2017-2018 Canadian Road to the Olympics

[Osmond4gold]

Congrats to Halifax girl, Ellie Black, who just won the World All-Round Silver Gymnast medal, in Montreal last night. Ellie is the most decorated Canadian female gymnast of all time. Why is this related to GS, you ask? Ellie had been an up and coming figure skater for our province (Nova Scotia), and made the difficult decision as to which sport to concentrate full time.

To put this in perspective, no other Canadian lady has ever finished on the World podium, in this event, finishing less than a point away (1/100drth) away from Gold. She had previously finished 5th at Rio Olympics; the best Canadian placement ever.

 

[4everchan]

Congrats to Halifax girl, Ellie Black, who just won the World All-Round Silver Gymnast medal, in Montreal last night. Ellie is the most decorated Canadian female gymnast of all time. Why is this related to GS, you ask? Ellie had been an up and coming figure skater for our province (Nova Scotia), and made the difficult decision as to which sport to concentrate full time.

To put this in perspective, no other Canadian lady has ever finished on the World podium, in this event, finishing less than a point away (1/100rdth) away from Gold. She had previously finished 5th at Rio Olympics; the best Canadian placement ever.

omg.. all around silver? wow... i have been busy... no time for skating nor gymnastics.. but wow...

to get back to skating :i lovegabby's new sp!!!!go girl!

 

[Osmond4gold]

Off to the cottage country to celebrate Thanksgiving here in Canada, with family and friends. To those celebrating this 'weekend' north of the border, enjoy this wonderful time of the year! To our American cousins, I hope you also enjoy your long weekend celebrations, in the weeks to come.

Cheers!

 

[Weathergal]

Off to the cottage country to celebrate Thanksgiving here in Canada, with family and friends. To those celebrating this 'weekend' north of the border, enjoy this wonderful time of the year! To our American cousins, I hope you also enjoy your long weekend celebrations, in the weeks to come.

Cheers!

Happy Thanksgiving, Canadian skating fans!

 

[SnowWhite]

Soucisse/Firus got 154.60 at Finlandia, increasing their PB 17.17 points from Finlandia. Good for them.
And also congrats to Conrad Orzel for having a much better FS and snagging a bronze on the JGP.

Canada now has 5 JGP medals and 9 Challenger medals.

 

[xox]

The Firus boys are ripping it up this season!

 

[Mango]

It seems like I have accidentally deleted a post when I tried to edit a typo on mobile. Oops. It had the link to Alaine's interview and Meagan & Eric's throw quad practice in Verona.

Speaking of Verona, here is a video of Meagan & Eric at Intimissi on Ice, skating to Chandelier: https://youtu.be/gD_gSrhBmA0
And another performance: https://youtu.be/am9Q_-f7vw4

Conrad was able to get a medal in Poland. Hopefully with the confidence boost he has a good time competing as a senior for the next little while.

Medals so far:

4 gold, 4 silver, 6 bronze

14 total

A schedule for Skate Canada Challenge has appeared: https://skatecanada.ca/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/2018-Challenge-Block-Schedule.pdf

Skate Canada has set up a tab for the Sectional championships this year: https://skatecanada.ca/2017-2018-event-schedule/#tab-53bd95e98f27e1e89f5
They are starting next month.

Joseph Phan doing a 4T-3T which he has cheekily assigned +5 GOE : https://www.instagram.com/p/BaCmEYqDjS0/

Tessa & Scott practicing on Thanksgiving Day: https://www.instagram.com/p/BaCCxWvnZN3/

Happy Thanksgiving you guys.

 

[4everchan]

It seems like I have accidentally deleted a post when I tried to edit a typo on mobile. Oops. It had the link to Alaine's interview and Meagan & Eric's throw quad practice in Verona.

Speaking of Verona, here is a video of Meagan & Eric at Intimissi on Ice, skating to Chandelier: https://youtu.be/gD_gSrhBmA0
And another performance: https://youtu.be/am9Q_-f7vw4

Conrad was able to get a medal in Poland. Hopefully with the confidence boost he has a good time competing as a senior for the next little while.

Medals so far:

4 gold, 4 silver, 6 bronze

14 total

A schedule for Skate Canada Challenge has appeared: https://skatecanada.ca/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/2018-Challenge-Block-Schedule.pdf

Skate Canada has set up a tab for the Sectional championships this year: https://skatecanada.ca/2017-2018-event-schedule/#tab-53bd95e98f27e1e89f5
They are starting next month.

