Who do you think will retire at the end of this season?
Some skaters I'm pretty sure will end or at least take a break from competitive skating at the end of this season. Americans Evan Lysacek, Johnny Weir, as well as Belbin and Agosto are all slated to step back after these Olympics.
Our returnees will likely bow out as well: Lambiel, Plushenko, Cohen (but I wish she wouldn't!), and Shen and Zhao.
Pang and Tong have been at this for a while and may retire and I expect Delobel and Schoenfelder will be done as well.
Outside of that I'm not sure. There are some big question marks over the heads of Kim Yu-Na, Brian Joubert, Mao Asada, Daisuke Takahashi and others. I suspect placement in Vancouver may decide the future of some of these skaters.
8 comments:
It might be wishful thinking but I wonder whether, injury permitting, Stephane Lambiel will stay around another year as Europeans is in Switzerland and I'm pretty sure he has never even competed in an ISU championship in his home country. In Tallinn when they announced that next years championship would be in Bern he was bouncing around pointing at himself
omg, i sure hope kim doesn't retire...but, with all the pressure she carries, perhaps i should cut her some slack. but, my hope is she'd be around at least another 2-3 years.
and, it's pretty clear inoue and baldwin said their goodbyes...and, likely hughes, as well as perhaps (i groan!) navarro and bommentre.
BUT, perhaps not meissner!:http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/olympics/bal-sp.meissner29jan29,0,1020163.story
I did fail to mention Inoue and Baldwin. They stated at Nationals they wanted that to be their final competitive performance.
I'm not so sure on Navarro and Bommentre or Emily Hughes. Kim and Brent especially would have an opening to grow with Belbin and Agosto out of the picture. They may retire but they shouldn't!
And Meissner has emphatically stated on Twitter she wants to continue competing.
i will be ecstatic if navarro & bomm stick with it!
Mao has already said she will stick around regardless of her results at Olympics. Kim said she will be there at Worlds; don't know about next season. Don't know about Miki or Rochette.
while on the subject of miki, i wish i could say she has grown on me, but i just don't feel she's grown as a performer...and i'm rarely drawn into her programs. yes, she is a great jumper, when she's on.
Poor Kimmie, her time has come and passed. I don't see her getting on the podium again with Flatt, Wagner, and now Mirai being fairly consistent. Both Mao and Yu-na are young enough for another round of the Olympics. If they retire, it would be a shame. My guess is Yuna probably will curtail her skating a la Michelle Kwan and only compete sporadically. Miki is also quite young. I can see her around for at least couple more years. I bet this will be the swan song for Rochette. Time to move on. I do hope she has a clean sp+lp at the Olympics. It's so sad for any skater who have never done a clean sp+lp combo before they retire. Lambiel is young enough to stick around for another Olympics. But three might be just too much. This will be Evan and Weir's last Olympics. It'll be sad if neither one of them stand on the podium (which is a very possible possibility) before they retire. I guess it'll be especially sad for Evan since he has just about every title: Grand Prix, and Worlds. All he needs is an Olympic gold (which ain't happening unless he gets the quads under control, and yes, I know quad isn't everything but since all the top skaters gets 70-80 component scores when they skate clean in lp, quad will be the difference between standing on the podium or not. And so far, Evan has proven that he isn't able to execute one cleanly at this year's competitions. And Abbott, Plushy, and Lambiel all able to dish out minimally one if not two quads).
Brian Joubert has said he wants to stick around for a while longer. How long, nobody knows. I think it will depend on how much the FFSG likes Amodio's chances.
Stephane Lambiel - Alison, 2002 Euros were held in Lausanne, and Stephane finished 4th. I'm pretty sure that was the last time he skated in a major event in Switzerland. In addition, he was in the gala at 1997 Worlds, also in Lausanne. I do believe that (health permitting) Stephane and Sarah Meier will probably stay to skate in 2011 Euros.
DelSchoes will obviously retire after this season. Both have families and after 20 years together, they will want to do other things. DomShabs are probably finished as well. In pairs, I expect the top Chinese teams to retire, except maybe the Zhangs. What Savchenko and Szolkowy do will likely depend on their results in Vancouver.
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