We look back at our highlights from the ’23-’24 figure skating season, talk about the World’s exhibition gala, conjecture on possible retirements and team changes, examine the state of figure skating and FS fandom, and hand out our season-end Gold in Our Hearts awards.

The 2023-2024 figure skating season is over — now what?! Before we settle into the off-season, let’s recap some of the best moments of the season and dig into some thoughts on what’s to come in the sport we love.

Whether it was the Quad God Ilia Malinin claiming his first World title in World Record fashion, or the volatile rise of Adam Siao Him Fa, it’s easy to see why the men’s discipline has been probably the most exciting of the season.

The men from Japan alone proved they could have a competition as compelling as the World Championships with their two top men — the glorious Shoma Uno and sublime Yuma Kagiyama — leading a field of so many medal contenders its sad to see any get left off the World team.

Now that we’re halfway through the Olympic quadrennial, things are about to get even more interesting — and more serious for everyone. What may we see next year? Maybe the first quint? It’s very possible.

Outside of the men’s division, though, it’s been a great if unpredictable season for the women. Queen Kaori Sakamoto’s three-peat World victory was historic and not surprising, but many of the other women seemed to struggle to find their consistency this year.

However, the rise of Ava Marie Ziegler from the United States, Hana Yoshida from Japan, and Nina Pinzarrone of Belgium lit up the sport and gave us some enthusiasm for the future.

Also, after such an up and down year, it was heart-warming to see Isabeau Levito fight for her first World silver and remind us all that she’s a force in this sport.

The dance discipline held true to its standard of being the most predictable, with the same top teams from last season remaining on top. However, we saw some hints that a changing of the guard may soon be on the horizon.

For all our love of Chock & Bates, admiration of Gilles & Poirier, and awe at Guignard & Fabbri, we’re slowly starting to see a shift in Ice Dance that may lift teams like Lajoie & Lagha, Fear & Gibson, and maybe even Carreira & Ponomarenko to the podium. How that will rollout over the next season is TBD, but it’ll be interesting to watch.

Last but NEVER least, the pairs discipline saw the biggest emotional moment of the season with Deanna Stellato-Dudek & Maxime Deschamps finishing the season is storybook fashion by winning their first World title on home ice. Rarely have we seen a moment in the sport as inspiring as this one, and it will be remembered for years to come.

That said — outside of them, Japan’s Riku Miura & Ryuchi Kihara, Germany’s Minerva Fabienne Hase & Nikita Volodin, and several other notable top teams — the pairs discipline is where we hope to see the most improvement going into next year. There are many teams with potential, but few making big strides. We hope to see bigger and better — and just more — from them next season.

All in all, its been a great ride this year — and we cannot wait to see what you all have in store for us this fall!

Follow Scoreography:

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

We recap the earth shattering action from World Figure Skating Championships 2024 in Montreal, including Ilia Malinin’s historic 6-Quad winning free skate, the 3-peat gold for Kaori Sakamoto, and Canada’s own Stellato-Dudek & Deschamps finally ascending to the Pairs throne.

The 2024 World Figure Skating Championships in Montreal gave us several moments we expected, others we wished for, and whole lot we never could have predicted. Most of all, it gave us countless extraordinary skating moments we won’t soon forget.

The formal coronation of the Quad God, Ilia Malinin, as the biggest rockstar in men’s figure skating happened here—with a program that literally had us screaming in our living room in disbelief.

Coming into the free skate a close third behind reigning World Champion, Shoma Uno, and returning Olympic silver medalist, Yuma Kagiyama, Malinin closed the event with a World Record-breaking free skate that started with a quad axel, ended with a boggling triple lutz-triple axel combination, and found room in the middle for 5 other quads.

At the end of it, Malinin collapsed while the arena went bonkers — knowing they had seen something extraordinary. His first world title is certainly one to remember.

In the silver slot, the utterly brilliant Yuma Kagiyama skated in a way that would have won him any other title on any other night. His continued growth as an artist as much as an athlete is glorious to watch, and while this year gold may not have been his, do not underestimate his potential to win the Olympic gold medal. He’s on a path that could definitely get him there.

