The pairs event at Four Continents felt a bit depleted this year. Only 2 Chinese pairs competed, and Canadian #2 team Seguin/Bilodeau withdrew due to injury and were replaced by Grenier/Deschamps. Then Duhamel/Radford had to withdraw when Meagan came down with a severe bout of stomach flu! So overall, it wasn't the deepest event. However, …
Month: February 2016
Europeans 2016: Pairs Review
Despite the withdrawal of Kavaguti/Smirnov and Stolbova/Klimov, Europeans was still one of the most exciting and well-skated pairs events of the season so far. The competition featured reigning Olympic gold medalists Volosozhar/Trankov in their first major ISU championship since Sochi, plus the major-championship debut of V/T's longtime rival Aliona Savchenko and her new partner Bruno …
U.S. Nationals 2016: Pairs Review
Recently, former U.S. pairs champion Kristi Yamaguchi called U.S. Nationals “the most terrifying event of the year” as a skater. Because U.S. Nationals is, in a way, a referendum/final judgment on an entire year—both for individual skaters and their disciplines. The last few U.S. Nationals (2014, 2015) saw U.S. pairs skaters generally on the upswing. …