2025-26 Retirements, Splits and New Partnerships | Page 20 | Golden Skate

2025-26 Retirements, Splits and New Partnerships

noskates said:
How many partners has Danny N had? Seems like every year he's skating with someone different.
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Not really, despite how it seems. Danny was partnered with Nica Digerness on the U.S. novice, junior, and senior levels from 2015 - 2019. Danny was then paired briefly with Sasha Fakhroutdinov from April 2020 to 2021 (I believe they split after failing to qualify for U.S. Nationals). Danny partnered with Grace Hanns in 2022 after her split with Jim Garbutt. Grace and Danny were together for nearly three years, having split sometime last year. With his new pairing announced, that's actually not a huge partner list, compared to some skaters. 🤔
 
Skater Boy said:
I don't think Danny OShea would be a very good fit should Balazs and Kam skate together. First he is too inexperienced as a high level coach. Second, having just skated with Kam it might cause some stress in respect to assumed favoritism not tomention comparison of him and kam versus the new partner.
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FYI: Danny O'Shea is part of the MMPairs coaching staff, and he has been since before he began his partnership with Ellie Kam. As well, Balazs Nagy trained at the Colorado rink as a junior and off-and-on as a senior. Drew Meekins has choreographed for Audrey & Balazs. At certain points, Drew also served Shin/ Nagy in a coaching or sub-coach capacity.

You are making a lot of non-factual based assumptions.
 
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BlissfulSynergy said:
Not really, despite how it seems. Danny was partnered with Nica Digerness on the U.S. novice, junior, and senior levels from 2015 - 2019. Danny was then paired briefly with Sasha Fakhroutdinov from April 2020 to 2021 (I believe they split after failing to qualify for U.S. Nationals). Danny partnered with Grace Hanns in 2022 after her split with Jim Garbutt. Grace and Danny were together for nearly three years, having split sometime last year. With his new pairing announced, that's actually not a huge partner list, compared to some skaters. 🤔
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Also, my understanding is that Danny N and Grace split because of the medical issues she was experiencing, rather than because of a problem with the partnership itself.
 
FlossieH said:
Also, my understanding is that Danny N and Grace split because of the medical issues she was experiencing, rather than because of a problem with the partnership itself.
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I wasn't aware that Grace has 'medical issues.' She noticeably had troubles with jumps and some other elements. At one competition they withdrew when Grace reportedly was experiencing anxiety. Looking back, perhaps it was medical-related. Grace and Danny were partners on-and-off the ice, tho' I don't know if their personal connection has survived the split.
 
Jumping_Bean said:
Hana Yoshida (Japan, women's) has announced her retirement. She has relocated to Australia to attend the University of Melbourne.



I know the past season was a difficult one for her, but this retirement still surprises and saddens me 😢 Sending my best wishes to Hana for her academic career ❤️
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I'm really sad about this 😢 Women figure skating needs 'out of the box' skaters like her. I love her own style so much. Did she have injury problems or why was this season so hard for her? I was hoping she would come back strong next season. But all the best to Hana in Melbourne!
 
DemTuppesSeine said:
This sounds like a retirement post?

Edit: okay it probably is, she posted "end of an era" in her story
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Yes it is 🥲

I´m not surprised, she only did 4 competitions this season, the last one at Sophia Trophy in January where she WD after a rough SP :( She popped all her jumps. After that, she quickly WD from all the competitions for the rest of the season, including Sonja Henie Trophy in March, so unfortunately I was already thinking she might not return. She was also injured at the end of last season. I´m would have loved for her to have a better ending to her career, but at least she got the silver at Nationals in December, and also the Winter University Game last season in Torino was a nice career highlight for her. I will miss her elegant skating and thank you Linnea for pushing the sport forward in Norway, she did set some junior records in her junior years, including being one of the first female skaters to do a triple triple in juniors. Also she was able to fill the gap in seniors after Camilla Gjersem retired, and represented Norway at Euros back in 2022.
 
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I wasn't planning on sharing this based on the Patinage Québec teams that were updated a couple days ago but no sign of Max and Deanna (which is not really shocking) nor of Kelly Ann and Loucas, which is actually more surprising considering their age.

There is no official statement from either team but not being on this list would mean that they will not be funded next year so that would imply they are no longer skating or perhaps in the case of Kelly Ann and Loucas a combination of retirement and split or whatever...

My heart was ready to take one hit.. but not two.

Make of that as you want, perhaps best to hear from the skaters themselves but Patinage Québec is very good with these things. We learned of new teams that way :).

On the brighter side of things, it would appear that Lauriault and Le Gac are still planning to compete.


I should add that the list will be official when Skate Canada issues the National Team/ Next Gen carding... but yeah. things can still evolve.
 
