Grand Prix Final fields, top scores in figure skating season

By Nick ZaccardiNov 26, 2017, 6:37 PM EST

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The Grand Prix Final in two weeks in Nagoya, Japan, is the biggest figure skating competition this season before the Olympics.

It’s also the single best indicator of PyeongChang Olympic medal prospects.

The event is also the most exclusive in the sport, taking only the top six skaters or couples per discipline from the six-event Grand Prix season that concluded with Skate America this weekend.

The U.S. contingent at this season’s Grand Prix Final is a copy of last season — Nathan Chen, Adam Rippon and dance couples of Maia Shibutani and Alex Shibutani, Madison Chock and Evan Bates and Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue.

The full Grand Prix Final fields, plus the top scores in the world this season:

Men
Grand Prix Final Field
1. Nathan Chen (USA)
2. Shoma Uno (JPN)
3. Mikhail Kolyada (RUS)
4. Sergei Voronov (RUS)
5. Adam Rippon (USA)
6. Jin Boyang (CHN) (injured)
6. Jason Brown (USA)
Notable misses: Yuzuru Hanyu (JPN), Javier Fernandez (ESP) and Patrick Chan (CAN).

Top Grand Prix Scores
1. Shoma Uno (JPN) — 301.10 (Skate Canada)
2. Nathan Chen (USA) — 293.79 (Rostelecom Cup)
3. Yuzuru Hanyu (JPN) — 290.77 (Rostelecom Cup)
4. Javier Fernandez (ESP) — 283.71 (Internationaux de France)
5. Mikhail Kolyada (RUS) — 279.38 (Cup of China)
6. Nathan Chen (USA) — 275.88 (Skate America)
7. Shoma Uno (JPN) — 273.32 (Internationaux de France)
8. Sergei Voronov (RUS) — 271.12 (NHK Trophy)
9. Mikhail Kolyada (RUS) — 271.06 (Rostelecom Cup)
10. Adam Rippon (USA) — 266.45 (Skate America)
12. Adam Rippon (USA) — 261.99 (NHK Trophy)
13. Jason Brown (USA) — 261.14 (Skate Canada)
14. Max Aaron (USA) — 259.69 (Cup of China)
17. Vincent Zhou (USA) — 256.66 (Cup of China)

Women
Grand Prix Final Field
1. Yevgenia Medvedeva (RUS) (injured)
1. Alina Zagitova (RUS)
2. Kaetlyn Osmond (CAN)
3. Carolina Kostner (ITA)
4. Maria Sotskova (RUS)
5. Wakaba Higuchi (JPN)
6. Satoko Miyahara (JPN)
Notable misses: Ashley Wagner (USA), Karen Chen (USA), Gabrielle Daleman (CAN)

Top Grand Prix Scores
1. Yevgenia Medvedeva (RUS) — 231.21 (Rostelecom Cup)
2. Yevgenia Medvedeva (RUS) — 224.39 (NHK Trophy)
3. Carolina Kostner (ITA) — 215.98 (Rostelecom Cup)
4. Satoko Miyahara (JPN) — 214.03 (Skate America)
5. Alina Zagitova (RUS) — 213.88 (Cup of China)
6. Alina Zagitova (RUS) — 213.80 (Internationaux de France)
7. Kaetlyn Osmond (CAN) — 212.91 (Skate Canada)
8. Wakaba Higuchi (JPN) — 212.52 (Cup of China)
9. Carolina Kostner (ITA) — 212.24 (NHK Trophy)
10. Kaori Sakamoto (JPN) — 210.59 (Skate America)
17. Bradie Tennell (USA) — 204.10 (Skate America)
25. Mirai Nagasu (USA) — 194.46 (NHK Trophy)
33. Mariah Bell (USA) — 188.56 (Rostelecom Cup)
38. Ashley Wagner (USA) — 183.94 (Skate Canada)
39. Karen Chen (USA) — 182.80 (Skate America)
40. Courtney Hicks (USA) — 182.57 (Skate Canada)

