost all the women on the Replacement List got a spot eventually.

Men

1. Jason Brown USA 280.04 has declined to compete in GPs this season
2. Tatsuya Tsuboi JPN 244.90 has one spot (can only replace a Japanese skater as the Japanese men have 3 entries in every competition)
3. Takeru Amine Kataise JPN 234.24 has one spot
4. Mark Gorodnitsky ISR 232.13 has one spot
5. Luc Economides FRA 229.64 has one spot
6. Boyang Jin CHN 227.47 has one spot
7. Maxim Naumov USA 227.17 has one spot
8. Conrad Orzel CAN 226.10 has one spot
9. Roman Sadovsky CAN 225.41 has one spot
10. Robert Yampolsky USA 223.06
11. Liam Kapeikis USA 223.02 has one spot
12. Jimmy Ma USA 222.73 has one spot
13. Stephen Gogolev CAN 221.02 has one spot
14. Naoki Rossi SUI 220.68
15. Lucas Broussard USA 220.43 has one spot
16. Ivan Shmuratko UKR 220.08
17. Wesley Chiu CAN 219.90 has one spot
18. Nozomu Yoshioka JPN 219.68 has one spot
19. Shunsuke Nakamura JPN 219.65
20. Nikita Starostin GER 217.87
21. Tomas-Llorenc Guarino Sabaté ESP 216.05
22. Sena Miyake JPN 215.74
23. Matthew Newnham CAN 213.79
24. Hyungyeom Kim KOR 213.56
25. Vladimir Samoilov POL 212.79
26. Francois Pitot FRA 212.25
27. Jaeseok Kyeong KOR 211.98
28. Aleksandr Selevko EST 211.11
29. Andrew Torgashev USA 210.59 has one spot
30. Arlet Levandi EST 209.50 has one spot
31. Maurizio Zandron AUT 207.68
32. Yudong Chen CHN 205.12
33. Daniel Martynov USA 204.67
34. Valtter Virtanen FIN 204.02
35. Landry Le May FRA 203.39
36. Adam Hagara SVK 203.26
37. Davide Lewton Brain MON 206.16
38. Luc Maierhofer AUT 201.50
39. Kornel Witkowski POL 200.97
40. Aleksa Rakic CAN 200.94
41. Raffaele Francesco Zich ITA 200.73
42. Hangil Kim KOR 200.23
43. Dinh Tran USA 199.68
44. Rakhat Bralin KAZ 199.38
45. Younghyun Cha KOR 199.18
46. Jari Kessler CRO 197.99
47. Lucas Tsuyoshi Honda JPN 197.90

Some of the men might decide to still compete in juniors.

 

[invisiblespiral]

Could we assume that Boyang is getting one of the Cup of China host spots? Or Rika and the NHK host spot, if she's better?

 

[Jontor]

Could we assume that Boyang is getting one of the Cup of China host spots? Or Rika and the NHK host spot, if she's better?

Yes

 

[el henry]

I love Sam and was repping him long before y'all noticed him. But GP ready he is not. Hopefully he can go to some Senior Bs.

I don't understand the laughing emojis here (meaning I really don't understand it).

You certainly can't be laughing at someone for having an opinion about Sam even though they did not have the great good fortune to see him as early as you did. I never laugh at anyone's opinion of Andrew, no matter how late, even though I became a fan when he was a mere lad of 14.

Are you laughing because someone thinks Sam would be a good addition to the senior GP circuit? Well, you can laugh at me then, I think he would be a great addition.

There were three skaters who brought down the house in senior men's at US Nats: Jason Brown (both programs), Sam (both programs) and Andrew T. (long). I am basing this opinion on reports of people who were there, not what came across in video. It is never ever a bad thing to have those kinds of skaters at comps.

Do I expect other feds to care about reactions at US Nats? No, I do not. Do I wish they would? Yes, I do.

 

[moonvine]

I don't understand the laughing emojis here (meaning I really don't understand it).

You certainly can't be laughing at someone for having an opinion about Sam even though they did not have the great good fortune to see him as early as you did. I never laugh at anyone's opinion of Andrew, no matter how late, even though I became a fan when he was a mere lad of 14.

Are you laughing because someone thinks Sam would be a good addition to the senior GP circuit? Well, you can laugh at me then, I think he would be a great addition.

There were three skaters who brought down the house in senior men's at US Nats: Jason Brown (both programs), Sam (both programs) and Andrew T. (long). I am basing this opinion on reports of people who were there, not what came across in video. It is never ever a bad thing to have those kinds of skaters at comps.

Do I expect other feds to care about reactions at US Nats? No, I do not. Do I wish they would? Yes, I do.

I didn't mean any of these things. I should take the laugh emojis out.

Yes, I had the great good fortune to be there and experience them bringing down the house live! All great skaters.

