By Wendy & Adron Buske
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The podcast currently has 43 episodes available.
Finlandia, the fifth stop in the Grand Prix qualifier circuit, gave us a few standout performances, several podium surprises, and a hot mess of a Men’s competition that almost rivaled Grand Prix de France’s low scores.
Week 5 of the Grand Prix took us to Helsinki for the Finlandia Trophy, where we saw many men “menning” — even Yuma Kagiyama (!!!) — but problems plagued more than just the men. Still, there were some glowing stand-outs — like Deanna and Max having a near-flawless short program, Fear & Gibson taking their SECOND surprise Grand Prix gold, and Lara Naki Gutmann’s big step forward (and up onto the podium!)
Women’s CompetitionFollowing the withdrawal of Loena Hendrickx and Isabeau Levito, this competition became a wide open opportunity for Hana Yoshida and Rino Matsuike to solidify their chances at the Grand Prix final. Both of them had ups and downs, but Yoshida’s steadiness in both programs helped her squeak out a win. With their one-two, Hana qualified for the Final and Rino put herself in excellent position to make it as well.
The big story of this competition, however, was the surprise bronze for Italy’s Lara Naki Gutmann. Lara may not have expected a podium finish, but after a strong NHK Trophy, her momentum carried her to 2 standout performances and a well-deserved medal in Finland — her first in the senior Grand Prix series.
Ice Dance CompetitionAfter the spectacular rhythm dance from Canada’s reigning World silver medalists, Piper Gilles & Paul Poirier, you would have thought they’d more or less coast to victory. However, as we’ve seen a lot this season, Ice Dance isn’t quite as predictable as it once was. A messy Free Dance with a fall dropped them back to second — providing another opportunity for Lilah Fear & Lewis Gibson to heist the top of the podium.
What’s more impressive than the two great programs from Fear & Gibson that brought them to their victory was the knowledge that they’d had a rough accident in practices ahead of the competition that left Lilah unsure if she could even walk, let alone skate, in Finland. Their grit, determination, and recovery team helped them get through and become the only Ice Dance team to win two competitions on the Grand Prix circuit this season.
In the bronze position, the hometown favorites Juulia Turkkila & Mattias Versluis showed off their incredible new tango free dance filled with their signature innovation and immaculate lines. They’ll skate again at Cup of China next week. Can they pull off an upset to grab a spot at the Final?
Men’s CompetitionWhile Yuma Kagiyama was certainly in a class by himself during the short program, his long program saw quite a few mistakes — more than we’ve seen from Yuma in quite sometime. That said, while he was a shocking 5th in the free skate, he still held on to the gold medal and secured his spot at the Grand Prix final.
In with a strong silver and reinforcing the message that “he’s back” was Kevin Aymoz. While both of his programs saw falls, it was great to see him shake off the mistakes and continue to have strong performances. Like Yuma, Kevin secured his spot in the Grand Prix Final, which will be extra special for Kevin as the competition happens in France this year.
In third was Daniel Grassl from Italy, who continued his redemption tour and showed his consistency as a podium threat. It will be interesting to see how he evolves throughout the rest of the season.
Pair’s CompetitionAs expected, the reigning World Champs, Canada’s Deanna Stellato-Dudek & Maxime Deschampstook the top spot with relative ease. While their free skate is still evolving and did have errors, their short program continues to be stellar and magnetic.
The silver and bronze medalists swapped spots from the short to the long, but both had relatively disappointing showings here overall. The team of Maria Pavlova & Alexei Sviatchenko from Hungary edged out Italy’s Rebecca Ghilardi & Filoppo Ambrosini, who had a solid short but a somewhat disastrous free skate.
All in all, not the best of the Grand Prix events, but there’s just one more qualifier to go! See you in China.
Chapters0:00 Intro 0:41 Women’s Competition 1:12 Hana Yoshida 2:24 Rino Matsuike 3:54 Lara Naki Gutmann 5:40 Sarah Everhardt 6:53 Ahsun Yun 7:47 Niina Petrokina 9:42 Ice Dance Competition 9:56 Fear and Gibson 11:32 The top teams fight for gold 13:41 Gilles and Poirier 16:07 Turkkila and Versluis 18:22 Tascherlova and Taschler 19:41 Zingas and Kolesnik 20:48 Brown and Brown 21:07 Orihara and Pirinen 22:08 Lim and Quan 23:15 Men’s Competition 23:32 Yuma Kagiyama 25:42 Kevin Aymoz 27:39 Daniel Grassl 28:32 Sota Yamamoto 29:39 Juhnwan Cha 30:02 Kazuki Tomono 30:38 Pairs Competition 30:44 Stellato-Dudek and Deschamps 32:32 Pavlova and Sviatchenko 33:51 Ghilardi and Ambrosini 35:08 Laurin and Ethier 36:29 Chan and Howe 37:12 Nagaoka and Moriguchi 38:00 Williams and Lewer 39:08 Gold in our Hearts 40:53 Wrap-Up
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Japan’s NHK Trophy competition proved one of the best of the Grand Prix series so far, with huge wins from Kaori Sakamoto and Yuma Kagiyama, a surprise gold for Metelkina and Berulava, and an astounding performance from Chock and Bates.
Figure Skating’s Grand Prix 2024 made its fourth stop in Japan for the prestigious NHK Trophy. Never to be outdone, NHK Trophy created a beautiful event for audiences and skaters alike, and provided one of the best competitions of the series so far with stunning performances from Chock & Bates, Kaori Sakamoto, and Yuma Kagiyama, just to name a few.
Men’s CompetitionYuma Kagiyama was easily in a class by himself here. His short was nearly flawless, and while his free skate had a few errors, it still showed progress from his early season competition at Lombardia Trophy and continued to show his growth as an artist.