Joseph Phan doing a 4T-3T which he has cheekily assigned +5 GOE : https://www.instagram.com/p/BaCmEYqDjS0/

Tessa & Scott practicing on Thanksgiving Day: https://www.instagram.com/p/BaCCxWvnZN3/

Happy Thanksgiving you guys.

you did delete that post... and i had to delete my response

Meagan looks like she is doing a double... that quad looks so easy!!!

And Jo!! YAY!!! laughing so much at conrad saying " EZ" on this i hope my son and his brother from another mother keep adding up the quads!!! WOOT!

 

[Mango]

I'm not going to attempt to edit posts on mobile because I still don't know what happened. I don't have the app so maybe that's it.

I would love to see Eric Liu score well and throw a wrench into the JWC men's race. Also hoping Alison does well because Aurora needs more time to work on things and Alison has the best SP score so far.

 

[NoNameFace]

Off to the cottage country to celebrate Thanksgiving here in Canada, with family and friends. To those celebrating this 'weekend' north of the border, enjoy this wonderful time of the year! To our American cousins, I hope you also enjoy your long weekend celebrations, in the weeks to come.

Cheers!

Happy Thanksgiving for you and all posters celebrating! Be safe and sound wherever you are

 

[anyanka]

Have we discussed the possible makeup of the team event roster? Here's what I think it may look like:

Pairs SP: D/R
Pairs FS: I/M (or another pair, possibly MT/M or S/B?)
Men: Chan (both)
Short Dance: V/M
Free Dance: W/P
Ladies: Osmond (both)

Just speculation mind you. They may allow both D/R and V/M a chance to rest as they are title hopefuls (one is more of a fave than the other). Chan isn't in the hunt for the men's OGM so he may just do both programs. He'll have about four days' time to rest for the men's event. I am thinking of Osmond for ladies because although she's a medal hopeful, she would have about 9-10 days to rest before her event starts. That depends on if Gabby is consistent and delivers all season. Orser would have sway in affecting that decision to place her on the team, I would imagine. I would think D/R would do SP for pairs to guarantee the higher placement and they'll have I/M who aren't as strong in the SP to carry the load for the FS (as Dylan did with KMT in 2014).

Thoughts? I could easily see it where Gabby and Kaetlyn split the ladies' assignment, and V/M perform both dances. That means that W/P will have to hope for the dance event itself for a medal though, unless Nikolai Morozov works his magic like he did in 2014 to get I/K onto the team event.

 

[Roast Toast]

I hope they'll split the dance because I want WeaPo to get a medal but Tessa and Scott are basically a lock for the FS which none of the other disciplines can guarantee so I don't know. Imo it'll depend on how WeaPo fares against B/S during the season. Personally I think the safest route as it looks right now is to have V/M do both and to split ladies. I think Kaetlyn can pull off a clean FS by the Olympics but asking for two in a row might be a bit much. There was a bit of discussion about this elsewhere but again I don't think V/M would be hurting their chances at all in the individual event even if they go full in on both.

(trying to actually get into the team event this time around I was gonna be bitter about it again but I guess it's healthier to get invested in these medals so I don't get too pressed if they cause the individual events to go wonky)

 

[4everchan]

the most important though is the SP.... in the FS, the worst a team can get is 5th.... but in the SP, a low placement can be fatal..

So IMHO,

Kaetlyn would do SP (or both) Gabby LP
VM SD (or both) + weapo FD (French may no longer be there by FP anyways)
D/R SP, probably both... but pairs is first so it would make sense to have another team do the LP
Patrick should do both IMHO... i know it's a lot of skating but he needs to make sure Canada places above Russia on both segments.

 

[NanaPat]

I would really like the Olympic team competition rules to be changed to allow (but not require) substitutions in all disciplines.

Does anyone know what the rationale is for allowing them in up to 2 disciplines?

 

[Mango]

NanaPat I think the rule is a maximum of 10 athletes per country for the team event. That's why it doesn't matter the way you split them up, just that the max is 10.

I think S/B can be quite consistently good in the FS. I've seen some great FS from them, including the most recent at ACI. I am a bit worried about I/M's jump issues.

