New partnerships in figure skating

As is common in the off - season, the pairs skating and ice dance disciplines get a shake-up. Two new international partnerships were announced yesterday.

First off, China's 2006 olympic silver medallists Zhang Dan & Zhang Hao (who are not related) have ended their partnership of over 12 years. She has chosen to retire, whilst he has teamed up with a relative unkown Peng Cheng. Here is the original article (not translated) and here is a video of Peng with a former partner (in a very Mao Asada-esque costume!)

Also in ice dance, Canadian Vanessa Crone has a new partner at last, following her split with Paul Poirier last year. Crone and Poirier skated to the Canadian ice dance title while Virtue and Moir were injured in 2011, only to end their 10 year partnership that summer.

Here is the announcement from Vanessa's facebook page.

Vanessa new partner is Nikolaj Sorensen. Its official and they have just recently finished their first free dance and onto their short dance!! They will be competing at Lake Placid!! Come out and watch their debut.

Sorensen competed for Denmark at the 2010 and 2011 world championships. They could very well make a run for the third ice dance spot for Canada at this year's worlds in London, Ontario.