The second ISU World Team Trophy will take place in Tokyo, Japan from April 18 to 22. The six best national figure skating teams of the 2011/12 season will perform. Based on the scoring scale used for the ISU World Standing points, the six teams qualified for this event are Japan, Canada, Russia, USA, Italy and France. They qualified primarily according to the results of the ISU World Figure Skating Championships, the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating Events 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 Events. 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
Japan tops the team standings with 7891 points followed by Canada with 6943 points and Russia with 6807 points. The USA accumulated 6399 points and came in fourth while Italy is ranked fifth at 5412 points. France qualified with 5214 points. Three 2012 World Champions and five World medalists will compete.
Japan
2012 World silver medalist Daisuke Takahashi (seasons best 259.75 points) leads team Japan. He is joined by 2012 World bronze medalists Akiko Suzuki (seasons best 185.98 points) and Narumi Takahashi/Mervin Tran (seasons best 189.69 points). 2011 World silver medalist Takahiko Kozuka (seasons best 235.02 points), Kanako Murakami (seasons best 175.41 points) and ice dancers Cathy Reed/Chris Reed (seasons best 123.22 points) complete the team.
Canada
Two-time and reigning World Champions Patrick Chan (seasons best 273.94 points) and Tessa Virtue/Scott Moir (seasons best 183.34 points) headline the Canadian squad and are looking forward to compete against their top rivals from the USA, France and Japan again. Canada’s second entry in the Men’s event is Kevin Reynolds (seasons best 217.20 points). Canadian Champion Amelie Lacoste (seasons best 148.48 points) and Cynthia Phaneuf (seasons best 147.47 points) are the entries in the Ladies event. Meagan Duhamel/Eric Radford (seasons best 185.41 points) who just finished fifth at the ISU World Figure Skating Championships will compete in Pairs on the behalf of Canada.
Russia
Freshly minted World silver medalist Alena Leonova (seasons best 184.28 points) leads the Russian team. 2011 World Junior Champion Adelina Sotnikova (seasons best 169.75 points), 2012 European Pairs silver medalists Vera Bazarova/Yuri Larionov (seasons best 193.79 points) and reigning European Ice Dance bronze medalists Elena Ilinykh/Nikita Katsalapov (season best 161.00 points) are on the team as well. Zhan Bush (seasons best 196.06 points) and Maxim Kovtun (seasons best 193.76 points) will compete in the Men’s event for Russia.
United States of America
Collecting points for the USA in Tokyo are reigning World silver medalists Meryl Davis/Charlie White (seasons best 188.55 points), 2012 Four Continents Champion Ashley Wagner (seasons best 192.41 points) as well as 2012 World Junior silver medalist Gracie Gold (seasons best 172.69 points). They are joined by Jeremy Abbott (seasons best 238.82 points), Adam Rippon (seasons best 221.55 points) and 2012 Four Continents silver medalists Caydee Denney/John Coughlin (seasons best 185.42 points).
Italy
Team Italy will compete for the first time at the World Team Trophy and newly crowned World Champion Carolina Kostner (seasons best 189.94) headlines the team. The other competitors are ice dancers Anna Cappellini/Luca Lanotte (seasons best 160.62 points), Pair skaters Stefania Berton/Ondrej Hotarek (seasons best 168.16 points), Valentina Marchei (seasons best 150.10 points), Samuel Contesti (seasons best 224.89 points) and Paolo Bacchini.
France
The French delegation in Tokyo is spearheaded by 2012 World bronze medalists Nathalie Pechalat/Fabian Bourzat (seasons best 173.18 points). France also sends Brian Joubert (seasons best 244.58 points), 2012 European bronze medalist Florent Amodio (seasons best 243.03 points), Yretha Silete (seasons best 148.18 points), Mae-Berenice Meite (seasons best 145.44 points) and Pair skaters Daria Popova/Bruno Massot (seasons best 139.98 points).
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
Two single skaters and one pair and one ice dance couple from none qualfied teams that are invited to the exhibition gala will receive the following apprearance fees:
2 single skaters: US$ 10.000 per skater
1 pair/1 ice dance couple: US$ 15.000 per couple
The schedule of the ISU World Team Trophy 2012 is as follows:
Thursday, April 19: Short Dance, Men’s and Ladies Short Programs
Friday, April 20: Pairs Short Program, Free Dance, Men’s Free Skating
Saturday, April 21: Pairs Free Skating, Ladies Free Skating
Sunday, April 22: 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. The next ISU World Team Trophy is due to be held in 2013. For further information please refer to the ISU World Team Trophy Announcement on www.isu.org.