This pairs field is stacked. You have three of the top seven from Worlds last season competing, as well as the US champions and two other American teams who just formed last year and have shown a lot of promise already. The skating world has not been incredibly impressed with Grand Prix pairs fields over the past few years, but this one will surely shatter those expectations.
Skate America predictions
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GOLD Riku Miura/Ryuichi Kihara JPN - Last season was almost a complete wash for them after injury took them out of most of it. They came back and had a strong Worlds to finish with the silver. But they are back on the Grand Prix for the first time in two years, with their last Grand Prix season being the undefeated one in 2022. Their silver at Lombardia last month was marred by a fluke fall on a lift, but we know they will bounce back from that stronger for this event.
SILVER Maria Pavlova/Alexei Sviatchenko HUN - Consistency has been their strong point, and it’s what kept them steadily rising up last season all the way to a fourth-place finish at Worlds. So far this season, they’ve brought a lot of the same energy, taking bronze at Lombardia and winning Shanghai Trophy over European champions Lucrezia Beccari/Matteo Guarise.
BRONZE Anastasiia Metelkina/Luka Berulava GEO - This one is a bit of a question mark for me. We haven’t seen Metelkina/Berulava yet this season, as this will be their first competition since Worlds. But after a really superb fall, where they looked like they were on their way to a Worlds surprise, they just kept making errors in their free skates in three consecutive competitions at the end of the season. Let’s see if they have fixed that for the Grand Prix debut.
4. Ellie Kam/Danny O’Shea USA - After winning Nationals last season, Kam/O’Shea have started this season looking more gelled as a pair. Most importantly, Kam has figured out her timing on the throws, and they aren’t nearly the prayers that they were the past two seasons. They are coming off a free skate at Nebelhorn where they counted five falls—chalk it up to the inexperience of snowballing mistakes. But if they can hit two clean skates, a podium finish is right there for them.
5. Alisa Efimova/Misha Mitrofanov USA - After taking second last year at US Nationals, Efimova/Mitrofanov wanted to carry that momentum into their first international season. And they have done just that, taking silver at John Nicks Invitational and then fourth at Nebelhorn last month. Their liability is the side-by-side jumps.
6. Katie McBeath/Daniil Parkman USA - Both strong singles skaters, McBeath/Parkman impressed last season in their first few months together. They were very strong at John Nicks Invitational with a near-clean free skate that launched them from a disappointing short program up to fifth overall. They will need to be clean here to make their case against the other two American pairs.
7. Anastasia Vaipan-Law/Luke Digby GBR - These back-to-back weeks of competition for the British champions will test their stamina and their jet lag. They have been putting up some of the best numbers of their career so far this season, breaking 170 in both Nebelhorn and Tayside. They were seventh here last year, but will most certainly be more in it than they were at that event.
8. Milania Vaananen/Filippo Clerici FIN - Skate America will be their second ever Grand Prix appearance, and their first GP outside their home country. They took seventh at John Nicks earlier this season behind a few of these pairs, but they were competitive there.