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Welcome back to your quick-and-dirty guide to the 2024-2025 figure skating season’s Main Characters.
Last week, we did Pairs. Already, my guide is wrong because Conti/Macii came out STRONG at this weekend’s Lombardia Trophy, easily surpassing Riku and Ryuichi. And, to add to their lovers-to-friends-to-fake-lovers narrative, they are skating to Carmen…at the suggestion of Macii’s girlfriend. Carmen, in case you only know it as the warhorse that won Katarina Witt her first Olympic medal, is an opera about a guy who leaves his girlfriend for a sultry dancer. Girlfriend must be very confident, and Conti/Macii are officially upgraded to Main Characters.
This week, we continue with the Dudes. There’s actually SO MANY possible contenders, so you’ll find the Secondary Characters list is extensive. As a reminder, this list is inevitably biased. This is who I think the North American media will talk about the most, but it’s also the skaters in whom I am personally invested. Please feel free to argue with me in the comments, as long as you keep it civil and good-humored. This is supposed to be fun!
Main Characters
Ilia Malinin (USA)
The Jumper. If some Internet factions are to be believed, this is all he has going for him. They would tell you his programs are just a jump drill as he skates from one impossible feat to the next. He can do all the quads, including the famed Quad Axel, and he can do them pretty consistently with very good technique. And it’s true— if he lands every jump he plans, he’s unbeatable at the moment. His tech content is simply unsurpassable. He doesn’t even have to do all the little dance moves or project his expression. He is a Russian Woman. (IYKYK)
However. He does have to land everything, and it’s a pretty big risk that relies on him staying injury-free. At 19, he has youth on his side. But he won’t for much longer, with the amount of strain he’s putting on his body. In fact, I’m already nervous he won’t quite make it to the Milan Olympics. He does claim to work on his artistry to be more well-rounded, but then he posts videos where his Mom (champion skater Tatiana Malinina) tells him to go work on his skating skills and he works on acrobatics instead.
And that’s the other thing to know and possibly like about Ilia— he’s not just a Grade A Jumper; he’s also a Top Tier Troll. Like every other teenage boy I know, he’s not serious. Roasting himself and the skating fandom is his second favorite sport. He recently posted a video suggesting his free program would be set to “Bolero,” notorious warhorse music skated recently by noted artistic skaters Shoma Uno, Kamila Valieva, and the great Carolina Kostner. And it really should have been buried with Torville and Dean, who made it a warhorse in the first place. Of course he was joking. He would never do something so basic. He’s skating to, “I’m Not a Vampire,” which has the unpleasant nasal vocal stylings and frantic beat of a 90s Blink-182 song. I hoped he would continue picking HBO series theme music (he did Euphoria and Succession for the last two seasons, and White Lotus would have been inspired), but alas. The dream of the 90s is alive in Ilia Malinin.
But… let me give credit where credit is due. Ilia loves a real costume. Gone are the days of Nathan “I’m basically wearing a workout shirt with a print” Chen. Ilia likes a sparkle, he likes a dramatic sleeve, he embraces a ruffle. Look at this terrible screenshot from today’s competition— there is FAKE BLOOD on his BLOUSE, because he is “not a vampire.” Not to mention, he is willing to die at the end of his program, which is the real Katarina Witt tribute.
Adam Siao Him Fa (France)
The Artist. If Ilia is the Jock Superstar, Adam is the Weird Art Kid. Don’t get it wrong; he still has the technical skill. He doesn’t have the same jumping arsenal as Ilia (literally no one does), but he’s still head and shoulders above most of the field. At the last Worlds, he dug himself from 19th place after the short program into 3rd place with his free program. You can’t do that if you don’t have the jumps. He can also clear the 300-point score that’s a benchmark of the top-level Men skaters.
But he’s an Artist, which (forgive me the stereotype) is very French of him. His programs always have a conceptual story behind them, which he likes to explain in interviews. One year, his short program started a story that completed in his free skate. Remember the Paris Olympic Opening Ceremony that required an accompanying art history lecture to understand? That’s Adam. He works with Benoit Richaud, who wears glasses and a fedora that remind me of the villain in Who Framed Roger Rabbit. (I can’t find a picture of Benoit wearing both glasses and hat at the same time, but trust that he has.)
But. I do really love his 2022 Olympic Star Wars program, complete with heavy Darth breathing and light saber sound effects. I don’t know if he did it on purpose, but that was a great way to grab attention and build momentum. He also did some illegal back flips in his programs last year, a move designed to show he can score high enough that he can still win with purposeful deductions. Backflips are now legal, probably thanks to him, so he’ll have to find a new way to be a rebellious artist.
