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 Competition

The 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 Competition

At 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 Competition

At 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 Competition 

Chaeyeon 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. 

Chapters

0:00 — 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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