- Joined
- Sep 1, 2020
Yep. Figure skating and ice dancing are tough altogether. These young people are amazing athletes! It's not surprising to hear that the Mullens are also bright and ambitious college students. There are always career ups-and-downs in every sport. The cutoffs for U.S. Nationals seems to change from year-to-year. The switch to seniors is tough altogether.
Part of the problem this year is Isabella Flores unfairly being abruptly bereft of the partner she had made tremendous progress with over two building years. She was obviously determined to continue her career asap, which takes grit and courage. But it also meant having to qualify for Nationals with a new partner. Thus, the Mullens are unfortunately the talented new-to-seniors team who get cutoff, since Flores/Jepsen were able to scrape by in fifth place. Too bad there weren't six spots made available. The sport is unfair and unforgiving.
The MIDA camp, for sure, is having issues. The strain is written all over the coaches' faces. It's obviously complicated and difficult to launch a successful ice dance academy. U.S. fed fully backed Charlie & Tanith, told a number of teams to go there, then obviously favored Wolfkostin/ Tsarevski and later the now split-up Morosov/ Chen over the very captivating Flores/Desyatov at WASA, instead of simply treating each team fairly.
Clearly, MIDA's Jeffrey Chen did not fare well after he aggressively split with Katarina Wolfkostin. After his hasty decision, he was apparently advised to pair with inexperienced Yahli Pedersen and return to juniors. That turned out very poorly. The later Morosov/ Chen match-up was somewhat of a mismatch, too, despite U.S. fed embarrassingly fawning over them. A useless, inept investment post Chen's eventual 'temporary' suspension by Safesport, which amounts to a career death sentence. Honestly, it's Wolfkostin's lucky partnership with Dima Tsarevski, after she was dropped by Chen, that has been MIDA's main success. Still, Wolf/Tsar went back to juniors in order to build their success and momentum.
Most sadly, the deserved attention and momentum Green/Parsons had achieved at WISA was immediately diluted and ultimately lost in their first season at MIDA. G/P toughed it out at MIDA and weathered injury, too. They came back last season with very good programs, but by that point, judges had seemingly lost interest in them and were not impressed, despite the fact that G/P have top-notch skills. Michael having a freak fall at recent Cup of China, suffering a pelvic injury and ultimately withdrawing is absolutely bad luck. Especially when they were going head-to-head at CoC against rival team, Zingas/Kolesnik, in this important Olympic season.
The lowball scores for MIDA's Bratti/ Somerville at Skate Canada was some kind of statement by the judges!
While Neset/ Markelov of WASA were also lowballed by Skate Canada judges, at least that can be attributed to their relative youth. N/M have a chance to grow and build more capital post Chock/ Bates' retirement. I'm not sure what changes Bratti/Somerville can make at this juncture to impress international judges.
