2016 Team Challenge Cup: Info & Streaming

The 2015-16 season will soon close with the inaugural Team Challenge Cup, an invitational event taking place in Spokane, WA, USA from April 22-24. Skaters will compete as part of Team Europe, Team North America or Team Asia. Each team will consist of 3 men, 3 ladies, 2 pairs and 2 dance teams. Singles skaters will compete in a separate short program competition that does not carry over to the free skate. Pairs/ice dancers will compete with their free skates only, and their results will carry over to the singles free skates, which will then determine the final winners. Rockerskating has a more detailed explanation of the competition format here.

Live results | Website | ISU Announcement
Team Europe | Team North America | Team Asia

SCHEDULE

Pacific Daylight Time (UTC-7); convert to your own time zone.

Apr. 22: Singles SP 7:30PM
Apr. 23: Pairs FS & Free Dance 1:30PM; Singles FS 7:00PM
Apr. 24: Gala 3:00PM

HOW TO WATCH

Icenetwork will livestream the entire competition and gala for a fee. The cost is $20 USD for non-subscribers and $10 USD for current subscribers. The stream is blocked in Japan, Hong Kong, Romania, France, Kazakhstan, and China. Bootleg Icenetwork stream

Ma Chaîne Sport (France) will air the pairs/ice dance event and the gala live. A stream might be available here. Schedule in CEST:

• 4/23: Singles SP 15:30 (delayed); Pairs FS & Free Dance 22:30 (live)

• 4/24: Singles FS 15:30 (delayed)

• 4/25: Gala 00:00 (live)

CBS (USA) will air delayed highlights from the competition on Apr. 24 from 1:00-3:00PM EDT. Streams are available here and here.

Nippon TV (Japan) will air parts of the competition in delayed broadcasts. A stream for NTV is available here. Schedule in JST:

• 4/23: Short Programs 15:00 (NTV)

• 4/24: Free Programs 15:00 (NTV)

• 4/25: Gala 06:45 (NTVG+, live)

Final Entries for Team Challenge Cup

Team Europe:

• Ladies: Evgenia Medvedeva*, Roberta Rodeghiero, Elena Radionova

• Men: Sergei Voronov, Michal Brezina, Maxim Kovtun

• Pairs: Ksenia Stolbova/Fedor Klimov, Nicole Della Monica/Matteo Guarise

• Dance: Gabriella Papadakis/Guillaume Cizeron, Anna Cappellini/Luca Lanotte

*Medvedeva replaced Tuktamysheva, who withdrew due to injury.

Team North America:

• Ladies: Gracie Gold, Gabrielle Daleman, Ashley Wagner

• Men: Jason Brown, Nam Nguyen, Adam Rippon

• Pairs: Meagan Duhamel/Eric Radford, Alexa Scimeca/Chris Knierim

• Dance: Kaitlyn Weaver/Andrew Poje, Madison Chock/Evan Bates

Team Asia:

• Ladies: Satoko Miyahara, Elizabet Tursynbaeva, Rika Hongo

• Men: Denis Ten, Shoma Uno, Boyang Jin

• Pairs: Xuehan Wang/Lei Wang*, Sumire Suto/Francis Boudreau-Audet

• Dance: Rebeka Kim/Kirill Minov, Shiyue Wang/Xinyu Liu

*Wang/Wang replaced Sui/Han, who withdrew.

For more information, see the TCC website.

2016 Team Challenge Cup Entries

The inaugural Team Challenge Cup will take place in Spokane, WA, USA from April 22-24. All of the teams have now been announced, and voting for the third singles skater in each team is now open.

More information: Website, ISU announcement

TEAM NORTH AMERICA

• Captain: Kristi Yamaguchi

• Men: Jason Brown (USA), Nam Nguyen (CAN), TBD (Choices: Max Aaron, Adam Rippon, Liam Firus)

• Ladies: Gracie Gold (USA), Gabrielle Daleman (CAN), TBD (Choices: Ashley Wagner, Polina Edmunds, Alaine Chartrand)

• Pairs: Meagan Duhamel/Eric Radford (CAN), Alexa Scimeca/Chris Knierim (USA)

• Dance: Kaitlyn Weaver/Andrew Poje (CAN), Madison Chock/Evan Bates (USA)

TEAM EUROPE

• Captain: Christopher Dean

• Men: Sergei Voronov (RUS), Michal Brezina (CZE), TBD (Choices: Mikhail Kolyada, Maxim Kovtun, Alexei Bychenko)

