Thru half the Grand Prix season, we're probably about where we were expecting
Ice Dance: Gilles/Poirier won Skate Canada as expected. One of the few top teams to stay on their feet for their full skates. Lajoie/Lagha finished second, had a fall for weren't as close as we would have likes. Probably a safe bet we'll see both at the Grand Prix final. I'd kinda like to see Lajoie/Lagha get a big push, but this discipline unfortunately seems more about waiting their turn... imagine we'll see a bunch of retirements after Milan.
Pairs: Stellato-Dudek/Deschamps had a rough long program but won easily. Also surely will be at the GP final. Pereira/Michaud had a nightmare of a skate at theirs. They still might be able to sneak into the final if they do well at their second event, pairs is wide open
Women: Schizas has two very good skates and almost snuck onto the podium at Skate Canada. Her ceiling is probably a top 8-10, and maybe qualifying Canada an extra spot (or opportunity for a spot). Ruiter had a rough outting.
Men: The less said the better. We may not even qualify a man for 2026, and may have to rely on a pity spot for the team event.
2026 Medal Outlook:
- Best chance is probably pairs. Stellato-Dudek are reigning World Champs, and while unpredictable the field isn't terrible deep (if they let the Russians back in, that will make it a lot tougher)
- Ice Dance is a bit of a coin flip. Politics still overwhelms the event even with the Russians out, and Gilles/Poirier seem to be able to get early season results, but not treated as well come Worlds and Olympics. Lajoie/Lagha will hopefully be nipping at their heels now.
- Women's/Men's - No chance of a medal, hell, the men might not even qualify the skater
- Team - Assuming the Russians stay banned, bronze will be battled between Italy and Canada. Probably gonna get some home cooking, so I'd give the edge to Italy... but ultimately it will come down to avoiding a meltdown in the men's and women's short programs. Italy has stronger men, but inconsistent... and same goes for the Canadian women. If we can get strong short programs from our singles skaters, that could get us on the podium
ExpandYeah off the top of my head, this is how many medal chances we have in short track for the next Olympics if it was to be held today
Men’s 500m - Dandjinou, Dubois, Pierre-Gilles
Men’s 1000m - Dandjinou, Dubois
Men’s 1500m - Dandjinou, Dubois, Dion
Men’s 5000m Relay
Women’s 500m - Kim Boutin
Women’s 1000m - Kim BoutinWomen’s 1500m - Kim Boutin
Women’s 3000m Relay
Brunelle could possibly develop before then and get herself in the mix, as a recent multiple World Junior Champion, and Sarault too if she can regain her form prior to injury.
Brunelle blasted the field on the penultimate leg of the relay Saturday, it was surprising. Other than Boutin it's a young team, but surprisingly deep. They aren't favourites in individual races, but they contend regularly, it's not surprising to see them get into semi's and finals anymore
Nice change from the '98 thru '14 cycles when we might have one strong women, and everyone else just kinda hung on for dear life
ExpandLast time SLC cancelled, Toronto stepped in. Sadly not this time
Probably a bit too late this time around. ISU didn't officially pull the plug until Oct 25th, and they were still pushing tickets three weeks ago, so it probably was a last minute decision.
Weird they didn't have an old set of padded board, but whatever. I guess it's easy in Montreal as they're prime tenant in that arena and it doesn't get used for much else
The short track program has sure became a machine over the last decade. Incredible depth. Especially nice seeing so many good skaters on the women's side after a couple decades of being so far behind the likes of China and Korea. Which is good, cause now there are a lot of countries that are producing really good skaters now
Watched a couple skimo world cups on Youtube. It's interesting. I prefer the longer course races, but don't imagine we'll be getting that at the Olympics. Guess we'll see how it goes. It's something different anyway.
The ISU is really trying to push these apparent team names for the countries... extremely cringy
Will be strange watching the World Cup without the Gow's. They were kinda the last echo of the Vancouver 2010 funding boom.
It's too bad, by 2014 and 2015 the program was really solid and if we had kept even moderate funding could have been a top 5-8 nation. Sadly, the money was long gone by then, and those athletes started peeling off and we've faded back to being minnows
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By Topicmaster1010 · Posted
Some new basic quotas. Cyprus officially qualified their first athlete FIS | Andrea LOIZIDOU - Athlete Biography - Alpine Skiing FIS | Mialitiana CLERC - Athlete Biography - Alpine Skiing FIS | Jana ATANASOVSKA - Athlete Biography - Alpine Skiing FIS | Vanina GUERILLOT - Athlete Biography - Alpine Skiing -
By Henry_Leon · Posted
African qualifiers: live stream on FIFA plus Where to watch the European qualifiers Results African CAFQ MD 6 (partial) European Qualifiers results MD 2 (partial) -
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The 19-years old Dalibor Dvorský became last night the 99th Slovak player to play a NHL match -
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will have a general election on April 28th. Polls currently show a close race between current caretaker PM Mark Carney (Liberal) and opposition leader Pierre Poilievre (Conservative). -
Who do they need to win against to advance? -
The first trimester ended on the 22.12.24, which for sure means those results will not count. 2nd trimester ended on 26.01.2025. all results after that will count for sure. Not sure about the 2nd trimester as qualification period lasts until 18.01.2026. I would assume only last trimester of this season plus all events next year until 18.01 will count, but that’s my view. If correct the current list is not really saying much.
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Posted (edited)
What do we need to be, top 20 in Nations Cup?
And last year the women were 17th, and the men 22nd... good grief.
Top 8 is a tough nut to crack. Top 12 should be the goal... top 15 is just basic competency, and we're not even there anymore. Once you're into the 20's these are countries without even full teams and/or not even competing on the World Cup
I think we sat out a couple WC's last year, so that may have been what dropped us into the 20's... but they can't be doing that this year, and Runnalls is gonna have to have a year.
Edited by JockCartierLink to post
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