I think to make Sam's first senior international competition a GP would put unnecessary pressure on him. That's all. Mea culpa, I looked and he has has one other Senior International competition, which was Philly International 2022, which I should have remembered because I was there. He came in 4th. At any rate, he has no ranking points, so he's not on the list of eligible skaters. He could only have had the host pick at Skate America which has already gone to Andrew.

I really do hope he gets to go to some senior B's, I enjoyed his skating very much.

 

[el henry]

I didn't mean any of these things. I should take the laugh emojis out.

Yes, I had the great good fortune to be there and experience them bringing down the house live! All great skaters.

I think to make Sam's first senior international competition a GP would put unnecessary pressure on him. That's all. Mea culpa, I looked and he has has one other Senior International competition, which was Philly International 2022, which I should have remembered because I was there. He came in 4th. At any rate, he has no ranking points, so he's not on the list of eligible skaters. He could only have had the host pick at Skate America which has already gone to Andrew.

I really do hope he gets to go to some senior B's, I enjoyed his skating very much.

I knew I must be misunderstandng anyone who had the great good taste to appreciate Jalen. I had forgotten you were at Nats too, mea culpa.

I know Sam just isn't eligible except in my dreams, but I am glad to join you on the Sam hype train.

 

[moonvine]

I knew I must be misunderstandng anyone who had the great good taste to appreciate Jalen. I had forgotten you were at Nats too, mea culpa.
A
I know Sam just isn't eligible except in my dreams, but I am glad to join you on the Sam hype train.

Sam is not just a great skater but he is such a very polite and humble young man. USFS is clearly putting their money on Andrew, which is a good thing.

 

[yelyoh]

And seeing this list makes me anxiously await the Jr Grand Prix assignments!!!

 

[gleungc6]

Replacement Lists
The replacement list is in ranking order of the top 75 from the Seasons Best List last season. If you win a Challenger event this season you can improve your placing on the replacement list.
As always, there is max 3 entries from each country in the GPs.

Women

1. Rika Kihira JPN 192.43 has one spot (can only replace a Japanese skater as the Japanese women have 3 entries in every competition)
2. Ekaterina Kurakova POL 190.44 has one spot
3. Ava Marie Ziegler USA 186.76
4. Seoyeon Ji KOR 184.14
5. Xiangyi An CHN 183.94 has one spot
6. Sarina Joos SUI 180.31
7. Lorine Schild FRA 179.00 has one spot
8. Lara Naki Gutmann ITA 178.43 has one spot
9. Lea Serna FRA 177.72 has one spot
10. Janna Jyrkinen FIN 176.96 has one spot
11. Rino Matsuike JPN 176.52
12. Maé-Bérénice Méité FRA 175.68
13. Hanna Harrell USA 175.55
14. Lindsay van Zundert NED 174.81 has one spot
15. Anna Pezzetta ITA 174.49
16. Sonja Hilmer USA 174.46
17. Gabriella Izzo USA 174.10
18. Gracie Gold USA 174.09
19. Olga Mikutina AUT 173.36
20. Clare Seo USA 172.62
21. Kaiya Ruiter CAN 172.42 has one spot
22. Gabrielle Daleman CAN 171.61
23. Sara-Maude Dupuis CAN 170.67 has one spot
24. Justine Miclette CAN 167.87
25. Alexia Paganini SUI 165.71
26. Julia Sauter ROU 165.62
27. Eva-Lotta Kiibus EST 165.21
28. Julia Lang HUN 165.07
29. Ahsun Yun KOR 163.82
30. Kristina Isaev GER 163.79

Last season, almost all the women on the Replacement List got a spot eventually.

