It's now late July, and many skaters have been announcing their music and competing their new programs at shows or smaller competitions. (*For a great compilation of sneak peeks, check out Rocker by Jackie Wong*) And all the new music just has me surprisingly looking forward for to the late night/early morning hours of watching the Grand Prix live for six weeks straight : ) While we wait for October to get here, I'll do a brief overview of each discipline's Grand Prix roster.
Men (See all assignments here) It seems to be that most of the spots in the men’s event at the Final should be fairly predictable, with Hanyu, Fernandez, and Chan all having an easy opportunity to qualify. Yuzuru Hanyu and Patrick Chan will face off at Skate Canada for the second year in a row, with Chan skating again at Cup of China with Boyang Jin as his closest competitor; Hanyu will finish the series at NHK in a fairly uncontested field. Javier Fernandez has the misfortune of competing twice in a row, at Rostelecom and Trophee de France, but again, should easily place 1-2 if he’s skating anywhere near his best. Japan’s Shoma Uno could realistically get his first senior GP win at Skate America, with jumper Boyang Jin and the inconsistent Denis Ten in his field. Against Fernandez at Rostelecom, he should still grab a medal to make it back to the Final. Though he’s not an artist, Boyang Jin’s quads would get him to the Final, opening his season at Skate America and then and then facing Patrick Chan his home event. After that, god, your guess is as good as mine! Denis Ten certainly could do it, but it would require four clean(ish) performances to do it, and he wasn’t able to be even slightly consistent last year, dealing with injury. Takahito Mura and Mikhail Kolyada are also on my radar for that sixth spot if Ten can’t work his magic. I expect consistent performances out of the top American men (Brown, Rippon, Aaron) but I am not sure any of them have the right combination of PCS and TES to compete internationally at a top-six level for the Final. Junior World Champ Nathan Chen will get his first chance at the senior Grand Prix with two events and quads to boot, but he is coming back from a very serious hip surgery. I will be very interested to see how his quads are as he recovers and especially how the international judges will score him. As always, I expect to see the men pushing the boundaries of technical elements this season, which always leads to exciting- and inconsistent- skates throughout the series. I'll be back with a ladies overview next!
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November 2017
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