Early predictions on participants

[StitchMonkey]

I will be surprised if Adam goes to worlds. I think he has better opportunities right now and frankly would be wise to take them. The hype may not last long, so he should make money, have fun, and promote figure skating to the masses while he can. No idea if he will retire. I think he and USFSA might want him at Skate America this year. I think he could continue if he wants to but that is up to him. I think his continuing will largely depend on what possible long term offers he manages to land. His hype may last six months or a career. Nobody knows...

 

[Olympic]

I will be surprised if Adam goes to worlds. I think he has better opportunities right now and frankly would be wise to take them. The hype may not last long, so he should make money, have fun, and promote figure skating to the masses while he can. No idea if he will retire. I think he and USFSA might want him at Skate America this year. I think he could continue if he wants to but that is up to him. I think his continuing will largely depend on what possible long term offers he manages to land. His hype may last six months or a career. Nobody knows...

Who would replace him at Worlds? Jason is looking for a new coach, Ross Miner said 'no' to 4CCs and is presumably done competing. Max Aaron?

 

[StitchMonkey]

Who would replace him at Worlds? Jason is looking for a new coach, Ross Miner said 'no' to 4CCs and is presumably done competing. Max Aaron?

Jason appears to be training/trying out with various coaches, so there is no reason to think he is not in shape to take the spot.

Ross is a question and Max was listed as 3rd alternate. It sounds like a final list is due tomorrow, so we may know more then.

I suspect Jason will take Adam's spot, the bigger question is if Nathan will go and if not would it be Max or Ross? I am leaning to thinking that Nathan will go, but if he needs the rest I hope he takes it.

 

[Spirals for Miles]

Well if Hanyu and Fernandez both skip, Nathan could easily medal. Maybe even win. So he'll probably go.

 

[MaiKatze]

I thought I read somewhere that Hanyu IS competing at Worlds, but Fernandez is not. I'm sure Uno will compete and will be looking for redemption -- I don't think Uno was happy with his silver, and he looked like he thought he deserved the Gold. I can't imagine that Hanyu will be able to pull out a performance at the level of his Olympic performance; that seemed to be more a product of sheer willpower and mental fortitude in spite of his lack of training time. I think Hanyu may be vulnerable here and would be better off celebrating his Olympic Gold than tiring himself out by competing at Worlds. It would be a major letdown if he bombs in Italy. I predict that Uno will win Worlds, with a sloppy Hanyu the silver and Jin the bronze.

Shoma didn't think 'he deserved Gold', having watched all the performances before him and skating last, he knew exactly what he had to do to get the Gold and he had that calculation in mind. He fell on his first jump, and from that moment on, he knew the Gold was gone and he had to skate the rest clean for a medal. He is going to Worlds, and he is definitely looking for redemption, but not because of the 'lost' Gold but because he wants to skate this program better than he did at the Olympics.

 

[ice_tulip]

Jason appears to be training/trying out with various coaches, so there is no reason to think he is not in shape to take the spot.

Ross is a question and Max was listed as 3rd alternate. It sounds like a final list is due tomorrow, so we may know more then.

I suspect Jason will take Adam's spot, the bigger question is if Nathan will go and if not would it be Max or Ross? I am leaning to thinking that Nathan will go, but if he needs the rest I hope he takes it.

Wow, it should be very interesting to see which American men end up at Worlds, especially if TWO alternates go! I can't imagine Max Aaron had that much motivation to train since he was only 3rd alternate and he may have been thinking about retirement. Even if Jason Brown is coach-shopping (has that been officially confirmed?), I assume that hasn't stopped him from training and he would be well-prepared for Worlds. I would be shocked if Ross went. So if both Max and Ross are done competing, that only leaves Brown. It would be pretty embarrassing if the US couldn't find enough men to fill their three spots. Could they ask someone who wasn't named an alternate if necessary?

 

[ice_tulip]

Shoma didn't think 'he deserved Gold', having watched all the performances before him and skating last, he knew exactly what he had to do to get the Gold and he had that calculation in mind. He fell on his first jump, and from that moment on, he knew the Gold was gone and he had to skate the rest clean for a medal. He is going to Worlds, and he is definitely looking for redemption, but not because of the 'lost' Gold but because he wants to skate this program better than he did at the Olympics.

In my opinion, Shoma looked like he thought he deserved Gold. I didn't state it as a fact; it was my opinion, could be wrong! Could you send the link to the interview where he said he knew the Gold was gone after falling on the first jump? Seems you know a lot more about what he thinks and wants. Thanks!

 

[ice coverage]

... I can't imagine Max Aaron had that much motivation to train since he was only 3rd alternate and he may have been thinking about retirement. ...

Which is only speculation, of course.

