Skate Canada Announces 2018-2019 National Team

[gsk8]

OTTAWA, ON: Skate Canada is pleased to announce the 2018-2019 National Team. The team is comprised of 23 senior members, which includes five men, four women, three pair teams and four ice dance teams.

To be named to the National Team a skater must finish in the top five in senior men, women, pair and ice dance disciplines at the 2018 Canadian Tire National Skating Championships and/or be assigned a 2018 ISU Grand Prix event and must be competing in the 2018-19 season. Athletes can be added at the discretion of Skate Canada based on new partnerships of current and former national team members.

Their appointment to the national team is effective from September 1, 2018 through to June 30, 2019.

Skate Canada also announced the three teams that will make up the Skate Canada Synchronized Skating National Team. The Synchronized National Team comprises those teams finishing in the top three in senior discipline at the 2018 Skate Canada Synchronized Skating Championships.

MEN
Keegan Messing, 26, Sherwood Park, Alta./Brantford, Ont.
Nam Nguyen, 20, Ajax, Ont.
Kevin Reynolds, 27, Coquitlam, B.C.
Roman Sadovsky, 19, Vaughan, Ont.
Nicolas Nadeau, 20, Boisbriand, Que.

WOMEN
Gabrielle Daleman, 20, Newmarket, Ont.
Larkyn Austman, 20, Coquitlam, B.C.
Alaine Chartrand, 22, Prescott, Ont.
Aurora Cotop, 16, Thornhill, Ont.

PAIR
Kirsten Moore-Towers, 25, St. Catharines, Ont. & Michael Marinaro, 26, Sarnia, Ont.
Camille Ruest, 24, Rimouski, Que., & Andrew Wolfe, 23, Calgary, Alta.
Evelyn Walsh, 17, London, Ont., and Trennt Michaud, 22, Trenton, Ont.

ICE DANCE
Piper Gilles, 26, Toronto, Ont. & Paul Poirier, 26, Unionville, Ont.
Kaitlyn Weaver, 29, Toronto, Ont. & Andrew Poje, 31, Waterloo, Ont.
Carolane Soucisse, 23, Châteauguay, Que., & Shane Firus, 24, North Vancouver, B.C.
Haley Sales, 21, Kelowna, B.C., and Nikolas Wamsteeker, 21, Langley, B.C.

SYNCHRONIZED SKATING
NEXXICE, of the Burlington Skating Centre
Les Suprêmes, of CPA Saint-Léonard
Nova, of CPA Brossard & CPA St-Hubert

 

[pearly]

A season of rebuilding, especially for Ladies and Pairs.

Very curious to see how Laurence and Nikolaj will do by the time they can compete internationally.

 

[SmallAminal]

Out of curiosity, why are there not the same number of e.g. women and men or pairs? How do they determine the number of skaters that will be on the National Team in any given discipline?

 

[SnowWhite]

Out of curiosity, why are there not the same number of e.g. women and men or pairs? How do they determine the number of skaters that will be on the National Team in any given discipline?

It's normally top 5 at Nationals, but because of all the retirements this year it's a bit different. Pairs is very small because of all the retirements. These are the only three pairs who didn't split of retire from Nationals (Seniors). For dance, Sales/Wamsteeker were 6th but got on the team because Virtue/Moir (not competing this year) and Arnold/Williams (not sure why, maybe split) are not on the team. For the ladies, they just went with the top 5 except Kaetlyn's not on the team because she isn't competing. For men, they had several retirements, so they went further down the Nationals list for Roman and Nic. They could have gone further down the National lists for ladies and dance too, but Nic and Roman are doing the GP, so it makes sense to do it for men. All the GP skaters are on the team I believe.

Last year, all the disciplines had 5, except for pairs which had 6 because they added Seguin/Bilodeau despite them missing Nationals.

 

[blue_idealist]

I hope Arnold/Williams didn't split, they were just beginning to get even better last year.

 

[bennorii]

It's normally top 5 at Nationals, but because of all the retirements this year it's a bit different. Pairs is very small because of all the retirements. These are the only three pairs who didn't split of retire from Nationals (Seniors). For dance, Sales/Wamsteeker were 6th but got on the team because Virtue/Moir (not competing this year) and Arnold/Williams (not sure why, maybe split) are not on the team. For the ladies, they just went with the top 5 except Kaetlyn's not on the team because she isn't competing. For men, they had several retirements, so they went further down the Nationals list for Roman and Nic. They could have gone further down the National lists for ladies and dance too, but Nic and Roman are doing the GP, so it makes sense to do it for men. All the GP skaters are on the team I believe.

