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.
Given the smaller fields in Grand Prix pairs — a total of 48 spots versus the 60 up for grabs in dance — organizers hewed far more tightly to the stated criteria for assignment; to that end, only teams who qualified through at least one category received a spot outright, with the six open host spots still available to additional couples. Couples who placed in the top 10 at the 2017 World Championships automatically earned two assignments. Next up for consideration are those ranked in the top 24 in World Standings (WS) and Season’s Best (SB) lists.
One pair picked up a 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 ‡.
As an additional note for TFTI’s interests: though not surprising, it’s proven an especially tough year for U.S. pairs.
| Team | Assignment(s) | Worlds Place | World Standings | Season’s Best |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wenjing Sui / Cong Han (CHN) | Cup of China; NHK Trophy | 1st | #6 | #1 |
| Aliona Savchenko / Bruno Massot (GER) | Skate Canada International; Skate America | 2nd | #3 | #2 |
| Evgenia Tarasova / Vladimir Morozov (RUS) | Rostelecom Cup; Internationaux de France | 3rd | #1 | #3 |
| Xiaoyu Yu / Hao Zhang (CHN) | Cup of China; Skate America | 4th | #14 | #7 |
| Ksenia Stolbova / Fedor Klimov (RUS) | Rostelecom Cup; NHK Trophy | 5th | #8 | #6 |
| Lubov Ilyuschechkina / Dylan Moscovitch (CAN) | Skate Canada International; Internationaux de France | 6th | #5 | #9 |
| Meagan Duhamel / Eric Radford (CAN) | Skate Canada International; Skate America | 7th | #2 | #5 | Vanessa James / Morgan Cipres (FRA) | Skate Canada International; Internationaux de France | 8th | #4 | #4 |
| Valentina Marchei / Ondrej Hotarek (ITA) | Rostelecom Cup; Cup of China | 9th | #7 | #11 |
| Alexa Scimeca Knierim / Chris Knierim (USA) | NHK Trophy; Skate America | 10th | #16 | #12 |
| Julianne Seguin / Charlie Bilodeau (CAN) | Rostelecom Cup; NHK Trophy | 11th | #9 | #8 |
| Nicole Della Monica / Matteo Guarise (ITA) | Cup of China; Internationaux de France | 13th | #10 | #16 |
| Natalia Zabiiako / Alexander Enbert | Skate Canada International; Skate America | 12th | #11 | #13 |
| Miriam Ziegler / Severin Kiefer (AUT) | NHK Trophy | 18th | #12 | #29 |
| Kristina Astakhova / Alexei Rogonov (RUS) | NHK Trophy | – | #13 | #18 |
| Anna Duskova / Martin Bidar (CZE)‡ | Cup of China; Internationaux de France | 14th | #15 | #17 |
| Tarah Kayne / Danny O’Shea (USA) | Cup of China | – | #16 | #24 |
| Marissa Castelli / Mervin Tran (USA) | Rostelecom Cup | – | #19 | #22 |
| Haven Denney / Brandon Frazier (USA) | Skate Canada International; Skate America | 20th | #21 | #15 |
| Sumire Suto / Francis Boudreau-Audet (JPN)* | Rostelecom Cup; NHK Trophy | 17th | #22 | #31 |
| Kirsten Moore-Towers / Michael Marinaro (CAN) | Cup of China; Skate America | – | #23 | #14 |
| Cheng Peng / Yang Jin (CHN) | Skate Canada International; Internationaux de France | – | #24 | #10 |
| Xuehan Wang / Lei Wang (CHN) | Rostelecom Cup; Internationaux de France | – | #26 | #20 |