 

[MaiKatze]

In my opinion, Shoma looked like he thought he deserved Gold. I didn't state it as a fact; it was my opinion, could be wrong! Could you send the link to the interview where he said he knew the Gold was gone after falling on the first jump? Seems you know a lot more about what he thinks and wants. Thanks!

How does one look, if they think they deserved Gold? Shoma stated this in several interviews after the free on Japanese TV, that he knew what he had to do and failed, and then just skated his best. Why should he think he deserved the Gold, after he fell on his opening jump? Yuzuru was 7 points ahead, he needed to skate clean and was aware of the fact.

Here is one of those interviews.

 

[ice_tulip]

Which is only speculation, of course.

I hope he doesn't retire! It would be great to see him have a fantastic skate at Worlds and do at least one more season with powerful & exciting programs.

- - - Updated - - -

How does one look, if they think they deserved Gold? Shoma stated this in several interviews after the free on Japanese TV, that he knew what he had to do and failed, and then just skated his best. Why should he think he deserved the Gold, after he fell on his opening jump? Yuzuru was 7 points ahead, he needed to skate clean and was aware of the fact.

Here is one of those interviews.

Thanks for the link! Sorry to have offended with my observation.

 

[MaiKatze]

I hope he doesn't retire! It would be great to see him have a fantastic skate at Worlds and do at least one more season with powerful & exciting programs.

- - - Updated - - -



Thanks for the link! Sorry to have offended with my observation.

I'm not offended. I simply choose to believe what a skater said in interviews to be the truth, and well, logic.

 

[karne]

I can't imagine Max Aaron had that much motivation to train since he was only 3rd alternate and he may have been thinking about retirement.

Max has spoken before about taking his duties as an alternate very seriously. I am sure he will have been training - perhaps not as intensely as if he was first alternate, but he will have been. He and Z are also fairly smart guys, and the skating world's a small one. They must be hearing what we're hearing, and they must know what we know. They will also know for sure if Ross is training or not.

Trying to leave my personal biases aside, in an argument between Ross an Max for a Worlds spot there's no contest. Worlds decides spots for next year, you have to send your top skaters - and Max had that glorious performance at 4CC, which Ross elected to skip.

Still, I am not so convinced that Nathan will skip even if injured or sick or both - he strikes me as one of those skaters who would do it anyway even if it's not a good idea. A Vincent/Jason/Max team would be a surprise, but a delightfully lovely one.

 

[Andrea82]

Finland selection

Viveca Lindfors

Cecilia Törn-Jussiville Partanen

Valtter Virtanen

https://www.stll.fi/2018/02/26/taitoluistelun-mm-joukkue-on-nimetty-2/

 

[Tutto]

ice_tulip;2007760
Will Kolyada have the guts to show his face after such embarrassing Olympic performances? Might he redeem himself at Worlds? I doubt it. Those programs, especially the Elvis LP, just haven't worked for him all season. He needs to take some extra time off to figure out a program that suits him both stylistically and technically. I would hope he would stay home, to be honest. I used to love him but I can't stomach seeing that horrid Elvis LP one more time.

Are you trying to say that all skaters should end the season after one bad outing? 8th place at his first Olympics is sure calling for some desperate decisions but what then other skaters who finished lower than that should do in your opinion - e.g Moris K who ended in the last place - sure he should end his career and never show his face anywhere ever again...:sarcasm:
Also someone urgently needs to contact Kolyada's team to let them know that unless his new programs are approved by you Kolyada is not to compete next season either

Just a suggestion: you can always skip watching some performances if you 'can't stomach it'

 

[ice_tulip]

Are you trying to say that all skaters should end the season after one bad outing? 8th place at his first Olympics is sure calling for some desperate decisions but what then other skaters who finished lower than that should do in your opinion - e.g Moris K who ended in the last place - sure he should end his career and never show his face anywhere ever again...:sarcasm:
Also someone urgently needs to contact Kolyada's team to let them know that unless his new programs are approved by you Kolyada is not to compete next season either

Just a suggestion: you can always skip watching some performances if you 'can't stomach it'

As a fan of Kolyada, surely you agree that Kolyada needs help choosing more suitable music and making smarter technical decisions. His team pushed him too hard too soon -- he was adding too many quads all at once and it didn't serve him well. With the PCS marks he was getting, if he had just done 1 quad in the SP and 1 in the LP I suspect he would have skated better and received better marks. However, his mental game appears to be suffering as well, so perhaps lowering the difficulty wouldn't help much at this point. I don't know for sure.

