2021-22 U.S. Pairs Figure Skating | Page 10 | Golden Skate

2021-22 U.S. Pairs Figure Skating

noskates said:
Ichabod Crane limbs - LOL. I always thought Evan looked like a windmill the way he threw his arms around.
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When Evan first came up to seniors, he reminded me of an over-eager puppy dog with long limbs. That's meant affectionately and with great respect for Evan having made a successful career for himself by virtue of hard work and determination.


There are still questions surrounding whether Deanna Stellato has received her release. She and her partner Maxime Deschamps have been selected for Patinage Quebec's Equipe Excellence select team. I'm not sure what that means, but I imagine it is related more-so to domestic competition in Canada. Hopefully, Deanna will be released soon, if she hasn't been already.

Meanwhile, my fingers are crossed for Pfund/Santillan receiving their release to pursue representing Switzerland.

In other news:

Ashley C-Gribble's earlier post on Instagram showed how much her throw landings have improved:

More recently, Ashley posted a clip that reveals how much her 3-twist with Timothy has improved. Better height, air position, and a cleaner catch on the landing:

Being able to train this off-season in Europe with Mozer's group, as they've usually done, is certainly a boon for Ash/Tim. They also gained some significant competitive experience the past couple of seasons, and in particular at 2021 Worlds, with having the opportunity to compete when C/J withdrew. Not only did Ash/Tim compete well. Seemingly, they had a taste of just how competitive they could be, along with what they needed to improve in order to be more confident and ready for future international challenges.
 
BlissfulSynergy said:
When Evan first came up to seniors, he reminded me of an over-eager puppy dog with long limbs. That's meant affectionately and with great respect for Evan having made a successful career for himself by virtue of hard work and determination.
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And, by virtue of being a Great Competitor. Witness that he nearly always medalled, when he didn't have to withdraw because of injury.

Thanks for the updates, especially for the awesome clips of Ashley and Timothy's throws and twist.
 
el henry said:
Cross posting from the retirements and splits thread:

The Skating Lesson is reporting that Olivia and Mervin have split.

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If true, that's interesting. No official announcement as yet?

Olivia & Mervin have been a pleasant team to watch, yet there are/ were lots of areas they needed to improve upon. I wonder whether either plan to continue skating and look for a new partner? Perhaps their decision was impacted by the enormous depth in U. S. pairs. It could also be related to injury travails. I hope they will confirm this TSL news on their respective Instagrams.

Meanwhile, a number of fans have been engaging in excessive over-speculation about Calalang/Johnson.
 
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BlissfulSynergy said:
If true, that's interesting. No official announcement as yet?

Olivia & Mervin have been a pleasant team to watch, yet there are/ were lots of areas they needed to improve upon. I wonder whether either plan to continue skating and look for a new partner? Perhaps their decision was impacted by the enormous depth in U. S. pairs. It could also be related to injury travails. I hope they will confirm this TSL news on their respective Instagrams.

Meanwhile, a number of fans have been engaging in excessive over-speculation about Calalang/Johnson.
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More than a few, I'd say. I promised myself I wouldn't indulge in more speculation, but their situation is very very unusual.

To change the topic slightly, I wonder if there will be more alternates allowed for the upcoming Winter Olympics. I'm not going to sound alarmist but if the virus and varient are causing major problems come January and February I hope the the IOC and ISU allow and encourage nations to bring along more alternates for their official team members. (hopefully these alternates follow all isolating protocols,)


And on that note I wonder who other posters would choose as alternates for US Pairs, depending on which teams actually were selected for the official team of course. :)
 
^^
Assuming that C/J aren’t added back to the ISP, I would have on the team K/F (unless there’s a significant decline in TES). And then C-G/L, even if they are 3rd at Nationals; they have finished in the top 10 in the last 2 Worlds & currently are #7 in world rankings. For alternates: 2 more pairs, based on Nationals finish.
 
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Here's some Instagram news by Jessica Pfund. She sounds happy, and is obviously very proud of the competitive progress of two of her students. Jessica also notes that she and Josh "skated our competitive programs in front of a panel of judges for the first time in 18 months." Apparently at the Orange Blossom Open, organized by the Tampa Bay Skating Club. Jessica thanks supporters, and says: "Looking forward to an adventurous year!!"


