Next weekend the ISU's Grand Prix of Figure Skating makes its final stop in Paris for Trophee Eric Bompard. For the top skaters and teams, this a great performance will put them among the worlds best in The Grand Prix Final and for the others, this is their last chance to prove themselves as up and coming stars for next season. In the Men's competition, Kozuka looks to rack up another win to qualify for the Final, though he do so by placing 4th or higher. Brandon Mroz, one of the surprises this season, also has the chance to qualify for the Final if he can place 2nd. Though a long shot, Amodio, Joubert, and Reynolds also have hope for the Final if they can pull out a win here.
With 5 of the 6 ladies spots already taken for the Final, Alissa Czisny has a golden opportunity to seize the 6th as long as she medals here. Phaneuf, Korpi, and Nagasu can also take the last open spot with a win in Paris. This has been a disappointing season for Asada and Suguri and they cannot make the final, they can shake up the standings if they skate well.
Savchenko & Szolkowy are almost guaranteed to win the pairs competition, though they only need to place 4th to take one of the two open spots in the Grand Prix Final. Bazarova & Larionov of Russia can also qualify for the Final if they place in the top two, which is very likely with the weak competition in this event. The rest of this field is really a toss up and with no true stand outs, the third spot on the podium is completely up for grabs.
Nathalie Pechalat & Fabian Bourzat blew away the competition at Cup of China and are almost certain to win here at home, but as long as they place in the top 5, they'll qualify for the Final. Chock & Zhurlein of the USA have a golden opportunity to make their first senior Grand Prix Final if they place in the top two, which they have a real shot at doing with few standouts in this event. Three other teams in this field, Riazanova & Tkachenko, Carron & Jones, and Huang & Zheng could seize the last spot on the final if they could somehow manage to win here. Mathematically speaking, if one of these three teams wins, Chock & Zhurlein place 2nd, and Pechalat & Bourzat place 3rd, all three could make the final, though that is highly unlikely.
Here is the icenetwork.com live streaming schedule for the event. The times are Eastern Standard Time (US). Becuase I will be celebrating the Thanksgiving holiday, I will not be live-blogging any of the sessions but I will try to check in with the live feed when I can and post scores. I'll also be retweeting anything and everything I find related to the competition so check me out @barbiebackstage
Friday, Nov. 26
9:30 a.m.: Men's short program
11:30 a.m.: Pairs short program
12:45 p.m.: Ladies short program
2:30 p.m.: Short dance
Saturday, Nov. 27
7:30 a.m.: Men's free skate
9:45 a.m.: Pairs free skate
12:30 p.m.: Ladies free skate
2:15 p.m.: Free dance
In an update on Fantasy Skating, Skategate & I are quite upset that the Ice Dance scores from Cup of Russia were counted because all three of our Fantasy teams withdrew due to injury and we received no points for that event. We are emailing the Fantasy administrator to voice our concerns and I will update you if an agreement is reached.
**BackStage Barbie **Skategate **Shared Picks
Total Points: 9299 9318
Overall Placement: 157T 140
Men:
1) Kevin Reynolds (Canada)
2) Jinlin Guan (China)
3) Nan Song (China)
4) Florent Amodio (France)
5) Chafik Besseghier (France)
6) Brian Joubert (France)
7) Peter Liebers (Germany)
8) Takahiko Kozuka (Japan)
9) Zoltan Kelemen (Romania)
10) Anton Kovalevski (Ukraine)
11) Brandon Mroz (USA)
Ladies:
1) Cynthia Phaneuf (Canada)
2) Kiira Korpi (Finland)
3) Candie Didier (France)
4) Lena Marrocco (France)
5) Mae Berenice Meite (France)
6) Sarah Hecken (Germany)
7) Mao Asada (Japan)
8) Haruka Imai (Japan)
9) Fumie Suguri (Japan)
10) Sonia Lafuente (Spain)
11) Alissa Czisny (USA)
12) Mirai Nagasu (USA)
Pairs:
1) Mylene Brodeur & John Mattatal (Canada)
2) Klara Kadlecova & Petr Bidar (CZE)
3) Maylin Hausch & Daniel Wende (Germany)
4) Aliona Savchenko & Robin Szolkowy (Germany)
5) Anna Khnychenkova & Mark Magyar (Hungary)
6) Nicole Della Monica & Yannick Kocon (Italy)
7) Vera Bezarova & Yuri Larionov (Russia)
8) Felicia Zhang & Taylor Toth (USA)
Ice Dance:
1) Kharis Ralph & Asher Hill (Canada)
2) Xinton Huang & Xue Zheng (China)
3) Pernell Carron & Lloyd Jones (France)
4) Nathalie Pechalat & Fabian Bourzat (France)
5) Dora Turoczi & Balazs Major (Hungary)
6) Ekatarina Riazanova & Ilia Tkachenko (Russia)
7) Isabella Cannuscio & Ian Lorello (USA)
8) Madison Chock & Greg Zhurlein (USA)
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