2024-25 Retirements, Splits and New Partnerships

[surimi]

This thread serves as a quick and informative resource for 2024-25 Retirements, Splits and New Partnerships in figure skating. Please feel free to post additions/changes (using full names and the country the skater/s represent, please), along with the source. Here is the thread for last season.

Retirements

Women
- Frida Berge (Norway)
- Lindsay Van Zundert (Netherlands)

Pairs
- Chloe Panetta (France)

Ice dance
- Nolen Hickey (Finland)

Career breaks

Men
- Andrei Kutovoi (Russia)

Splits

Ice Dance
- Mariia Alieva / Yehor Barshak (Georgia)
- Charlie Anderson / Cayden Dawson (Canada)
- Nicole Bolender / Aiden Dotzert (Canada)
- Sofia Kachushkina / Mark Volkov (Russia)
- Mia Lee Mayer / Davide Calderari (Germany)
- Chloé Menta / Émile Deveau (Canada)
- Olivia Oliver / Filip Bojanowski (Poland)
- Michelle Deych / Ryan Hu (USA)
- Alexandra Shinkarenko / Valeri Angelopol (Russia)
- Hilda Taylor / Nolen Hickey (Finland)

Pairs
- Laura Barquero / Marco Zandron (Spain)
- Annika Behnke / Kole Sauve (Canada)
- Beau Callahan / Christophe Roch (Canada)
- Caidence Derenisky / Raine Eberl (Canada)
- Varvara Medvedeva & Pavel Astakhov (Russia)
- Chloe Panetta / Flavien Giniaux (France)
- Oceane Piegad / Denys Strekalin (France)
- Violetta Sierova / Ivan Khobta (Ukraine)
- Vlada Selivanova / Viktor Potapov (Russia)
- Maria Simonova / Martin Breslavskiy (Russia)
- Anna Varesi / Manuel Piazza (Italy)
- Joy Weinberg / Thierry Ferland (Canada)

New Partnerships

Ice Dance
- Chaima Ben Khelifa / Nikita Sosnenko (unconfirmed, probably Canada)
- Madelaine Breau / Namu Lee (South Korea)
- Katarina Delcamp / Berk Akalin (Turkey)
- Rilee Eby / Jacob Stark (Canada)
- Daniela Ivanitskiy / Matthew Sperry (Finland)
- Olympia Kalaganis / Émile Deveau (Canada)
- Caroline Kravets / Aiden Dotzert (Canada)
- Mia Kuneshita / Alec Roueche (unspecified)
- Yahli Pedersen / Benjamin Starr (USA)
- Vanessa Pham / Anton Spiridonov (USA)
- Anna Rumak / Antonin Emo (France)
- Dana Sabatini-Speciale / Danny Kaye (unspecified)
- Ayumi Shibayama / Tomoki Kimura (Japan)

Pairs
- Viktoria Dvinina / Viktor Potapov (Russia)
- Meghan Fredette / Daniil Siianytsia (USA) - unconfirmed
- Júlía Sylvía Gunnarsdóttir / Manuel Piazza (Iceland)
- Gabriella Izzo / Luc Maierhofer (Austria)
- Paola Jurisic / Michail Savenkov (Austria)
- Cristina Lyons / Marty Haubrich (Canada)
- Brooke McIntosh / Marco Zandron (Spain)
- Tae Ok Ryom / Kum Chol Han (North Korea)
- Olga Sabada / Pavel Astakhov (Russia)
- Ashlyn Schmitz / Raine Eberl (Canada)
- Audrey Shin / Balázs Nagy (USA)
- Maiia Shegai & Andrei Shaderkov (Russia)
- Maria Simonova / Petr Alekseenko (Russia)
- Johanka Zilkova / Matyas Becerra (Czech Republic)

 

[jan.zilka]

Here is one new Czech junior pair on the way:

Johanka Zilkova & Matyas Becerra

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[Jumping_Bean]

Here is one new Czech junior pair on the way:

Johanka Zilkova & Matyas Becerra

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That brings the number of Czech baby pairs up to three: Cohen/Vochozka, Kviderova/Klement and Zilkova/Becerra
Great to see the development of partnered skating in the Czech Republic.

 

[jan.zilka]

Cohen/Vochozka, Kviderova/Klement and Zilkova/Becerra

They are working alongside all together now. That will bring quality. Seen their last IG story? Jumping and landing just like three cute little flying squirels

 

[Sabsi]

New partnership announced:
Audrey Shin & Balázs Nagy
Coaches: Bruno Marcotte, Andrew Evans and Tammy Gambill

 

[Jumping_Bean]

New Ice Dance team - Dana Sabatini-Speciale/Danny Kaye:



Not sure which country they'll compete for, they'd have four options to choose from after all - CAN, ITA, GBR, IRL Barbara Fusar Poli is tagged, so maybe that's a small tip-off towards Italy?