I wonder if Jess/Josh are still looking to be released, and whether skating in front of judges at a local club is excluded from their being part of U.S. Figure Skating? Likely so, since they aren't on the ISP, and haven't been receiving any funding from U.S. figure skating for well over a year. I hope Jess/Josh's dreams come true. ❤️

ETA:
The event is Orange Blossom Open, which apparently is an indication that skaters who represent other countries can compete. Reportedly, Jess/Josh will next compete at the Cranberry Cup International competition (a new senior B) which will be held at the Skating Club of Boston, August 12 - 15, 2021. I wish them so much good luck on their journey!!! (y)
 
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BlissfulSynergy said:
Olivia & Mervin have been a pleasant team to watch, yet there are/ were lots of areas they needed to improve upon. I wonder whether either plan to continue skating and look for a new partner? Perhaps their decision was impacted by the enormous depth in U. S. pairs. It could also be related to injury travails.
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In the Splits/Retirements thread, a poster points out that TSL further mentioned the Serafini/Tran split is related to concussion difficulties Mervin has endured. That's too bad. :(

The poster also mentioned that he feels Livia is Merv's best partner since he split with Narumi Takahashi. I would have to disagree there. I think Mervin is such a great pairs guy, and a very smooth skater. He has looked good, IMHO, with all of his partners. Merv's partnership with Natasha Purich for Canada had its challenges, but they skated well together. Maybe they weren't compatible personality-wise or goal-wise. Who knows? Purich has seemed to move quickly through different partnerships. She looked extremely well-suited to Drew Wolfe, but they were not together for long either. Sadly, Mervin's pairing with Marissa Castelli was ill-fated despite them having so much talent, with great speed and wonderful style. They were hampered from getting off to a good start competitively for a number of reasons, including the fact that Merv had to wait for his release from Skate Canada. And then, a crop of tech issues arose which they were never able to resolve.

Mervin was born in Canada, and he competed in novice singles prior to being recruited by Marcotte/Gauthier to skate pairs with Japan's Narumi Takahashi. I think Merv's partnership with Narumi was probably the most productive, but then they had five years together when they were young, and so they grew together extremely well under good coaches. The pairing with Castelli had problems from the beginning, despite them being well-matched and lovely to watch. Perhaps Merv has seemingly been the happiest in his partnership with Livia, and they progressed together very steadily, but still had a lot of areas to improve upon. I'm so sorry to hear this news, and I wish them both the best.

Here is one of my fave pairs exhibition performances (Merv/Marissa):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nVAqIyTNpCU

Also, a fun fact on Merv's Wiki page: he competed in track and field growing up (high jump and 100 meter hurdles)...
 
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(all comps-Summer 2021)

SENIOR PAIRS FS/Overall
Liu/O’Shea 125/192
Lu/Mitrofanov 115/174
Chan/Howe 108/161
Plazas/Fernandez 93/143
Fakhroutdinov/Neudecker 90/140
Mokhova/Mokhov 89/135
Cooke/Bearinger 81/124
Burden/Rounis 80/123
Finster/Silecky 77/122

JUNIOR PAIRS FS/ OVERALL SCORE
Smirnova/Siianytsia 103/156
Fleming/Finster 74/126*
Smith/Deng 78/126
Lockley/Isbell 79/119
Wong/Weirens 80/119
Rivers/Chapman 77/114
Fletcher/Brown 66/108
Martins/Bedard 69/103
Black/Black 67/99
Moss/Edwards 61/94
Romero/Ogren 59/93
Murray/Gillette 53/75

* they had a higher FS score earlier this season but was paired w a lower overall score so I put this higher overall score instead
 
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Latest blog post by Jessica Pfund/ Josh Santillan. They are skating for Switzerland! And they got their release from the U.S. after shoring up representation for Switzerland. How very exciting for them! It makes me so happy to have witnessed their perseverance through so many difficult trials, and then to see them achieve this wonderful milestone in their career together.


Since they won't have enough World ranking points, and citizenship issues are likely not worked out yet for Josh, the Olympics will not be a go for them this season. However, they are hopeful of gaining minimum technical points to qualify for competing at Europeans and Worlds in 2022. What great news for these two after all of their tireless dedication, hard work, never-say-die courage, and their love for the sport. I will be rooting them on all the way! ❤️
 
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Meanwhile, in other U.S. pairs-related news, TSL reported today that Benoit Richaud and Aljona Savchenko will be giving skating workshop seminars in Montclair, NJ, in August, presented by Igor Lukanin, whose former ice dance partner, Kristen Fraser, is the Figure Skating Director at Montclair. Lukanin apparently coaches at the rink. In addition, according to TSL, T. J. Nyman has spent some time training with Aljona in Germany.

