OK! Time to talk competitors… or at least, competitors that
have a better shot at the Skate America podium this weekend. As usual I’m going
by event order:
PAIRS (Starts at 10:30 PM
Eastern Time Friday)
Gold- Tarasova/Morozov (RUS)
Silver- Efimova/Korovin (RUS)
Bronze- Scimeca-Knierim/Knierim (USA
True confession: I looked at the list of 8 pairs at this
event and was surprised to see I only recognized 4 of the teams. No lie. And
only one of those teams made the top 10 at the Olympics (Tarasova/Morozov); two
of the other three teams are American, so…um, no top 10 of any kind there. My
prediction for silver could be seen as a nod to SWR (Skating While
Russian) since I’m not super-familiar with Efimova/Korovin, but they just won Nebelhorn
Trophy a couple weeks ago and that’s a much more legit reason. As it happens,
the team right behind them at Nebelhorn was our own S-K/K. So, yeah… let’s see
if they can nab a medal here. If so, it’ll be their first GP medal in three
years (and third overall).
Eyes on: Digerness/Neudecker—the #3 U.S team this
weekend (Cain/LeDuc are #2)… they were the Junior National Champions last year.
This is their senior GP debut.
MEN (Starts at midnight
Eastern Time Saturday)
Gold- Nathan Chen (USA
Silver- Sergei Voronov (RUS)
Bronze- Vincent Zhou (USA
On the other hand, the men’s event caused the phrase you’re
still here?? to leap to mind more than once… that’s because 28 year-old
Kevin Reynolds, 28 year-old Michal Brezina, 30 year-old Alexei Bychenko AND 31
year-old Sergei Voronov comprise one-third of the SkAM field this year. And if
that isn’t interesting enough… I think the oldest of the ones I just named
stands the best chance of medaling. (It helps that he took 2nd at Nepela
Trophy last month.)
The other side of the men’s SkAM spectrum contains
young-uns, among them new Yale undergrad (and reigning World Champ) Chen and
still-only-17 Zhou. From what I’ve seen and/or read, neither of them are close
to their “A” game right now—Chen’s been ill and is still adjusting to his whole
new Ivy League world, and Zhou dealt with back injuries over the summer—but even
so, I think they’ll outskate the rest of the pack.
Eyes on: Nam Nguyen—the 20 year-old Canadian has had
a whole lot more downs than ups in recent years, but he pulled together a win
for September’s U.S. Classic… could be the start of something bigger. Let’s see
what he does here.
LADIES AND DANCE PREDICTIONS TOMORROW…
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