Brian can have no sway if Gabby isn't consistent throughout the season. Same story with Morozov and W/P. The skaters themselves have to prove they should be chosen. At this early stage I think V/M are going to get called to do both programs (it will also help them prep for the individual event) and if Gabby gets through her issues she would be called to do the FS.

 

[Roast Toast]

I really don't think there is any chance of the French team making it past the short. Not only is the ladies situation less than ideal but the men seem to have evaporated as well with Chafik nowhere to be seen. Frankly if I were the French fed I wouldn't even want to risk J/C in the SP. In any case, there is no equation where P/C make it past the SD.

I agree that the FP, in terms of points, won't make a difference between having a medal or not. But it can certainly change the color of that medal and considering Canada and Russia will probably be neck and neck it is not negligible. Kaetlyn or Gabby vs Zhenia is not at all the same deal as V/M or W/P vs B/S. Repeating Patrick and V/M makes the most sense imo.

4 substitutions would be pretty cool but what about the countries that didn't qualify at least 2 spots in all disciplines? You could say that such a system rewards feds with deeper fields but imo the current system already does that in spades.

 

[ice coverage]

NanaPat I think the rule is a maximum of 10 athletes per country for the team event. That's why it doesn't matter the way you split them up, just that the max is 10. ...

No. The rule is substitution in a maximum of two disciplines.

A maximum of ten athletes per country is not the rule.
One of the scenarios with ten athletes that would *not* be allowed:

Two pairs (four athletes)
Two men
One dance couple (two athletes)
Two ladies​

---

I would really like the Olympic team competition rules to be changed to allow (but not require) substitutions in all disciplines.

Does anyone know what the rationale is for allowing them in up to 2 disciplines?

Only my speculation, but I think maybe the idea is to not give too much of an advantage to countries that have qualified more than one entry in three or four disciplines?

[ETA: I see that Roast Toast and I are thinking along the same lines.]

 

[Mango]

Well there you go. It's been explained.

ETA: One day after they were doing some good off ice stuff Tessa & Scott were working on their FD with Samuel Choiunard: https://www.instagram.com/p/BaFZgMrlDbY/

ETA2: The Breaking the Ice event is going to have "Special Olympic Medallist guest Petra Burka, Debbi Wilkes, Don Jackson, Elvis Stojko, Brian Orser, Tracy Wilson, and Jeffrey Buttle". Sounds like it's going to be a pretty big event.

 

[Mango]

This one deserves its own post. If you've been reading about how Tessa & Scott's SD incorporates a lot of ball room dancing and you'd like a bit more info then you should check this out: http://stepsequences.blogspot.ca/2017/10/the-subject-for-tonights-lecture-is.html

 

[NoNameFace]

This one deserves its own post. If you've been reading about how Tessa & Scott's SD incorporates a lot of ball room dancing and you'd like a bit more info then you should check this out: http://stepsequences.blogspot.ca/2017/10/the-subject-for-tonights-lecture-is.html

many, many thanks for this Mango

as a person who dealt with ballroom dancing myself in the past, Latin styles especially, I can only applaud how detailed, knowledgeable and referential the analysis is - as I said already in many threads since Tessa and Scott revealed their music choices for SD, some people will concentrate on those choices alone, how the packaging of the dance look like and despise it for its boldness and being loud in a very unapologetic way. Pity that there is no effort shown, consideration over WHY they chose it, WHY they decided to make it that way, WHAT is the content behind it...

when we get past the façade and try to look at the dance, movement itself, there is really a lot to appreciate in terms of blending Latin ballroom body actions, figures into ice dance movement and flow they achieve - I really like how it is all integrated, referenced into the performance AND how it plays so well on their natural way of movement. For me, Tessa is really a class on her own: the amount of body control she has with flow, continuity maintained is incredible to see, especially in Latin style dances; the stop and body action following it during non-touching step sequence is a pure stunner and a particularly bright example of what I said.

I am also glad that there are various references introduced from different styles of Latin ballroom dances to match rhythms used: there's something from samba, something from rhumba and some Cuban ingredient, it creates something multi-dimensional for me in terms of not only playing on the sole rhythms, fulfilling the requirements of them, but also trying to incorporate certain styles of movement, body actions.

Really looking forward to see it develop