Saturday, April 23, 2011

2011 Worlds Predictions (Pairs Edition)

Time to take a guess at the fate of some of the best pairs skaters in the world…

By my count, there are 22 teams competing in Moscow next month. Five teams are completely new to me, though I’d like to think I’m familiar enough with the roster to know which ones will make the top 10. As for my guess on the medalists…

Gold-- Savchenko/Szolkowy (GER)

Silver—Pang/Tong (CHN)

Bronze—Volosozhar/Trankov (RUS)

My reasoning on gold is pretty straightforward: Sav/Szol have won everything they’ve entered this season. I haven’t always thought they deserved the win, but obviously the judges have—and that’s what counts. Reigning world champs Pang/Tong have held up fairly well themselves, winning almost everything they’ve entered. But their performances throughout the season have been arguably flawed compared to previous years, and the one time they settled for 2nd was to Sav/Szol at the GP Final. I adore them, but I think they reached their competitive peak about a year ago.

In fact, I’m not all that sure about my silver prediction for them… at least two of the three Russian contingents are very strong, and could nudge Pang/Tong to bronze (though I’m staying with P/T because their artistry is so stunning). As for which Russian team will make it to the podium? I’m picking Volosozhar/Trankov on a bit of a gamble. I’ve only seen them compete once—at Russian Nationals a few months ago, where they won—but so impressive were they there, I wondered if they could actually bring the upset victory all the way to Worlds. I’m hedging my bets on that one now, though I still think they’ll medal over the great-but-still-a-little-fragile Kavaguti/Smirnov. As for the U.S. teams (Yankowskas/Coughlin and Evora/Ladwig), the latter of which came in 9th last year and former of which is making their Worlds debut… I think they are capable of that top 10 I mentioned earlier… though I don’t think I can predict more with any real clarity!

For all readers around the world celebrating Easter this weekend, have a blessed holiday! I don’t plan to post tomorrow, but will be back with dance predictions on Monday.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

"next month" → "next week" !
Well, it's already THIS WEEK already, though, lol !

Kelli Lawrence said...

Ha-- oops! I think my subconscious has permanently set Worlds into the future tense!

Sharon said...

One more oops, Kelli...Yankowkas/McLaughlin? lol Should be an interesting pair! I'm too chicken to make predictions with this Worlds, all I can say is I'm beyond excited it's finally here!

Kelli Lawrence said...

Aaugh! I thought I'd fixed that! For some reason McLaughlin was in my head when I wrote it originally. Thanks Sharon. It's fixed now.

Sharon said...

Have to say I adore V/T's long program and from what I've seen of them, they are an amazing pair already. I think they are much more "Russian" than K/S. If V/T skate well, it will bring the house down, I'm predicting. Read some comments from S/S, they don't sound exactly full of confidence. And P/T look a bit tired as well. Guess we'll see!