In third, with the biggest comeback ever seen in ISU competition, was Adam Siao Him Fa from France. As if jumping from 19th to 3rd with an incredibly powerful free skate wasn’t enough, he was second in the free program only to Ilia — and did that while also including an illegal backflip that cost his 2 points. It was bold, intense, and one of the best stories to come out of the championship.

In fourth, Shoma Uno — who led after the short — had a rougher free skate than we’ve seen from him in quite a long time and couldn’t hold onto a podium position. That said, he was still Shoma — meaning he was still brilliant and amongst the class of the field.

Rounding out the top 5 was Jason Brown — who again competed very little internationally this season, only to come to Worlds with no quads and still skate SO BEAUTIFULLY that he landed amongst the top men in the world. Fingers crossed we see him again next year as the sport is always better for having him still competing in it. 

All season long, we’ve been watching Deanna Stellato-Dudek & Maxime Deschamps look like they were ready to take that step into being World Champions — but a few moments during the season had us worried the title may not happen this year.

Our worries were wasted, thankfully, as Deanna and Maxime put down two dazzling programs that led to their history-making win on home soil in Canada. To say this moment was emotional is a massive understatement.

As the oldest woman to ever win a figure skating world title in any discipline at 40 years old, Deanna becomes, not only a legend in the sport, but even more of an inspiration than she’d already proved herself to be. An extraordinary moment for this exceptionally talented team and fans everywhere to share.

Riku Muira & Ryuchi Kihara came to Montreal with a lot of question marks. As the reigning World Champs, they were certainly not to be discounted — but injury had kept them from most competitions this season and it was unclear how they would perform.

With a win in the free skate and a silver medal overall, they silenced all of those who doubted them and shined like the champions they are. In a scary moment, Ryuichi had to be helped by EMTs directly following their free skate — unfortunately meaning they missed the medal ceremony. Thankfully, he bounced back quickly and the organizing committee redid the medal ceremony on Saturday night to allow them to participate.

Taking the bronze medal were the surprise pair of the season, Germany’s Minerva Fabienne Hase & Nikita Volodin. After their misstep at the European Championships, this team came here and showed why they went undefeated in the first part of this season, with two very strong programs that defy their short time together. We cannot wait to see how this team evolves and gets even better with time. 

Kaori Sakamoto proved again why she’s in a league of her own right now in the women’s division, coming back from a 4th place finish in the short program to win her third gold medal.

This third world title makes her the first woman since Peggy Flemming in the 1960’s to win three consecutive world championships.

Taking a bit of a surprise silver, Isabeau Levito came back from a rough US Nationals to skate two exceptional programs and earn her first World medal. This is the first silver medal the US has taken in the women’s event since Ashley Wagner in 2016. 

In third for the bronze was Chaeyeon Kim from South Korea — who skated a near flawless free skate to move up from 6th to 3rd. This 17 year-old skater has only been on the ice for 7 years and is already a world medalist — it will be very interesting to see how far she can go!

In a disappointing placement, Loena Hendrickx — who won the short program — ended up in fourth overall after a sluggish, error-laden free skate. 

The most predictable of the disciplines provided some excellent performances—but stayed to the script in terms of the medals.

Madison Chock & Evan Bates decimated the rhythm dance, earning a sizable lead that they needed after a small mistake in the free dance—which was still absolutely gorgeous and enough to earn them their second world title.

The silver went to the hometown heroes, Canda’s Piper Gilles & Paul Poirier, who won the free dance with the best performance of their Wuthering Heights program of the season. Their rhythm dance again seemed just a bit less impactful and held them back from taking the title.

In the bronze position was Italy’s Charlene Guignard & Marco Fabbri, who turned in two extraodiary performances that may have been the most technically sound of the event. However, a few small issues in their free dance — and a larger one with a scary costume malfunction — dropped them from 2nd in the short to 3rd overall.

Follow Scoreography:

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

In part two of our 2024 Worlds preview, we dig into the absolutely stacked Men’s competition, including the “Thrivalry” between Shoma Uno, Ilia Malinin, and Yuma Kagiyama. Then we go deep into the Ice Dance lineup, which promises to be a close showdown between 3-4 top teams.

