2009 Figure Skating World Championships: my predictions
Ah yes, the World Championships are upon us. In Los Angeles. I’d have gone if I, A) had massive vacation days which I don’t as a first-year employee, B) had the money, and C) knew well in advance that icenetwork isn’t showing on-demand, much less live, video of the event. :>/
Not to mention, the year prior to the Olympics is always a thrilling year. Don’t forget: individual skater’s placements here determine the number of individuals in each discipline they can send to the Olympics. In order to secure 3 spots for an olympic team for each discipline, the top two placements from each countries individuals/teams must not equal greater that 13 when combined.
By the way: who’s bright idea was it to schedule the Worlds during the height of NCAA March Madness basketball? I understand that NCAA-men’s basketball rules the sports TV networks in America through the month of March… and that Worlds always takes place in March… but it would be nice if we could have pushed it back 1-2 weeks into April. But oh wait. This is wishful thinking. Of course. Silly Selfish American. The rest of the world isn’t concerned with NCAA basketball, and that would take even more time away for preparation for Olympic programs. I must be thankful for my 9-11 p.m. (EDT) live NBC local coverage of the Ladies Freeskate, and finagle someone to tape all of those 11 p.m./Midnight to 2 a.m. live feeds on the Oxygen network.
Anyway: since I’m a skating dork-of-a-fan and like to make and post my predictions here they are. (Although, no one really cares, they do bring a scarily impressive jump in visits to my blog. So please, stop by and comment with your own predictions: I’d love to hear what you’re predicting!). I came to these predictions by a combination of: ISU-season personal best scores, results in pressure-events this season, last year’s world’s placement, icenetwork.com world rankings, personal preference of difficulty/presentation of programs, influence of the L.A. crowd, and gut-feeling. 
(By the way, you can get the live results from ISU at: http://www.isuresults.com/results/wc2009/)
ICE DANCE:
The competition in the top 6 is going to be intense and close! I really can’t wait to see how this turns out.
1. Jana KHOKHLOVA / Sergei NOVITSKI
2. Meryl DAVIS / Charlie WHITE
3. Tessa VIRTUE / Scott MOIR
4. Tanith BELBIN / Ben AGOSTO
6. Federica FAIELLA / Massimo SCALI
7. Nathalie PECHALAT / Fabian BOURZAT
8. Sinead KERR / John KERR
PAIRS:
Given some of the inconsistencies of these teams this season I would expect the top 6 be quite close… I think those that I have predicted 7th-10th could easily move near the medals if they put together two great skates and those above them falter.
2. Qing PANG / Jian TONG (it’d be nice if the nerves didn’t take over yet again)
MEN:
Quads? Or Quality? Which will it be?
1. Patrick Chan
2. Evan Lysacek
3. Brian Joubert
4. Jeremy Abbott
7. Nobunari ODA
10. Tomas VERNER
11. Yannick PONSERO
12. Vaughn CHIPEUR
13. Brandon MROZ
14. Jeremy TEN
15. Michal BREZINA
LADIES:
So. Who will it be this year? If more than one of the top three skate two programs clean, then it’s a toss up between the three of them. If neither of those three skate clean, I believe any of the top 10-11 could rise onto the podium with two clean programs. I can’t wait!
1. Yu-Na KIM
7. Rachael FLATT **Just sqweaking out that combined position for 3 entries in the 2010 Olympics.
9. Fumie SUGURI
10. Laura LEPISTÖ
11. Alena LEONOVA
12. Susanna PÖYKIÖ
13. Sara Meier
14. Amelie LACOSTE
15. Jenna McCorkell
16. Anette Dytrt
17. Julia Sebestyen
18. Elena Glebova
Also, predictions for the countries to receive 3 entries for the 2010 Olympics:
Ice Dance: RUS, USA
Pairs: RUS, CAN, CHN
Men: USA, FRA, CAN
Ladies: Canada, Japan, USA
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