Grand Prix 2007-2008 Rosters

Aaah! Seeing the Grand Prix assignments excites me because then I get to analyze the rosters and then hypothesize what will happen... The Grand Prix of Figure Skating is the first international competition of the skating season. It's sometimes dissapointing because skaters who were brilliant the last seasons are older... sometimes they're just unfit and will be great by the end of the season, but other times their careers are waning. At the same time, the Grand Prix is great because new, young skaters emerge to dethrone the old.

Last year, we saw Miki Ando, Yu Na Kim, Brian Joubert, Tomas Verner and Daisuke Takahashi step up to the plate and really work hard to be consistent competitors. Stephane Lambiel, who was brilliant in the previous Olympic season, was dissapointing after missing most of the 06-07 season and only finishing with a bronze World medal. Still, he really fought for a great long program (his flamenco), and you sense that he will be back stronger than ever this upcoming year. Kimmie Meissner and Mao Asada were also dissapointing, and maybe were hyped a little too much before they were really ready for such high competition. In my mind, Kimmie's gold World medal was too easily won, as she was the only main competitor with with triple-triple jumps, and really didn't have any polish to her skating. I somehow doubt she'll be much better artistically this season, but I'll forgive her if she does better in terms of her elements this year: I'd like to see a triple axel to see her really be able to compete with Mao, and I think her triple-triples should be as consistent as Yu Na's and Miki Ando's if she really wants to medal.

Okay, so now that I've ranted and raved about last season, I'll put up the assignments that I promised, in the order I assume/want the skaters will place (just the highlights, for the full listings see: Mens, Ladies, Dance, Pairs.). An explanation will follow...

Mens:
Skate America
(1) Daisuke Takahashi
(2) Evan Lysacek
(3) Alban Preaubert
(4) Ryan Bradley

Skate Canada
(1) Brian Joubert
(2) Jeffery Buttle
(3) Nobunari Oda
(4) Kevin Van Der Perren

Cup of China
(1) Stephane Lambiel
(2) Johnny Weir
(3) Evan Lysacek

Trophee Eric Bompard
(1) Brian Joubert
(2) Tomas Verner
(3) Nobunari Oda
(4) Alban Preaubert
(5) Kevin Van Der Perren

Cup of Russia
(1) Stephan Lambiel
(2) Johnny Weir
(3) Jeffey Buttle

NHK Trophy
(1) Daisuke Takahashi
(2) Tomas Verner
(3) Sergei Davydov

Ladies:

Skate America
(1) Miki Ando
(2) Emily Hughes
(3) Kimmie Meissner
(4) Elene Gedevanishvili
(5) Caroline Zhang
(6) Mai Asada

Skate Canada
(1) Joannie Rochette
(2) Mao Asada
(3) Yukari Nakano
(4) Emily Hughes

Cup of China
(1) Yu Na Kim
(2) Carolina Kostner
(3) Fumie Suguri
(4) Julia Sebestyen
(5) Beatrisa Liang
(6) Caroline Zhang
(7) Susanna Poykio
(8) Alissa Czisny

Trophee Eric Bompard
(1) Sarah Meier
(2) Mao Asada
(3) Kimmie Meissner
(4) Aki Sawada

Cup of Russia
(1) Yu Na Kim
(2) Joannie Rochette
(3) Fumie Suguri
(4) Joannie Rochette
(5) Yu Na Kim

NHK Trophy
(1) Miki Ando
(2) Sarah Meier
(3) Carolina Kostner
(4) Elene Gedevanishvili
(5) Alissa Czisny
(6) Aki Sawada

Dance

Skate America
(1) Belbin/Agosto
(2) Davis/White
(3) Faiella/Scali

Skate Canada
(1) Denkova/Staviski
(2) Virtue/Moir
(3) Gregory/Petukhov

Cup of China
(1) Domnina/Shabalin
(2) Belbin/Agosto
(3) Kerr/Kerr
(4) Faiella/Scali

Trophee Eric Bompard
(1) Delobel/Schoenfelder
(2) Davis/White
(3) Khokhlova/Novitski

NHK Trophy
(1) Delobel/Schoenfelder
(2) Virtue/Moir
(3) Kerr/Kerr

Pairs:

Skate America
(1) Pang/Tong
(2) Castile/Okolski
(3) Dube/Davidson
(4) Nam/Leftheris

Skate Canada
(1) Savchenko/Szolkowy
(2) Dube/Davidson
(3) Kawaguchi/Smirnov

Cup of China
(1) Pang/Tong
(2) Inoue/Baldwin
(3) Nam/Lefteris

Trophee Eric Bompard
(1) Castile/Okolski
(2) Zhang/Zhang
(3) Mukhortova/Trankov (really I have no clue.)

Cup of Russia
(1) Savchenko/Szolkowy
(2) Zhang/Zhang
(3) Kawaguchi/Smirnov

NHK Trophy
(1) Inoue/Baldwin
(2) Li/Xu
(3) Langlois/Hay
(4) REALLY I HAVE NO CLUE WHO THESE PEOPLE ARE BECAUSE THEY ALL SUCK.

so um, basically in Pairs I just love Savchenko/Szolkowy and that's it....