In this week’s episode, we’re shooting our final shot at predictions for the 2024 World Figure Skating Championships — this time discussing the men’s and dance competitions.  From the “Trivalry” we’re expecting to see between Ilia Malinin, Shoma Uno, and Yuma Kagiyama in the men’s event to a probable four-way race for the podium in the dance event, we’re holding our breath for these two competitions. 

This season has been an incredibly strong one in the men’s division, making this event possibly the most competitive and anticipated of the World Championships events. 

Coming in off his Grand Prix Final win, Ilia Malinin heads to Montreal as a definite favorite for the podium. He didn’t have the best US Nationals, but also didn’t have much competition there — so its possible that lessened his preparation.

Regardless, he recently shared a quad toe loop / quad axel combination he’s doing in practice — throwing an absolute gauntlet down to the rest of the field and clearly stating that he will be tough to beat if he skates cleanly.

However, he’s not alone in the “favorites” camp — Japan’s Yuma Kagiyama and reigning World Champ, Shoma Uno, are coming in looking phenomenal. Kagiyama showed up better than ever at Four Continents back in February — taking that title in a dominant fashion and giving him a ton of momentum coming into Worlds.

Uno has looked solid all season, but hasn’t had quite the consistency and has been “plagued by the q” (I.e. quarter understated jumps) on a few occasions. We’re crossing every finger and toe that he can bring to Montreal his fight and his special artistic magic — and get on that podium again!

Also in the medal mix, the early-season frontrunner — Adam Siao Him Fa — comes in after having along break since winning his second European title. His last three competitions have looked a bit messier than the near-perfection of the first half of the season, but you cannot count out this exceptional Frenchman on the rise.

Japan’s Kao Miura arrives hungry to his first World Championships — and has far less pressure on him than his countrymen. It’ll be very interesting to see what he can bring to the ice here.

There are quite a few other men here who could show up and surprise everyone, including one of skating’s favorite sons, Jason Brown of the U.S, who is a wild card here but can never be counted out. All in all, this feels like the first real step towards the next Olympics and expect to see some big programs here.

Reigning World Champions, Madison Chock & Evan Bates of the US, come here seeking a repeat win and two great skates in their adopted hometown of Montreal — and we’re here for all of that.

However, Canada’s darlings, Piper Gilles & Paul Porrier, have home country advantage as well as the highest score of the season.

Not to be outdone, Italy’s Charlene Guignard & Marco Fabbri have shown extraordinary performances throughout the season and may be the most consistent of the top three teams. So, while Ice Dance is usually the most predictable, this competition feels like a toss up between the three powerhouse teams.

Waiting just a tiny bit behind them and ready to take a big step forward are Great Britain’s Lilah Fear & Lewis Gibson. They had a big surprise victory over Guignard & Fabbri at NHK Trophy last fall, and under the right circumstance on the right day, could slide onto the podium. It’s a long-shot, but not impossible.

What is wonderful about this competition is that there are also no less than a dozen other excellent teams all vying for top 10 finishes here. From Lithuania’s brilliant Allison Reed & Saulius Ambrulevicius fresh off their European bronze medal to Finland’s inventive Juulia Turkkila & Matthias Verslus to France’s Evgeniia Lopareva & Geoffrey Brissaud who recently went viral with their rave-inspired exhibition program — there will be a lot of skating to love regardless of placement. 

Follow Scoreography:

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

Part One of our World Figure Skating Championships 2024 preview focuses on the deep field of the Women’s event, and the volatile and unpredictable Pairs competition. We also discuss the controversial Ice Dance Rhythm Dance themes for the next two seasons, Audrey Shin’s move to Pairs, and Ilia Malinin’s practice 4T+4A sequence.

The 2024 World Figure Skating Championships are so close we can smell the Montreal bagels — which means it’s a good time for us to start talking about the biggest competition of the year!

In this episode, we’re focusing on the Women’s and Pairs events — which both start on Wednesday, March 20th and promise to serve up some surprises.

For all that this field has a few clear standouts, it also has a deep pool of talent standing right behind them ready to step forward.

