{"id":14820,"date":"2017-12-19T21:41:58","date_gmt":"2017-12-20T02:41:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/?p=14820"},"modified":"2018-05-13T14:55:02","modified_gmt":"2018-05-13T18:55:02","slug":"ice-dance-observer-december-19-2017","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/ice-dance-observer-december-19-2017\/","title":{"rendered":"Ice Dance Observer: December 19, 2017"},"content":{"rendered":"

[et_pb_section bb_built=”1″][et_pb_row][et_pb_column type=”2_3″][et_pb_text admin_label=”Until Next Time IDC” _builder_version=”3.0.92″ background_layout=”light” module_alignment=”left”]<\/p>\n

Good evening!<\/p>\n

Harumi, our photographer at Golden Spin of Zagreb, was able to send us photos, so they have been added to the gallery. These include the junior and senior events, plus the awards ceremonies.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

NATIONALS-PALOOZA:<\/strong>\u00a0 Last week, 11 nations held their championship events.\u00a0 This includes the Four Nationals Championships where the countries of Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary and Slovakia competed in combined event. In addition to the crowning of national champions, several countries named their Olympic teams (based on previously set criteria).\u00a0 Spain’s ice dance representatives in PyeongChang will be Sara Hurtado & Kirill Khaliavin, while Germany will send Kavita Lorenz & Joti Polizoakis.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

CHANGING IT UP:<\/strong> Canada’s Piper Gilles & Paul Poirier announced via social media that they will debut a new free dance at the Canadian National Championships in a few weeks. They discussed the switch to the new Bond-inspired free dance on Episode 48 of PJ Kwong’s podcast<\/a>\u00a0(link opens in new window).\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

As we mentioned last week, there are no international competitions between now and January 15, which is the start of the European Championships. Our focus continues to be on the various national championship events taking place.\u00a0 Russia and Japan are up this week with the U.S. championships beginning on December 29th and Canada’s getting underway on January 8th.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Happy Holidays from all of us at Team IDC! <\/em><\/p>\n

Until next time,<\/em><\/p>\n

Team IDC<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text admin_label=”Russian Nationals Preview” _builder_version=”3.0.92″ background_layout=”light” module_alignment=”left”]<\/p>\n

PREVIEW: 2018 RUSSIAN NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS<\/span><\/h3>\n

The top ice dance teams in Russia will head to St. Petersburg for the 2018 Russian National Figure Skating Championships.\u00a0 In addition to crowning national champions, the event will also at least narrow down the selections for the 2018 Olympics.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Ekaterina Bobrova & Dmitry Soloviev (RUS)<\/center><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As we mentioned in the December 5th Observer,\u00a0the International Olympic Committee (IOC) banned Russia\u2019s Olympic Committee (ROC) from February\u2019s PyeongChang Olympics.\u00a0 Although the ROC is banned, the IOC did pave the way for athletes who meet specific criteria to compete under the name Olympic Athlete from Russia (OAR).\u00a0 To review the criteria or read the press release in-full, please visit the\u00a0Olympic.org website<\/a>. It’s possible Russia will still send athletes to South Korea, but there has not yet been an announcement one way or the other.<\/p>\n

Russian Nationals are headlined by six-time Russian champions Ekaterina Bobrova & Dmitry Soloviev, who are likely to repeat again.\u00a0 The two-time Olympians narrowly missed making the Grand Prix Final and instead attended Golden Spin of Zagreb, where they decisively won the gold medal and in turn, captured the top spot at the conclusion of the 2017-18 ISU Challenger Series.\u00a0 When not injured, Bobrova & Soloviev have been Russia’s go-to team due to consistency.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Though Russia has been an ice dance powerhouse in the past, they were unable to secure three Olympic spots, so only two teams will head to PyeongChang.\u00a0\u00a0The battle for silver may or may not determine the recipient of Russia’s second Olympic spot.\u00a0 Because Russia will send three teams to the European Championships, they may wait until after that competition to determine who will compete in South Korea.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ivan Bukin has the Olympics in his blood.\u00a0 He and partner Alexandra Stepanova have even worked with Bukin’s father Andrei, the 1988 Olympic Gold medalist with Natalia Bestemianova, this season.\u00a0 The team has medaled in all of their international events this season, including a silver at Finlandia Trophy and bronze medals at their two ISU Grand Prix events.\u00a0 Stepanova & Bukin are the reigning Russian national silver medalists and while they might not contend with the leaders, they certainly could take silver again and snag the Olympic spot.<\/p>\n

Reigning Olympic silver medalist, Nikita Katsalapov moved on post-Sochi with a new partner, Victoria Sinitsina (who also competed in Sochi with Ruslan Zhiganshin), and the team has finished as high as second (2016) and low as fourth (2015) at the Russian championships. This season has brought better placements, as the team won a bronze medal at the ISU Challenger series event in Minsk and capped their Grand Prix season with a bronze medal at Skate America.\u00a0 To return to the Olympics, Sinitsina & Katsalapov will need to win silver here to have a chance.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Tiffani Zagorski & Jonathan Guerreiro have finished fifth at the past three Russian national championships.\u00a0 Although they were not able to compete internationally for the first season of their partnership, in their fourth year as a team they finished fourth and sixth at their Grand Prix events and won the silver medal at the Minsk Arena Ice Star, where they also finished ahead of Sinitsina & Katsalapov.\u00a0 They could be a podium thread in St. Petersburg and a bronze medal should earn them a spot at the European Championships.<\/p>\n

The event starts with the short dance on Thursday, December 21 at 8:30 PM (Saint-Petersburg time), with the free dance at 8:20 PM on December 22.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_3″][et_pb_text admin_label=”New on IDC” _builder_version=”3.0.87″ background_color=”#282828″ background_layout=”light” border_style=”solid” custom_margin=”10px|10px|10px|10px” custom_padding=”10px|10px|10px|10px” module_alignment=”left”]<\/p>\n

NEW ON IDC<\/span><\/h4>\n

[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image admin_label=”Photo” _builder_version=”3.0.92″ src=”https:\/\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/Observer-17GoldenSpin-1530.jpg” show_in_lightbox=”off” url_new_window=”off” use_overlay=”off” align=”left” always_center_on_mobile=”on” force_fullwidth=”off” custom_margin=”10px|10px|10px|10px” show_bottom_space=”on” \/][et_pb_text admin_label=”Bullet List” _builder_version=”3.0.92″ background_color=”#f9f9f9″ background_layout=”light” custom_margin=”10px|10px|10px|10px” custom_padding=”10px|10px|10px|10px” module_alignment=”left”]<\/p>\n

PHOTOGRAPHS<\/strong><\/p>\n