Ice Dance
Grand Prix Final Field
1. Gabriella Papadakis/Guillaume Cizeron (FRA)
2. Tessa Virtue/Scott Moir (CAN)
3. Maia Shibutani/Alex Shibutani (USA)
4. Madison Chock/Evan Bates (USA)
5. Madison Hubbell/Zachary Donohue (USA)
6. Anna Cappellini/Luca Lanotte (ITA)

Top Grand Prix Scores
1. Gabriella Papadakis/Guillaume Cizeron (FRA) — 201.98 (Internationaux de France)
2. Gabriella Papadakis/Guillaume Cizeron (FRA) — 200.43 (Cup of China)
3. Tessa Virtue/Scott Moir (CAN) — 199.86 (Skate Canada)
4. Tessa Virtue/Scott Moir (CAN) — 198.64 (NHK Trophy)
5. Maia Shibutani/Alex Shibutani (USA) — 194.25 (Skate America)
6. Kaitlyn Weaver/Andrew Poje (CAN) — 190.01 (Skate Canada)
7. Madison Hubbell/Zachary Donohue (USA) — 189.43 (Skate Canada)
8. Maia Shibutani/Alex Shibutani (USA) — 189.24 (Rostelecom Cup)
9. Madison Hubbell/Zachary Donohue (USA) — 188.35 (NHK Trophy)
10. Anna Cappellini/Luca Lanotte (ITA) — 186.56 (NHK Trophy)
12. Madison Chock/Evan Bates (USA) — 184.50 (Cup of China)

Pairs
Grand Prix Final Field
1. Sui Wenjing/Han Cong (CHN)
2. Yevgenia Tarasova/Vladimir Morozov (RUS)
3. Aljona Savchenko/Bruno Massot (GER)
4. Meagan Duhamel/Eric Radford (CAN)
5. Ksenia Stolbova/Fedor Klimov (RUS)
6. Yu Xiaoyu/Zhang Hao (CHN)
Notable misses: None, all the favorites qualified.

Top Grand Prix Scores
1. Sui Wenjing/Han Cong (CHN) — 234.53 (NHK Trophy)
2. Sui Wenjing/Han Cong (CHN) — 231.07 (Cup of China)
3. Yevgenia Tarasova/Vladimir Morozov (RUS) — 224.25 (Rostelecom Cup)
4. Aljona Savchenko/Bruno Massot (GER) — 223.13 (Skate America)
5. Ksenia Stolbova/Fedor Klimov (RUS) — 222.74 (NHK Trophy)
6. Meagan Duhamel/Eric Radford (CAN) — 222.22 (Skate Canada)
7. Yu Xiaoyu/Zhang Hao (CHN) — 219.20 (Skate America)
8. Yevgenia Tarasova/Vladimir Morozov (RUS) — 218.20 (Internationaux de France)
9. Meagan Duhamel/Eric Radford (CAN) — 215.68 (Skate America)
10. Aljona Savchenko/Bruno Massot (GER) — 215.66 (Skate Canada)
24. Alexa Scimeca Knierim/Christopher Knierim (USA) — 192.51 (NHK Trophy)
35. Haven Denney/Brandon Frazier (USA) — 172.95 (Skate Canada)

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Summer McIntosh breaks 400m individual medley world record, extends historic week

By OlympicTalkApr 1, 2023, 7:03 PM EDT

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Canadian swimmer Summer McIntosh broke her second world record this week, lowering the 400m individual medley mark on Saturday.

McIntosh, a 16-year-old who trains in Sarasota, Florida, clocked 4 minutes, 25.87 seconds at the Canadian Championships in Toronto.

She took down Hungarian Katinka Hosszu‘s world record of 4:26.36 from the 2016 Rio Olympics. Before Saturday, McIntosh had the fourth-fastest time in history of 4:28.61.

“It’s always nice to set world records,” McIntosh said.