Yuma Kagiyama (Japan)
The Best of Both Worlds. (Are you singing the Hannah Montana theme song in your head now? My apologies.) Yuma almost has as many jumps as Ilia, and he’s increasingly artistic in his skating since he started working with Carolina Kostner. He’s the most well-rounded Man in the field, and he’s probably the one that actually deserves to be World Champion. But skating isn’t exactly a merit-based sport.
Like Ilia, he’s coached by his parents. Or, more specifically, he’s coached by his dad. And they’re very sweet together.
Yuma had an injury in the season after the Olympics, so he didn’t compete much, but he staged a thoughtful and well-paced comeback last year. He should really be a text book example of how to slowly build back competitive content after an injury. I think he has the best shot of taking down Ilia this season— he’s consistent and he puts more energy into the artistry than Ilia. If Ilia misses a couple of jumps, he’ll be right there.
Jason Brown (USA)
The Winner in Our Hearts, the Sentimental Favorite, Mr. Congeniality. Does Jason have a chance of beating any of the other Main Characters? Only if they all melt down. If everyone skates to potential, he just doesn’t have the technical fire power to win a medal.
But… he often does win a medal because he is consistent where most of the Secondary Characters are not. His technique is impeccable, and his posture would please even Queen Clarisse. He can rack up execution points where everyone else is just doing the bare minimum.
And he’s a cinnamon roll. Just a pure ray of sunshine beaming through the crowd of emo dudes. He collects all of the stuffed animals thrown on the ice and donates them to local Ronald McDonald Houses. He is learning Japanese so he can communicate with his fan base in Japan. He cheers on his competitors. He picked up Evgenia Medvedeva from the airport when she moved to Canada to train. Everyone in the skating world genuinely seems to like him, except for certain Russian commentators who criticize him for being quadless and make homophobic remarks about him.
After only competing at US Nationals and Worlds the last couple of years, he’s back on the Grand Prix circuit this year. This suggests he’s angling to build back his World Standing points. This is important because World Standing points dictate which skating group you’re in at competition— more points means you skate later, which is an advantage. Figure Skating is a judged sport, and judges do (unfortunately) hold out for later groups to give better artistry scores. This would suggest he is almost certainly eying the next Olympics, which is a gift to us all.
The Secondary Players.
Gah, there are so many of these. They’re all so inconsistent that it’s hard to predict who is actually a factor. Let’s see how fast I can whip through them without losing your interest.
The Canadians In a post-Keegan Messing and Patrick Chan world, the Canadian Men just cannot seem to get it together. Sure, there’s talent. But they can’t seem to string together two clean or even mostly clean skates. So much potential, so much sad trombone. Maybe this year?
Wesley Chiu: The guy most likely to rise to the occasion. He reminds me of Vincent Zhou in his song choices and costumes. Though he has yet to share any poetry, so perhaps the similarities end there.
Stephen Gogolev: aka Gogo, which is objectively a great nickname. He was a young phenom for Canada but got injured and has been really uneven since then. He tried to turn things around with Nathan Chen’s coach, Raf, but the results were mixed. I’ve read some summer skating reports that suggest he’s looking better this year now that he’s moved back to Canada. Could be a dark horse, but his face is so blank when he skates that he might as well wear a mask.
Roman Sadovsky: Like Charlie Brown with the football. Just when you think he’s got it, he crashes. Just bad luck after bad luck with this guy. Most likely to skate to the Grey’s Anatomy soundtrack.
Jin Boyang (China): China’s best and only hope. Sort of an elder statesman at this point, though he was one of the early quadsters that kicked off the jumping revolution for the Men. Has turned a bit emo in his old age, but I liked him best when he was smiling through a Spiderman program.
Aleksandr Selevko (Estonia): One of the Selevbros, the brothers who represent Estonian Men’s figure skating. Currently excelling at engaging in PDA all over Emily Chan’s (USA Pairs) Instagram.
Kevin Aymoz (France): Most likely to cry after a skate, whether it’s happy or despairing. Very emotional, very French. Usually pretty entertaining to watch, assuming he hasn’t given up on the skate and started phoning it in. He ended his season early last year due to some mental health issues, and I’m interested to see where he is upon his return this year.
Nika Edgadze (Georgia): I have nothing against this kid, but he’s coached by the Dread Pirate Eteri, so it’s hard to root for him.
