2024 Skate Canada!

Plus a little Skate America Debrief

The Grand Prix series carries on tomorrow (Friday, 10/25) with Skate Canada. Let’s get caught up!

Skate America- The Remix

Generally speaking, Skate America, like a Pitch Perfect sequel, underwhelmed. With a few notable exceptions, most athletes didn’t seem quite ready for the season to really get going. Lots of mistakes, lots of stumbles, a few falls. Some of these medals came down to “who made the least mistakes,” which is never as exciting as, “everyone did their best and look who came out ahead.” It’s not totally unexpected— the figure skating season is long; Worlds is in March 2025, and everyone wants to be at peak performance next spring instead of right now. Still, the performances felt less polished than usual for Skate America.

Men: Gold- Ilia Malinin (USA); Silver- Kevin Aymoz (France); Bronze- Kao Miura (Japan)

• Ilia won by sheer force of will on this one. He missed a couple of key jumps in his free program and threw in a Hail Mary combo that saved him. However, he does seem really into his programs this year. Very teenager-lamenting-his-dramatic-relationship on ice, and it suits him. I’m not sure the trompe l’oeil hoodie costume suits him, however.

  

• Kevin Aymoz won the event, spiritually. He’s given interviews about sinking into a serious depression last season, and his last few competitions were painful to watch. I don’t know what he did in the off season, but he looked great here— showmanship, solid jumps, and sharp movements. He ended up with a personal best in the free program, and his reaction was predictably over the top. (Worth noting: Adam Rippon is concerned about this emotional reaction, noting that this kind of release is usually saved for something like Nationals or Worlds. I think it’s possible Kevin is just French.)

  Women: Gold- Wakaba Higuchi (Japan) ; Silver- Rinka Wantanbe (Japan); Bronze: Isabeau Levito (USA)

  

• Are we thrilled for Wakaba that she finally won a Grand Prix Gold? Of course. She has a Stranger Things inspired program, and she did lots of little “monster hands” dance moves, and she was positively glowing when she found out she won. She was also clearly surprised, as she should be— she had a few mistakes. But everyone else had more. The Women, unfortunately, Menned. (Note: If you’re new here, “Menning” refers to the tendency for the Men to skate inconsistently between the short and free programs.)

• What is up with the resurgence of “Moon River” and Breakfast at Tiffany’s? Isabeau used it for her short program, and then both Bradie Tennell and Rinka Wantanabe used it for their exhibitions. Is this a TikTok sound or something?

• Nina Pinzaronne skated to music from The Handmaid’s Tale, and she skated in a gorgeous red dress that fit her like a glove. Her program starts with a spoken word intro from the TV show in which June describes the limited items in a Handmaid’s room because they don’t want her to have a method to “free” herself (from her body, to be clear). Pretty dark. Johnny Weir noted that Nina has never seen the TV series or read the book, so you know this is a case of her coach picking the music and theme. Weirdly, rather than having her read the book, which she could absolutely handle as a 17 year old, her coach helped her concoct a totally different character story in which she is a girl who drowns in a boat and comes back as a ghost to say good-bye. She says she hopes to convey this story by the end of the season. Girl… your program starts with a handmaid talking about escaping oppression through death; no one is going to make the leap that you drowned in a boat. Some people will really do anything to avoid the assigned reading.

  

Pairs: Gold- Riku Miura/Ryuichi Kihara (Japan); Silver- Ellie Kam/Danny O’Shea (USA); Bronze- Alisa Efimova/Misha Mitrofanov (USA)

• Riku and Ryuichi dominated this. Just so obviously stronger, better, faster than everyone else. Like putting Taylor Swift in the talent show for the county fair. Riku has a ponytail and murder eyes this season, and she means business. I suspect their struggles with injury are over (for the moment), and they’re going to crush everyone else this season.

• Watch for Efimova/Mitrofanov from the US. Now that they’ve had some time together as a pair, they’re looking more competitive. I don’t think they can actually scoop up an Olympic spot because she’s not a citizen, but they could make it interesting for Ellie and Danny.

Ice Dance- Gold- Lilah Fear/Lewis Gibson (Great Britain); Silver- Madison Chock/Evan Bates (USA); Bronze- Olivia Smart/Tim Dieck (Spain)

• Team USA probably expected Chock/Bates to stroll through this competition and pick up gold at the end, but they fell during their short program and couldn’t make up the difference in their free skate. This was both surprising and not— for a World Champ team, they fall fairly pretty often, and they often look unprepared in their first competition of the season.

• Every time I see Lilah and Lewis skate, I think of the scene in Remember the Titans where Denzel Washington says his playbook is like Novocaine: “Just give it time. It always works.” Lilah and Lewis have a formula— crowd favorite performances with recognizable music and fun dance breaks. They may not be one of the Big Three, but they’re always ready to step in and accept a gold when someone else has a human moment. And while Ben Agosto (the NBC Ice Dance commenter) doesn’t seem convinced that they have world class skating skills, they’re consistent. I don’t think I’ve ever seen THEM fall. So, when Chock/Bates stumbled, Lilah and Lewis were right there, ready to calmly step in and accept gold. Lilah didn’t even look surprised when they won. I think she’s a poster child for manifestation.