Kaori Sakamoto — the reigning two time World Champion from Japan — comes in as the favorite, but not an untouchable one. While she’s had a very strong, consistent season and garnered the highest score of any women this year, Belgium’s Loena Hendrickx isn’t far behind.

Loena has two Worlds medals, but neither of them are gold. We expect she’ll be vying for a spot on the podium and — if she can skate cleanly — maybe even in the hunt for the top spot.

Right behind these two powerful medal favorites fighting for gold are two more young Japanese favorites, Mone Chiba and Hana Yoshida, who will definitely be in the hunt. South Korea’s Chaeyeon Kim, Georgia’s Anastasiia Gubanova, Belgium’s Nina Pinzarrone, and the two American women — Amber Glenn and Isabeau Levito — are all also capable of taking a medal.

Not completely out of consideration is last year’s World Silver medalist, Haein Lee from South Korea, who’s had a rough season but is entirely capable of pulling off an upset if she’s at her best.

Considering there’s even more great talent not named above that will be giving their all in Montreal, this has the potential to be the best women’s event we’ve seen since the Beijing Olympics. 

The pairs discipline has been a bit of a wild ride this season. From super high highs (looks at you, Deanna and Maxine) to fairly disappointing lows (sadly thinking of the US Nationals right now), we’re unsure what to think — but definitely hoping for a big, bold battle for the podium here.

If they are at even close to their best, Canada’s Deanna Stellato-Dudek & Maxime Deschamps will be the class of this field. Whether that translates to gold or not will likely be based on how clean they are and how strong teams like Germany’s Minerva Fabienne Hase & Nikita Volodin and reigning World Champs, Japan’s Riku Miura & Ryuichi Kihara skate. 

Italy also has two powerful, if inconsistent, teams that could definitely be in the medal mix in newly crowned European champions, Lucrezia Beccari & Matteo Guarise and last year’s World bronze medalists, Sarah Conti & Niccolo Macii.    

Also in the conversation, 2024 World Junior Champions from Georgia, Anastasiia Metelkina & Luka Berulava may have faltered at their past two competitions, but are not to be underestimated. 

And don’t discount last year’s fifth place finishers, Emily Chan & Spencer Akira Howe from the US. We haven’t seen them much this season due to a injury, but what we did see was noteworthy enough to keep an eye on them for a top 5 finish again.

There’s at least five other teams that could pull off an upset based on what we’ve seen this season, so we recommend to expect the unexpected in this discipline in Montreal.

Follow Scoreography:

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

We look back at the extremely impressive Junior Worlds 2024 championships, including the showdown between Mao Shimada and Jia Shin in the Women’s event, an expected win from dance team Neset & Markelo, shaky success for pairs team Metelkinda & Berulava, and star making performances from Rena Uezono and Anthony Paradis.

This week, we’re recapping the 2024 World Junior Figure Skating Championships in Taipei, Taiwan. While we haven’t always been avid junior competition viewers, this competition may be the catalyst that gets us more in tune with them!

From a brilliant, burgeoning rivalry between Mao Shimada and Jia Shin in the Women’s competition, to the rising star performances from the gold medal-winning dance team of Leah Neset & Artem Markelov, there was a lot to be excited about.

The premier event of Junior Worlds had to be the Women’s competition, thanks to a ridiculously deep field of talented women who, for the most part, all turned in fantastic skates.

The gold was expected to come down to either Japan’s Mao Shimada and South Korea’s Jia Shin — and these two women made it a nail biter. With her poise, flow, and skill, Jia Shin won the short program over Shimada. However, in the free skate, while both skated near-flawlessly, Mao edged out Jia with her quad toe loop and overall technical excellence.

With competitions like these, we cannot wait to see these two compete head-to-head for years to come.

Jumping into third with an astounding free skate, Japan’s 13 year-old Rena Uezono lit up the arena and made her way to a bronze medal.

Rounding out the top ten were all fantastic skaters — from Finland’s Iida Karhunen to Sherry Zhang from the US and Canada’s Lulu Lin. We even saw solid skates from those much further down in the ranks, including Josephine Lee from the US, Kaiya Ruiter from Canada, and the Kim twins from South Korea.

