2025-26 U.S. Pairs Figure Skating

[BlissfulSynergy]

^^ Ah well. It would have been nice if Liu/Bedard had been given an opportunity. Sigh...

 

[BlissfulSynergy]

Congrats to Ellie and Danny on a fantastic FS at Skate Canada!! If they had done a cleaner SP they would have been in the 200's. I'm so happy they got a medal after all their injuries this year.

After the short program's continued throw jump issues for Ellie, I was concerned about the progress of their season. Yet, I was encouraged by how good they looked on everything else (a return to excellent form). The way Ellie's ankle turned on that unfortunate landing in the sp, it's a victory in itself that she wasn't injured. Gulp! Kudos to Ellie for something kicking in for her to fight so fiercely and successfully to land both throws in the fp cleanly! The judges initially entered a petty -.09 for GOE on the first throw. But it was clean and around despite Ellie's low knee bend. She was just determined to land that by the skin of her teeth! There should have been cheers, not that petty miniscule negative GOE.

As soon as Ellie amazingly managed to land the second throw in better fashion, yet still with obvious effort, the judges went back and gave the first throw neutral GOE, taking it out of petty -.09. They gave her credit for toughing it out! I hope that Ellie can now remember and access in future competitions how it feels to land successful throws! Cuz clearly, landing the throws has been K/O's main bugaboo and Ellie's nemesis. OTOH, Ellie & Danny have tended to be solid on the single sbs jump in the sp, and often good on at least one or sometimes both jumping passes in the fp.

That said, K/O absolutely excel on all other elements. Plus, their gorgeous movement quality over the ice, which expresses the music so well, is rare and a huge asset for them. Whatever readiness problems they experienced at Trialeti Trophy (due to injury rehab leading to a slow season start) have been solved. Their second GP at Finlandia Trophy in three weeks, will wrap up the season and finalize GPF entries.

I am not overly enthused by K/O's music choices this season, as compared to the past two seasons. But they are making their choices work. Plus, what they chose has personal meaning for them. Check out their recent conversation with Polina Edmunds on her interview podcast, to find out why K/O made these music choices.

 

[moonvine]

Not really, Flores/Wang and Plazas/Fernandez have both been there since the original entries came out. They had Efimova/Mitrofonav and Kam/O'Shea get their two assignments elsewhere since they were the only US pairs guaranteed two from the outset leaving spots at Skate America for a team moving up from seniors, and a team coming off an injury.

That third spot has been TBD until now. They put Shin/Nagy in the remaining host spot because they had to name someone to that spot by Sep. 15th because the ISU wanted a name, but they hadn't really decided anything. Clearly, USFS thought they could make some sort of switch because they'd added Shin/Nagy to Ice Challenge after the original assignments had come out. You don't register a team for a competition in Europe a week before a GP in America if you know they're going to be competing at that home event.

I just wonder if there's some rule that USFS was trying to skirt, and ended up having to commit to what they chose. And you know what, I'm fine with USFS having to stick with it because giving Shin/Nagy that second spot took them off the alternates list, even though we all know they wouldn't have gotten another spot that way.

The past 2 Skate Americas I’ve been to have had Ellie/Danny and Ilia even though both could have gotten 2 spots without it. Isabeau too. So I’m pretty confused. I thought the National champions had right of refusal for Skate America.

 

[ramurphy2005]

The past 2 Skate Americas I’ve been to have had Ellie/Danny and Ilia even though both could have gotten 2 spots without it. Isabeau too. So I’m pretty confused. I thought the National champions had right of refusal for Skate America.

Maybe that's more informal than anything else, I don't know. I just get the logic behind the initial choices given the circumstances heading into this season compared to other seasons.

 

[moonvine]

Maybe that's more informal than anything else, I don't know. I just get the logic behind the initial choices given the circumstances heading into this season compared to other seasons.

I don’t know. I do know the reason Ilia won’t be there is because he turned it down.

 

[moonvine]

Danny published to his IG story today that he and Ellie are now ranked 6th in the world. I

 

[crystalspin]

I guess its just me but I'm happy with the selections for Skate America. All 3 are the future of the USA pairs skating and I have a soft spot for P/F and F/W. I think its good for all 3 teams to get the experience.

 

[ramurphy2005]

I guess its just me but I'm happy with the selections for Skate America. All 3 are the future of the USA pairs skating and I have a soft spot for P/F and F/W. I think its good for all 3 teams to get the experience.

