With today’s surprise reveal of 2017-18’s Grand Prix assignments, Two for the Ice has compiled the hows, whys — and possible huhs — of who and how many assignments the dance and pair teams in question received. We’ll look first at dance, the larger and, thus, more unwieldy field.
Couples who placed in the top 10 at the 2017 World Championships automatically earned two assignments, while medalists at the World Junior Championships have in some past years been guaranteed one apiece, or otherwise been included among considered candidates (bronze medalists Christina Carreira and Anthony Ponomarenko will continue to compete at the junior level). Next up for consideration are those ranked in the top 24 in World Standings (WS) and Season’s Best (SB) lists. While teams who meet both criteria often pick up two spots, other considerations clearly may factor into how important these rankings are considered to be.
Some teams also picked up a single or second spot courtesy of their host country, as indicated with an *. Worlds placements and WS and SB rankings meeting Grand Prix requirements are highlighted in green; those WS and SB rankings falling out of the top 24 are highlighted in pink. First-time Grand Prix competitors are indicated with a ‡.
Also included in this list, for the sake of greater context, are a few notable teams who ranked higher than selected teams in one or more categories, but did not receive an assignment. Those teams are italicized.
| Team | Assignment(s) | Worlds/Junior Worlds Place | World Standings | Season’s Best |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tessa Virtue / Scott Moir (CAN) | Skate Canada International; NHK Trophy | 1st | #9 | #1 |
| Gabriella Papadakis / Guillaume Cizeron (FRA) | Cup of China; Internationaux de France | 2nd | #7 | #2 |
| Maia Shibutani / Alex Shibutani (USA) | Rostelecom Cup; Skate America | 3rd | #2 | #3 |
| Kaitlyn Weaver / Andrew Poje (CAN) | Skate Canada International; Internationaux de France | 4th | #6 | #4 |
| Ekaterina Bobrova / Dmitry Soloviev (RUS) | Rostelecom Cup; Cup of China | 5th | #3 | #6 |
| Anna Cappellini / Luca Lanotte (ITA) | NHK Trophy; Skate America | 6th | #4 | #7 |
| Madison Chock / Evan Bates (USA) | Cup of China; Internationaux de France | 7th | #1 | #5 | Piper Gilles / Paul Poirier (CAN) | Rostelecom Cup; Skate America | 8th | #10 | #9 |
| Madison Hubbell / Zachary Donohue (USA) | Skate Canada International; NHK Trophy | 9th | #5 | #10 |
| Alexandra Stepanova / Ivan Bukin (RUS) | Rostelecom Cup; Internationaux de France | 10th | #13 | #13 |
| Rachel Parsons / Michael Parsons (USA)‡ | Rostelecom Cup | 1st (WJC) | #15 | #18 |
| Alla Loboda / Pavel Drozd (RUS)‡ | Skate Canada International; Internationaux de France | 2nd (WJC) | #17 | #19 |
| Charlene Guignard / Marco Fabbri (ITA) | Rostelecom Cup; Internationaux de France | 11th | #8 | #11 |
| Laurence Fournier Beaudry / Nikolaj Sorensen (DEN) | NHK Trophy | 13th | #11 | #21 |
| Isabella Tobias / Ilia Tkachenko (ISR) | NHK Trophy; Skate America | 12th | #12 | #12 |
| Natalia Kaliszek / Maksym Spodyriev (POL) | Skate Canada International; Internationaux de France | 14th | #14 | #25 |
| Victoria Sinitsina / Nikita Katsalapov (RUS) | NHK Trophy; Skate America | – | #16 | #16 |
| Marie-Jade Lauriault / Romain Le Gac (FRA) | Rostelecom Cup; NHK Trophy | 21st | #18 | #30 |
| Alisa Agafanova / Alper Ucar (TUR) | Rostelecom Cup; Skate Canada International | 17th | #19 | #20 |
| Kana Muramoto / Chris Reed (JPN)* | NHK Trophy; Skate America | 23rd | #20 | #26 |
| Kaitlin Hawayek / Jean-Luc Baker (USA) | Skate Canada International; Skate America | – | #21 | #14 |
| Alexandra Nazarova / Maxim Nikitin (UKR) | NHK Trophy | 15th | #22 | #27 |
| Lorraine McNamara / Quinn Carpenter (USA)‡ | Cup of China | 7th (WJC) | #23 | #22 |
| Tiffany Zahorski / Jonathan Guerreiro (RUS) | Cup of China; Skate America | – | #37 | #15 |
| Elliana Pogrebinsky / Alex Benoit (USA) | Cup of China; Internationaux de France | – | #25 | #17 |
| Shiyue Wang / Xinyu Liu (CHN)* | Cup of China; Skate America | 16th | #27 | #23 |
| Yura Min / Alexander Gamelin (KOR) | – | 20th | #26 | #34 |
| Penny Coomes / Nicholas Buckland (GBR) | – | – | #28 | – |
| Angelique Abachkina / Louis Thauron (FRA)‡* | Cup of China; Internationaux de France | 8th (WJC) | #29 | #33 |
| Kavita Lorenz / Joti Polizoakis (GER)‡ | Skate Canada International | 19th | #32 | #28 |
| Cecilia Torn / Jussiville Partanen (FIN) | – | 24th | #34 | #46 |
| Cortney Mansour / Michal Ceska (CZE) | – | – | #36 | #36 |
| Nicole Kuzmichova / Alexandr Sinicyn (CZE)‡ | Rostelecom Cup | 26th | #38 | #45 |
| Sara Hurtado / Kirill Khaliavin (ESP) | – | – | #45 | #48 |
| Olivia Smart / Adria Diaz (ESP)‡ | Skate Canada International | 18th | #49 | #38 |
| Linshu Song / Zhuoming Sun (CHN)* | Cup of China | – | #63 | #64 |
| Hong Chen / Yan Zhao (CHN)* | Cup of China | – | #84 | #68 |
| Carolane Soucisse / Shane Firus (CAN)‡* | Skate Canada International | – | – | #66 |