All in all, this competition made us optimistic for the future of Women’s skating.

As predicted by many, the gold here went to the talented Georgian pair of Anastasia Metelkina & Luka Berulava — though this win was not as dominant as many would have expected.

This team has a solid chance of medaling at Senior Worlds in a few weeks, and this free skate was not one they would have hoped to have here leading into that competition. Still, they took the title by more than 12 points and have some time to look at what went wrong before heading to Montreal.

The silver and bronze both went to young American teams — Olivia Flores & Luke Wang and Naomi Williams & Lachlan Lewer, respectively. Both teams had exceptional short programs, and flawed but solid free skates. Flores & Wang, however, brought quite a bit more difficulty to their skate and looked strong overall. These are certainly teams to watch for in the future!

This was the closest competition of the event, with gold being taken by Minkyu Seo by just over a point. This talented South Korean had a solid short program, but a slightly less compelling free skate.

However, the silver medalist — Japan’s Rio Nakata — was in 5th after the short, so needed made up quite a bit of ground to win the free skate and take the second spot.

In with the bronze, Adam Hagara from Slovakia became the first Slovakian skater to earn a Junior Worlds medal.

While there were many other strong skaters in this field, the one we felt the most excited about is Canada’s Anthony Paradis. This young skater came in 15th, but scored remarkably high PCS marks and had the most identity and overall skating quality on the ice in this field.

What he lacks in jumps he makes up for in commitment — and we eagerly await a time when he can bring it all together for a run at international podiums.

Follow Scoreography:

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

We take a look at the Challenge Cup 2024 competition in Tilburg, Netherlands, including two remarkable skates from Japan’s Yuna Aoki, an expected win from Kaori Sakamoto, and somewhat surprising golds for Italy’s Conti & Macii and Kazakhstan’s Mikhail Shaidorov. We also touch on Tallink Hotels Cup in Estonia, Korea’s Winter Sports Festival, and the announcement of Canada’s Worlds team.

In this week’s episode, we’re breaking down one of the last senior competitions leading into the 2024 World Championships — the 2024 Challenge Cup in Tilburg, Netherlands. While this was not a huge competition, there were several noteworthy entrants that made this competition one to notice — especially in the women’s division where Kaori Sakamoto nearly lost to fellow Japanese skater, Yuna Aoki.

Yuna Aoki came to Tilburg and showed audiences that she absolutely should be considered amongst the best and brightest skaters in Japan, with two almost-flawless programs. Her short program, which she choreographed herself, included a spectacular triple lutz + triple loop combination that she repeated beautifully in the free skate. With a 209.37 total score, she landed only 3 points behind World Champion, Kaori Sakamoto — who had a few errors in both programs. 

In third, France’s Lorine Schild continued to perform well and likely ended her season here with a bronze medal. In fourth, Ekaterina Kurakova did well, but still seems to be lacking what judges are looking for from her in the PCS scores. We’re hoping her team can determine what may be causing these marks soon to help Kurakova get back into the mix.

Here we saw a competition within a competition between arguably the two top Italian teams — Conti & Macii and Beccari & Guarise. After a tough season so far, Conti & Macii came here looking stronger and more organized than we’ve seen in a while. While still committing a few errors, they were able to take the gold definitively and possibly lock in their placement at the World Championships — though Italy has not yet named them to the team.

Beccari & Guarise had a solid short program, but had some issues in their free skate that left them settling for silver. In bronze position, it was nice to see Kovalev & Kovalev of France come back after a terrible Europeans to earn a podium spot. 

Mikhail Shaidorov continued his strong season here with a clean free skate and a gold medal. His programs, while still needing a lot of work in terms of components, are strong and working well for this young skater leading into Worlds.

In the silver spot, Japan’s Tatsuya Tsuboi earned his highest international score to date and set himself up well going into next season as part of the deep Japanese men’s field. Coming in for bronze, Kazuki Tomono — who may have been considered the favorite ahead of the event — had some messy skates that left him farther back than he’d hoped. We’ve loved seeing the evolution of Tomono’s style this season, and are hoping to see more consistency from his jumps in the future,

As could have been predicted after Europeans, Demougeot & Le Mercier of France came and handily won the gold with two excellent skates. This is a team on the rise, and absolutely one to watch — especially going towards the 2030 Olympics.

