The national championships in the highest-ranked nations in the world have now concluded and teams have been named for the 2018 Four Continents Championships, which take place in Taipei City, Chinese Taipei, Jan. 22-27, at the Taipei Arena, a venue with a seating capacity for 10,000. The competition begins on Wednesday, Jan. 24 with the ice dance, pairs and ladies short programs.
Skaters from the Americas, Australia, New Zealand, Asia and Africa are eligible to participate in this competition.
With the Olympic Winter Games just around the corner, a number of nations have not assigned athletes who are headed to PyeongChang in February, but are nonetheless fielding strong teams that will be competitive on this international stage.
Both Chinese pairs teams have withdrawn from this event — Wenjing Sui and Cong Han and Cheng Peng and Yang Jin — so that nation will not represented in this discipline. “Sui received a shin skin scratch in training a week ago and Jin has been suffering from recrudescence of old injuries. In order to protect the health of the skaters, the Chinese Figure Skating Association and the national team made the decision,” the Chinese Figure Skating Association said in a statement on Saturday.
CANADA
Men: Elladj Balde, Nam Nguyen, Kevin Reynolds
Ladies: Alaine Chartrand, Michelle Long, Alicia Pineault
Pairs: Lubov Ilyushechkina/Dylan Moscovitch, Sydney Kolodziej/Maxime Deschamps, Camille Ruest/Drew Wolfe
Ice Dance: Sarah Arnold/Thomas Williams, Haley Sales/Nikolas Wamsteeker, Carolane Soucisse/Shane Firus
CHINA
Ladies; Li Xiangning, Ziquan Zhao
Men: Boyang Jin, Han Yan, He Zhang
Pairs: Peng Cheng/Jin Yang, Wenjing Sui/Cong Han
Ice Dance: Song LInshu/Sun Zhuoming, Wang Shiyue/Liu Xinyu
JAPAN
Ladies: Satoko Miyahara, Kaori Sakamoto, Mai Mihara
Men: Shoma Uno, Keiji Tanaka, Takahito Mura
Pairs: Miu Suzaki and Ryuichi Kihara, Narumi Takahashi and Ryo Shibata, Riku Miura and Shoya Ichihashi
Ice Dance: Kana Muramoto and Chris Reed, Misato Komatsubara and Tim Koleto, and Rikako Fukase and Aru Tateno
SOUTH KOREA
Men: Jun-Hwan Cha, June Hyoung Lee, Sihyeong Lee
Ladies: Dabin Choi, Hanul Kim, So-youn Park
Pairs: Kyueun Kim and Alex Kangchan Kam
Ice Dance: Yura Min and Alexander Gamelin
UNITED STATES
Ladies: Starr Andrews, Mariah Bell, Ashley Wagner
Men: Jason Brown, Ross Miner, Max Aaron
Pairs: Ashley Cain/Timothy LeDuc, Tarah Kayne/Danny O’Shea, Deanna Stellato/Nathan Bartholomay
Ice Dance: Kaitlin Hawayek/Jean-Luc Baker, Lorraine McNamara/Quinn Carpenter, Rachel Parsons/Michael Parsons