In second, a bit of a surprise silver for Italy’s Daniel Grassl. While he was roughly 35 points behind Yuma, he still showed two solid programs that demonstrated improved technique. It will be interesting to see if both he and Yuma can maintain momentum going into Finlandia Trophy next week.
Rounding out the podium was an excellent showing from Japan’s Tatsuya Tsuboi. With the Japan’s singles fields being as deep as they are, it can be tough to move up the ranks. This proved to be a great opportunity to do just that for Tatsuya — one he can hopefully build on.
Ice DanceReigning World Champions Madison Chock & Evan Bates came here to win, and did so with what may be their most iconic program yet. Their rhythm dance looked much improved since Skate America, but its their ‘Take Five’ jazz-themed free dance that really showcases their brilliance. With a total score of 215.95, this puts them at the top of highest scoring programs of the season — deservedly so.
In silver, the rising team of Christina Carreira & Anthony Ponomarekno from the US continued to show they are a team to be reckoned with. Their free dance is also a stunner to the music of “Carmen” — and while we don’t always love a “warhorse” program, this suits them incredibly well.
Taking the bronze after a disappointing Grand Prix de France last week was Lithuania’s Allison Reed & Saulius Ambrulevicius. In just one week, their programs looked more steady and “lived in”—and this medal brings them right back into the conversation mix for Europeans and more.
Women’s CompetitionJapans’s Kaori Sakamoto looked like a women on a mission here, and not only took the gold but did so by nearly 20 points over a very strong fellow teammate from Japan, Mone Chiba. The three time World Champion left no room for questions, and looked much more like the Kaori we’re used to than she did earlier this season.
Mone Chiba’s performances for silver were also some of the best we’ve seen this season, making her one to watch if she makes the Grand Prix final and beyond.
Taking bronze and competing the second podium sweep for Japan this Grand Prix was Yuna Aoki. As a skated who had only ever competed in Junior Grand Grix and nearly retired last year, this was an incredible moment that she herself said made sticking around another season worthwhile.
Pairs CompetitionIn a bit of an upset, Georgia’s Anastasia Metelkina & Luka Berulava cleaned up their earlier performance problems and delivered two fantastic programs. This win puts them in a great position for the Grand Prix Final, and also sends a message that they are ready to start moving up in the ranks.
In silver, Japan’s former World Champions Riku Miura & Ryuchi Kihara led after the short but had enough issues in the free to drop them just behind the Georgians. Still, they continue to look better than last season and their new programs stretch them in great directions.
Taking bronze were Ellie Kam & Danny O’Shea — making their 4th consecutive podium of the season. They’re definitely in the running for Grand Prix final, depending on how the last two qualifiers shake out!
Chapters
0:00 — Intro 2:10 — Men’s Event 2:32 — Yuma Kagiyama 4:53 — Daniel Grassl 7:57 — Tatsyua Tsuboi 9:39 — Andrew Torgashev 11:49 — Matteo Rizzo 12:48 — Kao Miura 14:53 — Jason Brown 16:25 — Ice Dance Event 16:35 — Chock & Bates 20:19 — Carreira & Ponomarenko 21:46 — Reed & Ambrulevicius 23:26 — Green & Parsons 25:14 — Orihara & Pirinen 26:26 — Women’s Event 26:29 — Kaori Sakamoto 28:03 — Mone Chiba 29:49 — Yuna Aoki 32:45 — Alysa Liu 34:12 — Bradie Tennell 35:52 — Lara Naki Gutmann 37:27 — Pairs Event 37:33 — Metelkina & Berulava 39:42 — Miura & Kihara 40:46 — Kam & O’Shea 43:15 — Hocke & Kunkel 44:32 — Gold in our Hearts 46:21 — Wrap-Up
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We recap a tumultuous Grand Prix de France, with an exciting win by Amber Glenn, a startling upset in Ice Dance, and a shockingly low-scoring men’s competition.
Grand Prix de France continued the trend we’ve seen throughout this Grand Prix season so far — which is to say it was messy with some highlights. The competition and Angers, France saw big wins, historic jumps that both the commentator and the technical panel “missed”, and a surprise winner in the Dance event that left us giddy!
Women’s competitionIn what was arguably the best women’s event so far this Grand Prix, Amber Glenn skated the best short program of her career and took the top score in it by any US woman in history! While her free skate had some mistakes, it still looked composed and strong overall — and led her to her first Grand Prix gold!
In second, we saw the continued rebirth of Wakaba Higuchi! With both a strong short and free skate, she looked even better than she had when she won Skate America a few weeks ago — and scored better as well by nearly 10 points. With this medal, she also became the first women to secure a spot at the Grand Prix final.
Third was a close race between South Korea’s Chayeon Kim and Japan’s Rion Sumiyoshi. While Chaeyeon had a gorgeous short program that gave her the edge in the short, a cleaner and more complete program by Sumiyoshi in the free brought her up from 5th to the bronze medal.
Ice Dance CompetitionWe often like to say Ice Dance is the most predictable of all disciplines — but this season makes liars out of us! In what can be described as a shock upset, France’s avant-garde team of Evgeniia Lopareva & Geoffrey Brissaud took home the gold.
That said, the favorites — Italy’s Charlene Guignard & Marco Fabbri — defeated themselves at this competition. Their typically spotless technical prowess was missing in their free dance, with Marco even taking a fairly bad fall. They later commented that this was the worst program they’d skated in quite some time, but it was still enough to earn them silver.
In third, another notable surprise was the medal very much earned by Emily Bratti & Ian Sommerville of the US. While this team has been on the rise, they had a rough Skate Canada and were looking for two clean skates here. What they got was something quite special, landing them ahead of podium favs Allison Reed & Saulius Ambrulevicius.
Men’s CompetitionThe men were absolutely “menning” all over the place here, with this ending with a top 3 podium of scores that wouldn’t have made it above 5th at either of the previous Grand Prix’s.