In silver, it was a treat to see the continued progress of Spain’s Olivia Smart & Tim Dieck. They’ve been fun to watch grow all season, and here we saw their most solid twizzles yet. In bronze, Canadians Fabbri & Ayer skated beautifully and continued to make their case to be perceived as one of Canada’s top teams. We’re hoping to see more growth and new material from them next year that pushes them towards that goal.

Follow Scoreography:

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

As we get ready for the final competitions of the ’23-’24 season, we answer listener questions about all things figure skating — predictions, favorite skaters and FS moments, and what 20 programs we’d save in our end-of-the-world bunker.

Welcome to our first Scoreography Q&A Episode! We asked listeners to let us know what in figure skating they wanted us to talk about. And we received a far more enthusiastic response than we ever could have imagined!

As you will hear, you asked some amazing Q’s about our favorite skates and skaters of all time — which, honestly, led us to a mild existential crisis! You asked what programs we would take with us into a dystopian bunker — which REALLY gave us a much greater existential crisis! You were so creative and thoughtful in your questions, we hope we did some of them justice.

You also allowed us to dig into some of reasons we love the sport. From Wendy’s childhood crush on Kurt Browning to Adron’s epiphany at the 2006 U.S. National Championships in St. Louis, MO — all of it was fun to reminisce about.

We did make sure to also dig into some of the judging changes we’d like to see, and even offered a few hot takes (Adron had far more than he expected.)

We hope you enjoy us getting nostalgic about Paul Wylie program, gushing over countless skaters we adore, and let us know who your favorites are, too! What would you “take to the bunker?” We’d love to hear! 

Follow Scoreography:

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

We breakdown the 2024 ISU Awards and their accompanying live concert event, Art on Ice. We also take a look at the ongoing 2022 Olympic Team Medal fiasco, and talk about Gracie Gold’s new memoir, Outofshapeworthlessloser.

The ISU Awards were handed out for the fourth time on Sunday, February 11th during one of the first Art on Ice performances of 2024 — and the show was certainly a spectacle.

Co-hosted by skating legend, Kurt Browning, and sports presenter and influencer, Elma Smit, the award show was intertwined with performances from elite skaters and musical acts performing as part of Art on Ice — a show that happens yearly in Switzerland, and is known for bold and unique shows that ignite the imagination. 

While some of the awards are a bit vague in terms of how those in the category qualify and the methods used for voting a little confusing, we’re always here for celebrating the skaters themselves. It was a delight to see Adam Siao Him Fa, Hana Yoshida, Loena Hendrickx, and Ilia Malinin all take home some hardware.

The highlight of the awards had to be the Special Achievement honor given to Deanna Stelatto-Dudek in honor of all she has achieved during her unprecedented 2-part competitive career spanning over 2 decades. It was obvious how much this acknowledgment meant to Deanna, which was wonderful to see her receive.

The streamed version of the Art on Ice performances were a bit disjointed to watch — with quite of bit of the skating being missed due to the cameras often focusing on the musical performances more than the skaters. 

At some point, we’d love to see this award show move away from its partnership with Art on Ice and shift to the end of the season — perhaps directly following the World Championships (at the gala?). It seems like that may make these awards feel a bit more authentic and exciting. 

In other ISU news, we discuss the recent decision in the Kamila Valieva case, and how the ISU has stood their ground after making what seems to be a mathematical error in redistributing points for the Olympic Team medals. With Valieva being disqualified for 4 years as of December of 2021, her scores from the 2022 Olympic Team event and 2022 Europeans have been scratched. 

While in the Europeans that means every woman moves up one spot, the points earned in the Team competition got far more harried and now leaves the US with gold, Japan with silver, and Russia with bronze. If the ISU had followed previous precedent and what has been their own rules, it seems Canada would be in the bronze position — and with that in mind, Canada has since filed a case to dispute the ISU’s decision. 

