After both ended their home championships, the United States and Canada successively announced the list of team members participating in figure skating at the Beijing Winter Olympics. Canada announced the list of 13 people on January 10, Beijing time, covering 2 men's single skates, 1 women's single skate, 2 pair skates, and 3 ice dances, a total of 8 individual places. The United States recently announced the list of team members participating in the Beijing Winter Olympics figure skating team, world champion Chen Wei, 16-year-old talented girl Liu Meixian, ice dance star Jock / Butters and other players were all selected.
The Canadian figure skating team sent a "old with the new" lineup, with 9 players aged 30 and 2 "post-00s" young players.
The current ISU world no. 2 ice dance duo, Pipper Gilles/Paul Poisiers, is a 30-year-old veteran who won a bronze medal at last season's World Championships and are up to the table to compete for the ice medal at the Beijing Winter Olympics. Another pair of veterans, Lawrence Vernier-Bodley/Nicola Sorensen, and the young duo of Marjorie Lajoy/Zachary Raja are ranked 7th and 14th respectively in the world.
Ice dance duo Pipper Gilles/Paul Poulier (Geoff Robins/AFP via Getty Images/File)
Kirsten Moore-Torres/Michael Marinaro, who have just won the pair skating title at the Canadian Championships, finished 11th at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics after the Russian 3-pair and Chinese 2-pair pairs in the world rankings. Another pair of pair skaters on the roster is the legendary Vanessa James/Eric Radford. Radford, who will turn 37 at the end of the month, retired after winning a bronze medal in pair skating with Megan Duhamel at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics. Vanessa James, who competed in the same competition, teamed up with Morgan Spears to represent France and won the fifth place. Vanessa James retired in 2019. In 2021, the duo announced a comeback, and Vanessa James, supported by the French Skating Association, successfully obtained Canadian citizenship, so that the two could fight for Canada at the Beijing Winter Olympics.
The world's No. 5 veteran Keegan Messing and 22-year-old Roman Sadowski locked up two men's singles spots. Madeleine Scisas, an 18-year-old women's singles player, is the youngest player on the roster, and being named to the Winter Olympics roster made her childhood dream come true.
The United States competed in the figure skating event of the Beijing Winter Olympics in full except for the pair skating. Chen Wei, who has just won his sixth U.S. Figure Skating Championships, leads the men's singles squad and will be Yusheng's biggest opponent at the Beijing Winter Olympics. The other two men's singles players selected are Zhou Zhifang, who is no. 6 at the PyeongChang Winter Olympics, and Jason Brown, who is now no. 2 in the world.
Chen Wei
Women's singles players include Maria Bell, who just won the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, and 2017 National Champion and Chinese-American Kaiwen Chen. Two-time U.S. figure skating champion Liu Meixian, a Chinese athlete who tested positive for covid-19, withdrew from the U.S. Figure Skating Championships after a short show, but she was eventually selected for the Winter Olympics with her performances over the past year. The top three winners of this year's USA Figure Skating Championships, Madison Jock/Evan Bates, Madison Hubbell/Zachary Donohoe and Havajek/Baker, have unsurprisingly locked up three Winter Olympic spots for Ice Dance, and they are now ranked 1st, 5th and 12th in the world rankings respectively.
In pair skating, new home-based champions Kane Glebrüller/Leduc managed to secure a spot. Despite withdrawing from the U.S. Figure Skating Championships due to the covid-19 infection of his male partner, the Nereem/Fraser combination still locked in another spot. Her female partner Nelim won the bronze medal in the team competition with her husband at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, and in 2020 she partnered with Fraser to prepare for the Beijing Winter Olympics.
Image source Olympic's official website