Men

1. Jason Brown USA 280.04
2. Tatsuya Tsuboi JPN 244.90 has one spot (can only replace a Japanese skater as the Japanese men have 3 entries in every competition)
3. Takeru Amine Kataise JPN 234.24 has one spot
4. Mark Gorodnitsky ISR 232.13 has one spot
5. Luc Economides FRA 229.64 has one spot
6. Boyang Jin CHN 227.47 has one spot
7. Maxim Naumov USA 227.17 has one spot
8. Conrad Orzel CAN 226.10 has one spot
9. Roman Sadovsky CAN 225.41 has one spot
10. Robert Yampolsky USA 223.06
11. Liam Kapeikis USA 223.02 has one spot
12. Jimmy Ma USA 222.73 has one spot
13. Stephen Gogolev CAN 221.02 has one spot
14. Naoki Rossi SUI 220.68
15. Lucas Broussard USA 220.43 has one spot
16. Ivan Shmuratko UKR 220.08
17. Wesley Chiu CAN 219.90 has one spot
18. Nozomu Yoshioka JPN 219.68 has one spot
19. Shunsuke Nakamura JPN 219.65
20. Nikita Starostin GER 217.87
21. Tomas-Llorenc Guarino Sabaté ESP 216.05
22. Sena Miyake JPN 215.74
23. Matthew Newnham CAN 213.79
24. Hyungyeom Kim KOR 213.56
25. Vladimir Samoilov POL 212.79
26. Francois Pitot FRA 212.25
27. Jaeseok Kyeong KOR 211.98
28. Aleksandr Selevko EST 211.11
29. Andrew Torgashev USA 210.59 has one spot
30. Arlet Levandi EST 209.50 has one spot
31. Maurizio Zandron AUT 207.68
32. Yudong Chen CHN 205.12
33. Daniel Martynov USA 204.67
34. Valtter Virtanen FIN 204.02
35. Landry Le May FRA 203.39
36. Adam Hagara SVK 203.26
37. Davide Lewton Brain MON 206.16
38. Luc Maierhofer AUT 201.50
39. Kornel Witkowski POL 200.97
40. Aleksa Rakic CAN 200.94
41. Raffaele Francesco Zich ITA 200.73
42. Hangil Kim KOR 200.23
43. Dinh Tran USA 199.68
44. Rakhat Bralin KAZ 199.38
45. Younghyun Cha KOR 199.18
46. Jari Kessler CRO 197.99
47. Lucas Tsuyoshi Honda JPN 197.90

Some of the men might decide to still compete in juniors.

Thank you for compiling this!

I hope YuDong Chen might get one of the CoC host spots if CHN decides to keep them. Still in awe of his comeback near perfect FS at the JGP last year!

 

[Jeanie19]

Thank you for compiling this!

I hope YuDong Chen might get one of the CoC host spots if CHN decides to keep them. Still in awe of his comeback near perfect FS at the JGP last year!

He can still skate in juniors, too. His free skate comeback last year was amazing.

 

[TT_Fin]

He can still skate in juniors, too. His free skate comeback last year was amazing.

But not JGP. Hard situation for young skaters in Finland too. More about it at Nordic thread ehen I get home.

 

[Jumping_Bean]

Interesting; do you have a source for the statement that Kévin gets to choose his assignments as No. 4?

I know from interviews with Meagan Duhamel that when she and Eric were World Champions, Skate Canada asked them what comps they preferred. Meagan and Eric did not directly choose; they told their fed, and the fed made it happen.

I have not heard any similar interviews for the fourth fifth and sixth spots, I would be interested to read/listen to them.

I mean, officially the ISU claims that seeded skaters are distributed by draw, but there are not just interviews going against that idea, but also a lot of evidence in the distribution of past skaters (like all top seeds last season getting assignments for SKAM and NHK, and two of them even getting assigned to both - Pretty low chances of this happening in a random draw).

According to AnythingGOE's GP selection guide (which is likely trustworthy considering how many interviews etc. they do with various skaters, and it does line up with past assignments), giving your preference is something all seeded skaters do. The preferences are taken into consideration, with priority given to the preferences of the highest seeds in each seeding group (so 1st and 4th), so the first seeds generally get what they want (which explains why Chock/Bates have gotten SKAM for the third time in a row, and Shoma NHK, after being the highest seed in their group for the last three seasons).

No that rule is used for skaters that has previously officially retired. Wakaba never retired, she just had a very bad season last year with bad results and injury.

Two different rules might have been applicable for Wakaba's case - "Comeback" (1-6 at Worlds, are guaranteed two GP spots after skipping 1+ seasons, only applicable once) and "Return" skaters (1-12 at Worlds, skipping one season due to injury). Neither of them requires official retirements as far as I know.

Thank you for compiling this!

I hope YuDong Chen might get one of the CoC host spots if CHN decides to keep them. Still in awe of his comeback near perfect FS at the JGP last year!

According to some information coming from Chinese skating fans, Yudong is supposed to be doing two JGP events. Or at least that was the state of affairs last I heard of the Chinese selection criteria.

But not JGP.

Is there any reason why you think he's not JGP-eligible anymore? Or is it just that you think he's unlikely to go for the JGP if he can do one senior GP?

 

[TT_Fin]

But not JGP.

I mean, officially the ISU claims that seeded skaters are distributed by draw, but there are not just interviews going against that idea, but also a lot of evidence in the distribution of past skaters (like all top seeds last season getting assignments for SKAM and NHK, and two of them even getting assigned to both - Pretty low chances of this happening in a random draw).

According to AnythingGOE's GP selection guide (which is likely trustworthy considering how many interviews etc. they do with various skaters, and it does line up with past assignments), giving your preference is something all seeded skaters do. The preferences are taken into consideration, with priority given to the preferences of the highest seeds in each seeding group (so 1st and 4th), so the first seeds generally get what they want (which explains why Chock/Bates have gotten SKAM for the third time in a row, and Shoma NHK, after being the highest seed in their group for the last three seasons).