I'm just more annoyed with whatever shenanigans USFS was playing around with for that TBD spot, and they're still playing games with it. This still hasn't been announced on any of their social media pages which they did for women, men, and dance after adding them to the USFS assignment page.

I honestly don't know what to think.

 

[moonvine]

I guess its just me but I'm happy with the selections for Skate America. All 3 are the future of the USA pairs skating and I have a soft spot for P/F and F/W. I think its good for all 3 teams to get the experience.

I don’t care who they pick honestly. Just thought it was unusual. Normally they have the US champions at SA even though they would all get 2 slots without it.

 

[crystalspin]

I'm just more annoyed with whatever shenanigans USFS was playing around with for that TBD spot, and they're still playing games with it. This still hasn't been announced on any of their social media pages which they did for women, men, and dance after adding them to the USFS assignment page.

I honestly don't know what to think.

Oh I didn't know that part, thats odd. They aren't taking away the spot at this point so they should promote it..

 

[crystalspin]

I don’t care who they pick honestly. Just thought it was unusual. Normally they have the US champions at SA even though they would all get 2 slots without it.

Yeah it would have been nice to have E/M at this comp but I figured they were trying to get max amount of pairs out competing.

 

[BlissfulSynergy]

I don’t know. I do know the reason Ilia won’t be there is because he turned it down.

Probably due to the schedule switch conflicting with his readiness for GPF. He typically wants to get his GPs over and done early.

 

[moonvine]

Probably due to the schedule switch conflicting with his readiness for GPF. He typically wants to get his GPs over and done early.

I realize this. The point is USFS typicslly sends their highest ranked skaters to SA but for some reason not in pairs this year.

 

[BlissfulSynergy]

I realize this. The point is USFS typicslly sends their highest ranked skaters to SA but for some reason not in pairs this year.

I think the schedule switch affected a lot of assignments and top skater preferences, for those skaters who had a say in the process.

 

[Spiralgraph]

The point is that this is not a typical year. The schedule for the Grand Prix has changed. So, skaters' preferences have changed. What typically happens won't happen this year. US pairs assignments affected most. In my opinion, no reason to super analyze this.

 

[Jammers]

The fact that S/N didn't even have the minimums for Worlds until getting them now at Ice Challenge means they didn't even have the minimums when they went to Beijing for the qualifier which makes what the USFS did even more egregious.

 

[crystalspin]

Aside from jumps our pair teams did very well at NHK Trophy. Congrats to E/M and C/H!

Also congrats to L/B and S/N on medals at Ice Challenge!

 

[crystalspin]

I wanna make my predictions for major competitions now that we have seen pretty much all the pairs. I am sure I will be wrong as I often am but I wanted to guess before Nationals. This is assuming Efimova and Parkman do not get citizenship (which I feel like is so unlikely but who knows in this crazy world)

Olympics
Kam/O'Shea
Chan/Howe

4CC
Efimova/Mitrofanov
McBeath/Parkman
Liu/Bedard

Worlds
Kam/O'Shea
Efimova/Mitrofanov
McBeath/Parkman

I'm leaving Shin/Nagy off at each which is probably wrong.

 

[throw_triple_flip]

I wanna make my predictions for major competitions now that we have seen pretty much all the pairs. I am sure I will be wrong as I often am but I wanted to guess before Nationals. This is assuming Efimova and Parkman do not get citizenship (which I feel like is so unlikely but who knows in this crazy world)

Olympics
Kam/O'Shea
Chan/Howe

4CC
Efimova/Mitrofanov
McBeath/Parkman
Liu/Bedard

Worlds
Kam/O'Shea
Efimova/Mitrofanov
McBeath/Parkman

I'm leaving Shin/Nagy off at each which is probably wrong.

The only team I'm really sure are going to make the Olympics is Kam/O'Shea (barring injury, etc). I think they are the number 1 US team when they're fit. Kam's throw landings can be hit and miss but E/M's side by side jumps are probably even less consistent and i think more prone to lower GOEs.
Efimova gaining citizenship that quickly sounds like a long shot when there are other teams without citizenship issues who are decent enough to go (Chan and Howe being the most likely).

It'll be interesting to see if any of the teams competing at Skate America can put themselves into contention for a 4CC spot.

 

[crystalspin]

Looks like Shin/Nagy who were just at Ice Challenge a few days ago have been subbed out for Chan/Howe for Skate America.