Daniel Grassl (Italy): Again, I don’t love casting any of these hard-working athletes as the “villain,” but Daniel Grassl is sort of the Men’s villain. A couple of seasons ago, he moved to Russia to train with Eteri— this was post-doping scandal, mind you. Then, he missed a couple of drug tests, and the Italian fed was very hush-hush about it, but he didn’t compete the rest of the season. Now he’s back in Italy, and they’ve assigned him to multiple competitions and no one is talking about penalizing him for his missed tests even though fellow Italian Carolina Kostner was once suspended for TWENTY ONE MONTHS because her BOYFRIEND was found doping. Not beloved by skating social media.
The Other Italians: Italy is actually pretty deep in the Men’s field. Or they have potential to be deep.
Matteo Rizzo: The veteran. Previously a real international contender, but he’s had injuries that have knocked him down a peg. He’s already announced he just wants to make it to the Milan Olympics.
Gabriel Frangipani: Up and comer. All I know about him as that his last name sounds like dessert.
Nikolaj Memola: Comically tall.
Corey Circelli: Decided to switch from Canada to Italy despite demonstrated weakness in Canadian Men and increasingly competitive Italian Men. Perhaps just feels really proud of Italian heritage?
Kao Miura (Japan): Chaos demon. Has potential to win, thanks to big jumps, but he’s wildly erratic. I’m fond of him for skating as the Beast from Beauty and the Beast.
Shun Sato (Japan): Emerging as Japan’s #2 guy since Shoma Uno officially retired.
Deniss Vasiljevs (Latvia): Wants to be Jason Brown but with quads but is only partially successful. Coached by the legendary Stephane Lambiel, who is essentially trying to clone himself through Dennis. Fan of a very deep V to the point of risking costume violations.
Jun-hwan Cha (South Korea): Some people would argue he’s a Main Character, but he’s got to more consistent to be a factor, if you ask me and my ill-informed opinions (which you do because you’re here). Still referred to in the fandom as “Juniet” for his career highlight Romeo + Juliet performance.
Lukas Britschgi (Switzerland): Dark horse favorite. Seems to up his game every year, but gets overlooked because he’s from a small fed. Has potential to overcome one of the Main Characters if they have a rough skate.
Donovan Carillo (Mexico): An actual real performer, total crowd favorite, shimmies like he’s Harry Styles on ice. Allegedly got into skating to impress a girl, which is very on brand for his image. He knows exactly who he is as a skater, and he plays into it masterfully. He moved to Canada for coaching last year, and his jumps have improved since then. Hoping to see him become a real contender this year.
Camden Pulkinen (USA): What a heartbreaker. Has the potential to place 5th in the world one year and then 20th two years later. He’s got the best shot at being the Third American Man at the next Olympics, but the others could overtake him easily. Luckily for Camden, they are all just as inconsistent as he is.
The Other Americans:
Andrew Torgashev: Famous for admitting he once only ate pizza for months.
Tomoki Hawatashi: Former World Junior Champ. Another agent of chaos.
Maxim Naumov: Consistently fourth place in the US. I can’t tell you much more about him, which is probably all you need to know.
Jimmy Ma: Crowd favorite, seems like he’s the most fun to hang out with, great at picking interesting music. Falls too much.
Yaroslav Paniot: Formerly skated for Ukraine but switched to the US in 2019. Has legit swagger but needs to be— you guessed it— more consistent.
And that’s the Men! Given the high risk/high reward factor, their ordinals will be all over the place. First in short program, 10th in free skate; 12th in short, 2nd in free; etc. But when they’re all on, it’s a true spectacle.
Three Non-Skating Things
A month ago, I was influenced to order Swedish gummy candy. It just arrived this week, and I regret to inform you that it is actually delicious. Bubs, the primary brand that people on social media are raving about, have a pleasing foamy texture. The raspberry/licorice flavor has really grown on me. If you want to try an option that is less viral, I also really liked these Fruit Boats that have a kind of foamy hard shell and a more gummy inside.
Here’s another wonderful dog. And some very nice people who helped him take home the unicorn he wanted.
Should you be in the US and should you share the same political leanings as me, I suspect you will like this campaign merch from a local artist in my area. The rainbow signs are all over my neighborhood; the cat ones make me laugh.
What’s next: The most subjective of all the disciplines— the Main Characters of Ice Dance.
I cheer when I see these in my inbox.
Another delightful recap. You make me laugh first thing in the morning...no easy task! Also, thanks for the merch link!