January 2025 Skating Updates!

New Year, same Russian shenanigans.

Happy New Year, friends!

The New Year began almost two weeks ago, but I’m just now feeling settled enough after the holiday rush to acknowledge a New Year and get down to business. It’s really annoying that we’re expected to plan for a fresh start in the decompression week after Christmas. We should have at least a month in between the Holidays and the New Year.

In fairness, the year is still newer rather than older, so I’m still accurate.

SO MUCH has happened since we last spoke. You’d think the figure skating world would take a breather during the holidays and circle back in the new year like the rest of us, but they thrive in the cold, I guess. Today’s newsletter will be a rapid fire news round-up to get us caught up before the second half of the season begins in earnest.

Guess who got citizenship for Christmas?

Deanna Stellato and Allison Reed, in Canada and Lithuania respectively. No surprise with Deanna since she’s a World Champ and the Olympics are next year. Canada wants to lock that shit down. Allison Reed will probably not win a gold medal for Lithuanian Ice Dance, but they have an internationally competitive figure skating presence because of her, so it was only fair to let her have a crack at an Olympic Games after denying her the last time. Perhaps Christina Carreira is next with US citizenship? I just found out that she is driving over an hour both ways to get to her training facility in Canada every day because she has to physically live in the US while she’s in the citizenship process, so we better make it worth it for her. Can Biden do an executive order on this before he leaves office?

Meanwhile in Russia….the door is open for Russians at the next Olympics.

The ISU just laid out the path for Russian (and Belarusian but who cares about them) skaters to compete at the 2026 Milan Games as neutral athletes. They’re allowed one entry in each discipline at the Olympic qualifying event in China next fall, and they have to submit their candidates by February 2025 so that they can be investigated to ensure they meet the strict qualification rules and enter a special international drug testing pool. This doesn’t actually guarantee a spot at the Olympics; it just means that four competitors can TRY to earn a spot at the Olympics. The spots aren’t transferrable— they’re won for a specific athelete. So if they send Svetlana Russkiprincesska (not a real name), and she wins a spot, they can’t then turn around and hand it off to Kamila Valieva. The spot is ONLY for “neutral” athlete Svetlana.

Then, once they earn spots (everyone assumes they will), they can’t compete as Russia at all, not even under a BS flag like the Russian Olympic Committee, and they can’t have a Team in the team event. They also will not be allowed to talk to the media while they’re at the Games, so that keeps them from getting there and campaigning for Putin.

The guidelines are pretty strict— they can’t have supported the war in any way. And, interestingly, they can’t have any connection with someone who was suspended for doping. This second guideline feels a bit like the ISU showing their hand because everyone knows the Russians are really banned because of the Kamila fiasco and not the war, but this is the first time the ISU is saying the quiet part out loud.

Reactions are mixed. Some people think it’s fair— Russian athletes who don’t support the war shouldn’t lose out on their Olympic dreams. Plus, there are plenty of Russians currently competing for other countries while still training and living in Russia. On the other hand, Russian athletes are state funded, and Putin will ABSOLUTELY claim whatever victories they have, so it’s still a way for Russia to win. Some skating fans are saying the criteria is so narrow that no one will qualify, so no one should worry about this at all. And I have to wonder— if you’re a young Russian athlete, is it wise for your own personal safety to put yourself out there as someone who doesn’t support the war? Watching with great curiosity to see which names Russia submits in February, if any.

Most international skaters have been quiet about this, but US Ice Dancer Vadym Kolesnik, who is originally from Ukraine, has been loud. He posted an Instagram carousel of Russian skaters visibly supporting the war and included a caption challenging the ISU to remember their own rules when determining which athletes can participate in the qualifier.

The Grand Prix Final Happened!

This feels so long ago now, but here are the high points:

• Amber Glenn won! Did she win because other skaters messed up a bit? Yes! But she still earned it and continues to be more consistent than last year. She’s now undefeated this season and has firmly established herself as a Contender. She got to make the morning show circuit with noted skating fan Jonathan Van Ness as her personal glam squad, which seems like an excellent winner’s bonus. She has the potential to absolutely bring the house down at Worlds in Boston, if she doesn’t get in her own head. Maybe she’ll get a Cover Girl contract! (IYKYK)

• Ilia Malinin also won, but he won DIRTY. Every jump in his free skate had some kind of error, and his score came back relatively low for Ilia. He got lucky that other skaters were chaotic. I hope Yuma Kagiyama got the message loud and clear— Ilia may have the jumps but he is BEATABLE. Don’t sacrifice your art to beat him, kid.

• Madison Chock and Evan Bates won in the first Ice Dance head-to-head of the season with Piper/Paul and the Italians. In fact, Piper/Paul totally went out of contention with a heck of a splat in the Rhythm Dance, clearing the way for Lilah and Lewis of GB to snatch the bronze. Y’all— every “top” Ice Dance team has fallen in spectacular fashion this season. Lilah Fear is going to be an Olympic gold medalist, isn’t she?

• The Germans won in Pairs. It’s a pretty exciting time in Pairs because there are now about 6 teams that COULD win at Worlds (none of them are American, sorry). It’s fun to have a discipline that’s unpredictable.

Bella Flores is back online.