The favorite, France’s Adam Siao Him Fa, is just coming back from an injury and had quite a rough short program — landing in 8th. However, Adam “pulled an Adam” and came way back in the free skate to win gold.
Taking the silver here ‚— with his first Grand Prix medal ever — was Japan’s Koshiro Shimada. While his score may not have been terribly high due to mistakes, he won the hearts of the crowd and the moment shared between him and his coach, Stéphane Lambiel, was truly lovely.
In a big surprise, Andrew Torgashev of the US came in 4th for both the short and the free — which mathematically gave him enough to win bronze! We know that’s confusing, but so is skating sometimes.
Pairs CompetitionThere were really two competitions here: the top two teams vying for gold and the rest all fighting for bronze. With over 25 points separating 2nd and 3rd place, there was an obvious divide — with Germany’s Hase & Volodin and Italy’s Conti & Macii standing out above the rest.
On this day, Hase & Volodin were unbeatable — taking the gold in a way that made it seem like they’re already the favorites for Worlds. That said, they had a strong first half of the season last year and diminished a bit as the season progressed, so who knows?
In with a strong silver was Conti & Macii, who look far better this season than they did all of last year. Their new programs suit them well, and they seem to have picked up where they left off after that World bronze back in 2022.
Italy’s Ghilardi & Ambrosini moved up from sixth to third to take their first Grand Prix medal of the season.
Chapters0:00 Intro 1:44 Women’s Competition 1:50 Amber Glenn 4:21 Wakaba Higuchi 5:40 Rion Sumiyoshi 7:17 Chaeyeon Kim 9:33 Sarah Everhardt 11:49 Nina Pinzarrone 12:35 Mai Mihara 13:21 Anastasiia Gubanova 14:49 Ice Dance Competition 15:04 Lopareva and Brissaud 15:41 Guignard and Fabbri 19:31 Bratti and Somerville 22:33 Reed and Ambrulevicius 24:13 Mrazkova and Mrazek 25:20 Neset and Markelov 26:16 Lauriault and le Gac 28:37 Men’s Competition 29:00 Adam Siao Him Fa 30:33 Kashiro Shimada 32:07 Andrew Torgashev 33:27 Mikhail Shaidorov 36:03 Kazuki Tomono 36:42 Nikolaj Memola 37:27 Aleksandr Selevko 37:52 Boyang Jin 38:34 Lukas Britschgi 39:32 Pairs Competition 39:35 Hase and Volodin 41:04 Conti and Macii 42:45 Ghilardi and Ambrosini 43:52 Efimova and Mitrofanov 45:00 Pereira and Michaud 46:09 Gold in our Hearts 48:15 Wrap-Up
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We look back at Skate Canada, a messy second installment of the Grand Prix series that still saw a few spectacular performances. Gilles and Poirier shined, Rino Matsuike surprised, and 3 world champions held their podium placements.
Week 2 of the 2024 Grand Prix is complete, and while there were some extraordinary performances there was also a lot of messy.
That said, Skate Canada did provide us our first Grand Prix 2024 appearance from Alysa Liu, locked in the first qualifier for the Grand Prix final (looking at you, Ilia Malinin), awarded its fifth straight ice dance championship to Piper Gilles & Paul Poirier, and delivered the first competition we’ve ever seen with a fire-eyed moose-head presiding over it from the ceiling.
Women’s CompetitionKaori Sakamoto may have taken gold here, but looked far from her usual self in the free skate. Her short program kept her out in front thanks to several of the other women who’d been higher ranked in the short program having problems in the free. The disappointment for them became the open door for Japan’s Rino Matsuike, who was 10th in the short and came back to win the free program and take silver with an extraordinary skate!
Coming in third was another Japanese woman, Hana Yoshida, who squeaked past Kimmy Repond by a very narrow margin to help enable a Japan sweep of the women’s podium.
Ice Dance CompetitionWhile it should come as no surprise that Piper Gilles & Paul Porrier took gold at Skate Canada for the 5th time, it should not go unsaid that these two programs looked like they just might be the strongest they’ve ever had. Bold words, we know, but their Beach Boys / Barbie and Ken rhythm dance is so “THEM” it’s astonishing. And their free dance, while not our favorite at this competition, is extremely compelling and technically impeccable.
In second, Canada’s Marjorie Lajoie & Zachary Lagha had a fluke fall in their Austin Powers-themed rhythm dance, but came back with a STUNNING free dance that may be the best we see this season. Taking the bronze, Evgenia Loperava & Geoffrey Brissaud took on techno and — in our opinion — absolutely destroyed! Their free dance is unique and exciting, and will hopefully help this team continue to move up in the ranks.
Pairs CompetitionCanadian superstars, Deanna Stellato-Dudek & Maxime Deschamps took their second Skate Canada title in a row, with a mixed competition for them. Their short program was stellar, showing a new vibe for them and giving the crowd a delight. Their free skate was not as strong, though.But it’s a great program and, with it being early in their season, we expect they’ll keep getting better and better.
In the silver and bronze spots were the relatively unknown team of Ekaterina Geynish & Dmitrii Chigirev of Uzbekistan, and Australia’s Anastasia Golubeva & Hektor Giotopoulous Moore — the later who brought home Australia’s first-ever Grand Prix medal.
Men’s CompetitionIlia Malinin, fresh off of his Skate America win, came to Canada and showed the slow, steady improvement to his programs we expected to see. He’s taking the approach of peaking later in the season this year, and so far it looks to be paying off with slightly watered-down technical that still has him winning by 40 points.
In the silver spot was Japan’s Shun Sato, who looks to be making progress in his expression on the ice, but had enough issues in the free skate to hold him back from putting any pressure on Malinin. In third, Juhnwan Cha continued his strong early season with two solid and lyrical performances. His long program may be one of the best of the season from anyone, and it’s exciting to see him regaining some consistency.
Chapters0:00 — Intro 1:26 — Women’s Competition 1:33 — Kaori Sakamoto 4:26 — Rino Matsuike 7:37 — Hana Yoshida and Kimmy Repond 10:43 — Maddie Schizas 11:26 — Alysa Liu 13:39 — Rest of the women’s field 16:31 — Ice Dance Competition 16:35 — Gilles and Poirier 19:40 — LaJoie and Lagha 21:08 — Lopareva and Brissaud 23:29 — Taschlerova and Taschler 24:15 — Zingas and Kolesnik 25:01 — Lim and Quan 25:58 — Pairs Competition 25:59 — Stellato-Dudek and Deschamps 26:57 — Geynish and Chigirev 28:27 — Golubeva and Giotopoulos-Moore 29:28 — Hocke and Kunkel 30:17 — Men’s Competition 30:23 — Ilia Malinin 31:21 — Shun Sato 33:08 — Junhwan Cha 34:48 — Sota Yamamoto 35:53 — Vladimir Litvintsev 36:24 — Jason Brown 38:08 — Gold in our Hearts 39:19 — Wrap Up
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We look back at our in-person experience at the Skate American 2024 competition in Allen, Texas, including an extraordinary Men’s competition, and surprising results in Womens and Ice Dance.
The Grand Prix began in Allen, Texas with Skate America, and we were fortunate enough to see be in the audience for what was a stunning, surprising, and fun competition. While in this episode you’ll hear that the main event turned about to be the incredible comeback of Kevin Aymoz, there was a lot of skating to love at Skate America. There were also quite a few surprises — including an upset for Isabeau Levito and an unexpected dance podium!
Men’s Competition
The men’s event was definitely the marquee moment of the competition, as reigning World Champion, Ilia Malinin, made his Grand Prix debut. His short program was stunning – brimming with technical fireworks and thrills like his raspberry twist (right in front of our seats!) that earned him the lead. His free program has some issues, but kept him well ahead for gold. However, he did come in second in the free skate to the crowd’s choice of the competition — Kevin Aymoz from France.
After an extremely tough Grand Prix final, French nationals, and European Championship last season for Aymoz, there were concerns about how much he could recover. However, you’d have never known that watching his near-flawless programs here at Skate America. The crowd was with him from go, and knew how much this success meant to him.
In third, a stellar if not perfect competition from Kao Miura of Japan put him in good position for the rest of the season. Not too far behind were Georgia’s Nike Edgaze and Latvia’s Deniss Vasiljevs, who rounded out the top five with strong skates.
Pairs Competition
Japan’s Riku Miura & Ryuchi Kihara were the favorites coming in, and lived up to the hype by taking the competition by nearly 13 points. Their speed, flow, and remarkable lifts were in a league of their own here — which was great to see after a season of injury for Ryuchi that help them back from being at their best.
In second, the strong season for Ellie Kam & Danny O’Shea continued with two great skates the reflected the overall improvement they’ve been steadily showing. Their connection with each other of the ice is great and with the audience to see, and they have some of the most exciting lifts being done by any team right now.
An unexpected team, Alisa Efimova & Midha Mitrofanov of the USA, had a great long program that helped them grab the bronze by less than a tenth of a point over podium favorites Anastasia Metelkina & Luka Berulava of Georgia. The Georgian team looked relatively strong leading up the the long program, but had several disastrous errors that ultimately led to them falling short.
Women’s Competition
After a remarkable short program and what seemed in person like a solid free skate, the sentiment in the building in Allen, Tx was that Isabeau Levito would take the title. However, what we could not see in person was the numerous smaller errors that added up to a third place finish for Levito — leaving the gold to the phenomenal Wakaba Higuchi of Japan.
Higuchi had been out for a year following the Olympics due to injury, then began her comeback slowly and steadily last year. Her two strong skates here secured her first Grand Prix victory after 8 seasons of competing in the Grand Prix series.
Taking the silver was another Japanese woman, Rinka Wantanabe, who also showed off steady, strong, and lovely skating that may not have had all of the firepower (she is capable of throwing triple axels), but kept her consistent throughout and on the podium.
Ice Dance Competition
While most dance competitions are remarkably predictable, this one kept us on our toes following a fluke fall from the favorites and reigning World Champions, Madison Chock & Evan Bates. Their fall and a phenomenal performance from Lilah Fear & Lewis Gibson in the rhythm dance set the stage for the upset. In the free dance, Fear & Gibson were great again and held off Chock & Bates to take the gold — though did lose the free dance to the World Champs.
The real surprise was the fantastic team of Olivia Smart & Tim Dieck from Spain taking bronze. We’re big fans of this partnership, but they often struggle to get the support of judges. Their new “Dune” free dance may change that story for them, as it hit beautifully here and was rewarded.
Chapters
0:00 — Intro 6:38 — Men’s Competition 7:01 — Ilia Malinin 9:44 — Kevin Aymoz 14:14 — Kao Muira 16:02 — Nika Egadze 18:49 — Deniss Vasiljevs 20:18 — Maxim Naumov and Lucas Broussard 22:31 — Kashiro Shimada 22:55 — Donovan Carrillo 23:23 — Pairs Competition 23:35 — Miura and Kihara 25:54 — Kam and O’Shea 28:22 — Efimova and Mitrofanov 30:00 — Metelkina and Berulava 32:23 — Pavlova and Sviatchenko 33:15 — Vaipan-Law and Digby 34:04 — McBeath and Parkman 35:00 — Women’s Competition 35:09 — Wakaba Higuchi 38:59 — Rinka Watanabe 40:13 — Isabeau Levito 42:55 — Nina Pinzarrone 45:28 — Bradie Tennell 47:11 — Elyce-Lin Gracey 48:17 — Yuna Aoki 48:46 — Ice Dance Competition 49:34 — Fear and Gibson 51:13 — Chock and Bates 53:18 — Smart and Dieck 55:54 — Davis and Smolkin 56:18 — Neset and Markelov 58:40 — Lauriault and Le Gac 58:59 — Mrazkova and Mrazek 59:57 — Fabbri and Ayer 1:00:32 — Tkachenko and Kiliakov 1:01:02 — Morozov and Chen 1:02:01 — Gold In Our Hearts and Wrap Up
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As the 2024 Grand Prix of Figure Skating begins, we take a look ahead at the Skate America event, give our hopes and predictions, and share our excitement to see the event in person.
The 2024-2025 Figure Skating Grand Prix is finally upon us as Skate America kicks it off in Allen, Texas! While we’ve already seen quite a lot of the new programs from competitors in early season competition, this is where things start to get serious.
Women’s Competition
The biggest podium free-for-all could be in the women’s event — as it is hard to pick a clear favorite here! Based on long-term performance, reigning World silver medalist, Isabeau Levito from the USA, would be the obvious pick. However, while we love Isabeau, she’s been beaten twice this season already by fellow American, Elyce Lin-Gracey — whose 213.33 at Nebelhorn Trophy stands as one of the top international scores so far this season for the women’s discipline. Add in the continued return of Bradie Tennell, and there’s a lot of ways this could go.
Beyond the US competitors, there’s a trio of strong Japanese women — Rinka Wantanabe, Wakaba Higuchi, and Yuna Aoki — who could all be in the mix for spots on the podium. All of these competitors have the ability to medal, but also keep a close eye on one of last season’s standouts, Nina Pinzarrone of Belgium, who could be the spoiler and take the whole thing.
Pairs Competition
This discipline looks to be a four-way race. First, the 2023 World Champions, Riku Miura & Ryuchi Kihara from Japan, who have all of the ability, emotionality, and experience to win this. However, injuries plagued them last season and, in their first outing this season, Ryuchi appeared to be hurt again. Fingers crossed he’s at 100%!
Next, there’s the season opener for Georgia’s Anastasiia Metelkina & Luka Berulava — who looked outrageously strong throughout their junior season last year and in several of their senior competitions as well. However, we have not yet seen them this season and, at both Europeans and Worlds, they faltered just a bit. That said, this team is absolutely capable of winning here and just might.
The other two teams we expect to vie for the podium are Hungary’s Maria Pavlova & Alexei Sviatchenko and Ellie Kam & Danny O’Shea of the US. Both of these teams have had strong moments in the early season and have the experience to make the most of these Grand Prix spots for a medal.
Men’s Competition
Welcome to Ilia Malinin’s party! At his first competition of the season in Italy, Ilia premiered his two new programs for the season that both look to fit him like a glove and beat extremely strong competition fairly easily. While there are great skaters here, such as Japan’s Kao Miura, that are moving towards the top of the men’s field, it will take several poor performances from Ilia for him to lose.
That said, this will still be a very exciting competition! Miura looked messy in his early season performances, but when he’s on he’s incredible and is definitely a podium threat. Deniss Vasiljevs of Latvia and Nika Egadze from Georgia have both looked stronger than last year of late, and could take a medal.
Also, there’s no way to count out (or count on) France’s Kevin Aymoz. He’s a brilliant wild card who could stun, as he did at last year’s Skate America to take silver, or he could fall apart. We’re hoping for the former and that he brings all of his incredible quality to the ice and the audience to their feet.
Ice Dance Competition
As they do most years, reigning World Champions Madison Chock & Evan Bates will debut both of their new programs at Skate America to an eager crowd. We don’t have a clue… a whisper even… of what they have planned. However, we expect they will look gorgeous and be incredibly tough to beat.
Also in this great lineup will be Great Britain’s Lilah Fear & Lewis Gibson. While their free dance to Beyonce may not have hit for us, we love this team and are looking forward to them evolving both of their programs. Unless things go wildly awry, expect them to be on the podium.
The other team we expect to be on the podium is Canada’s Marie-Jade Lauriault & Romain Le Gac, who never fail to be inventive and exciting. Other teams could upset, but regardless it’s going to be a very fun one to watch!
Chapters
0:00 — Intro 3:00 — Men’s Competition 8:14 — Pairs Competition 13:35 — Women’s Competition 21:29 — Ice Dance Competition 29:05 — Predictions 32:58 — Wrap-Up
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We recap the 2024 Shanghai Trophy and Denis Ten Memorial Cup competitions, including standout performances from Chaeyeon Kim, Taschlerova and Taschler, and Juhnwan Cha, plus a very messy pairs comp.
This week, we’re talking about more of the early competitions of the 2024-2025 season, including the Shanghai Trophy and the Denis Ten Memorial Cup. From a season’s best for any woman so far this season from South Korea’s Chaeyeon Kim to a beautiful step forward for another Korean favorite, Junhwan Cha, these competitions provided a glimpse into who’s progressing and who still needs some time to get in the flow of the season.
Dance CompetitionThe Shanghai Trophy’s Ice Dance competition took a surprising twist before it began with Canada’s Laurence Fournier Beaudry & Nikolaj Soerensen withdrawing due to the allegations against Nikolaj coming to a head. Nikolaj was suspended Wednesday, October 2nd for at least six years for sexual maltreatment, per the Office of the Sport Integrity Commissioner. Skate Canada was made aware of the decision from Abuse-Free Sport and complied by formally issuing the ban against him. It is subject to challenge or appeal if Soerensen chooses to pursue it.
For now, however, the competition went on with a reduced field that was easily led from beginning to end by Italy’s reigning World Bronze medalists, Charlene Guignard & Marco Fabbri. For us, though, the best moments of the competition came from Evgeniia Lopareva & Geoffrey Brissaud, who had the most unique rhythm dance we’ve seen this season so far.
At the Denis Ten Memorial Cup, Natalie Taschlerova & Filip Taschler earned gold with two programs that they had improved since we saw them a few weeks ago. Also showing improvement were Oona Brown and Gage Brown, who threw down two fantastic programs that will serve them well this season.
Men’s CompetitionAt Shanghai Trophy, Juhnwan Cha gave us an experience. With two solid programs, he took gold and looked to be making excellent progress. In second, Deniss Vasiljevs showed perhaps his best jumping in quite a while on top of his always great performance ability. In third, we saw the season debut from Jason Brown. His short program saw a fall on his triple axel, but the rest of the program was mesmerizing. His free skate felt a bit new on him still, but promising!
At the Denis Ten Memorial, we got our first look this season at Mikhail Shiadorov — and he’s definitely been putting in the work over the summer. His short program looked more fluid and sound, as did Nika Edgadze’s, who looked like he’d been working on his line and overall showmanship to take the bronze here.
Pairs CompetitionAt Shanghai Trophy, the ever-effective Maria Pavlova & Alexei Sviatchenko were uncharacteristically messy but still good enough for gold. Also having a couple of less than perfect skates were reigning European Champions, Lucrezia Beccaio & Matteo Guiarise from Italy — but their programs have a lot of potential and we’re excited to see how they evolve.
More unfortunate were the performances from Emily Chan & Spencer Akira Howe. Fresh off of a season where they barely competed due to an injury for Spencer, this was their season debut — and while far from their best, here’s hoping it gets out the nerves and pushes them forward as the season progresses.
Women’s CompetitionChaeyeon Kim delivered the best combined performance of the season so far at Shanghai Trophy, and by doing so definitely made it clear that she will be a threat at every competition she’s at this year. Her short program in particular showed a different side of her skating, which is exciting and reflects the growth she’s had.
Taking silver was Bradie Tennell of the USA, who is on her own comeback trail following several seasons of injuries. In third, Loena Hendrickx debuted a tight but fun short program, but sadly saw quite a few issues in her free skate. However, it’s just the beginning of the season and we expect her to improve throughout the year.
At the Denis Ten Memorial Cup, Anastasia Gubanova had two strong skates to take the title. Also having a great competition was Lara Naki Gutmann from Italy — who came in third overall but actually won the free skate.
Chapters0:00 — Intro 3:11 — Ice Dance and Sorensen Ban 5:17 — Shanghai Ice Dance Competition 5:37 — Guignard and Fabbri 7:33 — Lopareva and Brissaud 10:31 — 2 Chinese Teams 10:50 — Denis Ten Ice Dance Competition 11:09 — Taschlerova and Taschler 13:27 — Brown and Brown 14:05 — Fabri and Ayer 15:25 — Mrazkova and Mrazek 16:30 — Lim and Quan 18:12 — Flores and Desyatov 20:52 — Shanghai’s Men’s Competition 20:53 — Junhwan Cha 23:03 — Deniss Vasiljevs 24:06 — Jason Brown 26:44 — Nikolaj Memola 29:00 — Daiwei Dai 30:18 — Denis Ten Men’s Competition 30:24 — Mikhail Shaidorov 32:15 — Vladimir Litvintsev 33:22 — Nika Egadze 36:30 — Daniel Grassl 38:23 — Shanghai Pairs Competition 38:52 — Pavlova and Sviatchenko 41:36 — Beccari and Guarise 43:47 — Yang and Deng 44:22 — Chan and Howe 47:58 — Shanghai Women’s Competition 48:02 — Chaeyeon Kim 50:56 — Bradie Tennell 53:12 — Loena Hendrickx 58:03 — Ekaterina Kurakova 1:00:01 — Denis Ten Women 1:00:10 — Anastasiia Gubanova 1:01:56 — Lara Naki Gutmann 1:03:44 — Kaiya Ruiter 1:07:47 — Gold in our Hearts 1:09:39 — Wrap-Up and Skate America Plans 1:12:54 — Outro
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After an unplanned summer break, Scoreography returns to cover the 2024-2025 season, starting with the Challenger Series. We take a look at all the major competitors we’ve seen so far, specifically from the Nebelhorn and Lombardia Trophy competitions, as well as Cranberry Cup and other small events.
Welcome back, Scoreogra-fans! (too much?)
It’s a new dawn, it’s a new day, it’s a new SEASON of figure skating — and we’re so happy to be back! It was a long summer of far too much adult-ing, and we’ve missed so much in the world of figure skating. From the ISU’s legalization of the backflip (or somersault) in competition to the 2022 Olympic teams from the USA and Japan FINALLY getting their medals at the 2024 games in Paris, we’re definitely a bit behind.
However, with a new competitive season already in progress, we’re moving forward and talking about what we’ve already seen at early season Challenger Series events including Lombardia Trophy, Nebelhorn Trophy, and Cranberry Cup. Since its still quite early and most skater’s programs aren’t fully “baked” yet, in this episode we break down which skaters have competed so far by discipline — and dig into who’s already looking strong.
Women’s DivisionThe women of Team USA have come out hot already with some big moments for reigning U.S. Champion, Amber Glenn, and well as two young skaters who are starting to make their mark internationally: Elyce Lin-Gracey and Sarah Everhardt. Amber threw down a personal best short program at Lombardia Trophy — which included a gorgeous triple axel — and skated well enough in the free to earn her first gold at a Challenger Series event.
Elyse Lin-Gracey was consistently gaining ground last season, but she looks like she’s found her flow and looked incredible at Nebelhorn Trophy. She scored a personal best of 213.33 overall and made the skating world sit up and take notice. Also bringing the heat is Sarah Everhart, who looked fantastic at last year’s U.S. Nationals where she landed in 4th overall. She started her season with a victory at Cranberry Cup over the likes of reigning World Silver medalist, Isabeau Levito and Elyse Lin-Gracey.
Isabeau Levito, for her part, has perhaps not had the flawless programs and scores she would have liked so far — with a bronze at Cranberry Cup and a silver at Nebelhorn Trophy. However, we are not too concerned, as she’s already shown a new short program that taps into an elegant, Audrey Hepburn vibe that looks like a winner to us. Plus, her free skate at Nebelhorn showed significant improvement from Cranberry Cup. We think these are just early competitions and that she looks to be right on track.
Team Japan is already on the board with medals as well, with reigning 3-time world champion, Kaori Sakamoto, taking the bronze at Lombardia Trophy with a safe but solid competition. Again, her programs look stellar and we’re chalking up the lower-than-usual difficulty and scores to the fact that it’s a brand new season. At Nebelhorn Trophy, we saw her Japanese teammate and last season’s rookie of the year, Hana Yoshida, take bronze and include triple axels in both her short and long programs. The short program saw a fall on that triple axel, but she scored a nice one in her excellent free skate.
Pairs DivisionNebelhorn Trophy provided us a fantastic early-season rematch between two of last season’s top teams: World Champions Deanna Stelatto-Dudek & Maxime Deschamps and World Bronze medalists, Minerva Hase & Nikita Volodin. Canada’s Deanna & Maxime had a great new short program, but drew the short straw, going first at the competition, so were scored lower than they would have been had they skated later. Their new free skate has incredible potential to be one of their best, but a few issues on their side-by-side jumps held them solidly in the silver medal position.
Germany’s Hase & Volodin looked nearly ready for Worlds in terms of their technical. After having to make some relatively last-minute changes to their music in the offseason, they looked poised and polished — claiming their first victory of this new season. If this represents the promise of what’s to come, they will make it an exciting Grand Prix series and beyond.
Also looking strong already are Sarah Conti & Niccolo Macii from Italy, who took the gold at Lombardia Trophy with two much better skates than most of what we saw from them last season. It was great to see a solid comeback for this team — and will hopefully lead to more positive outcomes.
Reigning world silver medalists, Japan’s Riku Miura & Ryuchi Kihara, had a stunning short program at Lombardia Trophy. However, their new long program—while looking like it has the potential to be a gem—saw a scary fall in a lift resulting in what appeared to be at least a minor injury for Ryuchi. Their coach, Bruno Marcotte, later said Ryuchi would recover in a week or two and that no major damage was done, thankfully.
Also looking strong so far are Hungary’s Maria Pavlova & Alexei Sviatchenko, who were third at Lombardia Trophy, and the U.S.’s Ellie Kam & Danny O’Shea, who had a stunning personal best short program at Nebelhorn Trophy and earned the bronze medal there.
Men’s DivisionWe were NOT prepared for the Lombardia Trophy rematch of the two top men in the world from last season, Ilia Malinin and Yuma Kagiyama. In what had to be the most exciting moments of the season so far, these two men lit up the arena in Italy — showing programs that look both like they have tons of room to improve and also like they’ve been skating them for years.
Reigning world champ and quad god, Ilia Malinin, has brought some of his exhibition style to his short program with an aggressive music choice and program. His free skate to “I’m Not a Vampire” may be his strongest yet. He did not perform the quad axel here or push to the limits he can on the technical side, but his victory was marked instead by more intensity and connection to the music than we’ve seen from him before. He’s showing growth, and it’s exciting to see.
Yuma Kagiyama brought his finesse, his edges, his jumps, and his completeness as a skater to Lomabardia and looked absolutely divine as he took silver. As he did last season, his difficulty was somewhat dialed down here (its early season!), but that did not take away from the quality of his programs. In particular, his short program is a masterpiece that — once at its full power — will have audiences in the palm of his hand even more than they already are. A joy!
Not too far behind the two of these men was Japan’s Shun Sato, who looked better than ever after an off season where he obviously spent time working on his choreography and connection to the music. Worth noting is his score of 285.88, which got him a bronze here but would have taken gold over his countryman, Sota Yamamoto, at Nebelhorn Trophy.
Yamamoto had a rough short program at Nebelhorn, but his exceptional free skate took him to victory. Right behind his was a strong performance from Gabriele Frangipani from Italy and an artistic dream from Deniss Vasiļjevs of Latvia.
Ice Dance DivisionOf all the disciplines so far, we’ve seen the fewest of the top contenders in dance. Reigning world bronze medalists, Guignard & Fabbri of Italy, did make their debut with a fresh and fun rhythm dance. Their free skate seemed a bit less successful, but their scores were still magnificent and took them to an easy gold medal at Lombardia Trophy.
The team nipping at their heels all last season, Lilah Fear & Lewis Gibson of Great Britain, looked amazing in their disco-themed rhythm dance. However, their free dance to a Beyonce medley seemed a little more safe than we’ve seen from them in past seasons. Still, their scores easily took them to victory at Nebelhorn Trophy and sets them up well as the season evolves.
Our personal favorites so far this season have to be the two American teams of Christina Carreira & Anthony Ponomarenko, whose free dance to Carmen may well be their best to date, and Emilea Zingas & Vadym Kolesnik. Zingas & Kolesnik looked like a different team in their free dance, showing a new and captivating side to their skating.
Chapters0:00 — Intro 3:43 — Women’s Division 3:58 — Amber Glenn 5:15 — Elyce Lin-Gracey 6:51 — Sarah Everhardt 9:29 — Isabeau Levito 12:25 — Kaori Sakamoto 14:49 — Hana Yoshida 16:12 — Mona Chiba 16:43 — Anastasia Gubanova 16:49 — Kimmy Repond 17:01 — Sarah-Maude Dupuis 17:52 — Yuna Aoki and Mai Mihara 18:58 — Women we haven’t seen yet 20:00 — Pairs Division 20:30 — Hase and Volodin 21:29 — Stellato-Dudek and Deschamps 23:57 — Conti and Macii 25:08 — Miura and Kihara 28:14 — Pavlova and Sviatchenko 29:21 — Kam and O’Shea 31:22 — Efimova and Mitrofanov 32:33 — Pairs we haven’t seen 33:10 — Shin and Nagy 34:11 — Men’s Division 34:41 — Ilia Malinin 37:18 — Yuma Kagiyama 39:09 — Shun Sato 41:17 — Sota Yamamoto 43:24 — Junhwan Cha 44:55 — Kao Muira 46:14 — Gabriele Frangipani 46:52 — Deniss Vasiļjevs 47:51 — Roman Sadovsky 49:34 — Jimmy Ma 49:57 — Lucas Broussard 50:09 — Men we haven’t seen 52:23 — Ice Dance Division 53:45 — Guignard and Fabri 56:10 — Fear and Gibson 58:34 — Carreira and Ponomarenko 59:54 — Zingas and Kolesnik 1:01:30 — Taschlerova and Taschler 1:02:06 — Smart and Dieck 1:04:46 — Marosov and Chen 1:06:28 — Neset and Markolov 1:08:18 — Lerault and LeGac 1:08:57 — Brown and Brown 1:09:41 — Pate and Bye 1:09:51 — Flores and Destoyav 1:10:46 — Teams we haven’t seen yet 1:12:01 — Gold in our Hearts 1:13:58 — Wrap-Up
Shoma Uno, two-time world champion and decorated Olympic mens skater, has officially announced his retirement. We share our feelings about his career and exit from competition, talk about other recent retirements, and explore the new Rhythm Dance themes and proposed ISU rule changes.
The inevitable has finally happened: Japan’s legendary short king, Shoma Uno, has announced his retirement. As you may expect if you’ve listened to this podcast — or are also a huge Shoma fan — we have a lot of feelings about it that we share during this episode.
There have been hints for the past year the his retirement from competitive figure skating was coming, but the reality of the hit the men’s field takes without having Shoma’s distinct artistry, ability, and sportsmanship cannot be overstated.
However, if there’s a bright side, it’s that Shoma can now pursue more artistic endeavors with his skating — which hopefully fans far and wide will be able to enjoy for years to come. Also, there’s something to be said for the new guard of men’s skating taking its rightful place and going forward.
The field has its next tri-velry — with Ilia Malinin, Yuma Kagiyama, and Adam Siao Him Fa showing they are all in line for podium spots at the next Olympic Games. Behind them, there’s a long list of men who are not too far behind and perhaps soon will be vying for those top spots as well. It’s a time of change, and we’ll have to wait and see what the landscape looks like next season.
Ice Dance Thematics for the Next Two SeasonsSpeaking of next season, we also dig into the updated themes for the Rhythm Dance for the next two season — which will be “Social Dances and Styles of the 1950s, 1960s & 1970s” next season and “Dance Styles and Music from the 21st century – high energy and pop culture” in the 2025/2026 season.
Proposed ISU Rule ChangesThere are also rule changes potentially coming soon. The ISU will be voting this July on quite a few adjustments to the current rules, which are rumored to include everything from the removal of one jump combination in the free skate for single skaters to no more penalties for the backflip. We’ll have to wait and see what passes and what doesn’t, but its certainly something the keep an eye on during the offseason!
Deanna Stellato-Dudek PetitionIf you’d like to help Canadian pairs team—and reigning world champions!—Deanna Stellato-Dudek and Maxime Deshamps realize their Olympics 2026 dream, here’s how: Sign the Change.org petition in support of Deanna’s bid for Canadian citizenship! View and sign the petition here.
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Now that the thrill ride of the competitive ’23-’24 season is finished, we’ve officially entered the Show Skate season. We talk about the Stars on Ice tour in Japan, the French National Team tour, and Gold on Ice in Virginia. Plus we explore why the US lacks a SOI tour this year, and the reason these events are so important.
With the 2023-2024 competition season now complete, figure skaters have entered what is lovingly referred to as “Show Season!” In this week’s episode, we cover some of the tours and shows happening this spring and summer — and discuss why it’s slim pickings for those of us in the United States this year.
Stars on Ice Japan came directly on the heels of the World Championships — and brought all of the champions from Montreal together for audiences across the country.
From a new exhibition for Kaori Sakamoto (choreographed by one of our favs, Kana Muramoto) to backflips for days from Keegan Messing to the first SOI Japan tour for newly crowned World Champs, Deanna Stellato-Dudek & Maxime Deschamps — Japan got one incredible show. We talk about all the fun we saw — and, for some fun behind the scenes glimpses, we highly recommend digging through the Instagram handles of Piper Gilles (and the main Stars on Ice feed to see some, too).
Currently making their way through France is the French National team, on tour with French Ice Dance legends, Gabrielle Papadakis & Guillaume Cizeron. While the lineup is stellar, its hard not to be most excited to see the performances from Kevin Aymoz — who, after taking a break from competition following the European Championships, is looking fantastic and again performing his stunning Bolero program for eager fans.
Unfortunately for those in the United States, Stars on Ice will not be making its way across the country this year — so fans will need to travel to Canada if they want to catch the next leg of the show.
However, on April 19th, there is a one-night-only experience coming to Leesberg, Virginia called Gold on Ice — and it is bringing a fantastic lineup. Ilia Malinin leads the all start cast that includes Madison Chock & Evan Bates, Isabeau Levito, Mexico’s crowd-pleasing Donovan Carilllo, Polina Edmunds, Emily Bratti & Ian Somerville, the aforementioned Deanna Stellato-Dudek and Maxime Deschamps and Keegan Messing — and more. We hope this brings in the crowd it deserves — and that more shows like it pop up soon!
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