A. Elite Canada

Elite Canada for the women begins today and continues through the weekend—signalling the unofficial start of the elite season after a long, cold January. The senior elite AA competition is today at 5:20 ET, junior elite begins tomorrow at 12:00 ET, and both competitions conclude Sunday at 12:00 ET, the juniors with a second day of AA and the seniors with event finals. Flo has live streaming if you want to play that game.

Ellie Black is competing, so guess who’s the favorite to win. Ana Padurariu is also expected to rank well, though most interesting among the main players should be the performance of Isabela Onyshko, who was really struggling toward the end of 2018 and missed out on a spot at worlds as a result. At full strength, Onyshko remains one of the best Canadians, but you also wonder if Ana Padurariu is edging her out of the first tier since Padurariu’s contribution profile is similar. Watch that space.

Also keep an eye on people like Sophie Marois, Laurie Denommee, the Woos, Haley de Jong, new senior Emma Spence, and still-junior Zoe Allaire-Bourgie as they jockey for positions in the hierarchy of worlds and future Olympics contenders. At this point, you certainly feel like Black, Padurariu, Olsen, and Moors are a step above, but the process is so long and so far from being complete.

B. Buckeye Classic and elite qualifier

The first elite qualifier of the US season is currently underway. On Thursday, 20 new people got their elite compulsory scores (which you only have to do once and then never ever again because it’s literally pointless for modern elites, sigh). In the first session of the optionals, Stephanie Berger from Brestyan’s qualified to the US Classic with a 51.750 AA score.

Flo just has the L10 competition, but you can follow along with the elite qualifiers through USAG’s scores. Continue reading Things Are Happening – February 1, 2019 →