Preview: 2024 Cup of China
by Matteo Morelli
Cup of China is a relative recent event, added to the Grand Prix series from 2003. This year, it will be held in the Chongqing Huaxi Culture and Sports Centre in Chongqing, from November 22–24.
This is the last of the six ISU Grand Prix for this season, after which we will know the six teams that will have qualified for the Grand Prix Final. With two spots still open for grab and a Grand Prix season full of unpredictability, we can anticipate this last Grand Prix event to offer some exciting fights for the medals.
Teams at the event
Three teams enter the event with a silver medal from their first assignments and will be doing their best to grab the highest spots and secure the total points required to qualify for the final.
Charlene Guignard & Marco Fabbri of Italy ended in second place at Grand Prix de France, an unexpected outcome for one of the most experienced teams in the field. They paid the price for a couple of costly mistakes in the free, and in their second assignment they will want to solidify their position and reconfirm their leadership, hoping to qualify for what will be their fourth Grand Prix Final.
The qualification fight will also involve two teams that have been growing a lot in recent years and keep pushing their levels up competition after competition: Canada’s Marjorie Lajoie & Zachary Lagha, second at Skate Canada International and hoping to access their second Grand Prix Final, and USA’s Christina Carreira & Anthony Ponomarenko, who earned the first Grand Prix silver medal of their career at NHK Trophy and will be hoping to reach their first Final.
Olivia Smart & Tim Dieck of Spain won their first Grand Prix medal at Skate America, where they ended in third place showing how their relatively recent partnership is already starting to show the fruit of their hard work combined with the experience they both bring in from their previous partnerships. Also fresh of a bronze medal won at Finlandia Trophy are Juulia Turkkila & Matthias Versluis, flying directly from their home country to China as the only team at this event to compete in back to back assignments.
Other teams competing this week and at their second assignments are USA’s Caroline Green & Michael Parsons (fourth place at NHK Trophy), Georgia’s Diana Davis & Gleb Smolkin (fourth at Skate America), and France’s Loicia Demougeot & Theo Le Mercier (fifth at NHK Trophy).
To complete the list, two local teams will be competing on home soil at their only Grand Prix assignment: Ren Junfei & Xing Jianing, which are a new partnership that already won a bronze medal at Shanghai Trophy this season, and Xiao Zixi & He Linghao.
Event info: The rhythm dance kicks off on Friday, November 22, at 2:45pm (CST); the free dance occurs on Saturday, November 23, at 2:30pm (CST).