Figure Skating 2015 - 2016 Discussion Thread

[uk12points 434]

Massot is French born but he competes in the pair for Germany with his German partner.

[OlympicsFan 860]

1 hour ago, uk12points said:

Massot is French born but he competes in the pair for Germany with his German partner.

True, but Savchenko was born in Ukrain, so this is a very interesting pair. In the end i am just happy that we have such a great new pair and that Aljona can keep competing. The bronze medal was a great end to their first season and i am sure that they will only get better and that Aljona will be able to fulfill her dream of an olympic gold medal in 2018. Its also interesting to note that they have a german (Alexander König) and a french coach (Jean-Francoic Ballester). I think its fair to say that its an "international project", but they have to compete for one country and they decided to compete for Germany. Aljona might be the more important part of the pair, but both profit from each other and in the end they could have as well competed for France and noone wouldve had a problem, because they are just a great pair.

Its also interesting to know that France also has a history of "buying" athletes, for example Vanessa James who was born in Canada and formerly competed for GB. Andrei Novoselov was born in Russia but now competes for France. Florent Amodio is a bit different case, but also quite interesting. He was born in Brazil and still has the brazilian citizenship but got adopted by a french couple early in his life and decided to represent France internationally. Overall figure skating and especially pair skating seems to be very "international".

 

Other interesting cases:

Tatiana Volosozhar also was born in Ukraine but now competes for Russia.

Vladimir Morozov was born in Germany but represents Russia.

Ashley Wagner was born in Germany but competes for USA.

Yuko Kavaguti was born in Japan but competes for Russia now.

Lubov Ilyushechkina was born in Russia but now competes for Canada.

Ivan Righini was born in Russia but now competes for Italy.

Oleksii Bychenko was born in Ukraine but now competes for Israel.

Misha Ge was born in Russia but now competes for Uzbekistan.

Elizabet Tursynbayeva was born in Russia but now competes for Kazakhstan.

Kaitlyn Weaver was born in the US but now competes for Canada.

Piper Gilles was born in the US but now competes for Canada.

Charlene Guignard was born in France but now competes for Italy.

...

 

Overall 3 of the top 20 in mens single skating dont represent their country of birth.

Overall 3 of the top 20 in womens single skating dont represent their country of birth.

Overall 9 of the top 20 pairs in ice dance have at least one athlete who doesnt represent his/her country of birth.

Overall 11 of the top 20 pairs in pair skating have athletes who dont represent his/her country of birth.

 

Its really interesting that 50% of the pairs in ice dance or pair skating have an athlete who was born in an other country.

Edited April 3, 2016 by OlympicsFan

[OlympicsFan 860]

Positive surprises in my opinion: 

Men: Boyang (born in 1997) 3rd, Kolyada (born in 1995) 4th, Vasiljevs (born in 1999) 14th

Women: Wagner 2nd, Gold 4th, Daleman (born in 1998) 9th, Tursynbayeva (born in 2000) 12th, Da-bin (born in 2000) 14th

Pairs: Wenjing/Cong (born in 1997 and 1992) 2nd, Tarasova/Morozov (born in 1994 and 1992) 5th, Ilyushechkina/Moscovitch 7th

Ice dance: Shibutani/Shibutani (born in 1994 and 1991) 2nd and Sinitsina/Katsalapov (born in 1995 and 1991) 9th.

 

Negative surprises in my opinion:

Men: Chan only 5th, Uno only 7th, Ten only 11th, Kovtun only 18th, Han only 26th, Nguyen only 27th

Women: Radionova only 6th, Asada only 7th, Meite only 25th

Pairs: Volosozhar/Trankov only 6th, Cheng/Hao only 12th

Ice dance: Basically all russian paris, none of their pairs from last year competed this year.

 

The biggest "shocks" for me were Nguyen, Meite and Volosozhar/Trankov.

[hckošice 15,535]

re-watched the womens event in our TV, and I have to say that it was after a very long time one extremely thrilling and exciting competition. great great competition. really liked it. Radionova despite ended only 6th had a fantastic free program. in fact all top 6 athletes presented an amazing program (maybe excluding Gracie Gold) but Medvedeva absolutely deserved her win.

 

from SVK view this champs is one of the most succedfull, both our entries improved their personal bests ranking in the competition. especially Nicole Rajičová finished 13th in womens event, which is very fine, but I just noticed that she ended as the 4th best european here, behind the 3 russians !!! also our ice dance pair Testa/Csolley improved their pb rank by 1 place, the new pb is now 14th place. I´m really satisfied and it looks well fr us to have 2 entries in Pyeongchang 2018 in figure skating, the last time it happened in Salt Lake 2002

[dcro 10,210]

24 minutes ago, hckosice said:

re-watched the womens event in our TV, and I have to say that it was after a very long time one extremely thrilling and exciting competition. great great competition. really liked it. Radionova despite ended only 6th had a fantastic free program. in fact all top 6 athletes presented an amazing program (maybe excluding Gracie Gold) but Medvedeva absolutely deserved her win.

 

from SVK view this champs is one of the most succedfull, both our entries improved their personal bests ranking in the competition. especially Nicole Rajičová finished 13th in womens event, which is very fine, but I just noticed that she ended as the 4th best european here, behind the 3 russians !!! also our ice dance pair Testa/Csolley improved their pb rank by 1 place, the new pb is now 14th place. I´m really satisfied and it looks well fr us to have 2 entries in Pyeongchang 2018 in figure skating, the last time it happened in Salt Lake 2002

 

If Rajicova finishes in top 10 next year then you will get 2 quotas for women's singles for 2018 Olympics, thanks to the very weird qualification system.

[hckošice 15,535]

3 minutes ago, dcro said:

 

If Rajicova finishes in top 10 next year then you will get 2 quotas for women's singles for 2018 Olympics, thanks to the very weird qualification system.

 

 

top 10 is impossible. but anyway atleast her olympic ticket is pretty real, that´s the most important

[Gianlu33 5,280]

United Arab Emirates  join in the ISU Federation  

 

[hckošice 15,535]

very sad news. The Ice Dance pair Federica Testa/Lukáš Csolley will not compete anymore Federica Testa suddenly decided to end her career Just read it in our sport sites...what a devastating news, one of my prefered pair...Everything looked well for Pyeongchang, now the dream is over...meanwile Thank you Federica for everything and all great emotions we had following your performances with Lukáš...

 

Also the news is a bit old it seems and the separation happened just in the end of the previous season, because Lukáš already has a new partner and they are already training together in Milan. She is Lucie Myslivečková a czech figure skater she performed with Matej Novák under Czech republic and during last few years with the french Neil Brown.

 

They agreed to compete for Slovakia, and will try to qualify for Pyeongchang, which will be very difficult now, when we consider that it will be their first common season

 

Anyway good luck and best wishes for our new Ice Dance pair

 

Lucie Myslivečková/Lukáš Csolley

 

https://www.facebook.com/slovakfigureskating/photos/a.563448523803014.1073741828.561204584027408/680502108764321/?type=3&theater