Oh, and the reports are that Wang Lei's former partner, Xuehan Wang, retired due to injury. So that's how Wang Lei became available to partner with Yu. How fortunate for Yu since finding an appropriate partner is so difficult. Wang/Wang had been around for awhile but never broke through in a big way. Wang Lei is in his early 30s, but hopefully still fit so that he and Yu can combine for a beautiful partnership within a limited time frame.
It was previously reported that Chelsea Liu who went to China to partner with Xie Zhong, has since split with Zhong, as he has retired. The little I'd seen of Liu/Zhong, they were still getting into the swing of things as partners and hadn't really meshed yet. Has Chelsea returned to the U.S. or does she still have a contract to fulfill in China? I wonder if she's going to try and continue with pairs, as she's still fairly young. She looked to have a promising opportunity with Ian Meyh representing the U.S. In 2018-19, Liu/Meyh were first at the Bavarian Open, and 11th at U.S. Nationals -- they looked good together. But Chelsea must have gotten a good offer from the Chinese federation at the end of that season.
Meanwhile, Ian Meyh is currently partnered with Nica Digerness in Colorado under Sappenfield. Nica had split with Danny Neudecker, who partnered with Sasha Fakhroutdinov, also in Colorado. I believe Nica is still recovering from an injury, but she seems to be a good physical match with Ian.
Hope she succeeds in whatever she wishes to do next!
