Khudaiberdiyeva and Bazin’s application, Boikova’s and Kozlovsky’s difficulty: combined rating of couples and dancers in the 2022/23 season

Charisma Khudaiberdiyeva - Bazina and non-systematic Gilles - Porrier

Dance tournaments on both sides of the Atlantic led to a seditious thought: it’s very good that the leaders of the past Olympic season, led by the champions of the 2022 Games Gabriela Papadakis - Guillaume Sizeron, left the ice dance floor rather amicably.

What happens to veterans if they do not take a step forward starting the post-Olympic season was partly illustrated by the first of the stages of the ISU Grand Prix - Skate America.

Nominally, by a margin of 0.73, it was won by Madison Chalk - Evan Bates.

In reality, the US champions and bronze medalists of the last world championship barely took their feet from compatriots Caitlin Hawayek - Jean-Luc Baker, who, by the way, took only eighth place at last year's World Championships.

In Norwood, let me remind you, they were twice ahead of the favorites in technique, and in the free dance and in the total amount, and only a completely indecent gap in the second assessment from the judges allowed the oldest of the current couples to snatch victory.

Hawayek - Baker, or the winners of the Canadian stage in Mississauga Piper Gilles - Paul Poirier?

Between these duets, I would put an equal sign.

Both of them officially secured personal records for themselves (Chock - Bates, by the way, fell short of their best result of 14.03), but I would still give priority to the Canadians, as a couple that is not the fruit of the in-line production of the Montreal dance school of Marie-France Dubreuil, Patrice Lauzon and Roman Agenauer.

This is not at all a reproach to the Montreal club.

Rather, on the contrary: having a huge number of duets, coaches are constantly faced with the need to come up with more and more new techniques, programs and styles.

It’s just that it’s always difficult for singles to fight against a system where all the winning components are worked out to perfection and perfectly fit into the overall winning picture, like pieces of a puzzle.

For the same reason, I would like to single out the Americans Carolyn Green - Michael Parsons (the current coaches of the pair Tanit Belbin, Charlie White and Greg Zurlein), despite the fact that at the Canadian stage they lost 1.3 points with a little more to another duo of the Montreal school Marjorie Lajoie - Zachary Laga. 

In the ranking, however, both duets are inferior to Laila Fir - Lewis Gibson.

Not only because the British were higher in the final standings.

It's just that they managed to surpass their personal record, while the Americans and Canadians did not.

If Alexandra Stepanova and Ivan Bukin continued to perform in the Russian format this season, it is quite possible that the judges would continue to put them above everyone else, not paying too much attention to what is happening behind the backs of the 2019 European vice-champions.

And now it is far from a fact that, having returned in a year, Sasha and Ivan will automatically begin to occupy the places they are used to.

Even the first two stages of the Russian Grand Prix were enough to see how powerful the wave of dancers was gaining momentum.

Moreover, the strongest impression is left by Elizaveta Khudaiberdieva - Yegor Bazin, who can be safely put on the same level as Khavayek - Baker, and Gilles - Porrier.

At the stage of the Velvet Season Russian Grand Prix, Lisa and Egor became the first with a colossal lead over Irina Khavronina - Dario Chirizano, and it is clear that it is impossible to talk about any kind of rivalry even with a stretch.

If we compare the wards of Denis Samokhin with the winners of the first stage of the Russian series Anabel Morozov - David Narizhny, the first ones win in the case: after all, the rolling of partners in ice dancing is a quality whose value cannot be overestimated.

The Russian leaders, despite the fact that the last international season actually passed them by due to a very controversial failure to qualify for the Olympics, the new one shows an absolutely wonderful quality that even recognized leaders do not always possess: they do not work on ice, but dance, enjoying every second of your stay on the ice.

In the same way, by the way, as vice-champions of the Canadian stage Fir - Gibson.

The charisma of Elizabeth and Laila would be more than enough for several duets, and this incredible energy is captivating to the same extent as the energy of former world champion Daisuke Takahashi, who now dances with Kana Muramoto.

The sixth result of the Japanese couple at the Skate America tournament does not seem to be a reason for inclusion in the top 10, but it is worth noting that the skaters did everything to rehabilitate themselves at the Denis Ten memorial tournament a week later.

The current tenth position is, rather, an audience award, addressed not so much to the skaters as to their coach Marina Zueva.

But if in the near future her wards do not make a more serious application, others will take their place.

Summary rating of dancers after two stages of the Grand Prix:

Leadership Boikova - Kozlovsky

To talk about the balance of power in pair skating, not all the leaders have shown themselves to the public yet, they just can’t turn their tongues - there are too few pairs in the world (and even more so outside of Russia) that are able to attract attention.

The leaders at the Russian stages are divorced so that they win without any hint of competition, world pair skating without the participation of Russian athletes is a sad sight, so there will be no detailed analysis yet.

Just a rating that is currently headed by the winners of the stage in Sochi, the champions of Europe 2020 Alexandra Boikova and Dmitry Kozlovsky with more complicated content compared to last season (a triple loop in the short program and a cascade of salchow - oiler - salchow in the free program) .

Whether you agree with him or not is voluntary.