There is a very intriguing storyline in the ice dance event this week—usually, the berths in ice dance for the Grand Prix Final feel somewhat straight-forward; but this year, our final Grand Prix event before the Final will feature a real battle among three teams. And at the end of all of it, only two of them will get through to Grenoble next month.
Cup of China predictions
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Grand Prix Final: Mapping the scenarios
GOLD Charlene Guignard/Marco Fabbri ITA - The possibility that the World bronze medalists would find themselves in this situation right now in a real fight for one of the Grand Prix Final spots—that was likely not in their line of sight earlier in the season. But that fall they took in the free dance at Grand Prix de France changed everything, and they ended up with silver there. A bounce back this week will be very much welcomed, and they will be looking to build that momentum back.
SILVER Marjorie Lajoie/Zachary Lagha CAN - Of all the teams here, Lajoie/Lagha are the ones who could pull off an upset over the Italians even if everyone were to skate cleanly. A fluke fall in the rhythm dance at Skate Canada left them out of sorts but they came back very strongly in the free dance to secure that silver medal there.
BRONZE Christina Carreira/Anthony Ponomarenko USA - After taking silver at NHK Trophy, Carreira/Ponomarenko have found themselves in the surprise spot of being one of the contenders for the Grand Prix Final. Like Guignard/Fabbri and Lajoie/Lagha, second or higher will get them to the Final, but they are, on paper, the underdogs here.
4. Juulia Turkkila/Matthias Versluis FIN - In back-to-back Grand Prix events after winning bronze last week at home at Finlandia. They have an outside shot at getting to the Final, but it will require them to finish with the silver here and win a tiebreaker.
5. Caroline Green/Michael Parsons USA - The former US silver medalists have made steady improvements in their first two events this season, most recently finishing fourth at NHK Trophy. It will be a long shot for them to get on the podium this week given the field, but where they finish relative to these teams will be a sign of how much they have been able to return to the status that gave them a top six finish at Worlds just two seasons ago.
6. Olivia Smart/Tim Dieck ESP - Their Dune free dance has been a hit with both the fans and the judges this season, and the creativity and flow of that program have given them some big personal best scores this season, including at Skate America, where they went on to finish with the bronze.
7. Diana Davis/Gleb Smolkin GEO - Davis/Smolkin were second at their most recent event at Nepela Memorial a month ago, breaking 200 internationally for the first time. But their scores in Challenger events don’t always translate to what they get elsewhere.
8. Loicia Demougeot/Theo le Mercier FRA - Fifth at NHK Trophy, the French silver medalists will be among the teams who will be fighting for that top five finish.
9. Junfei Ren/Jianing Xing CHN - It will be a third international head-to-head between them and their teammates this week. Ren/Xing have won both of their meetings and will be looking for a third.
10. Zixi Xiao/Linghao He CHN - In their second season together, Xiao/He have gotten more international experience this season. They finished 10th in Nice and 12th at Nepela Memorial.