2017 ISU Grand Prix Round 6: Skate America Preview & Predictions

The ISU 2017-18 Grand Prix season boils down to Skate America, taking place in Lake Placid today (Friday) through Sunday. Here are my predictions:

MEN

GOLD: Nathan Chen (USA)

SILVER: Jin Boyang (CHN)

BRONZE: Adam Rippon (USA)

DARK HORSE: Sergei Voronov (RUS)

WILD CARD: Maxim Kovtun (RUS)

Depending on how many Americans tune in to NBC, Olympic Channel or IceNetwork for this year’s Skate America, this event could be a sort of “introduction” to The Kid in the Commercials. Even if Nathan doesn’t deliver every jump exactly as planned, I think he’ll prove as formidable as advertised at this event.

The only newbie to my collection of names here is Kovtun, who withdrew from events earlier in the season with a back injury, so…. Given his recent competitive history… better make that a DOUBLE wild card. (If such a thing exists.)

PAIRS

GOLD: Savchenko/Massot (GER)

SILVER: Duhamel/Radford (CAN)

BRONZE: Yu/Zhang (CHN)

DARK HORSE: Zabiiako/Enbert (RUS)

WILD CARD: Any U.S. pairs team at this event

News went out earlier today that Bruno Massot has finally passed all the requirements for German citizenship after several attempts, so I think it would be especially cool if that feeling of relief was demonstrated in his and Alina’s skating this weekend. But something I look to do with ALL the teams at SkAM… monitor how the side-by-side jumps are going, and how it relates to overall placement. Just a little experiment which should be particularly worthwhile given that 3 of the 8 teams in contention are Americans.

LADIES

GOLD: Polina Tsurskaya (RUS)

SILVER: Ashley Wagner (USA)

BRONZE: Gabrielle Daleman (CAN)

DARK HORSE: Satoko Miyahara/ Kaori Sakomoto (both JPN)

WILD CARD: Bradie Tinnell (USA)

I’m as much of a homer as anyone, so I’d really like to see Ashley win her final time at SkAM. But Tsurskaya has the jump passes and the track record to get the win, so rather than jinx Ash’s chances… ;)

Daleman’s something of a longshot, given how she handled her SP lead at Cup of China a few weeks ago, but I still think she’s got a better shot at bronze than the Japanese women at this event. Tinnell—whose best finish at U.S.Senior Nats is 6^th, in 2016—is  making her GP debut at SkAM and isn’t really “in the conversation” for PyeongChang at this point (as Ryan Bradley and others like to say ad nauseum on The Olympic Channel). But we all know stars have been born here under stranger circumstances, so…

DANCE

GOLD: Shibutanis (USA)

SILVER: Cappellini/Lanotte (ITA)

BRONZE: Gilles/Poirier (CAN)

DARK HORSE: Sinitsina/Katsalapov (RUS)

WILD CARD: Hawayek/Baker & Parsons/Parsons (both USA)

This seems pretty self-explanatory so I’ll just leave it there. I was going to try and explain who still had a shot at making the GPF, but I’m certain I’m not the best one for that gig. I CAN tell you that Virtue/Moir, Papdakis/Cizeron, and Chock/Bates have made the cut thus far…

FYI: NBC is scheduled to air the Men’s Free Skate LIVE on Saturday and the Ladies’ Free Skate LIVE on Sunday, both at 4PM ET. Terry Gannon, Tara Lipinski and Johnny Weir—who will be the “A” team covering figure skating in February—are on hand this weekend as well.