• Actual best program: surprisingly, the Dune skate from Olivia Smart and Tim Dieck. I haven’t seen Dune, but I assume they were portraying sand worms in a star crossed romance. They skated so deliberately and patiently— none of the zoomy, distracting skating that so many other teams rely on. Also, Ice Dance was made for gauze hoods.

  

  It’s also worth noting that Tara and Johnny got into it on the broadcast when Terry asked how taxing spins are and Tara was like, “Whatever, they’re so easy,” and Johnny interrupted her to be like, “YOU DIDN’T HAVE THE SAME SPIN RULES AND YOU HAVE NO IDEA.” It was great. Tara also kept reminding everyone that everyone thinks the Olympic season is so important, but really we should pay attention to who wins Worlds during the year before the Olympic season. Want to guess who won the Worlds before Tara’s Olympic season?

Skate Canada— Here’s what I’m tracking:

• Canada probably considers Ice Dance to be their marquee event because Piper and Paul are likely to dominate. Skate Canada has a reputation for “home cooking”— basically, the Canadian skaters tend to get inflated scores, especially Piper and Paul. It’s true that skaters from the home country usually get a little boost, but it seems like Canada has a reputation as the most egregious offender here. Given that Chock/Bates had a big fall last week, I’m curious to see exactly how high Canada pushes Piper and Paul’s scores to take advantage of the moment and give them momentum.

• But don’t overlook Marjorie Lajoie and Zach Lagha. They’re the actual best Canadian Ice Dance team (in my humble opinion), and they could play Lilah/Lewis to Piper/Paul if they get an opening.

• Three US Ice Dance B Teams will be here: Bratti/Somerville, the Browns, and Zingas/Kolesnik. None of them are married! That we know of! Given the Ice Dance hierarchy, I’m not sure any of them have a chance to medal, but they’ll be trying hard to elbow each other out of the way to be the top American finisher. They’re evenly matched, and they bring different vibes. They’ll all be trying to make their case to the US Fed that their vibe is the one International judges want.

• Queen Deanna will be here to grace us with her presence. Rumor has it that her citizenship application has advanced, so she’s looking more and more like a Canadian Olympian. I’m curious to see how her skates stack up against the Japanese team at Skate America.

• This is also our first good look at Emily Chan and Spencer Howe since Spencer’s surgery kept them out of competition most of last year. They were poised to assume the US Pairs mantle from Knierim/Frazier before they had to sit out for a season. They’ll be trying to outscore Kam/O’Shea to prove they’re still the best option Team USA has. They’re my American faves, mostly because Spencer Howe is one of the few Pairs dudes with charisma.

• Please let the Women look like they’re trying to win this week. Kaori Sakamoto will be here with her platinum blond hair and her smooth jumps, and she seems likely to dominate. But given the lackluster Skate America performances, maybe not. Hoping there’s a real fight here.

• I’m watching the Canadian women to see if they can turn up the heat on Maddie Schizas. She was the “only” Canadian woman for so long, but some good challengers are starting to emerge. Now that she has intra-country competition, will she get back her fire?

• Alysa Liu and her casual brilliance will be here, too. I love her, “lol i guess i like skating again,” approach to her comeback. She just won Budapest Trophy, her first international competition since her return. She’s never won a Senior Grand Prix medal; she might just stroll in and scoop up some hardware like she’s Elle Woods getting into Harvard.

  

• As for the Men, I’m here for Jason Brown and only Jason Brown. He’s back on the Grand Prix this year to prove that he’s serious about an Olympic run. I worry that actually trying hard will throw him off his game; I hope he proves me wrong.

• Okay fine, there are other Men that might be interesting. Ilia, for one, is back again because he opted for back-to-back Grand Prix events. This is probably a strategy to skate in time zones that don’t give him jet lag and give him a long break before the Grand Prix final in December. We’ll see how it pays off for him. I think he’ll pull a Nathan Chen and skate angry and great after a bad Skate America.

• I’m also interested to see how Stephen Gogolev of Canada performs. He used to be the bright shining light of the future of Canadian skating. But then he grew three feet (or so it seems) and had some injuries and coaching changes, and he just looked so erratic. Streets say he’s back to training in Canada and looks better than he has in a while, so maybe the bitch is back?

Some Other Resources:

The full list of entries for each discipline here.

What is the Grand Prix Series? So You Want to Watch Figure Skating has a great explainer.

How to watch

For actual technical skating commentary: Jackie Wong on Twitter or Threads. Here are his previews for Skate Canada: Women, Men, Ice Dance and Pairs not yet posted when I sent this.

And, if you’re curious, here are my takes on the Main Characters of the whole season: Pairs, Men, Dance, International Women, American Women.

You’re welcome to follow along with me on social media, though I’m not that consistent about commenting while I’m watching an event live: my personal Twitter , The Nice Capades Instagram, or The Nice Capades Threads .

Three Non Skating Things:

• Are you watching Only Murders in the Building and do you think it’s possible Sazz is still alive and faked her own death? Or am I just engaging in some wishful thinking because I think she’s so jaunty and fun?

• Are you watching TikToks of dogs being freaked out on walks during Halloween season? I wish I could catch Fritzi barking at the zombie garden down the street, but it’s hard to juggle her leash and the phone.

• Are you watching The Great British Baking Show? I would go to war for Nelly.

  

What’s Next: Skate Canada Debrief and Grand Prix France preview!