By Gina Capellazzi, Team FSO website administrator
Photos by Robin Ritoss
In March 2023, Gabriella Izzo announced that she was retiring as a singles skater to pursue pairs. The 2022 U.S. pewter medalist had a brief partnership in the summer of 2023, but then a few months later announced she was retiring from competitive skating all together.
After winning his Austrian Championship in 2022 as a singles skater, Luc Maierhofer announced he was going to compete in pairs while continuing his singles’ career. He teamed up with Giorgia Ghedini. The team won gold at the 2023 Austrian Junior Championships. But then in 2024, he found himself without a partner.
Enter Izzo. In May 2024, Izzo announced that she was coming out of retirement and would be teaming up with Maierhofer to compete for Austria. The two are coached by Severin Kiefer in Austria, and Aleksey Letov and Olga Ganicheva in Boston.
Just a few months later, the pair would make their international debut, winning the gold medal at the 2024 Ice Challenge in Graz. They also earned the minimum technical element scores to compete at the European Championships and World Championships. Though illness kept them from the European Championships, Izzo and Maierhofer made their Worlds debut in Boston, where they finished in 23rd place.
Team FSO spoke with Izzo and Maierhofer briefly at the 2025 World Championships to learn more about their partnership.
You both spent a number of years competing as single skaters, so what led you both to pairs?
Luc: It was interesting because it was my first season in singles where I did better and I was starting to get the hang of the more difficult elements, but my coach still suggested trying out pairs. Initially, I thought it was a stupid idea, but it (pairs) was really nice. I instantly liked it. It reignited a passion for figure skating in me. So it was very nice.
Gabriella: It was a couple different things. I think I was kind of getting bored with singles, just in the sense of I had taken it as far as I think I could and I wasn’t feeling that same passion and motivation. I loved training, I loved competing, but it was starting to feel a little bit more like a chore. And I think at that point, there’s so much beauty in this sport that if it’s starting to feel like a chore, something needs to change. And for me, that change was trying to find something else within the sport that I loved.
What was the hardest thing in transitioning into pairs?
Gabriella: It’s like learning something entirely different, and just the sense of there are so many different elements that have no equivalent in single skating. But it is also the skating itself that is wildly different. You have somebody else on the ice that you have to account for in like their emotions, their feelings, how they’re going throughout the day, and you want to give them the respect and grace that they deserve because they’re supposed to be an extension of you on the ice. That doesn’t come naturally. So I think you have to approach it entirely different as well.
How did you two learn about each other?
Luc: My (then)-partner was injured, so we had to split. I was searching for a partner and Severin Kiefer knew from a friend (Victor Pfeiffer) that Gabby could be a good option. So we had one tryout in Salzburg. It worked out great. We had one tryout in Boston. Since May 2024, we have been skating together.
Gabriella, you were retired at this point?
Gabriella: Luc played a really large part in my return to skating because when I first went out for the tryout, I wasn’t sure really what I wanted to do. It was, obviously, a big decision. There are a lot of emotions that come with skating, and it can be hard to continue when sometimes you find yourself lacking motivation. But just from the very first week that I started skating with him, I was like, ‘Oh this is something I want to do again.’
What do you like about skating with each other?
Luc: Gabriella is goal-oriented. I can push a lot, which is good. She is very like minded for training, which is nice.
Gabriella: We work in similar ways.
What has your training been like?
Gabriella: Right now, we split time between Salzburg, Austria and then Boston. We spent the first half of our partnership, when we were competing in Europe during the Challenger Series and most of the summer, out in Austria. Then in January, I started my last semester at Harvard University. So we came back to Boston.(Editor’s Note: Gabriella graduated from Harvard in May.)
If Austria obtains a spot for the Olympics, in order to compete at the games, Gabriella needs to be a citizen of Austria. Is citizenship a possibility for you?
Gabriella: It’s a work in progress. Obviously, the stronger results we show, the stronger the case. So we just keep working for it. Whatever it takes us.
In less than a year together, you did receive your minimums for the European and World Championships, but illness kept you from competing at Europeans.
Gabriella: It was a really difficult time, just unfortunate sickness and injury, but I think that almost gave us a little bit more of a push. One of our goals was to qualify for Europeans and Worlds, and we reached that goal of Europeans, but then we didn’t get to go. For me, at least, I was like, ‘Okay, now we really have one final push for the rest of the season, and if we can do it, then we go full force for it.’
But you were able to compete at Worlds, so what are your thoughts on your first World Championships?
Luc: We achieved a lot of goals this season, and we always put other goals in front of it because first it was just getting the release, getting points for Europeans, getting the points for Worlds and actually getting the chance from Austria to be sent to Europeans and Worlds too. Then after that, it would have been the goal to qualify for the free (skate), but it was obviously a tough competition and we still need to learn a lot.
This Worlds must have been special for you, Gabriella, because you grew up in Boston, trained there for a number of years as a single skater, and the two of you are doing some training in Boston.
Gabriella: I mean, this is home, so it was so special. And I think for it to be my first Worlds on home ice was just something that I couldn’t really imagine. I mean, a little more than a year ago, I wasn’t really skating anymore. So to go from that to this has been a wild ride, and there aren’t really words to describe it.
What will you take from this experience as you move forward into year two of your partnership?
Luc: Probably for me, I think next year will be probably the toughest year for us as we have to push the most in order for the other years to be easy, because then we will have everything we need to be a good couple. I’m ready for hard work next year.
Gabriella: I think there is a lot to learn. We got, I would say, foundational basics this year, but we need to improve, obviously, the technical side of it, but also the component side and also just working and skating together. I would agree that next year is probably the most difficult year we have ahead. We did the work this year, if we can set a stronger foundation next year, then we can just keep building upon it.