• Ladies: Elizaveta Tuktamysheva (RUS), Roberta Rodeghiero (ITA), TBD (Choices: Angelina Kuchvalska, Elena Radionova, Evgenia Medvedeva)

• Pairs: Ksenia Stolbova/Fedor Klimov (RUS), Nicole Della Monica/Matteo Guarise (ITA)

• Dance: Anna Cappellini/Luca Lanotte (ITA), Gabriella Papadakis/Guillaume Cizeron (FRA)

TEAM ASIA

• Captain: Shizuka Arakawa

• Men: Denis Ten (KAZ), Shoma Uno (JPN), TBD (Choices: Han Yan, Misha Ge, Boyang Jin)

• Ladies: Satoko Miyahara (JPN), Elizabet Tursynbaeva (KAZ), TBD (Choices: Rika Hongo, Zijun Li, So Youn Park)

• Pairs: Wenjing Sui/Cong Han (CHN), Sumire Suto/Francis Boudreau-Audet (JPN)

• Dance: Rebeka Kim/Kirill Minov (KOR), Shiyue Wang/Xinyu Liu (CHN)

2016 Team Challenge Cup Official Announcement

The ISU has published the official announcement for the Team Challenge Cup taking place in Spokane, WA, USA on April 22-24. This is a new team competition that is a bit of a mix between Japan Open and World Team Trophy. There will be 3 teams - Europe, North America, and Asia. Each team will have 3 ladies, 3 men, 2 pairs and 2 dance teams. At least two countries must be represented in each discipline for each team - eg. two ladies on a team can be from the same country, but the third cannot. Two of the ladies and men and all of the pairs and ice dancers for each team will be chosen from the top-ranked skaters on the ISU World Standings as of January 1, 2016. (Basically, only competitions from the first half of the season count towards qualification.) If any invited skaters withdraw, the next-highest-ranked skater will be invited. The third singles skaters for each team will be chosen through a fan vote that will take place during 2016 Worlds. The third singles skaters for each team must be a participant at 2016 Worlds and will be chosen from a pool of 5 skaters nominated by the TCC organizers.

Going by those rules, these are the teams according to the current World Standings (last updated 12/12; there are no more relevant ISU competitions held between then and Jan. 1):

TEAM EUROPE

• Men: Javier Fernandez (ESP), Sergei Voronov (RUS), 3rd skater TBD

• Ladies: Elizaveta Tuktamysheva (RUS), Roberta Rodeghiero (ITA), 3rd skater TBD

• Pairs: Ksenia Stolbova/Fedor Klimov (RUS), Nicole Della Monica/Matteo Guarise (ITA)

• Dance: Anna Cappellini/Luca Lanotte (ITA), Gabriella Papadakis/Guillaume Cizeron (FRA)

TEAM NORTH AMERICA

• Men: Jason Brown (USA), Nam Nguyen (CAN), 3rd skater TBD

• Ladies: Gracie Gold (USA), Gabrielle Daleman (CAN), 3rd skater TBD

• Pairs: Meagan Duhamel/Eric Radford (CAN), Alexa Scimeca/Chris Knierim (USA)

• Dance: Kaitlyn Weaver/Andrew Poje (CAN), Madison Chock/Evan Bates (USA)

TEAM ASIA

• Men: Yuzuru Hanyu (JPN), Denis Ten (KAZ), 3rd skater TBD

• Ladies: Satoko Miyahara (JPN), Elizabet Tursynbaeva (KAZ), 3rd skater TBD

• Pairs: Wenjing Sui/Cong Han (CHN), Tae Ok Ryom/Ju Sik Kim (PRK)*

• Dance: Rebeka Kim/Kirill Minov (KOR), Shiyue Wang/Xinyu Liu (CHN)

(*If Ryom/Kim from North Korea decline the invitation (which…seems pretty likely), there are no other Asian countries with pairs teams on the ISU World Standings list, as Kim/Kam from South Korea have split. Japan’s new team Suto/Boudreau-Audet competed at 2015 Golden Spin of Zagreb, but placed 7th and did not earn any ranking points. In this case I’m not sure if the ISU will allow Suto/Boudreau-Audet to compete, another Chinese pair to compete, or if Team Asia will have to compete with only one pair.)

See the announcement for information on the format of the competition.