This is a fairly weak field in my favorite event. Nearly half of the teams are making their Grand Prix debut and the Chinese are not know for their ice dance skills and they have three spots here. None of the top ranked North American teams are competing as well. For the top of the podium it will be a battle between Pechelat/Bourzat and Faiella/Scali. I give the edge to the Italians as they really came into their own last season and ended on the podium at Worlds. With their higher ranked rinkmates retiring it will be interesting to see if they have the drive to continue to push themselves with no one to chase at practice sessions. The French have lovely programs but seem to always finish slightly behind the Italians. Bobrova/Soloviev have flown under the radar, continuously finishing just off the podium at their Grand Prixs. The Hubbells also need a medal here to keep them in the mix at home. They are the only top five senior US dance team that does not train with Zouva/Shpilband. As Samuelson and Bates will likely be out all season, there are two spots on the World team up for grabs for the younger teams (who have both already medaled this season on the Grand Prix) and the Hubbells want to contend for one of those spots.
My podium predictions:
Gold: Faiella/Scali
Silver: Pechelat/Bourzat
Bronze: Bobrova/Soloviev
Information on all the teams competing is below.
Kharis Ralph/Asher Hill, CAN: Ralph and Hill placed 6th at the Four Continents Championships. They won silver medals at both their Junior Grand Prix assignments last season and placed 4th at the Junior Grand Prix Final. This is their Grand Prix debut.
Xueting Guan/Meng Wang, CHN: They placed 9th at Four Continents. They placed 8th and 9th at their Junior Grand Prix assignments last season. This is their Grand Prix debut.
Xintong Huang/Xun Zheng, CHN: They placed 19th at the Olympics and 4th at Four Continents. They placed 7th and 5th at their two Grand Prix assignments last season.
Xiaoyang Yu/Chen Wang, CHN: They placed 18th at the World Championships and 8th at Four Continents. They placed 9th and 10th at their two Grand Prix assignments last season. They placed 9th at the NHK Trophy two weeks ago.
Nathalie Pechelat/Fabian Bourzat, FRA: They placed 7th at the Olympics and 4th at both Worlds and Europeans. They won silver last season at both their Grand Prix assigments in Paris and Canada and won bronze at the Grand Prix Final.
Nora Hoffman/Maxim Zavozin, HUN: Hoffman and Zavozin placed 13th at the Olympics and 10th at the World and European Championships. Zavozin used to compete for USA and won the World Junior title in 2005. This is their Grand Prix debut.
Frederica Faiella/Massimo Scali, ITA: Faiella and Scali placed 5th at the Olympics and won bronze at the World Championships and silver at Europeans. They won silver at their lone Grand Prix, Cup of China, last season.
Ekaterina Bobrova/Dmitri Soloviev, RUS: They placed 15th at the Olympics, 8th at Worlds and 9th at Europeans. They are the 2007 World Junior Champions. They placed 4th at both of their Grand Prix assignments last season.
Isabella Canuscio/Ian Lorello, USA: They won bronze at both of their Junior Grand Prix assignments last season and placed 6th in the Junior Grand Prix Final. This is their Grand Prix debut.
Madison Hubbell/Keifer Hubbell, USA: They won bronze at Four Continents. They finished 8th and 6th at their two Grand Prix assignments last season.
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