 

[saine]

Ashlyn Schmitz/Raine Eberl are a new pairs team for Canada.

That means Caidence Derenisky/Raine Eberl (Canada) have split.

 

[gsk8]

Pairs
- Audrey Shin / Balázs Nagy (USA?)

Confirmed for USA

 

[gsk8]

Not sure which country they'll compete for, they'd have four options to choose from after all - CAN, ITA, GBR, IRL

They are still finalizing but will announce soon!

 

[4everchan]

New Ice Dance team - Dana Sabatini-Speciale/Danny Kaye:



Not sure which country they'll compete for, they'd have four options to choose from after all - CAN, ITA, GBR, IRL Barbara Fusar Poli is tagged, so maybe that's a small tip-off towards Italy?

Dana and Danny : surprised Dana is once again teamed up with a much taller guy ... it was one of the issue in her previous partner.

 

[icedancefan17]

Dana and Danny : surprised Dana is once again teamed up with a much taller guy ... it was one of the issue in her previous partner.

I mean, whatever works, works right? Based on photos, Danny is shorter than her old partner it seems. Also, it doesn't seem that there are shorter guys these days lol. Past and present, there are so many teams that have that height difference and make it work perfectly fine. Chock/Bates are good examples of a present team.

Dana and her old partner were doing very well, both domestically and internationally at JGPs (12th in 2022, 8th and 5th in 2023). I'm not really sure what made them split, but people shouldn't always assume that it's externally noticeable, like height, if you know what I mean.

Clearly Andrew/Barbara don't find it an issue, as they wouldn't have paired D2 (new nickname like P2) up. In my opinion, I would rather see a team with a bit of a height difference, than teams that are the same height. Same height teams look weird to me and it limits what they can do as well in terms of lifts and cool things (Guignard/Fabbri are an exception )

 

[saine]

Dana and her old partner were doing very well, both domestically and internationally at JGPs (12th in 2022, 8th and 5th in 2023). I'm not really sure what made them split, but people shouldn't always assume that it's externally noticeable, like height, if you know what I mean.

She's two years older than him. This upcoming season would have been her last year eligible as a junior before the age limit change, so I figured that played a factor.

 

[icedancefan17]

She's two years older than him. This upcoming season would have been her last year eligible as a junior before the age limit change, so I figured that played a factor.

Yeah, I totally agree that it might have been a factor. I just am digging deeper as Dana never posted anything when it ended, which for her since she likes to post comp links, training videos and more, to me means that it is something more personal. But what's done is done!

 

[yyzskater]

Does anyone have any info on Danny Kaye? There seems to be very limited info about him online. The only thing I found was that he did solo dance in 2022. Did he ever have a partner before?

 

[CaroLiza_fan]

I mean, whatever works, works right? Based on photos, Danny is shorter than her old partner it seems. Also, it doesn't seem that there are shorter guys these days lol. Past and present, there are so many teams that have that height difference and make it work perfectly fine. Chock/Bates are good examples of a present team.

Dana and her old partner were doing very well, both domestically and internationally at JGPs (12th in 2022, 8th and 5th in 2023). I'm not really sure what made them split, but people shouldn't always assume that it's externally noticeable, like height, if you know what I mean.

Clearly Andrew/Barbara don't find it an issue, as they wouldn't have paired D2 (new nickname like P2) up. In my opinion, I would rather see a team with a bit of a height difference, than teams that are the same height. Same height teams look weird to me and it limits what they can do as well in terms of lifts and cool things (Guignard/Fabbri are an exception )

Personally, I'm not keen on "D2". Although it took off for Piper and Paul, there is potential for confusion with other partnerships whose first names or surnames both begin with the letter D (although I can't think of any others off-hand).

What about "Dan2"? (Boys, but I wish we could do superscript on XenForo like we could on vBulletin, so that it is more obvious that we are saying "squared" rather than "two").

Does anyone have any info on Danny Kaye? There seems to be very limited info about him online. The only thing I found was that he did solo dance in 2022. Did he ever have a partner before?

I don't think so, but he put up a couple of demonstration videos on YouTube for his Ice Partner Search profile:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7M-OJsTLfJI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RaWPikvAwCc

There are also some video shorts, including recent ones of him doing Dance elements, on his YouTube channel.

Danny has been doing Solo Dance for a few years now while looking for a partner. He did Men's Singles skating before that. Which is what is covered in his pages on the following sites.

