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Aw sad about this. I thought they were promising and Jinny was such a delight to watch.
2023-24 Retirements, Splits and New Partnerships
- Thread starter surimi
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Aw sad about this. I thought they were promising and Jinny was such a delight to watch.
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- Aug 12, 2014
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why's that? Guess I'm out of the loop ...
This is Yahli Pedersen's first season of ice dance with a partner. She previously competed in solo ice dance. She has more years of junior eligibility left. This was Jeffrey Chen's last season of junior eligibility. Staying as a junior would be more beneficial to her than moving up to senior in order to stay in a partnership with him considering that she's new to partnered ice dance.
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thanks.
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- Sep 1, 2020
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Thanks for the elaboration. I also thought the split was down to Yahli's youth and inexperience. Thus, it makes sense a split would seem less surprising. However, before entering the partnership everyone would have been aware of this scenario arising after one season. I would think there had been some hope that they could fast track Yahli's skills to senior-level readiness so that she could move up to seniors with Jeff (if her age is within the senior requirement range). Otherwise, why invest the time and money? Jeff now has to restart looking for a new partner.
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- Mar 7, 2015
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Maybe Yahli was just the best available partner for a one last year junior stunt for Jeff. He wins another year in juniors to develop further. She, as a newcomer in partnered dance, gets to learn with a seasoned and talented competitor. Win-win scenario. I am sure they were both aware of this very likely scenario. Yahli now has the experience to find another partner who may be not as good as Jeff but could have a couple more years of junior eligibility and build from there. Jeff got to compete a lot this season which is better than staying at home. I don't really see the issue here... except that he is indeed accumulating a lot of partners along the way...Thanks for the elaboration. I also thought the split was down to Yahli's youth and inexperience. Thus, it makes sense a split would seem less surprising. However, before entering the partnership everyone would have been aware of this scenario arising after one season. I would think there had been some hope that they could fast track Yahli's skills to senior-level readiness so that she could move up to seniors with Jeff (if her age is within the senior requirement range). Otherwise, why invest the time and money? Jeff now has to restart looking for a new partner.
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Sure, you make some valid and interesting assessments. I already knew a bit about Jeffrey's career with Katarina Wolkostin. Your comments had me doing a deeper dive.
We will probably never fully know the motivations for certain decisions. Jeffrey had a successful, high profile junior career with Wolfkostin -- they were on the fast track, winning numerous medals. There were some specific setbacks, but they were a very strong team. They skated junior and senior in the fall of 2021 and moved up to senior U.S. Nationals in 2022, with notable success. They experienced a few setbacks and the partnership ended a year later, after 2023 U.S. Nationals. Perhaps had they not gone full senior in fall 2022, but remained half junior-senior, they may have been able to weather the partnership conflicts and necessary adjustments.
With his prior partnership trajectory in mind, along with his expressed goals after the split, I am skeptical that Jeff agreed to take a season going back to juniors simply to help 'a talented newcomer.' While that might be the case, evidence points to U.S. fed fully supporting the hoped for success of Pedersen/Chen, not for just one development season together, but for far into the future. Yahli will be 17 at the end of this month, so she would have been eligible to move to seniors with Jeff in the fall, had her skill level and growth progress worked out.
Some very young partnerships may be entered into with the expectation of being a development project. But I doubt that Jeff, a multiple junior and senior medalist (two bronzes at senior B events), and a 2022 U.S. Olympic team alternate, purposely decided to put his career advancement on hold. He must have known he was taking a risk with the less experienced Yahli, but I think he and everyone involved felt it was a risk that would pay off long term. In the end, it did not fully work out, but definitely worthwhile lessons learned. Good luck to Yahli and to Jeff!
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it is a very long shot for me to believe that they ever thought this was "it" as far as a long term partnership is concerned. Not with a skater as inexperienced as Yahli. She's clearly talented and learning fast but her inexperience clearly impacted their results. How many falls did they have this season ? In any case, as you have clearly stated, it's not something we fans will ever know fully about and that's all fine
we don't need to know everything 
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- Sep 1, 2020
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Well, sure, but there is not clear evidence that Jeff wins the most junior competition partners award prior to competing in seniors. In any case, he's most likely in good company statistically speaking.
When Jeff switched from singles to ice dance, he won medals at the juvenile and intermediate levels with his first partner. Then he moved to Michigan for family-related reasons and won a silver medal in novice with his second partner. Afterward, he partnered for only two months with Ana Lavrova. They did not compete at the 2019 U.S. Nationals after their two months together. I would not include such a brief interlude as a relevant partnership. Jeff's next partner was Katarina Wolfkostin, and the rest is history.
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- Sep 1, 2020
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Yeah, but there was always the chance it would work out beautifully. Plus, there's a lot of go-for-broke quick success expectations these days behind some partnership formations.
For sure, in figure skating, everything is rather risky, unbelievable and unpredictable. Some leaps of faith don't pan out. The more years I have followed this sport, the more knowledge and perspective I have accumulated. At the same time, I have realized how much more there is to learn, how much I don't know, and how intricate and complicated the sport is. Plus, how revealing and fascinating it is to study the sport's history and personalities. It's an endless, enriching task.
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Russian pair skaters Daria Boyarintseva/Roman Pleshkov have split.
Roman has announced his retirement.
Source: https://tass.ru/sport/20551505
Roman has announced his retirement.
Source: https://tass.ru/sport/20551505
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Argh, sad, but good luck to them in their future endeavors.
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- Jan 17, 2022
Giorgia Galimberti/Matteo Libasse Mandelli (Sr Ice Dance, ITA) have split, Giorgia is on Ice Partner Search.
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nooooooooooooooooo
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- Jan 20, 2024
I noticed that both Michael Boustan and Audra Gans are both off of IPS as of today… does anyone think they are back together? They were pretty good as a team!
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- Jan 17, 2022
Update: Both are now on Ice Partner Search, so it seems like Jinny has reconsidered quitting Ice Dance.
Namu's profile
Jinny's profile
Interesting: Namu has remained in Vancouver, Canada, while Jinny is now located in Yongin, Korea.
Hopefully, both will be able to find a new partner, and who knows, maybe we'll even get to see multiple Korean Ice Dance teams on the JGP circuit again soon.
Interestingly enough, it states she is willing to relocate even though she went back to Korea.
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They were actually the only junior ice dance team in Brazil. Cayden has allegedly decided to focus on college so Catharina is now registered on Ice Partner Search. She's also moved to IAM Ontario. The Brazilian ice dance seniors however, seem to still be together going by their social media activity.
Since there's only one team in each age category I think the fed does not see the need for organizing a championship for ice dance xD
We do have one for singles, but in recent years for junior women it's Maria Reikdal's to lose by a mile (and last year her only opponent withdrew) and no senior women have been competing for a while. Senior men have up to double axel. We might have one junior man with triples this year. (I wish him and Maria did pairs, they aren't completely opposed to it but you just do not have a rink big enough for pairs training in Brazil...)
Talk about small fed!
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