Lastly, like many of you, we were quick to grab a copy of US figure skating champion, Gracie Gold’s, new member — Outofshapeworthlessloser. The title certainly gives you a preview of the tone of the book, but the contents definitely dig deep into the heart of what needs to change in figure skating. 

From her difficult family life to massively unreasonable expectations of a teenager from varying coaches, officials, and judges, to her near-tragic meltdown prior to the 2018 Olympic Games, this book is unapologetically vulnerable.

Our hope is that is brings more empathy for, and awareness to, what elite skaters go through — and the need for improvements from those who support them.

Follow Scoreography:

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

We examine all the competition at the Four Continents Figure Skating Championships 2024 in Shanghai, China. We discuss the dominant, definitive gold medal wins, dozens of highly memorable performances, and a couple frustrating judge calls.

In the last major international skating competition before the 2024 World Championships, we saw some iconic performances — from many who may be destined for World medals — at the Four Continents Championships in Shanghai, China. 

From a stunning season’s best from Japan’s Yuma Kagiyama to the continued dominance of Piper Gilles & Paul Porrier of Canada, to renewed hope for reigning pairs World Champions, Riku Miura & Ryuchi Kihara, this event felt like a preview for what we’re about to see in Montreal this March.

Yuma Kagiyama was in a league of his own here. Not that he didn’t have incredible competition, but Yuma leveled up his already stellar programs this season and took another step towards what may be his first world title. Both programs saw increased difficulty, and while he had a couple of errors in his free skate, its hard to remember them since there was so much to be excited about. Seeing him at Worlds against Ilia Malinin and reigning World Champ, Shoma Uno, gets more exciting by the day.

In silver, the ever-solid (in consistently improving) Shun Sato delivered his quad lutz (twice!) and continued to show why he is always a threat. We want to see him show more emotion and really develop a persona on the ice, but his talent is undeniable. 

With his best showing this year, the bronze landed around the neck of the brilliant Junhwan Cha. After a rough start to his season due to injury, we’ve been seeing consistent improvement and a steady increase in his technical difficulty. Here, both performances brought the drama in the best way, and proved that Junhwan is definitely capable of showing up on the podium at Worlds again this year.

The  most popular performances of the entire championship easily belonged to China’s Boyang Jin — who delivered two incredible performances to wind up fifth, and was showered with stuffies from a grateful and excited home audience. 

At the top of the podium, this season’s superstars — Canada’s Deanna Stellato-Dudek & Maxime Deschamps — continued to deliver great performances, with a few unfortunate errors. The quality of so much of their skating is near-unmatched in the discipline right now, though unfortunately they have been plagued by challenges, in the singles elements especially. However, they still handily took the gold and continue to be the favorites going into the World Championships.

In second, we saw the return of World Champions Riku Miura & Ryuchi Kihara from Japan. If you have listened to the podcast, you know we love this team — so it’s no surprise that we are very excited to see them. As they are still getting back in the swing of competition, this was not their best showing — but still enough to take silver and bring a little of their magic to the ice.

The newly crowned US National Champions, Ellie Kim & Danny O’Shea, took the bronze with two flawed but excellent programs that showed off their continuing development as a team. The throws still pose an issue for them, but their excellence in the lifts and improved singles elements have taken them to a new level in their trajectory.

This competition saw a huge breakout for Japan’s Mone Chiba. After an excellent showing at Japan Nationals, Mone came here and delivered two outstanding programs that were near-flawless. After a rough Grand Prix series, she has found more consistency and delivered the best programs we’ve seen from her yet.

In silver position, South Korea’s Chaeyeon Kim gave two solid performances that felt far more confident than what we saw in the Grand Prix Final. It solidifies her as South Korea’s top woman competitor going into Worlds.

Japan’s Rinka Wantanabe landed her first triple axel of the season and earned the bronze in fantastic fashion.

In fourth, Ava Marie Ziegler from the United States proved that her decision to skip Nationals for Four Continents may have been a good one since she scored over 200 again. This should solidify her as one the the top U.S. women going into next season — even without her getting a bid for Worlds.

