This is where we discuss figure skating and skating related items. How did you favourite skaters perform, and so on? However we never speculate on the private lives of skaters, like who might be going out with whom, because that is poison and is not tolerated here. A good guideline is that if it's not publicly announced, in the papers etc. then it's probably best to leave it alone. Is it a gray area? Then write to me and ask.
Note that with Zijun Li and Chafik Besseghier now removed from the ladies & mens line-ups, there will only be 11 competitors in each of these discipline.
The men's field came very close to being reduced to 10 - Misha Ge had a lot of difficulties getting a visa to travel to France. It was within 4 hours of his flight departure before it was "sorted" after a number of refusals! He represents Uzbekistan but travels a lot, training, coaching, doing choreography for others, etc. Visa issues have plagued him before, sometimes causing him to withdraw from competitions.
Reports from those already "on the ground" in France indicate that he too has arrived
According to planned program content, four of the men plan two quads in their short programs and between three and five quads in their free skates. Who will deliver on their plans?
An update from Weaver & Poje via Twitter after the short dance:
A displaced rib from KW nearly had us withdrawing from #idf2017 ... and now AP is feeling it after a hard crash into the boards on warm up. Skating can be tough sometimes! But we are fighting, as always. Thank you for your encouragement.
Luba & Dylan were left skating around and around on the ice before they could skate. The computer scoring system went down and the marks, from pencil notes, had to be manually entered for the Italian team who skated before them. A loooooong delay