Day 15: Predict Gold Medalists in 2014

Ouch. This is hard. You never know who might spring out of no where in the next few years. Let's do a couple of scenarios:

Men: Patrick Chan.
Actually - I don't think there are many other scenarios. There will be challengers and new faces...there will be competition by 2014, but I'd probably wager that barring meltdown, PChiddy firmly has that 2014 Gold hanging around his neck. However, there is the stupid Olympic Canadian Mens Curse (Kurt Browning, Elvis Stojko, Brian Orser...) - sigh.
Who else to watch? Denis Ten of Kazakhstan, Ricky Dornbush of the USA, Takahiko Kozuka of Japan, and (unfortunately) Artur Gachinski of Russia.

Ladies: YuNa Kim.
Yep. I said it. I think she'll repeat. Well, that's one possibility, but I'm not going to bet money on it. Her heart didn't look in it at Worlds this year, but being who she is and where she's from...I would not be surprised if she pulled a Katarina Witt.
Who else to watch? Kanako Murakami of Japan, the Helgesson sisters (Joshi and Viktoria) of Sweden, Sarah Hecken of Germany, Maé Bérénice Méité of France, Mao Asada of Japan, Elizaveta Tuktamysheva of Russia, Adelina Sotnikova of Russia, and Mirai Nagasu of the USA.

Dance: Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir
Yep - said it here too - another repeat. Truly, my only prediction for someone else would be Marlie (Meryl Davis and Charlie White). I think that barring injury these 2 teams will back and forth it all the way to the Olympics and then post 2014 we'll feel a big sad top of the podium drought...except that new teams will fill it immediately.
Who else to watch? The Shibutanis of the USA, Kaitlyn Weaver and Andrew Poje of Canada, Elena Ilinykh and Nikita Ktsalapov of Russia, and Jana Khokhlova and Fedor Andreev of Russia.

Pairs: Some Russians.
They won't go defeated in their own country in Figure Skating - trust me. I just don't know which team to pick and quite frankly don't love any of them. I hope that Aliona and Robin retire before then, but I have a feeling they might not and will end up sorely disappointed. I think the recent Chinese dominance may be meeting an end. For now at least.
Who else to watch? Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford of Canada, Caydee Denney and John Coughlin (if they last - new team), More Russians, and Sui Wenjing and Han Cong of China.

I'm sure, as always, a new face will pop up and surprise us - that's what makes the Olympics magical and special, why it's only every 4 years. But hey, educated guesses are fun, right?

kortney elise xoxo