Piper Gilles & Paul Poirier continued to dominate this season with two stellar programs, and earned their first Four Continents gold. While having a small twizzles issue in the rhythm dance, their free dance to Wuthering Heights was near flawless and completely captivating. 

The silver was won by Laurence Fournier Beaudry & Nickolaj Sorensen, amidst Nik’s continued assault investigation. 

In the bronze medal position, Christina Carreira & Anthony Ponomarenko delivered a fantastic rhythm dance but did see some small errors creep into their free dance.

Another American team, Emilia Zingas & Vadim Kolsnik, gave possibly their best performances of the season and landed solidly in fourth. 

In fifth, with possibly our favorite performances in this discipline, the Canadian team of Marie-Jade Lauriault & Romain le Gac received a questionable deduction for an lift they have been performing all season in the rhythm dance, but moved up in the standings with their stellar and inventive free dance to the music of The Corpse Bride. 

Follow Scoreography:

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

We recap the exciting US Nationals 2024 competition from Columbus, OH, featuring a dramatic upset in the women’s event, a stellar fight for the podium in Ice Dance, promising performances from the Men, and an underwhelming Pairs event.

The 2024 US National Championships gave us a little bit of everything. We saw a quad axel and second nationals win from a slightly messier than usual Ilia Malinin. We witnessed a Women’s final where Amber Glenn and Isabeau Levito both struggled — with Amber scoring just enough to take her first national title. An awful case of the flu still didn’t stop Chock and Bates from taking the Ice Dance gold. Lastly, we watched a Pairs field filled with promise but, unfortunately, so many errors.

The biggest story out of this event is the long-awaited win for fan favorite, Amber Glenn. We were amongst those pulling for her on every jump from home — and while she did have a great short program and landed her triple axel, the second half of her long program suffered from several errors that but the top of the podium in doubt.

However, Isabeau Levito — who led after the short program — had three falls in her free skate and had to settle for the bronze.

In the silver spot, we saw perhaps the highlight of the competition from Josephine Lee. She delivered two fantastic programs, with her free skate being the cleanest of the night. She’s too young to go to Worlds this year, but watch out for her in years to come!

Madison Chock & Evan Bates stunned with their Queen rhythm dance, which was helpful because their free dance saw some uncharacteristic errors due to them both dealing with a horrible case of the flu. They nearly withdrew from the competition, but had enough in the tank to still take gold.

In second, with what seemed like breakout performances from them, Christina Carreira & Anthony Ponomarenko shined. Their free dance especially won the night, and saw them skate with their full technical and artistic prowess — but also with more emotion and freedom than we’ve seen before.

Taking the bronze, a bit of surprise came with the medal for Emily Bratti & Ian Somerville. This young team has all it takes to have a big career, with Ian especially bringing star-power to the ice. But their podium-step ahead of former silver medalists Caroline Green & Michael Parsons in this competition was unexpected, though well-earned.

As expected, Ilia Malinin dominated the competition with quads a-plenty. He even broke out the quad axel in the free skate — along with an unplanned triple lutz / triple axel / triple toeloop combination near the very end to make up for a few errors and secure the top spot.

In silver, the class of the field Jason Brown skated two gorgeous programs, which both saw uncharacteristic falls. He still had him trademark appeal — and, most importantly for Team USA, enough quality and exceptional skill to rely on at Worlds.

In bronze, a wonderful completion for Camden Pulkinen landed him not only on the podium but also won him a trip to Worlds.

In fourth, we saw a stellar showing from Maxim Naumov. Looking forward to more from him at Four Continents.

At the end of the short program, favorites Spencer Howe & Emily Chan led the field. However, due to Spencer’s continued recovery from surgery, they withdrew from the competition — though were still selected for the World team.

The pairs that remained mostly struggled with singles elements and delivered a fairly messy competition. In the end, Ellie Kim & Danny O’Shea squeaked out a victory.

Right behind them, the new team of Alisa Efimova & Misha Mitrofanov won the free skate and showed they have a lot of skill — look for them to move up over the next few seasons.

In third, Valentina Plazas & Maximiliano Fernandez took their first National’s bronze with a crowd-pleasing performance in the long program.

Follow Scoreography:

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