Rink Results Bio: https://www.rinkresults.com/skater?skater_id=16824
Skating Scores Bio: https://skatingscores.com/gbr/men/daniel_kaye/
Stats On Ice Bio: https://www.statsonice.com/skater/danielkaye/

He has been at University for the past few years, and he said on his Ice Partner Search profile that this is the reason he didn't want to move overseas to train with a new partner. And, presumably, that was the reason why he wasn't able to get a partner until now (he graduated earlier this year).

As well as competing, Danny is also an active fan of the sport online. He has participated in skating discussions on a wide variety of websites, and I have found him to be very knowledgable about figure skating as a whole. He is also active on the YouTube chats during events. I avoid YouTube chat like the plague, but a friend of mine has chatted to him on there and says he is a really nice guy.

All in all, I like him. Although I haven't seen him properly skating with a partner yet, I am delighted he has found somebody, and am looking forward to seeing what he and Dana are like.

Hope this helps

CaroLiza_fan

 

[icedancefan17]

Personally, I'm not keen on "D2". Although it took off for Piper and Paul, there is potential for confusion with other partnerships whose first names or surnames both begin with the letter D (although I can't think of any others off-hand).

What about "Dan2"? (Boys, but I wish we could do superscript on XenForo like we could on vBulletin, so that it is more obvious that we are saying "squared" rather than "two").



I don't think so, but he put up a couple of demonstration videos on YouTube for his Ice Partner Search profile:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7M-OJsTLfJI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RaWPikvAwCc

There are also some video shorts, including recent ones of him doing Dance elements, on his YouTube channel.

Danny has been doing Solo Dance for a few years now while looking for a partner. He did Men's Singles skating before that. Which is what is covered in his pages on the following sites.

Rink Results Bio: https://www.rinkresults.com/skater?skater_id=16824
Skating Scores Bio: https://skatingscores.com/gbr/men/daniel_kaye/
Stats On Ice Bio: https://www.statsonice.com/skater/danielkaye/

He has been at University for the past few years, and he said on his Ice Partner Search profile that this is the reason he didn't want to move overseas to train with a new partner. And, presumably, that was the reason why he wasn't able to get a partner until now (he graduated earlier this year).

As well as competing, Danny is also an active fan of the sport online. He has participated in skating discussions on a wide variety of websites, and I have found him to be very knowledgable about figure skating as a whole. He is also active on the YouTube chats during events. I avoid YouTube chat like the plague, but a friend of mine has chatted to him on there and says he is a really nice guy.

All in all, I like him. Although I haven't seen him properly skating with a partner yet, I am delighted he has found somebody, and am looking forward to seeing what he and Dana are like.

Hope this helps

CaroLiza_fan

Great insight and detail on this post here!

Yeah, D2 may be confusing. Dsquared would be good.

 

[Jumping_Bean]

JGP and Youth Olympic Games participants Mia Lee Mayer/Davide Calderari (Jr Ice Dance, GER) have split, with Davide looking for a new pairs partner on Ice Partner Search.

Good luck to him in switching disciplines and finding a new partner, and good luck to her if she hasn't found a new partner already (waiting patiently for the Bavarian figure skating branch's new website to go up to see if they list some new teams )

 

[lilimum]

JGP and Youth Olympic Games participants Mia Lee Mayer/Davide Calderari (Jr Ice Dance, GER) have split, with Davide looking for a new pairs partner on Ice Partner Search.

Good luck to him in switching disciplines and finding a new partner, and good luck to her if she hasn't found a new partner already (waiting patiently for the Bavarian figure skating branch's new website to go up to see if they list some new teams )

oh no, Davide should care about his physical health, there is a reason why he is not competing anymore in singles - wnd when I have a look on the coach in his profil - no command.
@ Jumping bean - your are really believing in a relaunch of the wibsite? The site is down since month. I think the Bavarian Fed wants to avoid any transparancy.

 

[Jumping_Bean]

You are really believing in a relaunch of the website? The site is down since month. I think the Bavarian Fed wants to avoid any transparency.

They've replied on IG that they are planning on relaunching the website on the 24th of June.

Doubt it has anything to do with avoiding transparency, considering the fact that the Bavarian skating branch has been one of the most transparent ones - Others have never even had any websites, and if they do, few of them even release lists of their state teams. Essentially, if they wanted less transparency, they could have had that much earlier.

 

[4everchan]

It's been mentioned that Chloé Menta and Émile Deveau split. (Canada, Ice dance)

Émile Deveau is listed with a new partner, Olympia Kalaganis.

Never heard of her... quick google seems to say that she is from CPA Blainville ( in the province of Québec) and would have been in Les Suprêmes Junior who won worlds this year ?? Cool !