US Olympic Team Announced

[el henry]

Does anyone know if any of the alternates were flown in also?

I do not know for a fact, but based on social media of the Olympic team, I don't think so.

Nathan, Vincent, Karen and Alexa and Brandon left on the first (or second, I'm not sure) "USA charter" and are in Beijing.

Mariah, Jason and Ashley and Tim are on the bus to the second (or third) "USA charter", which is scheduled to leave in little over an hour. I saw no other skaters on that bus. (per Jason's IG stories)

(Ashley C-G and Jason have started posting a lot of fluff about their group. One example:






The Montreal ice dancers appear to be going under their own steam, at least per Madison H.'s posts.

I don't know about Alysa

I have seen nothing about anyone else traveling, including the alternates.

 

[jenaj]

100% agree. Jason is the past and llia is the future. It's time to let the youngers to learn experience and grow from it. From the math possibility perspective, llia has much higher odd than Jason to be on podium. That's why US figure skating is declining while Russia figure skating is gaining momentum. The gap between US and Russia figure skating sport is getting wider and wider.

The gap in men's skating is wide in favor of the US.

 

[gravy]

The gap in men's skating is wide in favor of the US.

The gap between RUS and USA is meaningless when the Japanese men are there and ready to supercede both countries.

 

[iceskater10]

The gap between RUS and USA is meaningless when the Japanese men are there and ready to supercede both countries.

 

[Mista Ekko]

I do not know for a fact, but based on social media of the Olympic team, I don't think so.

Nathan, Vincent, Karen and Alexa and Brandon left on the first (or second, I'm not sure) "USA charter" and are in Beijing.

Mariah, Jason and Ashley and Tim are on the bus to the second (or third) "USA charter", which is scheduled to leave in little over an hour. I saw no other skaters on that bus. (per Jason's IG stories)

No "3rd USA charter" ?

I mean there are more than just figure skaters on that big team, And if you're gonna separate everyone,
might as well also separate the alternates, And why wouldn't they take alternates there btw?
They took the Gymnastics alternates to Tokyo (We know this because of the news when they go covid)

 

[bigsisjiejie]

I do not know for a fact, but based on social media of the Olympic team, I don't think so.

Nathan, Vincent, Karen and Alexa and Brandon left on the first (or second, I'm not sure) "USA charter" and are in Beijing.

Mariah, Jason and Ashley and Tim are on the bus to the second (or third) "USA charter", which is scheduled to leave in little over an hour. I saw no other skaters on that bus. (per Jason's IG stories)

(Ashley C-G and Jason have started posting a lot of fluff about their group. One example:






The Montreal ice dancers appear to be going under their own steam, at least per Madison H.'s posts.

I don't know about Alysa

I have seen nothing about anyone else traveling, including the alternates.

Seems like USFS did split up the skaters across disciplines....which is smart. Yes, it seems that we have:
Charter #1 from LAX (departed Thursday 1/27)--Nathan, Vincent, Karen, Alexa/Brandon. In Beijing already.
Charter #2 from LAX (departed Saturday 1/29)--Jason, Mariah, Ashley/Tim. Should arrive Beijing (via Seoul connection) in about 13 hours (Sunday morning US time).

Separate from Montreal via Zurich: Madi/Zach. Probably arrived Beijing by now.

Unknown: Alysa, Madi/Evan, Kaitlyn/JeanLuc. I thought K/J-L had been spotted in LAX in the past couple of days, implying that they would be on Charter #2...any confirmation? Also Unknown: whether any alternates are being flown over.

Charters #1 and #2 were on Delta 8871, LAX-ICN-PEK. There are no more of this particular flight scheduled from now through Feb 1. There may be another DL charter going via Tokyo. Or, another (non-US) airline could be used out of LAX.

 

[moonvine]

Unknown: Alysa, Madi/Evan, Kaitlyn/JeanLuc. I thought K/J-L had been spotted in LAX in the past couple of days, implying that they would be on Charter #2...any confirmation? Also Unknown: whether any alternates are being flown over.

Nothing on Kaitlyn or Jean Luc's IG yet.

 

[el henry]

No "3rd USA charter" ?

I mean there are more than just figure skaters on that big team, And if you're gonna separate everyone,
might as well also separate the alternates, And why wouldn't they take alternates there btw?
They took the Gymnastics alternates to Tokyo (We know this because of the news when they go covid)

As @bigsisjiejie noted, there are no charters from the US to Beijing after the flight that left today, at least if Delta is using the same flight number for the charters.

I don't know whether the USFS "should" fly alternates. Typically, they do not. Jason was first alternate in 2018 and did not go to PyeongChang. Max Aaron did not go to Sochi.

Once could argue this is different with the pandemic, but that goes both ways, because it is also more difficult to travel with the pandemic. Is China admitting alternates to the games? It does not appear so. And where would an alternate wait, if not China?

