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 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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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 Division

The 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 Division

Nebelhorn 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 Division

We 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 Division

Of 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.

Chapters

0:00 — 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 Seasons

Speaking 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 Changes

There 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 Petition

If 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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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!

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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.

Men’s Competition

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. 

Pairs Competition

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. 

Women’s Competition

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. 

Ice Dance Competition

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.

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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. 

Men’s Competition 

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.

Ice Dance Competition

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. 

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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.

Women’s Competition Preview

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. 

Pairs Competition Preview

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.

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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.

Women’s Competition

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.

Pairs Competition

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!

Men’s Competition

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.

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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.

Women’s Competition

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.

Pairs Competition

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. 

Men’s Competition

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,

Ice Dance Competition

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.

 

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