Two of a Kind

After doing a review of what I'm looking forward to in dance last week, I've decided to give you my opinion on who I'll be watching out for in pairs this year. This isn't a comprehensive look at all of the pairs skaters out there--it's just who I'll be looking forward to watching/find interesting this upcoming season.

Keauna McLaughlin and Rockne Brubaker
I'm so excited that these guys are going to be competing fully as seniors this year--Keauna is now old enough to go to Senior Worlds (which, judging from the state of pairs skating in the US, I think that they'll very easily go to). I think that they're going to make a huge splash on the senior circuit this year--last season was their senior debut, and they managed to medal in both of their GP events, made it to the GP Final, and then, to finish everything off, won gold at their first senior nationals. I have a lot of hope that these guys are the pairs team that the US has been looking for.

Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy

They aren't my favorite pairs team, but they do interest me. After saying that they wanted to win everything last season, they almost did--the one exception being Cup of Russia. How will these new world champions fare in the coming season? Well, I don't know that...but they did seem to have a very good hold on the gold medal last season. There are a few up and comers, however, that I think they should be watching out for (for more on that, read most of the other blurbs in this post).

Jessica Dube and Bryce Davison
Can I just start out by being horribly biased and saying that I LOVE this team. My love began when they came back after that terrible injury that Jessica sustained at last year's 4CC (and they STILL do the side by side flying camels!) to skate at Worlds only a few weeks later. And then they lost the Canadian title this year, and then came back (that seemed to be a thing for Canadians last season...Jeff did it to) to go against all of the odds and won bronze at Worlds (with only a double twist!). This year, they're back and they've mastered the triple twist in the off season...what could possibly be better?

Dan Zhang and Hao Zhang
This [unrelated, by the way] team has the hugest triple twist in competition right now. They won silver at last year's worlds, and are a part of the Chinese pairs program that's come to dominate the sport in the past years. I'll admit that I'm not the biggest fans of these guys (I preferred the retired Shen and Zhao), but I will say that I do look forward to seeing what they come up with this season and whether or not the Chinese influx in pairs skating will hold through the 2010 Olympics.