It is a shame he had such a bad season, and unfortunately it wasn't limited to just "one bad outing." Nearly all his performances this season have been riddled with large errors, falls, pops, giving up on the performance... My point was that he needs to make some major changes if he wants to get the most out of his talent. He clearly has a lot of potential and can perform really well when given the right vehicle. Sadly, this season he was given horrible programs that were too difficult and did not suit his personality or his performance style. I'll still watch him if he performs that doomed Elvis LP at Worlds, and I'll still hope for him to skate cleanly, but I am not optimistic.

 

[narcissa]

I thought I read somewhere that Hanyu IS competing at Worlds, but Fernandez is not.

No, they are both not competing.

 

[silverfoxes]

Are you trying to say that all skaters should end the season after one bad outing? 8th place at his first Olympics is sure calling for some desperate decisions but what then other skaters who finished lower than that should do in your opinion - e.g Moris K who ended in the last place - sure he should end his career and never show his face anywhere ever again...:sarcasm:
Also someone urgently needs to contact Kolyada's team to let them know that unless his new programs are approved by you Kolyada is not to compete next season either

One bad outing? He had 4 bad outings just in Korea alone! He only had one good skate all season. And frankly, his team does need a massive intervention when it comes to programs. Sad Elvis is on par with T/M's FS when it comes to cringey American programs by Russian skaters.

Moris is not consistent either, but he has no competition in Georgia right now, and when he skates badly his marks reflect it. As they should.

 

[NicolettaL]

Kaliszek/Spodiriev also confirmed their participation in Milan

 

[NoNameFace]

Kaliszek/Spodiriev also confirmed their participation in Milan

I'll then soo waiving flag to 'Despacito'!!!

 

[Nirti]

The deadline to reach the TES was last weekend at the Challenge Cup. Valtter Virtanen and the new hungarian pair Kashitsyna/Magyar earned their last minute ticket to Milano.

Official list will normally be published in the next days. According to national announcements and TES list, we could see in Milano :

30 pairs

AUS (1) Ekaterina ALEXANDROVSKAIA / Harley WINDSOR
AUT (1) Miriam ZIEGLER / Severin KIEFER
AZE (1) Sofiya KARAGODINA / Semen STEPANOV
CAN (3) Liubov ILIUSHECHKINA / Dylan MOSCOVITCH, Kirsten MOORE-TOWERS / Michael MARINARO, Julianne SEGUIN / Charlie BILODEAU
CHN (3) Cheng PENG / Yang JIN, Wenjing SUI / Cong HAN, Xiaoyu YU / Hao ZHANG
CRO (1) Lana PETRANOVIC / Antonio SOUZA-KORDIERU
CZE (1) Anna DUSKOVA / Martin BIDAR
PRK (1) Tae Ok RYOM / Ju Sik KIM
FRA (2) Lola ESBRAT / Andrei NOVOSELOV, Vanessa JAMES / Morgan CIPRES
GER (2) Annika HOCKE / Ruben BLOMMAERT, Aliona SAVCHENKO / Bruno MASSOT
GBR (1) Zoe WILKINSON / Christopher BOYADJI
HUN (1) Elizaveta KASHITSYNA / Mark MAGYAR
ISR (1) Paige CONNERS / Evgeni KRASNOPOLSKI
ITA (2) Nicole DELLA MONICA / Matteo GUARISE, Valentina MARCHEI / Ondrej HOTAREK
JPN (1) Miu SUZAKI / Ryuichi KIHARA
KOR (1) Kyu-Eun KIM / Alex KAM
RUS (3) Kristina ASTAKHOVA / Aleksei ROGONOV, Evgenia TARASOVA / Vladimir MOROZOV, Natalja ZABIJAKO / Aleksandr ENBERT
ESP (1) Laura BARQUERO / Aritz MAESTU
SUI (1) Ioulia CHTCHETININA / Mikhail AKULOV
USA (2) Tarah KAYNE / Daniel O'SHEA, Alexa SCIMECA-KNIERIM / Chris KNIERIM