After the horrific accusations against her Ice Dance partner (and HUSBAND, lest anyone forget that particular wrinkle), Bella Flores is back on Instagram, posting Day-in-a-Life videos and doing travel posts about watching her sister compete in the Junior Grand Prix Final. It’s not totally unexpected— I’m sure she has sponsorship requirements to fulfill, and I’m betting she relies at least a little bit on the influencer income stream. And it’s not fair to expect her to disappear because of something her partner did.

That said… she’s also out here liking comments that say the accuser is, “work(ing) hard to sway public opinion,” so I don’t exactly think she’s trying to bravely soldier on without him or believing women or whatever.

I do wonder about her next act, though. She’s clearly still working out at the US Olympic training center. Is she delusional enough to think her partner will be cleared and they can go back to business as usual? Even if he is exonerated, there will always be a cloud over him, and there’s plenty of talent in US Ice Dance— Team USA doesn’t HAVE to support them to get medals. Is she staying in shape and planning to audition a new partner, thinking maybe she has a shot at the 2030 Olympics with someone else? I wonder if she’ll completely give up on competing for Team USA and go hunting for a new country with lax citizenship rules.

Also, in case you are wondering, Team USA is still dead silent on the pack of newlyweds training at the Ice Dance group in Colorado.

And some quick hits:

• Speaking of messy US Ice Dancers, Annabelle Morozov and Jeffrey Chen have left Charlie White’s coaching base in Michigan and have fled to Florida to train with the notorious Marina Zoueva. I could write a whole newsletter just explaining every single person involved in this scenario and why this is hilarious. For now, all I will say is that Marina famously coached Meryl/Charlie at the same as Tessa/Scott. And it makes total sense to me that Annabelle’s infamous Russian dad would want her training with an infamous Russian ex-pat. I actually don’t think it’s a terrible strategic move for them and anxiously await seeing Marina in the kiss-and-cry at US Nationals.

• This is very important: an eagle delivered medals at Swiss Nats. This feels like a real missed opportunity for Team USA, seeing as it’s our national bird and all. If US Nats doesn’t end with a picture of a bald eagle posing on Ilia Malinin’s shoulder, then I don’t even know what we’re doing here.

• Not so fast to all those Pairs teams who think they are in the running for the gold at Milan— reigning Olympic champ, Sui Wenjing of China, is back with a new partner. True that they have not competed internationally, yet, and we have no idea how good they are together. But I would wager that she saw the state of Pairs and was like, “I bet I could still win.” She might be right— things are much better than they were, but there’s no clearly dominant Pairs team, and the prominent Russian Pairs have all publicly supported Putin and are therefore unlikely to be a factor this season. You know me— I’m always here for Team Old.

• Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron officially announced their retirement, which was not a surprise at all. What was more surprising was that they thought they needed to announce it. However, now that Gabi is writing essays about same sex ice dance couples and posting Instagram stories that say she and Gui will not skate together ever again, even in shows, one suspects the retirement announcement was more like a celebrity divorce announcement. She’s completely done with him.

  

• By the way, her essay on The Case for Same Sex Figure Skating is worth a read. Very compelling arguments, and she’s a pretty good writer, too! On that note, hear me out…what if Annabelle Morozov left Jeffrey Chen, who might have his own Safe Sport allegations tainting his career, and pairs off with Bella Flores? And then Gabi and Madi can coach them. I’d watch a documentary about that.

• Here’s Kaori Sakamoto pretending to be a fish after winning Japanese Nats. Click here for video- she swims and everything. Protect her at all costs.

  

• I’m only about 100 pages in, but I already suspect you guys might like The Favorites by Layne Fargo. It’s pitched as Daisy Jones & The Six meets Ice Dance, though the “oral history” component is lighter. I’ll go a step further than that—think Tessa Virtue/Scott Moir meets I, Tonya meets Daisy Jones. I’m reading it, but I absolutely plan to catch the audiobook when it comes in at my library because Johnny Weir is listed in the cast. If he’s playing who I think he’s playing, I can’t wait to hear him relish it.

Three Non-Figure Skating Things:

• It snowed here in Atlanta this weekend, and it was magic. We expected less than an inch of wet slush. We got 3-4 inches of fluffy snow. True that it acquired an icy glaze by the afternoon when the snow switched over to ice, but Friday morning felt like the best kind of surprise. Not to Fritzi, though, who stepped into the snow and then bolted back to the safety of my garage with deep betrayal quivering in her eyebrows. Cold AND wet?? She changed her tune later in the day, but I’ll never forget her standing on my patio, barking at the snow like an intruder. Sometimes you just need to be mad first.

  

  Fritzi, betrayed.

• It’s hard to fathom the devastation from the wildfires in Los Angeles while watching snow melting like rain from the trees here. I’m sure you’re already well aware of the many ways to help, but I’ll throw out a pitch for World Central Kitchen. Every time something awful happens in the world, and I start looking for ways to help, WCK always pop up immediately, showing up to feed the people who need to be fed. They’re already out there giving meals to first responders and the public.

• My friend Jenn sent this image to one of my group chats as part of a conversation about New Year resolutions, and I can’t stop thinking about it. I printed it out and stuck in my journal as a reminder— maybe you need it, too?

  

What’s next: Canadian Nationals are next weekend! I’m hoping to send a quick preview mid-week for those interested. But even if I don’t get that done in time, I’ll absolutely be back next weekend to tell you what to watch at US Nationals. Get ready for some naked patriotism!