2024-25 ISU Grand Prix Assignments & projected alternates

[Karen-W]

Oh, I thought you were talking about Grand Prix qualifiers

If you're talking about the Grand Prix Final, then no, you're still wrong. I mean, sure, it's possible Matsuike and Yoshida and Glenn could all qualify, but have you even taken a look at the fields each of them are up against in their GPs?

Matsuike & Yoshida are both also assigned to SCI along with Kimmy & Kaori - good luck with that. At GPdF Amber is up against Loena, Pinzarrone, Rion (who has backed her way into a GP gold each of the past two seasons because the rest of a solid field imploded), and Chaeyeon. Then Amber gets to face Chaeyeon and Rion again at CoC along with Kimmy and Mone Chiba.

Honestly, looking at the women's fields - someone like Yuna Aoki or Bradie Tennell may have the best random chance of making the GPF because the NHK field is a bit thin with the exception of Kaori & Mone, but that would require them probably pushing through with a surprise medal at SkAm - which has Pinzarrone, Watanabe, Isabeau and Elyce also there.

Across the board, the GP fields are mostly pretty deep - and the depth level won't drop off quite so much with the new Alternate selection process, and that's a great thing.

 

[AngieNikodinovLove (ANL)]

If you're talking about the Grand Prix Final, then no, you're still wrong. I mean, sure, it's possible Matsuike and Yoshida and Glenn could all qualify, but have you even taken a look at the fields each of them are up against in their GPs?

Matsuike & Yoshida are both also assigned to SCI along with Kimmy & Kaori - good luck with that. And Amber is up against Loena, Pinzarrone, Rion (who has backed her way into a GP gold each of the past two seasons because the rest of a solid field imploded), and Chaeyeon. Then Amber gets to face Chaeyeon and Rion again at CoC along with Kimmy and Mone Chiba.

Honestly, looking at the women's fields - someone like Yuna Aoki or Bradie Tennell may have the best random chance of making the GPF because the NHK field is a bit thin with the exception of Kaori & Mone, but that would require them probably pushing through with a surprise medal at SkAm - which has Pinzarrone, Watanabe, Isabeau and Elyce also there.

Across the board, the GP fields are mostly pretty deep - and the depth level won't drop off quite so much with the new Alternate selection process, and that's a great thing.

I’m excited for the season, I want to see if things are a bit unpredictable

 

[Karen-W]

Well, the Lombardia Trophy results have 2 new Pairs teams and, theoretically, 1 new Dance team added to the GP Alternates List. No changes to the Men or Women's lists, apart from Sarah Everhardt increasing her SB score and maintaining her 1st position.

We'll have to confirm for certain whenever the GP Alternates List is updated on the ISU's GP general page, but I believe that Morozov/Chen should be added thanks to their silver medal.

Projected Ice Dance Alternates -
Flores/Desyatov - SkAm
Janse van Rensburg/Steffan - NHK
Dupayage/Nabais - GPdF
Morozov/Chen
Harris/Chan - SCI
Fabbri/Ayer - SCI
Soucisse/Firus
Tkachenko/Kiliakov - SkAm
Bekker/Hernandez
Val/Kazimov
Manni/Roethlisberger
Bashynska/Beaumont
Pinchuk/Pogorielov - Finlandia
Yoshida/Morita - NHK
Lagouge/Caffa (probably getting the GPdF host TBD spot)
Nosovitskaya/Nosovitskiy
Mazingue/Gaidajenko
Reitan/Majorov
Tanaka/Nishiyama - NHK
Simova/Aksenov
Hensen/Lickers
Ramanauskaite/Kizala
Terreaux/Perron
Larson/Kapran
Dozzi/Papetti
Matthaei/Liebers
Ignateva/Szemko
Ichilov/Kravchenko

Of note - Tanaka/Nishiyama have been dealing with an injury for her - she's posted about it on her IG last month. Hopefully they'll be ready by NHK but that may be a spot that opens up for one of the non-American teams on the Alternates List.