32 dance teams

ARM (1) Tina GARABEDIAN / Simon PROULX-SENECAL
AUS (1) Chantelle KERRY / Andrew DODDS
BLR (1) Viktoria KAVALIOVA / Jurii BIELIAIEV
BUL (1) Teodora MARKOVA / Simon DAZE
CAN (3) Piper GILLES / Paul POIRIER, Carolane SOUCISSE / Shane FIRUS, Kaitlyn WEAVER / Andrew POJE
CHN (1) Shiyue WANG / Xinyu LIU
CZE (1) Cortney MANSOUROVA / Michal CESKA
DEN (1) Laurence FOURNIER-BEAUDRY / Nikolaj SORENSEN
FIN (1) Cecilia TÖRN / Jussiville PARTANEN
FRA (2) Marie-Jade LAURIAULT / Romain LE GAC, Gabriella PAPADAKIS / Guillaume CIZERON
GER (1) Katharina MÜLLER / Tim DIECK
GBR (1) Penny COOMES / Nicholas BUCKLAND
HUN (1) Anna YANOVSKAIA / Adam LUKACS
ISR (1) Adel TANKOVA / Ronald ZILBERBERG
ITA (2) Anna CAPPELLINI / Luca LANOTTE, Charlene GUIGNARD / Marco FABBRI
JPN (1) Kana MURAMOTO / Chris REED
LTU (1) Allison REED / Saulius AMBRULEVICIUS
POL (1) Natalia KALISZEK / Maksim SPODYRIEV
KOR (1) Yura MIN / Alexander GAMELIN
RUS (2) Ekaterina BOBROVA / Dmitri SOLOVIEV, Aleksandra STEPANOVA / Ivan BUKIN
SVK (1) Lucie MYSLIVECKOVA / Lukas CSÖLLEY
ESP (1) Olivia SMART / Adria DIAZ
TUR (1) Alisa AGAFONOVA / Alper UCAR
UKR (1) Aleksandra NAZAROVA / Maksim NIKITIN
USA (3) Madison CHOCK / Evan BATES, Madison HUBBELL / Zachary DONOHUE, Maia SHIBUTANI / Alex SHIBUTANI

39 men

ARM (1) Slavik HAYRAPETYAN
AUS (1) Brendan KERRY
AZE (1) Larry LOUPOLOVER
BEL (1) Jorik HENDRICKX
CAN (2) Keegan MESSING, Nam NGUYEN
CHN (2) Boyang JIN, Han YAN
TPE (1) Chih-I TSAO
CRO (1) Nicholas VRDOLJAK
CZE (1) Michal BREZINA
FIN (1) Valtter VIRTANEN
FRA (1) Chafik BESSEGHIER
GEO (1) Moris KVITELASHVILI
GER (1) Paul FENTZ
GBR (1) Phillip HARRIS
ISR (2) Aleksei BYCHENKO, Daniel SAMOHIN
ITA (1) Matteo RIZZO
JPN (3) Yuzuru HANYU, Keiji TANAKA, Shoma UNO
KAZ (1) Denis TEN
LAT (1) Deniss VASILJEVS
MAS (1) Zhi Jie YEE
MEX (1) Donovan CARRILLO
POL (1) Igor REZNICHENKO
KOR (1) Jun-Hwan CHA
RUS (2) Dmitri ALIEV, Mikhail KOLIADA
ESP (1) Javier RAYA, 2nd spot not used
SWE (1) Alexander MAJOROV
SUI (1) Stéphane WALKER
TUR (1) Burak DEMIRBOGA
UKR (1) Yaroslav PANIOT
USA (3) Nathan CHEN, Adam RIPPON, Vincent ZHOU
UZB (1) Misha GE

Michael MARTINEZ (PHI) could be the n°40 but he probably left his retirement only for Olympics.

40 ladies

AUS (1) Kailani CRAINE
AUT (1) Natalie KLOTZ
BEL (1) Loena HENDRICKX
BRA (1) Isadora WILLIAMS
CAN (3) Larkyn AUSTMAN, Gabrielle DALEMAN, Kaetlyn OSMOND
CHN (1) Xiangning LI
TPE (1) Amy LIN
CZE (1) Eliska BREZINOVA
EST (1) Gerli LIINAMÄE
FIN (1) Viveca LINDFORS
FRA (1) Mae-Berenice MEITE
GER (1) Nicole SCHOTT
GBR (1) Natasha MacKAY
HUN (1) Ivett TOTH
ITA (2) Carolina KOSTNER, Giada RUSSO
JPN (2) Wakaba HIGUCHI, Satoko MIYAHARA
KAZ (2) Elizabet TURSYNBAEVA, 2nd spot not used
LAT (1) Angelina KUCHVALSKA (Nikitina didn't reach the TES)
LTU (1) Elzbieta KROPA
NOR (1) Anne-Line GJERSEM
PHI (1) Alisson PERTICHETO
KOR (2) Da-Bin CHOI, Ha-Nul KIM
RUS (3) Evgenia MEDVEDEVA, Maria SOTSKOVA, Alina ZAGITOVA
SRB (1) Antonina DUBININA
SGP (1) Shuran YU
SVK (1) Nicole RAJICOVA
SLO (1) Dasa GRM
SWE (1) Anita ÖSTLUND
SUI (1) Alexia PAGANINI
UKR (1) Anna KHNYCHENKOVA
USA (3) Karen CHEN, Mirai NAGASU, Bradie TENNELL

Anastasia GALUSTYAN (ARM) could be the n°41 but did shows in the last month, so she's probably retired