IOC Council approves figure skating team event | Golden Skate

IOC Council approves figure skating team event

Violet Bliss

Record Breaker
Joined
Nov 19, 2010
GO CANADA!!!!!!!!

I might as well be the first nationalist in the open. :biggrin:

eta. I wonder if the final placements will be determined by the total of placement points or of individual scores. Hope to see the fine prints soon.
 
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Violet Bliss

Record Breaker
Joined
Nov 19, 2010
"In a sport viewed mainly as an individual sport, the team event will create a new sense of camaraderie among the team members," Raith said. "U.S. Figure Skating has great depth and we're optimistic we will be able to field a strong team."

I don't think depth is as important as breadth in this event. It is more advantageous to have an outstanding skater in each discipline than deep fields without any one among the world's best.

Traditionary Canadian and Japanese teams do have comaraderie among its members. The top competitors are usually good friends. Same thing cannot be said of the Swedish skaters but then they don't have a team to speak of. I'm not sure about the US. Maybe without Weir the skaters are congenial and friendly.

As of now, Canada is strong in Mens and Ice Dance and decent in Pairs and Ladies. Japan has both depth and top skaters in Mens and Ladies but is weak in Pairs and Ice Dance. US has depth in both Mens and Ladies but no reliable top performers, and it is very strong in Dance but weak in Pairs. Russia currently does not have a world champ but by 2014 they may be contending in every discipline. Other nations are rather incomplete in talents.
 

wallylutz

Medalist
Joined
Mar 23, 2010
Hopefully, this will encourage other countries to better develop their Pairs and Ice Dance teams. With an Olympic Gold medal and an emphasis on the national pride from a team event, this should be an incentive for many countries to make a better effort.
 

dorispulaski

Wicked Yankee Girl
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
Country
United-States
Hopefully, this will encourage other countries to better develop their Pairs and Ice Dance teams. With an Olympic Gold medal and an emphasis on the national pride from a team event, this should be an incentive for many countries to make a better effort.

That's my hope.

By the way, Japan's Takahashi & Tran are quite a good pair! Unfortunately Tran is not eligible for the Olympics for Japan. The Japanese government has 3 years to figure out how to do this.

It's ice dance where the Japanese really are not in good shape. All they have is the Reeds, and they have multiple injuries, and I doubt they can manage to get to Sochi.
 

Violet Bliss

Record Breaker
Joined
Nov 19, 2010
Tran is a Canadian born of Chinese Vietnamese parents, who is skating for Japan. :) He shares the same family name with Chan, Patrick Chan, as do Nathan Chen and Lulu. It's a good name if you are a Chinese skater.

Takahashi/Tran is not (yet) a Worlds podium contending team though. China, OTOH, is a power house in Pairs but do have some potential challengers in other disciplines. Some of their younsters are worth watching.

It's good the announcement is made now, with three years to go till Sochi. There is plenty of time for new talents to emerge and for fans to speculate and debate.
 

wallylutz

Medalist
Joined
Mar 23, 2010
That's my hope.

By the way, Japan's Takahashi & Tran are quite a good pair! Unfortunately Tran is not eligible for the Olympics for Japan. The Japanese government has 3 years to figure out how to do this.

It's ice dance where the Japanese really are not in good shape. All they have is the Reeds, and they have multiple injuries, and I doubt they can manage to get to Sochi.

Tran is a problematic case because he doesn't even live in Japan. There are cases of foreigners, a lot of Americans, who gain Japanese citizenship after living an extended period of time in Japan and often after marrying Japanese. A case to make an exception for Tran is very difficult, if not almost impossible. Ice Dance for Japan is without prospect for the moment.

China seems to be the most likely to step up under this scenario. Huang/Zhen are a fairly attractive team and they almost broke into the medal standing at the 2010 4CC, if not for their poor FD for being too nervous. They do have strong Pairs, if not the strongest fields in Pairs of any country. And Chinese men and women are coming a long way with some fairly promising rising stars. But for them to be able to challenge Canada and the U.S. or Russia, they really need their Ice Dance team to break into the Top 10 at least.

Korea remains hopeless at the moment but maybe if they get the 2018 Olympics, they will make a better effort.

