Ice Dance Observer: August 23, 2017

This season, instead of the usual event previews and recaps, Team IDC will bring you a weekly update that includes previews, recaps and tidbits of information from the world of ice dance. This is the first edition and we expect it to evolve over the next few weeks. As always, your feedback is appreciated!

Junior Grand Prix Series gets underway this week in Brisbane
by Laura Flagg

Nine teams will be competing in Brisbane, Australia in what is the first of seven events in order to gain standing points to qualify for the Junior Grand Prix Final in December.

Favorites for gold are Canada’s Marjorie Lajoie & Zachary Lagha and Sofia Polishchuk & Alexander Vakhnov of Russia. Lajoie and Lagha, who are coached by Marie-France Dubreuil and company, placed fourth in both of their JGP events last season and finished sixth at the World Junior Championships. They are the 2017 Canadian national junior champions. Polishchuk & Vakhnov medaled at both of their JGP events last season, and were second alternates for the JGP Final. They finished fourth at the Russian junior junior national championships, narrowly missing a trip to the World Junior Championships. They are coached by Svetlana Liapina.

Chloe Lewis and Logan Bye are capable of upsetting the favorites and earned a bronze on the JGP circuit last year. In the past, the American duo has been plagued by inconsistencies, but clinched a pewter medal at the US Championships in juniors last season and snagged a gold and silver in the domestic event at the 2017 Lake Placid Ice Dance Championships. They train with Igor Shpilband in Novi, Michigan. They are joined in Australia by Eliana Gropman & Ian Somerville, who came close to besting Lewis & Bye in the free dance in Lake Placid. They are coached by Alexei Kiliakov, Elena Novak, and Dmytri Ilin in Wheaton, Maryland.

The short dance takes place on Friday August 25 (12:45AM EST), with the free dance on August 26 (2:30 AM EST).  You can follow the results live via the JGP Brisbane Starting Orders & Results Page or watch the JGP live on the ISU’s Youtube Channel.

Australian Ice Chips: JGP Brisbane
by Anne Calder

• Brisbane, AUS has hosted the JGP twice – 2011 and 2017.
• There will be no exhibition at the ISU Junior Grand Prix Brisbane 2017.
• Spectator entry is free for the Brisbane JGP.
• Two brothers compete for different countries at the Brisbane JGP – Bruce Waddell (CAN) and George Waddell (GBR).
• Australians Jessica Palfreyman & Charlton Doherty were both born in Brisbane where they currently train.
• Canadian Marjorie Lajoie is a professional actress. Her partner, Zackary Lagha won the first prize in the Festival de musique de Montreal in 2017 (piano).
• Five of the nine ice dance teams competing in Brisbane train in North America, two train in Russia, and two are home-trained Australians.
• The North American teams traveled around 9,000 miles each way. The Russians came 8700 miles.
• Three of the teams faced off in July at the Lake Placid Championships. Lewis & Bye (SD gold/FD silver), Polishchuk & Vakhnov (SD silver/FD gold) and Gropman & Somerville (SD/FD bronze).
• Svetlana Liapina, coach of Sophia Polishchuk & Alexander Vakhnov, trained skaters in Australia for many years before returning to her native Russia. Her son, ice dancer Jonathan Guerreiro, was born in Sydney.

Until next week!

Team IDC