On Tuesday, McIntosh broke the 400m freestyle world record, becoming the youngest swimmer to break a world record in an individual Olympic event since Katie Ledecky in 2013.

McIntosh also this week became the fourth-fastest woman in history in the 200m individual medley and the eighth-fastest woman in history in the 200m butterfly.

In each of her four races this week, she also broke the world junior record as the fastest woman in history under the age of 19.

She is entered to swim the 200m free on the meet’s final day on Sunday. She is already the eighth-fastest woman in history in that event.

McIntosh, whose mom swam the 1984 Olympic 200m fly and whose sister competed at last week’s world figure skating championships, placed fourth in the Tokyo Olympic 400m free at age 14.

Last summer, she won the 200m fly and 400m IM at the world championships, becoming the youngest individual world champion since 2011.

This summer, she could be at the center of a showdown in the 400m free at the world championships with reigning world champion Ledecky and reigning Olympic champion Ariarne Titmus of Australia. They are the three fastest women in history in the event.

Around age 7, McIntosh transcribed Ledecky quotes and put them on her wall.

MORE: McIntosh chose swimming and became Canada’s big splash

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Hilary Knight leads new-look U.S. women’s hockey roster for world championship

By OlympicTalkApr 1, 2023, 9:02 AM EDT

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Hilary Knight headlines a U.S. women’s hockey roster for this month’s world championship that lacks some of the biggest names from last year’s Olympic silver-medal team. Changes have been made as the U.S. looks to end losing streaks to Canada, both overall and in major finals.

The full roster is here. Worlds start Wednesday in Brampton, Ontario, and run through the gold-medal game on April 16.

It was already known that the team would be without stalwart forwards Kendall Coyne Schofield, who plans to return to the national team after having her first child this summer, and Brianna Decker, who announced her retirement last month.

Notable cuts include the No. 1 goalies from the last two Olympics: Alex Cavallini, who returned from Christmas childbirth for the tryout camp this past week, and Maddie Rooney, the breakout of the 2018 Olympic champion team.

Cavallini, 31, was bidding to become the first player to make an Olympic or world team after childbirth since Jenny Potter, who played at the Olympics in 2002, 2006 and 2010 as a mom, plus at several world championships, including less than three months after childbirth in 2007.

Forward Hannah Brandt, who played on the top line at last year’s Olympics with Knight and Coyne Schofield, also didn’t make the team.

In all, 13 of the 25 players on the team are Olympians, including three-time Olympic medalists forward Amanda Kessel and defender Lee Stecklein.

The next generation includes forward Taylor Heise, 23, who led the 2022 World Championship with seven goals and was the 2022 NCAA Player of the Year at Minnesota.

The team includes two teens — 19-year-old defender Haley Winn and 18-year-old forward Tessa Janecke — who were also the only teens at last week’s 46-player tryout camp. Janecke, a Penn State freshman, is set to become the youngest U.S. forward to play at an Olympics or worlds since Brandt in 2012.

Abbey Levy, a 6-foot-1 goalie from Boston College, made her first world team, joining veterans Nicole Hensley and Aerin Frankel.

Last summer, Canada repeated as world champion by beating the U.S. in the final, six months after beating the U.S. in the Olympic final. Canada is on its longest global title streak since winning all five Olympic or world titles between 1999 and 2004.

Also at last summer’s worlds, the 33-year-old Knight broke the career world championship record for points (now up to 89). She also has the most goals in world championship history (53). Knight, already the oldest U.S. Olympic women’s hockey player in history, will become the second-oldest American to play at a worlds after Cammi Granato, who was 34 at her last worlds in 2005.

The Canadians are on a four-game win streak versus the Americans, capping a comeback in their recent seven-game rivalry series from down three games to none. Their 5-0 win in the decider in February was their largest margin of victory over the U.S. since 2005.

Last May, former AHL coach John Wroblewski was named U.S. head coach to succeed Joel Johnson, the Olympic coach.

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