France is a well rounded country but their Pairs team hasn't seen much glory in well over a decade and their ladies have almost all disappeared ever since Bonaly retired.

Who else has a realistic shot? Any ideas? Italy? Germany?
 

Violet Bliss

Record Breaker
Joined
Nov 19, 2010
Now that the Team event is an Olympic sport, I wonder if it should be held in conjunction with World Championships as an additional discipline. If a substitute/replacement is allowed in case a designated skater can't compete, then the alternative is likely to be there already at Worlds. Staging it separately as it is now creates an extra event so it's nice for fans though it's costlier and probably would not permit last minute replacement unless each nation would send their Team B along.
 

blue dog

Trixie Schuba's biggest fan!
Record Breaker
Joined
Dec 16, 2006
RE: Japan/Ice Dance

They do have a team they can "lure" to Japan.
 

wallylutz

Medalist
Joined
Mar 23, 2010
RE: Japan/Ice Dance

They do have a team they can "lure" to Japan.

LOL, as if the USFS would give them up easily. However, if they are going to be #2 US team for as long as Davis/White is the top team, there may be a chance that Japan can lure them away but it will require them to sit out one whole season because there is just no way USFS would agree to let them go.
 

Violet Bliss

Record Breaker
Joined
Nov 19, 2010
How much controversy will there be re. selection of national team members with just one entry per discipline? It seems having deep fields may not necessarily be conducive to comaraderie! At least not among the fans. :laugh: Well, more debates in the forums is a good thing.

The simplest criteria would be to have the highest ranked Olympic skater of each discipline skate for the national team. That would make the individual competitions even more intense, doubling the significance and pressure for the top skaters in a deep national field.

This new competition does open up more :think:. That's a good thing too.
 

lcd

Match Penalty
Joined
Mar 11, 2007
Who knows what country's teams will be in contention by 2014 but the addition of a team event, which will presumably require at least 2 days, will crunch together the scheduling of the rest of the events. Usually pairs is first. That will be a lot of programs to skate over presumably a 4-5 period for the pairs skaters, and I would wonder if that would factor into a decision over whether to have the top pair compete in the team event if they also had a "chance" in the individual event.
 

Violet Bliss

Record Breaker
Joined
Nov 19, 2010
^^^^^I don't get what you were saying. Pairs are usually the first skating event. They are the ones to enjoy the Olympics and go sight seeing while other skaters are still sweating it out. They should be the best rested skaters if Teams takes place last.

Could you explain what you mean?
 

SamuraiKike

Medalist
Joined
Jan 26, 2008
^^^^^I don't get what you were saying. Pairs are usually the first skating event. They are the ones to enjoy the Olympics and go sight seeing while other skaters are still sweating it out. They should be the best rested skaters if Teams takes place last.

Could you explain what you mean?

Teams will not take place last but BEFORE the individual events acoording to Hersch and some other articles quoting Cinquanta:disapp:

Ladies FP is one of the big rating events of the winter olympics, they would never reschedule it to take place before an untested competition.
 

wallylutz

Medalist
Joined
Mar 23, 2010
Who knows what country's teams will be in contention by 2014 but the addition of a team event, which will presumably require at least 2 days, will crunch together the scheduling of the rest of the events. Usually pairs is first. That will be a lot of programs to skate over presumably a 4-5 period for the pairs skaters, and I would wonder if that would factor into a decision over whether to have the top pair compete in the team event if they also had a "chance" in the individual event.

Based on my experience at the Vancouver Olympics, there was 3 days which were considered "down time" where there was no figure skating competition at all from Pairs to Ladies. However, since Ice Dance CD is now eliminated, this should add one extra day of downtime. So if the team event requires 2 days, it merely takes away one day of downtime out of 3. So as whole, I don't think it will feel very different since a male skater would be quite indifferent as to whether the downtime between the men's event and the dance's event has been eliminated and vice versa.
 

Blades of Passion

Skating is Art, if you let it be
Record Breaker
Joined
Sep 14, 2008
Country
France
Nearly 3 years in advance, I predict this will be the podium for the Team competition in 2014:

1. Russia
2. USA
3. Canada
 
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