Kalesavich/Parchem split

[mk_fan]

Just read it over on FSU, it does look like they have indeed split up

[BigB0882]

Wow, so much unrealized potential with this team! I think he should find a partner, she looked out of it all week in practices and couldn't land any of her jumps. Maybe she needs to sit out for a bit and refocus.

[A.H.Black]

I think she has presence on the ice and is certainly beautiful. Jumps don't seem to be her strength. I wonder if she would consider dance.

[KMK0902]

It doesn't surprise me a bit. Aaron is 24 (?) and needs to get a partner that CAN land her jumps, he doesn't have time for Stephanie to mature/grow.

I wish them both all the best!

Kat

[Aussie Willy]

It is such a shame. Stephanie is just a beautiful skater and I thought they had so much potential. She has some of the nicest lift positions I have ever seen in a pairs team. But I agree the jumps let them down. She is still young so maybe sitting out for a while and working on solo technique will help in a future partnership.

[missmarysgarden]

Please don't throw any rotten veggies or anything, but I can't help but wonder if the Stieglers are just going to hang together forever, or if maybe BOTH of them would benefit from new partners. They just haven't gone anywhere for the last 3 years. A brother/sister match is so emotionally loaded that I don't anticipate a change for them - but I wonder if they weren't bro/sis if a change might be appropriate. They just seem to be mismatched since the puberty angel came....

[Lark]

Did K&P just give after a bad Nationals??? What did they place, 5th?
I loved this couple, and too bad.

[Aaron W]

The official announcement is now up on the USFSA's web site: http://www.usfsa.org/news/2002-03/kaleparchem-split.htm?did=251060

[what?meworry?]

Originally posted by A.H.Black
I think she has presence on the ice and is certainly beautiful. Jumps don't seem to be her strength. I wonder if she would consider dance.

darn! but what about him, he'd be a great ice dancer! and i could get a line of girls a quarter of a mile long for him.

[yogurtslinger]

Originally posted by missmarysgarden
Please don't throw any rotten veggies or anything, but I can't help but wonder if the Stieglers are just going to hang together forever, or if maybe BOTH of them would benefit from new partners. They just haven't gone anywhere for the last 3 years. A brother/sister match is so emotionally loaded that I don't anticipate a change for them - but I wonder if they weren't bro/sis if a change might be appropriate. They just seem to be mismatched since the puberty angel came....

I agree. All that talent's going to waste. Especially hers... sigh, she has got to be the most dynamic *dancer* I've seen out on the ice, since Oksana Baiul.

[IgglesII]

Originally posted by missmarysgarden
Please don't throw any rotten veggies or anything, but I can't help but wonder if the Stieglers are just going to hang together forever, or if maybe BOTH of them would benefit from new partners. ....


Maybe Tiffany should give Aaron a call.

[skaterdujour]

:cry:

Hi. I'm new here. Just want to say, love the forum. How sad this is. I saw them skate the first time last year at Nationals and I thought- now there is a classy pair. Compared to all the other pair teams I've seen in a looooong time, to me they were what pair skating was all about. Just the "look" on the ice. It's just too bad. I would have liked to see them hang in there and try to get consistent with the jumps because all of their other elements, lifts, twists, style were extremely well done. But I guess timing issues (results NOW!), expenses, and pressure of competition are all things that have to be considered in the crazy world of skating. :cry:

[chattykathy]

A bit off topic, but the Stieglers still look great to me. They just seem to run hot and cold, one is on the other is off. Then once in a while they are both on and its amazing. She really isnt that young, but clearly she is done growing, she was really slim at Nationals, he looked healthy and strong.

I just wonder what could be done to help them harness all that energy, especially hers, into a great pair team.

[Louis]

I agree with ChattyKathy about the Stieglers. I couldn't believe how well they were jumping at Nationals. It wasn't consistently well, but they each did clean double axels and triple toes. They also did a triple twist for the first time in about three years, I believe. Every time I want to finally give up on this team, they do something to give me a glimmer of hope to hang on to.

[missmarysgarden]

I have loved the Stieglers since they first burst on the scene. I think that she has more natural talent and flair than Johnny, but I have admired Johnny enormously for hanging in there and working so hard - especially when she matured before he did. But in truth, they have been out of the medals for several years now - way out most of the time. I had hoped this would be their year since the growing pains seem to be over - but they were not impressive this year. As has been said so many times - its not what you can do in practice; its what you can put on the ice when the spotlight comes on. I was only wildly speculating how each of them might do repaired... yet as I said, I don't expect it to happen.

[Trillian]

Originally posted by missmarysgarden
I think that she has more natural talent and flair than Johnny, but I have admired Johnny enormously for hanging in there and working so hard - especially when she matured before he did.

IMO that's a really important factor that people have ignored in writing off Johnnie--he is quite young for a senior level male pairs skater even now, and this was his fifth year at the senior level. He's 20 now and was still the third youngest senior male pairs skater at nationals; the top five guys were all 24-29 years old. Johnnie has been, all this time, junior pairs age, skating senior pairs. He deserves more credit than he's gotten.

[chattykathy]

Good point Trillian, he really is still young.

I certainly havent written him off, I think he is the anchor (and I dont mean as in dead weight) of the team. Solid and persistent.

They have plenty of time. Maybe a coaching change? That would be a real shock, moving away from a Russian pair coach.

[natashapierre]

With pairs, especially, I wonder if the order and manner in which you try to learn certain aspects of skating doesn't make a difference in how easy or hard they are to learn. With the Stieglers, for example, it appears that they're trying at this point not just to master the triple jump but to master it in unison and at fairly high speed. At least, when I see them fall on those jumps, it looks to me as if they are jumping at exactly the same time (when I've seen them land jumps their unison on takeoff and landing seems remarkably good for people who are two quite different sizes), and they seem to carry a lot of speed into their elements most of the time.

Might this not account for at least some of Johnny's jump difficulties? It must be harder to jump keeping all the form stuff going than just to jump, mustn't it?

Like some others, I think the Stieglers and some and others of the current U.S. pairs really are young enough by most standards to have the time to develop still. And the Stieglers seem to be learning things sort of in the reverse order of Orscher and Lucash, so I would expect that to make a *big* difference in their various strengths and weaknesses.