The International Skating Union announced today athlete selections for the 2019 ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating Series, which will begin Oct. 18-20 with 2019 Skate America in Las Vegas.
The field at Skate America will feature American Bradie Tennell (ladies), along with reigning U.S. champions Nathan Chen (men), Ashley Cain-Gribble and Timothy LeDuc (pairs), and Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue (ice dance). 2014 Olympian Jason Brown and 2018 Olympian Karen Chen will also compete at Skate America.
The Grand Prix Series incorporates six international figure skating competitions as a unified point-scoring series that awards prize money to eligible skaters. At the conclusion of the Series, athletes’ points are totaled, and the top six ladies, men, pairs and ice dance teams will be eligible to compete at the 2019 ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating Final, set for Dec. 5-8 in Turin, Italy.
In 2018, the United States captured 15 medals on the Grand Prix circuit, including Grand Prix Final titles for Chen and Hubbell and Donohue.
The complete list of athlete selections for the 2019 Grand Prix Series is available at www.isu.org. The lists of U.S. selections to all six Grand Prix events and international selections to Skate America are below. (Lineups are subject to change.)
TEAM USA ASSIGNMENTS FOR 2019 ISU GRAND PRIX OF FIGURE SKATING SERIES
Skate America — Las Vegas — Oct. 18-20, 2019
Ladies: Karen Chen, Bradie Tennell; TBD**
Men: Jason Brown, Nathan Chen; TBD**
Pairs: Ashley Cain-Gribble/Timothy LeDuc, Haven Denney/Brandon Frazier; TBD**
Ice dance: Christina Carreira/Anthony Ponomarenko, Madison Hubbell/Zachary Donohue; TBD**
Skate Canada International — Kelowna, British Columbia — Oct. 25-27, 2019
Ladies: Bradie Tennell
Men: Camden Pulkinen*
Pairs: Jessica Calalang/Brian Johnson*, Alexa Scimeca-Knierim/Chris Knierim
Ice dance: Caroline Green/Michael Parsons*, Kaitlin Hawayek/Jean-Luc Baker, Madison Hubbell/Zachary Donohue
Internationaux de France — Grenoble, France — Nov. 1-3, 2019
Ladies: Mariah Bell, Ting Cui*
Men: Nathan Chen, Tomoki Hiwatashi*
Pairs: Ashley Cain-Gribble/Timothy LeDuc, Haven Denney/Brandon Frazier
Ice dance: Madison Chock/Evan Bates, Lorraine McNamara/Quinn Carpenter
Cup of China — Chongqing, China — Nov. 8-10, 2019
Men: Camden Pulkinen, Vincent Zhou
Pairs: Tarah Kayne/Danny O’Shea
Ice dance: Madison Chock/Evan Bates, Kaitlin Hawayek/Jean-Luc Baker
Rostelecom Cup — Moscow — Nov. 15-17, 2019
Ladies: Mariah Bell
Men: Alex Krasnozhon, Vincent Zhou
Pairs: Audrey Lu/Misha Mitrofanov
NHK Trophy — Sapporo, Japan — Nov. 22-24, 2019
Ladies: Starr Andrews, Karen Chen, Ting Cui
Men: Jason Brown, Tomoki Hiwatashi
Pairs: Tarah Kayne/Danny O’Shea, Alexa Scimeca-Knierim/Chris Knierim
Ice dance: Christina Carreira/Anthony Ponomarenko, Lorraine McNamara/Quinn Carpenter
*making Grand Prix Series debut
**to be determined
2019 SKATE AMERICA INTERNATIONAL ATHLETES
Ladies: Veronik Mallet (CAN), Wakaba Higuchi (JPN), Kaori Sakamoto (JPN), Mako Yamashita (JPN), Elizabet Tursynbaeva (KAZ), Eunsoo Lim (KOR), Stanislava Konstantinova (RUS), Anna Shcherbakova (RUS), Elizaveta Tuktamysheva (RUS)
Men: Keegan Messing (CAN), Boyang Jin (CHN), Michal Brezina (CZE), Romain Ponsart (FRA), Koshiro Shimada (JPN), Kazuki Tomono (JPN), Junhwan Cha (KOR), Dmitri Aliev (RUS), Roman Savosin (RUS)
Pairs: Ekaterina Alexandrovskaya/Harley Windsor (AUS), Camille Ruest/Andrew Wolfe (CAN), Cheng Peng/Yang Jin (CHN), Daria Pavliuchenko/Denis Khodykin (RUS), Natalia Zabiiako/Alexander Enbert (RUS)
Ice dance: Laurence Fournier Beaudry/Nikolaj Sorensen (CAN), Hong Chen/Zhuoming Sun (CHN), Marie-Jade Lauriault/Romain Le Gac (FRA), Sofia Shevchenko/Igor Eremenko (RUS), Alexandra Stepanova/Ivan Bukin (RUS), Tiffani Zagorski/Jonathan Guerreiro (RUS), Olivia Smart/Adrian Diaz (ESP)