2022-23 Retirements, Splits and New Partnerships

[el henry]

And, on the topic of this thread.

Conor Stakelum, men's singles, Ireland, has announced his retirement:

 

[cathlen]

Ice dance has new pairs forming and high profile juniors graduating into seniors. Pairs is basically done as a discipline on both junior and senior level. I have no idea who they are even putting into GP

Maybe that's why they aren't announcing assignments yet?

 

[CaroLiza_fan]

Haven't been on for a few days, and am catching up now. And I am finding out too many things that are upsetting me.

First I find out that one of my secret skating crushes is not available (Natalja Zabijako, who is seeing a tennis player).

Then I find out that another of my secret skating crushes is retiring (Carolina Moscheni).

Then I find out that the top Men's skater from my island is retiring (Conor Stakelum).

To be fair, the thing that is most disappointing is hearing that Carolina and Francesco are retiring. Let's face it, with Guignard / Fabbri likely to be retiring and Leccardi / dalla Torre only having one season in Ice Dance under their belts, Moscheni / Fioretti were in prime position to be the top Italian partnership for the next season or two.

Have to be honest, I am not surprised that Conor is retiring. He has had a long and successful skating career, and with my fellow Ulsterman Sam McAllister now able to compete at the same level on a regular basis, it means that Conor can switch his focus to his day job as a microbiologist. With everything that has been going on in the past couple of years, the health service needs him more than skating does.

So, all the best to Carolina, Francesco and Conor for the future.

Thank you for the good memories you are each leaving us with.

CaroLiza_fan

 

[Dreamer57]

To be fair, the thing that is most disappointing is hearing that Carolina and Francesco are retiring. Let's face it, with Guignard / Fabbri likely to be retiring and Leccardi / dalla Torre only having one season in Ice Dance under their belts, Moscheni / Fioretti were in prime position to be the top Italian partnership for the next season or two.

Actually, I think Guignard/Fabbri might continue. They still have motivation and with Milano to look forward to, maybe with a short break along the way, it could work out for them

Zoe Larson and Andreii Kapran are a new ice dance team for USA.
Andrii used to compete for Ukraine with Myroslava Tkachenko (split since last year's JGP)

 

[surimi]

So it took me one full day to digest the Yuzuru news and put his name here. I don't know how long I'm going to need when Sota retires one day.

 

[lariko]

So it took me one full day to digest the Yuzuru news and put his name here. I don't know how long I'm going to need when Sota retires one day.

I think he is going to do shows where he is likely going to create something more special than competitive circuit programs.

 

[Magill]

I think he is going to do shows where he is likely going to create something more special than competitive circuit programs.

Yeah, I also think that knowing his high energy and dedication we may get more and more creative programs than if he still competed and had to bend to the competition rules...

 

[GoneWithTheWind]

Malene Nichita / Jussiville Partanen are a new ice dance team representing Romania.
Good luck to this new team!
https://mobile.twitter.com/AnythingGOE/status/1549685995263647744

 

[labgoat]

I think he is going to do shows where he is likely going to create something more special than competitive circuit programs.

I hope for more professional opportunities - tours, pro competitions. I hope he takes the path of Dick Button in promoting the sport both amateur and professional. Yuzu & friends..

 

[TallyT]

I hope for more professional opportunities - tours, pro competitions. I hope he takes the path of Dick Button in promoting the sport both amateur and professional. Yuzu & friends..

From news reports, he's already being approached from overseas as well as domestically.

 

[CaroLiza_fan]

Actually, I think Guignard/Fabbri might continue. They still have motivation and with Milano to look forward to, maybe with a short break along the way, it could work out for them

You were right.

The Senior GP provisional entry lists have been released, and Charlène and Marco are down for the French and British rounds.

Incidentally Alicia FABBRI / Paul AYER (CAN) are also down for the British round. So, cue lots of people asking "Is she Marco's sister...?"

Maybe we should run a sweep on how many times this will be asked between now and the end of the event!

CaroLiza_fan

 

[hanca]

So it seems that Zabijako won’t be skating with Daleman after all. She moved to Spain and Canada cancelled their request for her transfer to another country.

 

[Jasira]

So it seems that Zabijako won’t be skating with Daleman after all. She moved to Spain and Canada cancelled their request for her transfer to another country.

Does she want to skate with Zandron, whose partner has doping issues?

 

[Ziotic]

Does she want to skate with Zandron, whose partner has doping issues?

No, she moved to be with her significant other.

 

[surimi]

okay, I tentatively put in Zabiiako/Daleman among the splits.

 

[hanca]

No, she moved to be with her significant other.

I am a bit sceptical about that to be the real reason for the split though. Her significant other is worth quite a few millions, so she could easily afford to join Zabijako in Canada, rather than Zabijako abandoning her career and joining her in Spain. There has been a few suggestions on the Russian forum saying that Zabijako did not see there was any future in this pair (not sure what was supposedly wrong with Daleman according to this gossip) and that’s why she gave up on him and left.

 

[4everchan]

I am a bit sceptical about that to be the real reason for the split though. Her significant other is worth quite a few millions, so she could easily afford to join Zabijako in Canada, rather than Zabijako abandoning her career and joining her in Spain. There has been a few suggestions on the Russian forum saying that Zabijako did not see there was any future in this pair (not sure what was supposedly wrong with Daleman according to this gossip) and that’s why she gave up on him and left.

I am not going to say that it's impossible but at the same time, they were signed up to compete at Skate Ontario's summer series in a few weeks from now... If it were going that badly, why bother signing up (the entry list was updated on July 10th) at all? On top of that, why would Bruno lie about this? It's not like it would surprise anyone if a new pair team decided to part ways because it is not working out... happens every other day.

 

[hanca]

I am not going to say that it's impossible but at the same time, they were signed up to compete at Skate Ontario's summer series in a few weeks from now... If it were going that badly, why bother signing up (the entry list was updated on July 10th) at all? On top of that, why would Bruno lie about this? It's not like it would surprise anyone if a new pair team decided to part ways because it is not working out... happens every other day.

You apply for competitions much earlier. It could be that Zabijako was not very impressed with the speed of their progress. And it is possible that Bruno had more realistic expectations of the initial stages so he thought the progress was as expected, but she thought it should be quicker. For example, James/Radford had a very slow start. I remember when I saw them the first time together, I expected them to be better. On the other hand, sometimes you see pairs, e.g. Geinish/Mironov, where a few months after pairing up they were skating pretty decent and clean programs with high technical difficulty. So maybe Zabijako was hoping that it will be one of the times when things just gel fast and it was not going that way. The gossips mentioned also Daleman’s motivation and his mother, but who knows where the truth is.

 

[4everchan]

You apply for competitions much earlier. It could be that Zabijako was not very impressed with the speed of their progress. And it is possible that Bruno had more realistic expectations of the initial stages so he thought the progress was as expected, but she thought it should be quicker. For example, James/Radford had a very slow start. I remember when I saw them the first time together, I expected them to be better. On the other hand, sometimes you see pairs, e.g. Geinish/Mironov, where a few months after pairing up they were skating pretty decent and clean programs with high technical difficulty. So maybe Zabijako was hoping that it will be one of the times when things just gel fast and it was not going that way. The gossips mentioned also Daleman’s motivation and his mother, but who knows where the truth is.

for summer series in Canada, not that early. I don't give much importance to gossips : even if there may be some kind of truth in them, how can anyone prove it? I rely on athletes' statements. So far, only Bruno's words have been reported.

 

[hanca]

for summer series in Canada, not that early. I don't give much importance to gossips : even if there may be some kind of truth in them, how can anyone prove it? I rely on athletes' statements. So far, only Bruno's words have been reported.

The trouble is, Canadian and US coaches are generally very PC and therefore I don’t expect them to always share the full truth. Also, it is not good for their business to share all details. Whereas the gossip is often written by people training at the same rink and they usually know what’s going on and have no problem sharing it. Many information shared on all skating forums are leaked out by people from the rink and later turn out to be the truth. Whose partnership has broken up, who is trying out with a new partner, new partnerships etc.