Last year, all the disciplines had 5, except for pairs which had 6 because they added Seguin/Bilodeau despite them missing Nationals.

I don't think they dug down. Roman and Nic have GP assignments, so Skate Canada was literally following their criteria.

 

[Colonel Green]

I sometimes forget how young Nam still is.

 

[SnowWhite]

I don't think they dug down. Roman and Nic have GP assignments, so Skate Canada was literally following their criteria.

National team isn't based on GP assignments though. But I did point out that their GP assignments are likely why they got it whereas dance teams and ladies who finished similarly at Nationals did not.

https://skatecanada.ca/national-team/

To be named to the National Team a skater must finish in the top five in senior singles, pair and ice dance disciplines at the Canadian Tire National Skating Championships, or be added at the discretion of Skate Canada.

 

[bennorii]

National team isn't based on GP assignments though. But I did point out that their GP assignments are likely why they got it whereas dance teams and ladies who finished similarly at Nationals did not.

https://skatecanada.ca/national-team/

The OP said that:
To be named to the National Team a skater must finish in the top five in senior men, women, pair and ice dance disciplines at the 2018 Canadian Tire National Skating Championships and/or be assigned a 2018 ISU Grand Prix event and must be competing in the 2018-19 season. Athletes can be added at the discretion of Skate Canada based on new partnerships of current and former national team members.

So I'm not sure then...

 

[likevelvet]

Was happy to see Kevin on the team, but did I miss his un-retirement announcement? :noshake:

I sometimes forget how young Nam still is.

He's a baby!
So are Nic and Roman

 

[rain]

The pairs field is simply painful to look at. Skate Canada needs to do some very strategic building, stat. I know you can't force pairs to stay together, but I do think they could encourage more girls who, let's face it, are never going to make a splash in senior ladies, to at least try pairs. Ditto with the men who are never going to get a quad.

The dance field is almost as alarming (though here there are at least two top 10, if not top 6 teams and one very promising up-and-comer). The seniors ranks have been dwindling for a number of years and we're starting to see the culmination. Why hasn't something been done before now?

 

[Lester]

The dance field is almost as alarming (though here there are at least two top 10, if not top 6 teams and one very promising up-and-comer). The seniors ranks have been dwindling for a number of years and we're starting to see the culmination. Why hasn't something been done before now?

Well, realistically teams outside of V/M, W/P and G/P (and P/I for a while) have had an almost zero chance of making it to Worlds so far, especially after V/M's comeback.

 

[Colonel Green]

The dance field is almost as alarming (though here there are at least two top 10, if not top 6 teams and one very promising up-and-comer). The seniors ranks have been dwindling for a number of years and we're starting to see the culmination. Why hasn't something been done before now?

The dance field is fine. In addition to the teams listed here, Fournier Beaudry/Sorensen will be competing for Canada by the end of this season, and Lajoie/Lagha move up next year in all likelihood. That’ll be five strong teams at least, for the 2019-20 season.

 

[Jammers]

The dance field is fine. In addition to the teams listed here, Fournier Beaudry/Sorensen will be competing for Canada by the end of this season, and Lajoie/Lagha move up next year in all likelihood. That’ll be five strong teams at least, for the 2019-20 season.

To be honest i was expecting the dance field for Canada after all the retirements expected after the Olympics to look like how the Pairs field looks right now. With V/M and W/P retired Canada was looking at having G/P and no one else good enough to be even top 15 at Worlds. They got a bit lucky with W/P sticking around and the Danish team deciding to skate for Canada.

 

[4everchan]

^^ Soucisse-Firus who are still very young and improving, finished 14th last year at worlds... very close to 13... so still, Canada, in the worst scenario, meaning no Weapo, no Danes, would have had a top 5 contending team in GP and a top 12 contending team in SF.... now SF may not even make it to worlds...

 

[freeman21]

Just found out that Kaetlyn Osmond is out for the season. This sucks... I really wanted to see some more competition for the Russian ladies.