I know nothing about gymnastics, so I can't help with that analogy.

 

[bigsisjiejie]

It's odd that there has been radio silence from Team Alysa. Surely if she had flown out, it would be commented on somewhere by now. Given that she was positive for the crud at US Nationals, I wonder if her PCR tests did not go negative early enough for her to have flown out by Charter #2, and they are still waiting out an additional time period in order to meet all the testing conditions prior to departure. Or there is some active decision-making by USFS going on behind the scenes, to decide whether to sub in Lindsay. USFS may have requested that Team Alysa not comment on anything for now. I'm strictly speculating, mostly because I have nothing better to do at the moment.

 

[NaVi]

It's odd that there has been radio silence from Team Alysa. Surely if she had flown out, it would be commented on somewhere by now.

I haven't noticed her or anyone associated with her ever being very active on social media during her travel.

 

[peoples]

Is it possible that those who are already in Beijing (first flight) will most likely be in the team event?

 

[el henry]

Is it possible that those who are already in Beijing (first flight) will most likely be in the team event?

Certainly there has been speculation as to that, it would seem to make sense.

But we don't know if Chock and Bates are in Beijing, and it was thought they were splitting the TE with Hubbell and Donohue. Also, would Karen be doing the TE? (since we have not yet seen Alysa there).

Difficult to read the tea leaves

 

[Amei]

Certainly there has been speculation as to that, it would seem to make sense.

But we don't know if Chock and Bates are in Beijing, and it was thought they were splitting the TE with Hubbell and Donohue. Also, would Karen be doing the TE? (since we have not yet seen Alysa there).

Difficult to read the tea leaves

I don't think either of the top 2 dance teams are there, so I doubt that flight status is indicative of who is doing the team event.

 

[bigsisjiejie]

I don't think either of the top 2 dance teams are there, so I doubt that flight status is indicative of who is doing the team event.

Hubbell/Donahue communicated from the Zurich airport on Friday, waiting to board their flight to Beijing. They would certainly have arrived in Beijing on Saturday morning local time.

I do agree that right now it's impossible to gauge the composition of the team event from flight plans.

 

[norwegianfairytale]

I havnt´t seen anything about Alysa Liu yet. Has she left for Beijing? Mariah was on the flight yesterday, Karen at the flight with Vincent, but what about Alysa?

Did all the pairs and ice dancers fly out or maybe she is going on the same plane as some of them?

 

[Moxiejan]

I havnt´t seen anything about Alysa Liu yet. Has she left for Beijing? Mariah was on the flight yesterday, Karen at the flight with Vincent, but what about Alysa?

Did all the pairs and ice dancers fly out or maybe she is going on the same plane as some of them?

From what i can tell from various posts, both pairs are there & all singles skaters except Alysa.
In ice dance, H/D are en route from Canada, via Europe. No word from the other 2 teams.

 

[norwegianfairytale]

Ok, so maybe she will go with the remaining ice dance teams...

 

[Apple1078]

Nathan, Karen, Vincent, Alexa and Brandon were on the first flight from LAX and arrived Friday. Madi and Zach left from Montreal and arrived Saturday. Everyone has been practicing (Nathan has been practicing since Saturday morning, I can see Karen and possibly Alexa/Brandon started practicing later that same day... Madi/Zach and Vincent started practicing Sunday morning).

Still to arrive: Jason, Mariah, Ashley and Tim are currently underway from LAX (their IG stories/posts show they left together). Madi, Evan, Kaitlin and Jean Luc will probably also leave Montreal soon if they haven't already.

I haven't seen anything about Alysa which worries me a little.

 

[norwegianfairytale]

Is it possible she will leave from Montreal or something? This sounds a bit weird to be honest, but at the same time we should have heard something if there is a problem. I hope there is an update soon what´s going on and that we will get any confirmation that she is on her way.

Speaking about the alternates, I saw a post from Amber Glenn yesterday where she was posing on a picture with some fans, and nor did she or the fan use a face mask. I found that to be quite concerning considering she is the second alternate. I know she recently had covid so she kinda should be immune for a while but it´s still a big risk to take as alternate when not the whole team have been cleared yet. So far we only know Karen is training inside the bubble. I havn´t seen Amber post much about skating either so i´m worried if she is even motivated to skate after Nationals. Like she was so careful with the covid measures before US Nationals and now she seems to just don´t care anymore

 

[el henry]

Kaitlin H. posted in her IG stories, dated 18 hours ago, that her parents drove to Montreal to wish them luck before they went to the airport. (so sweet) So presumably they are on their way?

I find it odd that the ID teams chose to leave from Montreal on what appears to be commercial flights. Jason flew from Toronto to LA to catch the last charter. Surely they would have been offered that? My complete surmise is that with so many teams, their coaches wouldn't go as well, and they wanted to keep training. Me, I would have picked that swag in LA