Breakthrough motivates James and Ciprès

At the end of the 2015-16 season, French pair skaters Vanessa James and Morgan Ciprès were not sure whether it was worthwhile to continue to compete. However, by the end of the 2016-17 season, they had won their first medal at Europeans as well as the pair skating competition at the 2017 World Team Trophy with new personal best scores. This major turn-around was prompted by a coaching change and complete change of environment. Now, heading into the Olympic season, James and Ciprès are part of the top pairs teams in the World that can dream of a medal in Pyeongchang.

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James and Ciprès already include the throw quad Salchow into their free skating and feel it is worth the risk. They are now contemplating trying a quad throw flip. Your thoughts on this?

thoughts on the quad throw flip : other teams trying two quads previously realized is was messing up their triple throw timing... so i wouldn't go for that in the olympic year...

at the beginning of the year, Vanessa was doing an arm variation on their throw triple flip... she had to take it away because it wasn't as stable....

the reason why teams are trying the 3A throw is to avoid having a quad and triple of the same family for the long....so unless they want to bring back a triple loop throw for the short, i wouldn't think it's such a great idea based on what we have seen with other teams.

This being said, i think they had great programs which got us interesting in the first half of the season and brought great momentum in the second half. It will be interesting to see how stable they will be on their big elements.

I like them a lot for what they bring to the sport. They are exciting to watch. I just wish they were smoother gliders though... i find the skating exciting but a bit rough at times.

Glad EC and WTT success gave them motivation to keep going on and heading to Olympics. They are really joy to watch!
Plans about adding quads for an Olympic podium chance have some common sense in that Quad Era in Paris and Mens discipline. İt's very risky tough. Especially practising new quad throw jump in olympic seasons. I think clean throw 4S with clean rest of the program might be enough.

Oh do they really want to retire after 2019? I do not hope so. Vanessa is not the youngest but some pair´s athletes start slow and get better and better when they become over 30 (hao zhang, shen/zhao, smirnov, aljona, althoug I would not say Aljoan started slow=))

They have the potential to medal in poengchang and to medal in the whole Olympic period till 2022. Please, do not waste your time and talent and skate till 2022.

thanks as usual for the article

my two cents - for me, this is a rare case of a team whose presence alone, an aura of certain style/sophistication are striking and very 'influential'. Yes - 'big elements', tricks are effective and exciting to see, but I do feel like they are only working in team's favour points/placements-wise only if cleanly, surely executed. Bearing in mind that this is an Olympic season upcoming, their raise, more international recognition, placements, scores increasing, EC medal in a very competitive, strong field and their current 'high wave' overall I think that the best would be to perfect things at works (4S throw) and increase difficulty/levels on current elements being solid (twist, lifts etc.), maintaining originality, uniqueness, 'boldness' in packaging: striking musical choices, innovative choreography, one-of-a-kind, unseen transitions between elements, their unique chemistry, presence showcased by it all.

Saying that, I fully support any try-outs with new elements and eventually including them during the season if their confidence and success with it/them would be high. This is the pair that strikes me as a fearless one, full of courage and not afraid to take some risks, to mold themselves into changes to achieve more and reach higher. I fully admire and support that kind of attitude.

And what I love about them, what I 're-discovered' last season was that excitement about getting more recognized, about risk paying off, about something new, fresh seen, about Vanessa's true joy about experience, scores, journey.

They bring something extra to pairs. They have as good a chance as anyone to be competitive in the Olympic season.

I think they can win a medal at the olympics but I so torn because I really feel Kavaguti and Smirnov deserve one but they won't even make it to the olympcis. And I also think Duhamel and Radford deserve one if not for all that hate. Add to that the faves Sui and Han and the rest of the Chinese plus the ultimate faves the Germans it will be so hard to get on the podium and we aren't even consider the main Russians who by Russian standards are weak.

So they will retire soon after Olympics? That's too bad Altough I do hope they will skate at least that one season more. They bring some freshness to Pairs discipline, it would be shame if they left the competetive world so soon.

Mathman said:

They bring something extra to pairs. They have as good a chance as anyone to be competitive in the Olympic season.

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Yes. They found their style. I hope they continue to explore what they can do with it. I loved both programs last season.

Good article. Thank you!

I really came to like Jame/Cipres's skating this season, and I'm glad they gained more confidence this season! They're absolutely delightful and exciting to watch. Wish them the best of luck.

Thanks for the article!

friedbanana said:

I really came to like Jame/Cipres's skating this season, and I'm glad they gained more confidence this season! They're absolutely delightful and exciting to watch. Wish them the best of luck.

Thanks for the article!

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Their FS performance at WTT was mesmerizing!

I know it doesn't really matter but......They are a very attractive couple.