The third ISU World Team Trophy will take place in Tokyo, Japan from April 11 to 14. The six best national figure skating teams of the 2012/13 season will perform. Based on the scoring scale used for the ISU World Standing points, the six teams qualified for this event are Canada, China, France, Japan, Russia and the USA. They qualified primarily according to the results of the ISU World Figure Skating Championships, the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating and the Final plus possibly the ISU European, ISU Four Continents, ISU World Junior Figure Skating Championships and the ISU Junior Grand Prix of Figure Skating. The highest prize money in ISU history will be awarded with a total of US$ 1.000.000. For the first time a team event, which differs slightly to the ISU World Team Trophy format, will be included in the program of the 2014 Olympic Winter Games in Sochi, Russia.
The ISU World Team Trophy is a competition between six national figure skating teams. Each team has a total of eight skaters namely two Men, two Ladies, one Pair and one Ice Dance couple. Each team nominates a captain who represents the team including during the medal giving ceremony. The competition will be held in the Yoyogi National Stadium in Tokyo.
Each skater/couple will compete with a Short Program/Short Dance and Free Skating/Free Dance. In each discipline, the top ranked skater(s) earns 12 points, the second ranked skater/couple receives 11 points and so on. The last ranked single skater gets one point, the last pair/ice dance couple gets 7 points. These points are added together to determine the winning team.
Overview of the teams
Canada qualified as the top ranked team with 7824 points followed by the USA with 7156 points and Japan with 6823 points. Russia accumulated 6648 points and came in fourth while France is ranked fifth at 4826 points. China qualified with 4702 points.
Canada
Three-time and reigningWorld Champion Patrick Chan headlines the Canadian squad. He is joined by newly minted World bronze medalists Meagan Duhamel/Eric Radford and Ice Dancers Kaitlyn Weaver/Andrew Poje who placed fifth at the recent ISU World Championships. Canada’s second entry in the Men’s event is reigning Four Continents Champion Kevin Reynolds. Canadian Champion Kaetlyn Osmond and Gabrielle Daleman are the entries in the Ladies event.
United States of America
Collecting points for the USA in Tokyo are 2012 Four Continents Champion Ashley Wagner, reigning U.S. Champion Max Aaron, three-time U.S. Champion Jeremy Abbott as well as Gracie Gold. Reigning Four Continents bronze medalists Marissa Castelli/Simon Shnapir and Madison Chock/Evan Bates represent team USA in the Pairs and Ice Dance events.
Japan
Reigning ISU Grand Prix Final Champion Daisuke Takahashi leads team Japan. He counts on reigning Four Continents Champion World bronze medalist Mao Asada, 2012 World bronze medalist Akiko Suzuki as well as on Takahito Mura and Ice Dancers Cathy Reed/Chris Reed in Japan’s quest to defend last year’s crown. Japan has no entry in the Pairs event.
Russia
Newly crowned World Pairs Champions Tatiana Volosozhar/Maxim Trankov headline the Russian team.
They bring 2013 European silver medalist Adelina Sotnikova, 2013 European bronze medalist Elizaveta Tuktamysheva as well as ISU Junior Grand Prix Final Champion Maxim Kovtun with them to Tokyo. Konstantin Menshov and Ice Dancers Ksenia Monko/Kirill Khaliavin complete the team.
France
The French delegation in Tokyo is spearheaded by multiple World and European medalist Brian Joubert. France also sends Mae-Berenice Meite, Lenaelle Gilleron-Gorry, Romain Ponsart, Pair skaters Vanessa James/Morgan Cipres as well as Ice Dancers Pernelle Carron/Lloyd Jones.
China
China returns to the World Team Trophy after missing out in 2012. Reigning Four Continents bronze medalist Han Yan and Yi Wang represent China in the Men’s event. Zijun Li, ranked 7th in the world and Kexin Zhang are the entries in the Ladies event. Pair skaters Cheng Peng/Hao Zhang and Ice Dancers Xiaoyang Yu/Chen Wang complete the team.
Prize Money
The organizing ISU member (Japan Figure Skating Federation) will make available the Global Prize Money of US$ 1.000.000 to the skaters/couples of the awarded teams based on the following scale:
1st placed team: US$ 200.000
2nd placed team: US$ 170.000
3rd placed team: US$ 160.000
4th placed team: US$ 150.000
5th placed team: US$ 140.000
6th placed team: US$ 130.000
The schedule of the ISU World Team Trophy 2013 is as follows:
Thursday, April 11: Short Dance, Men’s and Ladies Short Programs
Friday, April 12: Pairs Short Program, Free Dance, Men’s Free Skating
Saturday, April 13: Pairs Free Skating, Ladies Free Skating
Sunday, April 14: Exhibition Gala
The inaugural ISU World Team Trophy was held in 2009 in Tokyo, Japan and Team USA won the event ahead of Team Canada and Team Japan. The event is held every two years, however the ISU World Team Trophy 2011 was postponed until 2012 due to the series of natural disasters that took place in Japan in March 2011. In 2012, Team Japan won ahead of Team USA and Team Canada. For further information please refer to the ISU World Team Trophy Announcement on www.isu.org.