2016 Four Continents Entries

[[email protected]]

Why is Gracie competing in this event. She should concentrate on Worlds!!!!

Winning 4CC with 215+ score is her best chance to win over clean Medvedeva in Boston.

 

[Jammers]

4CC has been a bad event so far for Gracie. Last year she was the big favorite and bombed herself right off the podium. She should never have been beaten let alone not even make the podium against a weak field like last year.

 

[desertskates]

Gracie has yet to put together two clean programs in one competition this year. This gives her an opportunity to do that. I do think her level of confidence going into Worlds can be really affected one way or the other here. Clean programs and a high score--excellent! A poor showing could equal a scared Gracie moving forward. She's really the only person who can decide if her 4CC attendance is best for her. I wish her luck!

 

[Sugarpova]

This pair actually isn't bad- they have content on par with the B level European teams out there, and had a very promising outing at the Ice Challenge this year, exceeding everyone in the thread who was watching live's expectations and easily getting the tech minimums for this event. I am glad that their federation decided to send them here, whatever the reason- while among this small field they will probably finish close to or at the bottom, they are an absolutely fine team with some nice qualities and they deserve competitive experience as much as any other team at their level, regardless of what country they are from.

I'll def be rooting for them:agree:

 

[tung]

It will be the 1st time they compete at Four Continents!
Usually they only compete at Olympic qualifications and rarely at Worlds (last time in pairs in 2012, but they didn't qualify for the free program)


For the chinese pairs, Wang/Wang have the minima, and the junior team Zhao/Xie too (and they are age-eligible in senior)
And Wang/Wang were competing this week at the Chinese National Grand Prix... so very strange they don't go to 4C!

The HongKong China team should include Kristi Leung，too， for reasons below：

There is a great breakthrough of a girl from HongKong, China, too, Kristi Leung, who got third overall in the National Winter Games, at XinJiang Province. She came in third, climbing from second last in the SP, where she had a fall in the triple jump combo, with a near perfect LP performance. She also, a first too, had a longish short programme/interview of herself, and her parents, by the national TV network, CCTV 5. This is the first time that a HongKong SAR (Special Administrative Region) athlete had such royal treatment from mainland nationa media. Mind you, this came before her fantastic LP performance.

Perhaps because her parents moved the family to live in Beijing, the nation's capital, to train under LiChangJiang, a former national men's champ, also favourite expert guest commentator to go with the live broadcast of figure skating events by CCTV (which encompasses all major national/international winter sports events this year, to 2022 Winter Olympics). This coming at a time of bad publicity in the SAR against the mainland government。 。。I made a special trip to Glacier of Festival Mall，her home ice， to watch her perform （she was beautiful） for the local CabeTV taping session， and talked to her mom afterwards， yesterday。Many people think， myself included， that this talented youngster should make move to train under some international great coaches in figure skating ，to elevate herself to higher planes in this domain。 That China， Beijing， is alright for now， but she should follow the footsteps of ChenLu， to train overseas； otherwise there is no way to break the drought and dry spell of a quarter century in singles figure skating World Championships， after Chen‘s single win in the last century。

 

[SaraM]

i swear to God if Gracie bombs this event again...im officially giving up! she has to medal here!
But where is chinas 3 pair team?? no peng & zhao??

and i was reallyyyyyyy hoping they would send hawayek & baker here

 

[Nirti]

The HongKong China team should include Kristi Leung，too， for reasons below：

There is a great breakthrough of a girl from HongKong, China, too, Kristi Leung, who got third overall in the National Winter Games, at XinJiang Province. She came in third, climbing from second last in the SP, where she had a fall in the triple jump combo, with a near perfect LP performance. She also, a first too, had a longish short programme/interview of herself, and her parents, by the national TV network, CCTV 5. This is the first time that a HongKong SAR (Special Administrative Region) athlete had such royal treatment from mainland nationa media. Mind you, this came before her fantastic LP performance.

If she's the same girl as Yi Christy Leung, she's born in december 2002 so she will be eligible as junior only next season. So we should wait until 2018/2019 season to see her at 4 Continents... ;-)
And yes she seems to be promising, she won the last Hongkong junior championship with 134 points overall.

 

[Jammers]

i swear to God if Gracie bombs this event again...im officially giving up! she has to medal here!
But where is chinas 3 pair team?? no peng & zhao??

and i was reallyyyyyyy hoping they would send hawayek & baker here

Yeah it was embarrassing last season when she bombed herself right off the podium. She should have won going away with that field.

 

[semosk8tfan]

Just saw an announcement on IN that Ross will replace Adam at 4CC

 

[dorispulaski]

Great news for Ross. I hope Adam is Ok, though.

 

[ice coverage]

Great news for Ross. I hope Adam is Ok, though.

Tomorrow Adam will be skating in a free NYC show that features skaters from the Special Olympics.

https://twitter.com/Adaripp/status/695304910825336832 (Feb 4)​

So I hope it is a good sign that Adam is fine.

To be clear: not saying that the show has anything to do with Adam withdrawing from Four Continents.

(Adam's NYC appearance already was booked and being publicized before Nats. I had started a thread in Share It for the show, and a link there is for a pre-Nats blog entry re the show that includes his name, with the billing of two-time U.S. silver medalist.)

Meanwhile, I am happy for Ross :yay:.

(The USFS tweet re Ross and Four Continents, if anyone wants the link: https://twitter.com/USFigureSkating/status/695296694800396288)

---

ETA, the wording from Adam's official website:

2/3/16 UPDATE: Adam has elected not to compete at Four Continents.

http://figureskatersonline.com/adamrippon/home/
https://twitter.com/fsonline/status/695327691701100544​

 

[Sugarpova]

great for Ross!
another time to see this great Queen prog!!!