Skate America kicked off the 2024-2025 ISU Grand Prix Series, and there were some surprising results in Allen, Texas, which hosted the event for the second straight year.
Women
After the short program, World silver medalist Isabeau Levito, of the U.S., had a less than two point lead over her teammate, Bradie Tennell, who was making her return to the Grand Prix Series after missing the series last year due to injury. But in the free skate, the Team USA women weren’t able to secure a 1-2 finish in front of their home crowd.
It was Japan’s Wakaba Higuchi, who claimed her first-ever Grand Prix title. She moved up from fourth place after the short program to claim the gold medal. In her “Nature Boy” and “Running Up That Hill” (from Stranger Things) free skate, the 23-year-old from Tokyo completed five clean triple jumps and level-four spins. Her only error came when she stepped out of a triple Lutz. She earned a 130.81 in the free skate and won the title with a total score of 196.93.
“I think I felt the strongest in my first season on the Grand Prix circuit and I was aiming for the gold in that season,” Higuchi said. “So I’m really surprised to get my first win at this competition. I really wasn’t expecting it and I did make some mistakes today, but I think that the score was much higher than I had anticipated.”
Higuchi will now compete at Grand Prix de France in two weeks.
It ended up being a 1-2 finish for Team Japan as Higuchi’s teammate Rinka Watanabe took home the silver medal. In her “Maria de Buenos Aires” free skate, Watanabe successfully landed five clean triple jumps. The 22-year-old from Chiba’s only mistake was that she had two jumps that were under-rotated. She earned a free skate score of 128.68, which was third in the free skate, and a total score of 195.22.
Watanabe will compete at the final Grand Prix event of the season, Cup of China.
Levito would drop from first to third and settle for the bronze medal. In her “Liebestraum” free skate, she fell on her triple Lutz, which was also downgraded, and some of her jumps were under-rotated. She earned a free skate score of 126.40, which was fifth in the free skate, and earned a total score of 194.83.
“I could have skated better today, but I’m glad I’m on the podium and I’m glad for the elements that I did do,” the 17-year-old from Mount Holly, New Jersey, said. “Despite my fall in the second half, I did feel very grounded and confident during my performances despite a lot of pressure, so I feel prepared for (the ISU Grand Prix in) Finland knowing that I have a great training plan and training team and that I can do better at Finland.”
Just off the podium was 2024 European bronze medalist Nina Pinzarrone of Belgium. The 17-year-old from Brussels was in 5th after the short program, but her “Escapes Within” (The Handmaid’s Tale soundtrack) and Nocturne in D-Flat Major “Un rêve” was the second best free skate of the event. She earned a free skate score of 130.76 and a total score of 193.61 to finish in 4th place. She will now compete at Grand Prix de France in two weeks.
Tennell dropped from second to fifth place. She popped her triple Lutz in her Nessun Dorma free skate, and also had her triple toe called under-rotated. She earned a free skate score of 125.05, which was sixth in the free skate, and finished fifth overall with a score of 192.04. Tennell will now compete at NHK Trophy.
“I’m disappointed because I’ve been skating clean programs every day at home,” said the 26-year-old from Cary, Illinois. “When I woke up today feeling under the weather, I knew I would be fine. Truth be told, it was the wrong cut of my music and it distracted me. I’m really disappointed; it’s not what I wanted to do here.”
Fellow American Elyce Lin-Gracey finished sixth with a total score of 183.94 in her senior Grand Prix debut. The 17-year-old from Arcadia, California said she was a bit nervous for this competition, especially since she won Nebelhorn Trophy, beating teammate Levito.
“Yes, it was on my mind,” she said. “Everyone was mentioning Nebelhorn this and Nebelhorn that and the weight of trying to perform just exactly that is a lot for one to handle, especially since I’m new as a senior. But this competition was a learning experience for me to hopefully be able to do better next week, knowing how the nerves will feel.”
Lin-Gracey learned just last week that she will compete at Skate Canada International next week in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Pairs
While there were some unexpected results in the women’s event, the winner of the pairs’ event did not come as a shock. 2023 World champions Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara of Japan, who missed the Grand Prix season last season due to injury, picked up where they left off from the 2022-2023 Grand Prix season, and won their third Grand Prix gold medal.
Leaders after the short program by more than seven points, the 22-year-old and 32-year-old, who train in Oakville, Ontario, Canada, started off their “Adios” free skate with a level-three triple twist and also completed a throw triple Lutz, however Miura missed the throw triple loop and their side-by-side triple Salchow and the triple toe-loop in sequence with a single Axel and double Axel were slightly under-rotated. They earned a free skate score of 136.44 and a total score of 214.23 to take the gold. Miura and Kihara earned the second-highest total score in Skate America history.
“We’re back to the Grand Prix series after two years and it’s great to be back,” Kihara said. “It’s been a while since we won a competition so we are happy about that as well.”
They will compete next at NHK Trophy.
2024 U.S. Champions and Four Continents bronze medalists Ellie Kam and Danny O’Shea, who were in second after the short program, took home the silver medal, their first Grand Prix medal as a team.
In their “Stand by Me” free skate, they completed a level-four triple twist, throw triple loop and a side-by-side triple toe-loop. Kam stepped out of the throw triple Lutz. The 19-year-old and 33-year-old, who train in Colorado Springs, earned a ISU personal best score of 131.07, which was second in the free skate, and a total score of 201.73, which was also second overall.