Projected Pairs Alternates -
Efimova/Mitrofanov - SkAm (should get the GPdF spot vacated by Peng/Wang)
Geynish/Chigirev
McBeath/Parkman - SkAm
Holichenko/Darenskiy - doing JGP Poland which should remove them from this list in a couple weeks
Vaipan-Law/Digby - SkAm
Chtchetinina/Wozniak
Nagaoka/Moriguchi - NHK
Gamez/Korovin
Martins/Bedard
Piegad/Strekalin - GPdF
Schaller/Mayr
Digerness/Sadusky
Williams/Lewer - Finlandia
Kucianova/Bidar
Ryom/Han (new this week)
Crafoord/Crafoord
Smart/Mattick
Wang/Zhu - CoC
Caldara/Maglio
Roscher/Schuster
Faula/Belle (new this week)
Fitzpatrick/Bearinger
Mokhova/Mokhov

I have a feeling we may see quite a few pairs teams on the alternates list wind up with GP assignments - there are a LOT of teams who haven't made their season debuts and aren't on the Nebelhorn entry list. Chan/Howe did WD from Lombardia this week but they're listed for Shanghai Trophy so hopefully they'll be there and all will be fine for their GP season.

MetBeru, GoluGM, BecGuar, DanTsi, Les Kovs, PieStrek, and PlaFern are all conspicuously absent from the early Challengers. We know that PlaFern are dealing with a concussion issue for Max, and both Les Kovs & BecGuar are coming back from injury. DanTsi were on the Nebelhorn entry list but WD last week. The other four haven't been seen or heard from - and their IGs are relatively quiet. Hopefully they're just all knuckling down with practicing, but... Be warned, we could wind up going pretty far down the Pairs Alternates list by the time it's all said and done on the GP.

 

[Karen-W]

The USFS has confirmed their SkAm host TBD assignments -

U.S. Figure Skating on Instagram: "Team USA is locked in 🔒 for Skate America! Six up-and-coming athletes were added to the Skate America lineup!"

340 likes, 10 comments - usfigureskating on September 16, 2024: "Team USA is locked in 🔒 for Skate America! Six up-and-coming athletes were added to the Skate America lineup!".

www.instagram.com

 

[Karen-W]

So, who else is ready for the Metelkina & Parkman showdown at SkAm now that McBeath/Parkman have been officially assigned and it's one of Metelkina/Berulava's GPs?

 

[Karen-W]

More updates today -

Pairs - Efimova/Mitrofanov have been added to GPdF as expected; Piegad/Strekalin have been crossed off AND Skate Canada has crossed out it's "Host TBD" which means they're tossing that spot back into the pool - https://isu.org/docman-documents-li...-25/grand-prix-5/entries-9/33866-pairs-5/file

Per the GP Alternates List, the expectation would be that Geynish/Chigirev will be assigned to SCI. I don't think there are any other senior age-eligible teams in France right now, so that GPdF spot should also wind up in the selection pool and then go to Geynish/Chigirev, but it may take a little while for that to happen if there is some unknown new French pairs team we don't know about yet. I'll be curious as to whether or not Piegad/Strekalin are removed from the GP Alternates list - they only had 1 assignment, so theoretically they should still be eligible for a 2nd but they don't seem to be in good health and may not be in a position to accept a 2nd assignment anywhere.

Women - Mazzara got the GPdF host TBD spot (I'm giving a huge side-eye to that based on how she skated at Lombardia this past weekend, but whatever FFSG) - https://isu.org/docman-documents-li...-25/grand-prix-5/entries-9/33867-women-4/file

Ice Dance - Lagouge/Caffa got the GPdF host TBD spot as expected based upon their strong 4th place result at Lombardia this past weekend - https://isu.org/docman-documents-li...grand-prix-5/entries-9/33868-ice-dance-4/file

 

[BlueRidge]

Ice Dance - Lagouge/Caffa got the GPdF host TBD spot as expected based upon their strong 4th place result at Lombardia this past weekend - https://isu.org/docman-documents-li...grand-prix-5/entries-9/33868-ice-dance-4/file

 

[coralline]

Ice Dance - Lagouge/Caffa got the GPdF host TBD spot as expected based upon their strong 4th place result at Lombardia this past weekend - https://isu.org/docman-documents-li...grand-prix-5/entries-9/33868-ice-dance-4/file

Great news！Happy for Natacha & Arnaud.