2019 U.S. Figure Skating Predictions (Dance and Men's)

DANCE PREDICTIONS

GOLD: Madison Hubbell/Zach Donohue

SILVER: Madison Chock/Evan Bates

BRONZE: Kaitlyn Hawayek/Jean Luc-Baker

PEWTER: Rachel Parsons/Michael Parsons

In a season that has been without the Shibutanis and Chock/Bates (and continues to be without the former), it’s been a bit of a mystery how this year’s podium would shake out and who might be new to it. And as excited as I am to see Hawayek/Baker finally get there, I’m putting them behind C/B out of some concern that H/B might crack a little under the podium pressure. Also because I saw C/B’s debut of their free dance a few weeks back, and yeah… they’ll be plenty competitive.

MEN'S PREDICTIONS

GOLD: Nathan Chen

SILVER: Vincent Zhou

BRONZE: Jason Brown

PEWTER: Andrew Torgashev

Nathan may be at Harvard now, but his LDCR (Long Distance Coaching Relationship) with Rafael Arutyunyan is going GREAT so far. So an upset seems unlikely… but of course, Zhou should never be counted out completely (though his technique/under-rotation issues of earlier in the season had better be a thing of the past for that to happen). Brown has been working his way back from last year’s crushing 6^th place finish all season long, so bronze definitely seems within his reach even without a solid quad. As for who comes after that… well here’s the thing. In deciding between three relative rising stars—Tomoki Hiwatashi, Andrew Torgashev, and Alexsei Krasnozhon—I initially gave Krasnozhon the nod for the 4^th place medal. But when I went to type out my initial list of predictions, I kept typing “Torgashev”. So I took it as a sign. We shall see. 

2019 U.S. Figure Skating Championships Predictions (Pairs and Ladies)

2019 U.S. Senior Nationals are here… who will reign supreme in the always extra-intriguing post-Olympic season? I’m starting my guesses with the two disciplines getting underway on Thursday 1/24…

PAIRS PREDICTIONS

GOLD: Tarah Kayne/Danny O’Shea

SILVER: Alexa Scimeca-Knierim/Chris Knierim

BRONZE: Deanna Stellato-Dudek/Nate Bartholomay

PEWTER: Ashley Cain/Timothy LeDuc

13 pairs are vying for the podium this year. Who’s got a shot near the top? Honestly, several of them. While pairs continue to be anything but the U.S.’s strongest discipline (as evidenced by the fact that only ONE team will represent at 2019 Worlds), around 5 or 6 teams are pretty evenly matched. Honestly, any of the teams listed above could win… or even a team that isn’t (Audrey Lu/Misha Mitrofanov, who won Junior Nats last year and competed the GP circuit this past fall).

LADIES PREDICTIONS

GOLD: Bradie Tennell

SILVER: Mariah Bell

BRONZE: Alysa Liu

PEWTER: Starr Andrews

No Wagner or Nagasu this time… and as of earlier this month, no Chen, Gold or Wang. It’s definitely a year for new (or newer) athletes to make a move. But Tennell, while no longer the “never-miss” champ, is still more than reliable enough to lead this year’s pack. But she’s not without legit challengers, so I’m thinking of Bell’s NHK free skate, Andrews at last year’s Nats, and Liu’s triple axels (yes, she’s got a consistent triple axel) when I list them for filling out the rest of the podium.

And while I haven’t had a chance this year to check out YouTube to get acquainted with this year’s rookies aside from Liu, I’m keeping my eyes open for Megan Wessenberg (6^th at Skate America in the fall) as a potential dark horse. 

I'll post my Men and Dance predictions Friday!

A Few Thoughts Before Nationals Predictions...

I thought about posting after the Grand Prix Final. I thought about a Christmas wish-themed post, as I think I did in the early years of this blog.

I thought about posting at the turn of the new year. I got a little past the “thought” point and started writing a post on January 10—just after Gracie withdrew from Nationals. I had some things I wanted to say, much as I did just after she skated at Rostelecom Cup. But I let other priorities take over, and a few sentences into the post the words stopped coming.

Last Friday night—a little over a week later—I was sitting here, too late for my own good as I often do (1:50 AM), trying to re-familiarize myself with this year’s list of U.S. Nationals competitors, when I went to close my Facebook tab for the night and was instead alarmed to see something from someone in the skating community that had “John Coughlin” and “RIP” in the same post. A quick search on Twitter brought me similar information. I knew something about the allegations that had been made about him via SafeSport; I did not yet know about his interim suspension from events such as the upcoming Nationals. Regardless, I went to bed stunned and shaken, dreading the spread of the news over the weekend.

Again, I considered posting some thoughts… but deep down, I knew I wouldn’t get anything up on this blog until the day the senior events at U.S. Nats arrived. Partly because that’s my pattern of late, and partly because I tend to censor myself when it comes to writing publicly on weightier matters. There are already so many reports, opinions, and speculations out there on The Issues Of Our Times—my .02 feels pretty damn irrelevant. Know what I mean?

So I’m acknowledging the elephant in the skating room (or rink?), if only because it seems bizarre NOT to this week. But I’m not addressing it—not right now, at least. There’s enough of that going on already, and I don’t feel my voice contributes anything new to the conversation.

I DO retweet some of those other voices, and you can go look me up @KLBSt8ofSk8 if you’re curious about that.

In the meantime, it IS “the day the senior events at U.S. Nats arrived”—so my predictions-from-afar will begin posting shortly.