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Lauriault/ Le Gac definitely looked more inspired with fresher material and a renewed outlook this past season. I suppose with all the Canadian ice dance splits and retirements, they are looking to be considered #2 behind Lajoie/ Lagha, if PiPa are retiring.

Sad to hear about Laurin/ Ethier, as they have seemed to be on the cusp of a new, confident, refined approach. Is it finances, or weariness? Maybe they are taking a break, or they have other off-ice desires they wish to pursue. They've been skating together for a long time. 🥺
 
BlissfulSynergy said:
Lauriault/ Le Gac definitely looked more inspired with fresher material and a renewed outlook this past season. I suppose with all the Canadian ice dance splits and retirements, they are looking to be considered #2 behind Lajoie/ Lagha, if PiPa are retiring.

Sad to hear about Laurin/ Ethier, as they have seemed to be on the cusp of a new, confident, refined approach. Is it finances, or weariness? Maybe they are taking a break, or they have other off-ice desires they wish to pursue. They've been skating together for a long time. 🥺
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Kelly Ann, believe it or not, is only 20 years old... She's still junior eligible :)

With all the injuries and problems this year... it may have proven to be enough.
 
4everchan said:
I wasn't planning on sharing this based on the Patinage Québec teams that were updated a couple days ago but no sign of Max and Deanna (which is not really shocking) nor of Kelly Ann and Loucas, which is actually more surprising considering their age.

There is no official statement from either team but not being on this list would mean that they will not be funded next year so that would imply they are no longer skating or perhaps in the case of Kelly Ann and Loucas a combination of retirement and split or whatever...

My heart was ready to take one hit.. but not two.

Make of that as you want, perhaps best to hear from the skaters themselves but Patinage Québec is very good with these things. We learned of new teams that way :).

On the brighter side of things, it would appear that Lauriault and Le Gac are still planning to compete.


I should add that the list will be official when Skate Canada issues the National Team/ Next Gen carding... but yeah. things can still evolve.
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This is so sad (the pair, not the Dance). The only bad skate I saw Kelly Ann and Loucas execute was the FS at World's. They were sublime in the FS at Canadians' , did well at 4CC, so I thought World's was just a hiccup or plain tiredness - they didn't expect to go, but even then their SP was perfectly in order. Of course it's their choice. Sad because they looked so promising but injuries can wear anyone down....
 
ladyjane said:
This is so sad (the pair, not the Dance). The only bad skate I saw Kelly Ann and Loucas execute was the FS at World's. They were sublime in the FS at Canadians' , did well at 4CC, so I thought World's was just a hiccup or plain tiredness - they didn't expect to go, but even then their SP was perfectly in order. Of course it's their choice. Sad because they looked so promising but injuries can wear anyone down....
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Apparently, Loucas is aiming to become a full time firefighter when his skating career is over :)

I have no idea if that means now or later but we sometimes forget that some athletes have other interests in life than just their sport. It's just so disappointing because they are just starting in terms of age. They have been skating for a long time together but had to go seniors rather early because of their age difference. I feel that this may have been one of the issues : having to compete with more seasoned teams sort of kept them back. Well ... I won't go into the "what if " mode any longer. I will wait, like everyone else, to see the official statements but it's not looking good for Canadian dance and Pairs these days.
 
4everchan said:
Apparently, Loucas is aiming to become a full time firefighter when his skating career is over :)

I have no idea if that means now or later but we sometimes forget that some athletes have other interests in life than just their sport. It's just so disappointing because they are just starting in terms of age. They have been skating for a long time together but had to go seniors rather early because of their age difference. I feel that this may have been one of the issues : having to compete with more seasoned teams sort of kept them back. Well ... I won't go into the "what if " mode any longer. I will wait, like everyone else, to see the official statements but it's not looking good for Canadian dance and Pairs these days.
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I was more worried about P/M tbh. But this is bad news all around.
 
DemTuppesSeine said:
Not a retirement but I wasn't sure where else to post it...Yuma Kagiyama has announced on his instagram that he won't compete next season.
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I'll miss him as hell but he deserves a good rest and recharge. I hope he will come back happy, healthy, confident and full of new ideas.

Another news is Julia Sauter decided to compete the next season (do we have a thread for this kind of announcement?).
 
4everchan said:
Kelly Ann, believe it or not, is only 20 years old... She's still junior eligible :)

With all the injuries and problems this year... it may have proven to be enough.
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Aww, I remember Kelly was skating this season with a leg wrap. I definitely remember Kelly & Loucas as juniors. It seems like a long time ago. They must have come up to seniors fairly young. Maybe they will take a break and contemplate a return. It's hard to believe this is it for them. I hope Fiona Bombardier stays healthy and can come back strong with Ben Mimar. They have looked so promising. What all pairs skaters go through reveals how tough the discipline is.

ETA:
Oh, I just now see the info that Loucas desires to become a firefighter. 🥹 Best of luck and tremendous blessings to him! 💯
 
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