#icenetwork

Yuzuru: *asking Orser* Boyangboyangboyang...Where is my boyang?

*NO ONE PAID ATTENTION TO HIM*

Yuzuru: *Continue* Bo, where is my boyang boyang?

Orser: Just leave me alone please

Kurt Browning: SORRY BOYANG IS MINE

Zhenya: *lol and writing this down in her tiny notebook*

Snapshot Stats: Breaking Down Breakouts

This week, U.S. figure skating media hub Icenetwork released its fourth annual installment of the self-explanatory “Who will be ice dance’s breakout stars in...” series. And while any preseason prediction game is all in good fun, Two for the Ice wondered how frequently guesswork from the site’s contributors has actually translated into measurable success, or improvement, for a sampling of senior teams.

(2014-15 | 2015-16 | 2016-17)

Let our first chart serve as a guide for the next two. The season preceding the “breakout” season is included for each team here as a benchmark. 

Scoring averages are based on scores only from major ISU events: the Grand Prix series, Europeans, Four Continents, the Olympic Games, and Worlds. Out of 20 potential “breakouts” across the seasons, scores increased 80% of the time. The notable exceptions? Madison Hubbell and Zach Donohue in 2014-15, dropping from 154.81 to 152.30; Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Nikolaj Sorensen in 2015-16 (153.38 to 146.47); Elena Ilinykh and Ruslan Zhiganshin in 2015-16 (157.25 to 156.01); and Anastasia Cannuscio and Colin McManus in 2016-17 (141.04 to 140.32). In each case but the last, these drops actually coincided with a team’s first appearance on the breakout list.

But what the trendlines of the scoring chart actually tell us is that scores in themselves have simply increased year-to-year in the Pyeongchang quad. It’s obvious given the frequency with which new records and new personal bests have been set season to season (or event to event), but it’s especially illuminating when juxtaposed against changes in national and/or international placement for these couples -- the measurement that really assesses how great a breakthrough each has made.

Out of 16 senior national placements considered here -- those for teams from the competitive countries of Canada, USA, and Russia -- “breakout”-season teams dropped by at least one spot, from the preceding year, on 5 different occasions. In another 4 cases, placements remained unchanged from the previous season. And while Cannuscio and McManus, Madison Chock and Evan Bates, and Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier all saw temporarily improved fortunes, their placements would drop in a subsequent “breakout” season. 

Things are bleaker at the World level: on only one occasion apiece did Chock and Bates, Gilles and Poirier, Hubbell and Donohue, and Alexandra Stepanova and Ivan Bukin improve their placement from the preceding championships. For the first three teams, subsequent placements would drop, while Stepanova and Bukin’s improvement from 11th in 2016 to 10th in 2017 was still lower than 2015′s 9th.

On twitter @icenetwork have had polls over the past two days "Choose the Best Programs from the Most Recent Figure Skating Season"! And Tessa and Scott Won Both for Ice Dance

Links for both Dances (From the tweets above): 

Short Dance

(source)

Reactions to this tweet included: