Three time world champion Kaori Sakamoto announces her post-Olympics retirement plan, and we have some feelings about it. Plus lots of new program announcements, and we talk about our experience at the North American Adult Synchronized Skating Camp.

0:00 — Intro 0:31 — NAASC Synchro Camp Experience 4:52 — Kaori Sakamoto Retirement Plans 10:43 — Other Skating News 11:06 — Young You’s Triple Axel 13:22 — Gabby Daleman returns 14:32 — Kovalevs change coaches 16:05 — US Summer Sizzler and Program Announcements 17:53 — Riku and Ryuchi choreographers 18:33 — Mai Mihara brings back her ’23-’24 programs 20:39 — Mao Shimada’s programs 22:05 — Mona Chiba’s programs 23:11 — Conti and Macii working with Romain Haganaur 24:38 — Thoughts on the Pre-Season 26:51 — Wrap-Up

This week, we glide through quite a few off-season updates. But first, we give a shout out to the North American Adult Synchronized Skating Camp — or NAASSC for short. We were able to record at this event for a YouTube video we’ll be sharing soon! This exciting, sold out event happened the weekend of June 20-22 in St. Louis, MO and was an absolute blast. Big thanks to founder & director, Ashley Carlson,  COO Ryan Carlson, and Assistant Director Victoria Smith for allowing us to be flies on the wall… er, boards in this case. More to come from this soon!

Back to the news….

The most notable announcement of the week was certainly Kaori Sakamoto’s confirmation that she will retire at the end of the 2025-2026 season. Commence sobbing! In all seriousness, this was not a huge surprise — especially considering her Olympic short program music was announced to be “Time to Say Goodbye” — but it will absolutely make each remaining competition with her a little more significant. Kaori is such an incredible ambassador of figure skating, and we look forward to her still being one as a coach.

United States Figure Skating announced that they would again be having “Summer Sizzler” event at the Skating Club of Boston — which apparently will be the stage where some US skaters will be premiering their Olympic season programs. We are skeptical that we’ll see competitive program peeks from Chock and Bates, but they will be there on August 14th along with Ilia Malinin, Alysa Liu, Amber Glenn, Jason Brown, Isabeau Levito, and many more.

We talk about all of that, share a bunch more program announcements, and muse on a few more updates we’ve been drinking up online while we wait for Dreams on Ice (where it is rumored that a good number of Team Japan favorites will be debuting their programs for next season). Fingers crossed!

We talk with figure skating journalist Judith Dombrowski about her work with Golden Skate and Pirouette Magazine, and what it’s like conducting interviews in the ‘Mixed Zone’ at skating competitions.

0:00 — Intro 2:06 — What is the Mixed Zone? 15:28 — Overcoming language barriers 18:12 — Skaters seeking content creators and alternative press 20:32 — A push to find “drama”? 24:40 — How much skating does a reporter actually see? 30:02 — Covering the Road to 2026 Event 33:56 — Familiar faces at events 35:45 — Best skaters in the Mixed Zone 38:50 — Looking ahead to next season 42:35 — US Nationals in our home area 44:29 — Wrap-Up

In this episode, we chat with Judith Dombrowski, a German figure skating journalist who writes for Golden Skate, and the german-language Pirouette Magazine.

Judith has been a fixture of the competitive figure skating circuit for several years, primarily conducting post-program interviews in the press area called the “Mixed Zone”.

After receiving their scores in the kiss ‘n cry, skaters advance to the Mixed Zone to speak with reporters, discuss their performance, and take photos. Judith often speaks with every competitior and team during a major senior event.

We talk about the format and compulsary nature of the Mixed Zone, how reporters and skaters overcome language differences, and how content creators can support and interact with the sport.

Judith’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/judithdomi89/

Founded in 1999, Golden Skate provides resources for the sport of figure skating worldwide. This includes interviews, features, videos, club listings, a discussion board and more.

• https://www.goldenskate.com/
• https://www.instagram.com/goldsk8/

Pirouette has been the leading magazine for figure skating in the German-speaking world since 1968. They introduce the stars of skating, look behind the scenes, portray personalities, report on results and records, and provide competition schedules.

• http://pirouette-online.de
• https://www.instagram.com/pirouette_magazin/

We dig into all of the Grand Prix assignments for the upcoming figure skating season, as well as the unsurprising return of the Olympic Pairs champions, China’s Sui and Han.

It may be skating’s off-season, but there was a lot to be excited about this past week as the 2025 Grand Prix assignments were announced — and two legends of the sport quietly confirmed their long-rumored return.

The biggest story to come out of the assignments was unquestionably the return of reigning Olympic pair’s gold medalists, Sui Wenjing and Han Cong from China. While there had been rumors of their return for months, their appearance on the competitors list for each Cup of China and NHK Trophy still rocked skating fandom and left us conflicted in our feelings. Unlike other returns this season, this one “feels” different — and we can’t help but be a little excited to see them skate again.

The Grand Prix series will kickoff in France this year, which switches things up right out of the gate since Skate America has been the series launch for decades. In France, we’ll see Ilia Malinin vs. Adam Siao Him Fa light up the men’s competition while Kaori Sakamoto, Chaeyeon Kim, and Isabeau Levito battle it out in the women’s. However, the most buzzed about will be Ice Dance here as we see the first Grand Prix competition with Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Guillaume Cizeron. The drama level will be HIGH at this one!

Cup of China is next, which is where Sui and Han will make their debut on the series very appropriately. Here we will also see a rather stacked Women’s field with the unexpected match-up of reigning Grand Prix Final champion, Amber Glenn, vs. reigning World Champion, Alysa Liu. We also get the senior GP debuts of Jia Shin from Korea, who could mix things up this season, as well as Jacob Sanchez for the US.

Skate Canda has a few key match-ups to watch including an early pairs showdown between Deanna Stellato-Dukek and Maxime Deschamps and Minerva Fabienne-Hase and Nikita Volodin. We’ll also get our first glimpse at Piper Gilles and Paul Porrier one week after their biggest rivals, Madison Chock and Evan Bates, debut in China.

As if that drama wasn’t enough, ice dance keeps the hits coming at NHK Trophy as we see the debut of Maia and Alex Shibutani as well as the face-off between Charlene Guignard and Marco Fabbri and the team that took their World podium spot away from them, Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson, for the SECOND time in this Grand Prix series. We’ll also see Sui and Han again here in pairs, Yuma Kagiyama’s first appearance in men’s, and the Grand Prix return of Loena Hendrickx vs. her Belgian rival, Nina Pinzarrone.

Skate America gives Jason Brown top billing in the men’s, where he has a legitimate chance to medal against Kevin Aymoz and reigning World silver medalist, Mikhail Shaidorov. Pairs also gives us the potential for a fairly heated battle between reigning World Champions, Riku Miura and Ryuchi Kiharaand the surging Georgian team of Anastasia Metelkina and Luka Berulava.

Rounding out the GP series will be Finlandia Trophy, which will likely be a bloodbath of people trying to make the Grand Prix Final. Lots of big match-ups. Lots of exhausted skaters. Who will win? We’ll have to wait and see…

0:00 — Intro 1:08 — Sui and Han Return 6:20 — Grand Prix Assignment Announcements 7:22 — Skate France 17:55 — Cup of China 29:50 — Skate Canada 39:49 — NHK Trophy 48:33 — Skate America 55:28 — Finlandia Trophy 1:04:21 — Closing Thoughts on the Grand Prix 1:07:32 — Wrap-Up

We round-up the past week or so of off-season skating news, including new-and-returning programs from Kevin Aymoz, Kaori Sakamoto, and the Brown siblings. Haein Lee’s suspension has formally been nullified, and the Taschler siblings move to Finland with a new coaching team. And lots more.

1:17 — Stars on Ice and Show Season 4:57 — Kevin Aymoz brings back Bolero 9:09 — Oona and Gage Brown skate to The Godfather 11:18 — Haein Lee does Carmen; suspension is nullified 13:36 — Chaeyeon Kim working with Benoit again 15:03 — Rion Sumiyoshi working with Misha Ge and Shae Lynn Borne 16:16 — Rika Kihira working on returning? 17:12 — Kaori back in Montreal for programs 19:31 — Taschlerova and Taschler to train in Finland 22:03 — Russian neutral athlete qualifications 30:25 — Boitano and Witt go sight-seeing 32:16 — Wrap-Up

It’s the off-season before an Olympic year, so you better believe the figure skaters are staying busy! Stars on Ice takes their “Rockstars” tour on the road in the US, after two successful legs in Japan and Canada. We’ve got new (and returning) program and choreographer announcements from Kevin Aymoz, Rion Sumiyoshi, Chaeyeon Kim, Kaori Sakamoto, and Oona and Gage Brown.

Haein Lee and Young You’s suspensions have been formally nullified by the KSU and Korean authorities. The Taschler sibling ice dance duo are changing coaches and relocating to Finland. The Russian “neutral” Olympic eligibilities have been announced—and no ice dance or pairs teams were deemed qualified by the ISU guidelines.

And, while our US champions have gathered at Universal Studios to shoot promos for the Olympic season, skating legends Brian Boitano and Katerina Witt were sight-seeing together in Germany. (And it was adorable!)

Follow Scoreography:

• Website — https://scoreography.show
• Instagram — https://www.instagram.com/scoreography
• BlueSky — https://bsky.app/profile/scoreography.show

In our second annual Q&A episode, we answer listener submitted questions about the upcoming Olympic season, our all-time favorite programs, the origin story of the podcast, and lots more.

The off-season can feel LONG… especially the off-season before the Olympic season! This is why it was especially fun to dive into some “what if” scenarios, skating nostalgia, and even a few messy predictions for the coming year.

We also dig into a few more serious topics, including the pros and cons of getting into the figure skating creator space, why big success for the U.S. in women’s figure skating always seems to be the barometer for its popularity, and even a little bit more discussion on “comebacks”.

Without getting into spoilers, the links below are all relevant to our discussion — so either consider them teasers or listen first and come back to enjoy them!

Lastly, thank you to everyone who took the time to send us questions. We appreciate it immensely, and appreciate you all for listening!

• Mai Mihara’s “Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence” https://youtu.be/YhJYbUwJxCI?si=469oxBFYHdOtF5m5
• — alt link: https://www.instagram.com/reel/ClZHvu2JmTI/
• Jason Brown’s “Melancholy” https://youtu.be/Qf2EX0TGugk?si=IzO7uHTfWFMaxbia 
• Brandi Carlile’s “The Joke” at the Grammy’s https://youtu.be/KJqL1yIm9e0?si=dJoZMFt0wRcISe97 
• Dee-Lite “Groove is in the Heart” https://youtu.be/etviGf1uWlg?si=iVec8zvt0goHQWeZ 
• Sneaker Pimps “Six Underground” https://youtu.be/Wuwfe3DRJzE?si=YYbREsQmYkZcVU1y 
• Duran Duran “Out of my Mind” https://youtu.be/daZCDGYKi74?si=JdH69p68ERtlMAMB 
• U2 “Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me” https://youtu.be/eIdTNyJp38A?si=nlOrbCiowFXmzFlI 
• Seal “Kiss From a Rose” https://youtu.be/hDd2G_V1rzc?si=5f8yKkXzA5-1EFHI 
• Yelim Kim’s “A Thousand Years” https://youtu.be/8htyCI7JSiQ?si=5btBBXYbFsrGZOLv 
• Papadakis and Cizeron 2022 Rhythm Dance https://youtu.be/Tbv1a5vYI24?si=PKMqA9i7CUFCpZjD 
• Shoma Uno 2023 Worlds https://youtu.be/FsaGAYkNEwA?si=Okl8nAg_bgePlKRa 
• Nathan Chen’s 2022 Olympic Short https://youtu.be/EY5EsGlKHmk?si=ZyBAEUMrzNMNbxVH 
• Kurt Browning 1993 Worlds “Casablanca” https://youtu.be/1BXXk5r_5sA?si=SolQyTbnK4CLb8tp 

0:00 — Intro and previous episode reactions 2:21 — Thoughts on Figure Skating Critique 7:44 — Q: Who would you choose for Olympic teams? 16:13 — Q: One program to watch on a moonlight lake? 17:46 — Q: Programs/music you’d like to see this next season? 20:50 — Q: 90s theme for the Rhythm Dance, and AI music? 25:48 — Q: Should any piece of music be banned? 27:14 — Q: What do we think about Adelia Petrosian? 31:33 — Q: 5 performances you rewatch all the time? 35:34 — Q: Why is the Free Skate order random sometimes? 39:27 — Q: Why did we start a FS podcast? 43:50 — Q: Have you ever taken skating lessons? 45:36 — Q: Have you watched roller skating competitions? 46:58 — Q: Why don’t we appear on video? 51:50 — Q: Advice for FS content creators? 56:20 — Q: What has changed the most about FS? 1:02:07 — Q: Skaters that revolutionized the sport? 1:07:40 — Q: Waning US popularity and focus on the Women’s discipline 1:25:36 — Wrap-Up

After SEVEN years away from competitive figure skating, ice dance Hall of Famers the Shib Sibs — Maia and Alex Shibutani — are returning. Just in time for the Olympic season. We have complicated feelings about it (especially Adron). We ruminate on the sport’s inextricable tie to the Olympic quadrennial, how that both helps and hinders skating fandom, and the role of nostalgia in promoting the sport.

The Nicecapades — Ice Wars: Revenge of the Shib

Biography — Ice Queens: The Untold Stories of America’s Figure Skating Legends

Follow Scoreography:

• Website — https://scoreography.show
• Instagram — https://www.instagram.com/scoreography
• BlueSky — https://bsky.app/profile/scoreography.show

We’re joined by Haley from FS.SkatingStan, one of our favorite figure skating Instagram accounts, to talk about her experience at Worlds 2025, the efforts from the ISU to modernize the sport, and the role content creators play in the skating’s future.

This episode of Scoreography features our very first guest on the show. Haley from FS.SkatingStan — one of our favorite figure skating fan accounts on Instagram — drops in for a wide-ranging conversation about the season, her experience at Worlds 2025, and the sport’s future.

We talk with Haley about the ISU’s apparent efforts at modernizing the World Championships through updated tech and presentation, as well as what’s in store for future seasons. We also discuss the sport’s current relationship with the content creator community, and how they could be better promoting skating through access, partnerships, and outreach to new fans.

Haley is a former competitive skater who now works in media and marketing. She uses the FS.SkatingStan instagram account, substack, and more to educate and entertain, with smart design and insightful commentary. You can find here at:

• Instagram: @fs.skatingstan
• YouTube: @fs.skatingstan
• Threads: fs.skatingstan
• SubStack: fsskatingstan.substack.com

Follow Scoreography:

• Website — https://scoreography.show
• Instagram — https://www.instagram.com/scoreography
• BlueSky — https://bsky.app/profile/scoreography.show

We look back at all the fun shenanigans and terrific performances from the 2025 World Team Trophy competition in Japan, including a dominant win from Team USA and first WTT medal for Team Italy.

Chapters

0:00 — Intro 1:51 — Predictions and Results 3:09 — Women's Competition 15:49 — Pairs Competition 23:27 — Men's Competition 33:00 — Ice Dance Competition 40:05 — Mao Shimada in the Gala 41:50 — Gold in our Hearts 46:16 — Wrap-Up

Recap of 2025 Figure Skating World Team Trophy

The 2024/2025 figure skating season finally came to its official end in Tokyo, Japan, at the World Team Trophy — and, WOW, did it go out with its sense of humor fully on display!

From team wigs to furry onesies to Kevin Aymoz’s schoolgirl-clad antics, the kiss-and-cry was almost as entertaining as the skating itself! However, as we are a figure skating show, we should probably talk about the skating.

This competition was really a battle for 1st between Team USA vs. Team Japan… And Team USA was once again victorious, with the highest point total ever achieved at World Team Trophy.

Team USA was bolstered by having three of the four reigning World Champs — Ilia Malinin, Alysa Liu, and Chock & Bates — show up like the champions they are, winning the short and long in each of their disciplines.

However, the biggest “winners” may have been Jason Brown and Amber Glenn, who each had incredible moments here. Jason landed in the top 3 in both the short and long. Amber scored a personal best for her near-flawless free skate!

Team Japan did put on quite a show, though. Team captain, Kaori Sakamoto, gave two of her best performances of the season as she worked hard to support everyone else throughout the competition. World Champions Riku Miura & Ryuichi Kihara also brought their best again here, with their short program being especially spectacular, taking top spot in both pairs events.

Team Italy took their first medal at World Team Trophy, led by strong performances from Conti & Macii, Lara Naki Gutmann, and Daniel Grassl. 

Off the ice, the Team Spirit award went to Team USA, which was wonderfully accepted by Team Captain Jason Brown. However, if we’re being honest, Team France had our hearts with their pure wackiness.

RESULTS

GOLD — Team United States (126 points) SILVER — Team Japan (110 points) BRONZE — Team Italy (86 points) 4th — Team France (78 points) 5th — Team Canada (72 points) 6th — Team Georgia (68 points)

Follow Scoreography:

• Website — https://scoreography.show
• Instagram — https://www.instagram.com/scoreography
• BlueSky — https://bsky.app/profile/scoreography.show

We look ahead to one of our favorite and most fun figure skating events, the bi-annual World Team Trophy. The competition features teams from the USA, Japan, Canada, Italy, Georgia, and France.

Chapters

0:00 — World Team Trophy Overview 9:57 — Team Rosters 29:50 — World Team Podium Predictions 32:22 — Wrap-Up

Follow Scoreography:

• Website — https://scoreography.show
• Instagram — https://www.instagram.com/scoreography
• BlueSky — https://bsky.app/profile/scoreography.show

We reflect on the post-Worlds ISU Awards, dig through the official Olympic Qualifications, and then hand out our own 2025 Scoreography Awards across 10 different categories.

Chapters

0:00 — Intro 0:54 — Olympic Spot Qualifications 19:43 — ISU Awards 28:38 — The Scoreography Awards 29:10 — Favorite Program: Men 31:09 — Favorite Program: Women 32:27 — Favorite Program: Pairs 34:03 — Favorite Program: Ice Dance 35:15 — Breakout Skater or Team 38:44 — Best Costume 41:16 — Best Gala Performance 44:03 — Future Star 45:48 — Skater or Team of the Year 48:34 — Moment of the Year 50:11 — Wrap-Up

Follow Scoreography:

• Website — https://scoreography.show
• Instagram — https://www.instagram.com/scoreography
• BlueSky — https://bsky.app/profile/scoreography.show