Um, I spoke too soon yesterday when I said it was a slow news week. American ice dancing Olympians Emily Samuelson and Evan Bates have called it quits. After more than 10 YEARS of skating with each other. This was reported on Universal Sports.
Are you kidding me? These two obviously had a rough season, having to sit it out because Bates severed his achilles tendon, what a horrific injury. They probably did NOT enjoy sitting back and watching Maia and Alex Shibutani skyrocket up the rankings and into that second slot for the American ice dancers.
However, Samuelson and Bates are a good ice dancing team. They had a lot of growing to do and things to work on, but I enjoyed watching them and they were doing fairly well (although, admittedly, they would likely have been eclipsed by the Shibutanis this season). I can't imagine that they will find other partners who they will be able to see success with any time soon, but I'm no ice dancing expert. Just seems to me that all of the top pairs have been together for YEARS and years and years...
Good luck to them. These stories are depressing.