I'm attaching below an earlier post from a few pages ago that may have been missed. I do wonder what happened to the Digerness/Meyh partnership. It appears that it never had a chance to take off, due to Nica's injuries, and then the pandemic season complications most likely. I wonder whether anyone else has heard news about what Ian Meyh's plans are. Has he left the sport for other pursuits, or is he searching for a different partner. It's a pity that Nica/Ian never even had the opportunity to skate together. Were there ever any clips of D/N in training? Possibly there was a clip previously posted by Sappenfield among a group of pairs clips, awhile back. I'm not certain though.

BlissfulSynergy said:
Mark Sadusky is now paired with Nica Digerness!? What the heck happened to Ian Meyh??? Did he get tired of waiting for Nica to heal from injuries? Has he retired to pursue other endeavors?
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Spiralgraph said:
More than a few, I'd say. I promised myself I wouldn't indulge in more speculation, but their situation is very very unusual.

To change the topic slightly, I wonder if there will be more alternates allowed for the upcoming Winter Olympics. I'm not going to sound alarmist but if the virus and varient are causing major problems come January and February I hope the the IOC and ISU allow and encourage nations to bring along more alternates for their official team members. (hopefully these alternates follow all isolating protocols,)


And on that note I wonder who other posters would choose as alternates for US Pairs, depending on which teams actually were selected for the official team of course. :)
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If the virus and variant are still causing problems the thing to do is postpone the Olympics in my opinion
 
BlissfulSynergy said:
Meanwhile, in other U.S. pairs-related news, TSL reported today that Benoit Richaud and Aljona Savchenko will be giving skating workshop seminars in Montclair, NJ, in August, presented by Igor Lukanin, whose former ice dance partner, Kristen Fraser, is the Figure Skating Director at Montclair. Lukanin apparently coaches at the rink. In addition, according to TSL, T. J. Nyman has spent some time training with Aljona in Germany.

I'm attaching below an earlier post from a few pages ago that may have been missed. I do wonder what happened to the Digerness/Meyh partnership. It appears that it never had a chance to take off, due to Nica's injuries, and then the pandemic season complications most likely. I wonder whether anyone else has heard news about what Ian Meyh's plans are. Has he left the sport for other pursuits, or is he searching for a different partner? It's a pity that Nica/Ian never even had the opportunity to skate together. Were there ever any clips of D/N in training? Possibly there was a clip previously posted by Sappenfield among a group of pairs clips, awhile back. I'm not certain though.
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Interesting but expected that if Aljona is doing workshops in Germany that TJ would be with her to train. One would think that as a new team competing for the USA that they would be ensuring to compete at the summer competitions if they were looking to be considered for any TBA spots on the Grand Prix, etc. However, time will tell how the partnership with TJ and Aljona progresses.
 
BlissfulSynergy said:
Latest blog post by Jessica Pfund/ Josh Santillan. They are skating for Switzerland! And they got their release from the U.S. after shoring up representation for Switzerland. How very exciting for them! It makes me so happy to have witnessed their perseverance through so many difficult trials, and then to see them achieve this wonderful milestone in their career together.

Click to expand...

The blog post was a good read. I'm very happy for them. I love that they're working to be able to compete at Europeans and Worlds. That in itself must be motivating and exciting. I've always felt that Josh has a riveting presentation on the ice, and Jessica is such a beautiful skater. I liked how he talked about choreographing their programs themselves. I'll be interested to see how that works from a viewer's pov.

BlissfulSynergy said:
Since they won't have enough World ranking points, and citizenship issues are likely not worked out yet for Josh, the Olympics will not be a go for them this season.
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Likely not! I have a friend who married a Swiss woman, and even after their marriage, it took him seven years to get Swiss citizenship. But the possibility of getting to compete at Europeans and World Championships must feel like a wild dream fulfilled to Jessica and Josh -- as distant a hope previously, as going to the Olympics was. I think it's wonderful for them.
 
Please remember that posts which contain "speculation, gossip, and rumors" are against the forum guidelines and will be removed without notice on a case-by-case basis. It's ok to discuss if there is concrete evidence and/or official information has been put out to the public in general.
 
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