Two different rules might have been applicable for Wakaba's case - "Comeback" (1-6 at Worlds, are guaranteed two GP spots after skipping 1+ seasons, only applicable once) and "Return" skaters (1-12 at Worlds, skipping one season due to injury). Neither of them requires official retirements as far as I know.


According to some information coming from Chinese skating fans, Yudong is supposed to be doing two JGP events. Or at least that was the state of affairs last I heard of the Chinese selection criteria.


Is there any reason why you think he's not JGP-eligible anymore? Or is it just that you think he's unlikely to go for the JGP if he can do one senior GP?

I have understood skater is not allowed to skate in senior GP if takes part in JGP. I have read it from this forum only.

 

[icewhite]

I especially hope that Shmuratko and Starostin get a spot, also Miyake.

There are so many women on that list I would like to see in a GP... no Mikutina would be a shame... and Ziegler surely deserves one, but I'm sure she'll get it if she wants to.

 

[Jumping_Bean]

I have understood skater is not allowed to skate in senior GP if takes part in JGP. I have read it from this forum only.

Yeah, he couldn't do JGP and GP in the same season, so he'd be choosing between one (currently unassigned) host spot, or two JGP assignments (and possibly JGPF) this season, if he hasn't already made that choice.

 

[Jontor]

Two different rules might have been applicable for Wakaba's case - "Comeback" (1-6 at Worlds, are guaranteed two GP spots after skipping 1+ seasons, only applicable once) and "Return" skaters (1-12 at Worlds, skipping one season due to injury). Neither of them requires official retirements as far as I know.

Well, Wakaba was ranked 25th on the WS list (now 30th after they dropped the 20/21 season), so it might have been high enough for her to get one spot (her second spot might be a host spot at NHK).
Looking at the SB list, everyone in the top 34 got two spots except for two (Kihira and Kurakova). Starr Andrews (SB #28 WS #29) got two and none of them is Skate America. Also, Audrey Shin (SB #32) got two spots although she was only guaranteed one (WS #16).

Could it be that the Japanese federation are playing it safe with Rika? She will probably get the host spot at NHK, but they can also give that to someone else if one of the Japanese women WD's and Rika can replace them in an earlier event. Rika is on top of the Replacement List after all.

 

[Jeanie19]

I especially hope that Shmuratko and Starostin get a spot, also Miyake.

There are so many women on that list I would like to see in a GP... no Mikutina would be a shame... and Ziegler surely deserves one, but I'm sure she'll get it if she wants to.

I so agree with this post.

 

[TT_Fin]

About Finnish TBD spots in men. If Valtter stays is n pairs and local candidates Matias L. and Arttu J. who are the only senior age eligible national team skaters with Makar S. (I suppose Finland has three JGP spot, one skater more is Matias H. who can get a JGP spot but not age eligbile in seniors) still decide to stay at JGP, then I think Kyrylo Marsak is very strong candidate. I think also Nikita S. who some of you wished will get the spot is one possibility, as it seems he has spent a lot of time in Finland during the summer.

 

[SnowWhite]

Isn't it weird that they keep all home spots undecided but are able to assign other spots to skaters (one f, one m iirc). So the spots outside of China.

Well, the Chinese fed didn't assign them to those other spots, the respective host federations picked them since they we on the list of eligible skaters/teams. The Chinese fed has decided to wait on assigning their host spots, but they can't wait on the spots outside of China since they don't pick those - they either submit the skaters for selection, and they may get picked like they did, or they don't submit them, and then they'd have no chance at spots outside of China. I do find it a little weird that they've left 3 TBD in every discipline, but I'm assuming that all of Boyang, An, Peng/Wang and Wang/Liu will probably end up with host spots.

I hope Jimmy ends up with another spot through withdrawals. I just looked at the world standings and if I'm reading it correctly he's pretty high up the list.

The replacement list goes by Season's Best, not World Standings. But Jimmy is high enough on that to be in the first group of 10 eligible to be picked as a replacement. So he has a chance.

Replacement Lists
The replacement list is in ranking order of the top 75 from the Seasons Best List last season. If you win a Challenger event this season you can improve your placing on the replacement list.
As always, there is max 3 entries from each country in the GPs.

Men

1. Jason Brown USA 280.04

Jason would have been guaranteed 2 spots if he wanted to compete on the GP - since he doesn't, I'm pretty sure that means he was not submitted for selection and is therefore not on the replacement list.

 

[Jontor]

Jason would have been guaranteed 2 spots if he wanted to compete on the GP - since he doesn't, I'm pretty sure that means he was not submitted for selection and is therefore not on the replacement list.

Yes, Jason fur sure will not compete in GP this season either. But he earned his spot on the Replacement List, so if he changes his mind?...