“It’s pretty great being up here on a podium in the Grand Prix,” O’Shea said. “It’s our first Grand Prix medal and it was a hard off-season. We worked really hard on all the programs and put a lot of work into creating programs that we felt really pushed us, so we’re happy to see them paying off on both the technical and the component side.”
They will compete again against Miura and Kihara at NHK Trophy.
Their teammates, Alisa Efimova and Misha Mitrofanov, claimed the bronze medal in their Grand Prix debut as a team. Skating to “Je suis malade”, the 25-year-old and 27-year-old, who train at the Skating Club of Boston, executed a triple Salchow-double Axel sequence, throw triple loop and Salchow, as well as level-four lifts. They scored a personal best free skate score of 128.46 and earned a total of 191.51 points to move up from fifth-place to finish third.
“We were in a good state of being connected in the program, so we went for each element. All along we felt quite comfortable skating here,” said Efimova.
They will compete at Grand Prix de France in two weeks.
This is the first time two U.S. pairs teams have finished on the podium at a fully international Skate America since 2006.
2024 World Junior Champions Anastasiia Metelkina and Luka Berulava of Georgia, who were in third after the short program, had some mistakes in the free skate. Berulava slipped out of his position in the forward death spiral and they had some issues on their side-by-side jumps. They earned a free skate score of 122.79 and slipped from third to fourth with 191.43 points overall, missing the podium by just 0.08 points.
Hungary’s Maria Pavlova and Alexei Sviatchenko were fifth with a total score of184.01 points.
Team USA’s Katie McBeath and Daniil Parkman, who were making their Grand Prix debut as a team, finished 7th overall.
Men
After the short program, less than 0.15 points separated World champion Ilia Malinin of the U.S., from 2024 Four Continents champion Kao Miura of Japan. Yet despite how close it was after the short program, But in the free skate, the 19-year-old from Vienna, Virginia, pulled away to win his third-straight Skate America gold medal, despite finishing second in the free skate.
Malinin opened his “I’m Not a Vampire” free skate with a quadruple flip, triple Axel and quadruple Lutz, but then doubled his planned quadruple loop and stumbled on a triple Lutz. He went on to complete a quadruple toe-triple toe combination and a quadruple Salchow (which was called on the quarter)-triple Axel sequence. He did execute the first legal backflip of the Grand Prix. He earned a free skate score of 190.43, which was surprisingly second in the free skate, but still managed to take the gold medal with a score of 290.12.
“I’m proud of my skate today and I’m happy I was able to push through this program with some of the mistakes that I made,” said Malinin. “I always remind myself that stuff like this happens and you have to move on and take it and use it to progress and improve.”
Malinin will compete next week at Skate Canada International, where he could become the first to qualify for the Grand Prix Final.
France’s Kevin Aymoz, who was in fourth place after the short program, won the free skate. In his “Van Gogh”, “Hold On Tight” and “Destiny” free skate, he landed two quadruple toe-loops, two triple Axels, and four more triples that earned him a personal best score of 190.84, and earned a total score of 282.88 to claim the silver medal, his second straight silver medal at Skate America.
The 27-year-old from Jarrie, France, ended his 2023-2024 season after the ISU European Championships to focus on his mental health.
“My only goal was to come back from the last performance I did internationally,” Aymoz said. “It was the European Championship (2024) and I finished (31st), popping doubles, falling on singles. That was for me, just to come back, and today I was super proud because I did work these last six months.”
Aymoz will now compete at Finlandia Trophy.
Miura would end up claiming the bronze medal. In his ““The Umbrellas of Cherbourg” free skate, the 19-year-old from Yokohama completed a quadruple Salchow, quadruple toe-triple toe combination and a triple Axel-Euler-triple Salchow. His solo triple Axel was called under-rotated and his quadruple toe was slightly under-rotated. He earned a free score of 179.13, which was third in the free skate. He slipped to third overall from second at 278.67 points.
“Today my skate was really all about staying strong in my head, and I think that I was skating with very little room to fail,” Miura said. “Next time, I would really like to be able to skate with a little bit more room to breathe and have a clean skate. That will be my motto. I still think that the Grand Prix Final is a possibility, but coming third today it’s really sort of like the borderline of what I can allow myself.”
Miura will now compete at his home Grand Prix, NHK Trophy.
Georgia’s Nika Egadze, who was third after the short program, dropped to fourth overall. He fell on his opening quadruple Lutz, but did manage to complete third other quadruple jumps. He earned a free skate score of 167.82 and a total score of 261.71. He will next compete at he will compete at Cup of China at the end of November.
Latvia’s Deniss Vasiljevs finished fifth with a total score of 251.47. His only mistake was his quadruple Salchow was downgraded. He will also compete at Cup of China. His training mate, Koshiro Shimada, of Japan, finished sixth with an overall score of 219.68. He will compete in two weeks at Grand Prix de France.
Team USA’s Maxim Naumov and Lucas Broussard finished 7th and 10th respectively.
Dance
There were more surprises in the dance event as Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson of Great Britain beat out four-time Skate America champions and two-time World champions Madison Chock and Evan Bates to claim the gold medal, the second Grand Prix gold medal of their careers.
Spain’s Olivia Smart and Tim Dieck won the bronze medal, their first Grand Prix medal.
Read more about the ice dance event at Ice-Dance.com.
