I was away for a wedding (not mine, heh) at the end of last week and missed a TON of big skating news, which I will slowly get to. But the US Figure Skating Team Envelopes were announced last week.
The envelopes group skaters into A, B, and C teams based on their showing the previous season and determine funding...they also seem to determine which skaters will be plucked out for the big international competitions (although the site is sure to say it's not a strict guideline). The different letter categories have been broken down into tiers, as well. Phil Hersh has something to say about Mirai Nagasu not being ranked on the same tier as Rachael Flatt (but it does make sense according to USFSA standards). He segues that into some advice to Flatt on whether to continue skating during college, which is a discussion for another post and mostly seems to be Hersh telling Flatt maybe she should just enjoy college. But anyway, your envelopes are:
Ladies: Rachael Flatt
Men: Jeremy Abbott, Evan Lysacek
Pairs: Caydee Denney & Jeremy Barrett
Ice Dancing: Meryl Davis & Charlie White
Ladies: Mirai Nagasu
Men: Adam Rippon, Johnny Weir
Pairs: Amanda Evora & Mark Ladwig, Keauna McLaughlin & Rockne Brubaker
Ice Dancing: Tanith Belbin & Ben Agosto, Emily Samuelson & Evan Bates
Ladies: Sasha Cohen, Ashley Wagner, Caroline Zhang
Men: Ryan Bradley
Pairs: Rena Inoue & John Baldwin
Ice Dancing: Madison Chock & Greg Zuerlein, Madison Hubbell & Keiffer Hubbell, Maia Shibutani & Alex Shibutani
Ladies: Alissa Czisny, Christina Gao, Agnes Zawadzki
Men: Jason Brown, Ross Miner
Pairs: Felicia Zhang & Taylor Toth
Ladies: Kiri Baga, Lindsay Davis, Amanda Dobbs, Alexe Gilles, Ellie Kawamura, Angela Maxwell, Kristine Musademba, Yasmin Siraj
Men: Max Aaron, Richard Dornbush, Joshua Farris, Grant Hochstein, Austin Kanallakan, Armin Mahbanoozadeh, Keegan Messing, Brandon Mroz
Pairs: Brynn Carman & A.J. Reiss, Amanda Dobbs & Joseph Jacobsen, Britney Simpson & Nathan Miller, Erika Smith & Nathan Bartholomay, Caitlin Yankowskas & John Coughlin
Ice Dancing: Lauri Bonacorsi & Travis Mager, Isabella Cannuscio & Ian Lorello, Rachel Tibbetts & Collin Brubaker
Ladies: Melissa Bulanhagui, Ashley Cain, Nina Jiang, Leah Keiser, Katrina Kulgeyko
Men: Stephen Carriere, Nathan Chen, Timothy Dolensky, Scott Dyer, Emmanuel Savary, Alexander Zahradnicek
Pairs: Ashley Cain & Josh Reagan, Kylie Duarte & Colin Grafton, Mandy Garza & Brandon Frazier, Chloe Katz & Joseph Lynch
Ice Dancing: Alexandra Aldridge & Daniel Eaton, Lynn Kriengkrairut & Logan Giulietti-Schmitt, Anastasia Olson & Jordan Cowan, Danvi Pham & Vu Pham, Joylyn Yang & Jean-Luc Baker
I think it's odd that Ashley Wagner would be in the same tier as Caroline Zhang and Sasha Cohen, when she had a LOT more success than either on the international and national circuits last season, but I suppose this is an imperfect system - it always is difficult to do these sorts of rankings.
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