Blink and You'll Miss 'Em: 4 CC Pairs/Dance Predictions

There are some things I don’t really get about the Four Continents Championships. Four things, to be exact (she says in an effort to be clever).

Let’s see if I can come up with two before I break out my Magic 8-Ball and make predictions:

1) Shouldn’t they just call it Two Continents (and Two Others Can Come if They Want)?
It’s not that the premise is cloudy; it was established 10 years ago “to provide skaters representing non-European countries with a similar competition to the much older European Championships and a chance to win prize money” (according to Wikipedia). But to date, not one medalist has come from Africa or Australia in any discipline. I suppose it differs from Worlds in that everyone gets to complete the competition—there’s no 24th place cutoff here—but I guess I don’t see why Asia and the Northern half of “the Americas” need another place to flex their muscles. And win most of that coveted “prize money”.

2) Timing, timing… timing?
Apparently the ISU wants to place the event close to Euros… but in doing so, it ends up breathtakingly close to U.S and Canadian Nationals. (And don’t get me started on the monkey wrench it becomes in Olympic years.) In the past, it’s served as “counterprogramming” on ESPN for testosterone-fueled events such as the Super Bowl. But of course, without the ABC/ESPN deal in place it doesn’t show up on TV at all, at least not in the U.S. It’s not that I can think of a better place to have it—I just have to wonder, why have it at all?

All that being said, here are some quick predictions:

For PAIRS:

Gold—Pang/Tong (CHN)
Silver—Zhang/Zhang (CHN)
Bronze—Duhamel/Buntin (CAN)

The way the top two pairs in China have been competing of late, I almost tossed a coin and called it a day. But I’m convinced Pang & Tong are on a roll with that performance at the Grand Prix Final in December. That, paired with the fact that they won 4CC’s last year (again beating their teammates), and I find myself putting them on top. As for Duhamel/Buntin… I’m still in awe of that gutsy free skate they gave, sliced hand and all, at TEB a couple months ago. I know Dube/Davison is probably favored ahead of them, but I’d like to see Duhamel/Buntin pull an upset.

For DANCE:

Gold—Virtue/Moir (CAN)
Silver—Davis/White (USA)
Bronze—Crone/Poirer (CAN)

I admittedly am not being very imaginative here; V/M won it last year and D/W were the runners-up, too. But they’re both still skating great, and I still think they’ll finish in this order. Yes, I know V/M just got back to competition, but did you see their FD at Canadian Nationals? Quite amazing… it very nearly makes me overlook the now-tiresome-instead-of-innovative Pink Floyd music choice ;-)

But Crone/Poirer have been gaining momentum this year in V/M’s absence, and that’s why I see them supplanting Navarro/Bommentre for the bronze this year.

I’ll be back with Singles predictions sometime before they start mid-week. In the meantime, the Clip of the Day is the free dance I mentioned above.