By Matteo Morelli, Team FSO contributing writer
Photos by Robin Ritoss
HELSINKI, FINLAND — Finlandia Trophy 2025 took place Nov. 21-22 in Helsinki, Finland. This was the last event of this season’s Grand Prix series, with all qualified skaters and teams now confirmed. The crowds filling Helsinki Ice Hall showed a fantastic support for all skaters, making this last Grand Prix a true celebration of what the love for this sport means.
Women
Japan’s Mone Chiba won the event with a total score of 217.22, which was just 0.01 points behind her new personal best she recorded at Skate Canada International, which she also won. She rose from second after the short programme with 72.89 points to winning the free programme with 144.33 and taking the top step of the podium. With this second Grand Prix gold medal, she is the only woman this season to qualify for the Grand Prix Final with a full total of 30 points.
“Reflecting back on today’s performance, there were not so perfect jumps, however I was able to complete the rest of the jumps as I practised”, Chiba said. “The quality was good, and I was able to deliver and convey emotions through the step sequence and choreo sequence”.
“In this competition, there were so many very qualified athletes. So not only I thought I wanted to go in and do well, I was rather really thinking I wanted to be the best, and when I think about winning or put pressure on myself to really care about the placement, I tend to not do well. I just wanted to focus on what I prepared for and that is what I did, so I am happy about that. Going into the Final and nationals, there is room for improvement, so I want to restart the process and work on my performance again”.
USA’s Amber Glenn managed to land a triple Axel in both her programmes. She led after the short programme with 75.72 points, but her free skate ended up being the second best of the day, earning 137.69 for a total of 213.41, placing her second overall. With the gold she won at Cup of China, she secured another Grand Prix Final qualification, after winning her first Final last year.
Arriving in Helsinki, Glenn shared that she wasn’t feeling her best because of a root canal she had recently done. However, she still enjoyed the competition and said that she felt even more relaxed than usual.
“I definitely wasn’t my best, but I stayed on my feet, and I fought through it”, she said. “I am really happy with how I did mentally and physically. I was only about 80% today and I didn’t really feel the normal adrenaline, so hopefully after this, I can get a little bit of rest and try and clean up some of those smaller mistakes before the Final”.
She shared a piece of advice for herself, that can resonate with other skaters too.
“I have the training, and I need to rely on it and not be fearful of disaster. Sometimes, when you are out there in competition, you are like ‘what if, what if, what if’. Trust the process: as long as I do what I need to do every day and keep centred, I can do what I know I can do. With every competition lately, I have shown myself that I can do this, especially in my free skate, and I just need to trust that”.
Japan’s Rino Matsuike was sixth after the short programme with 61.26 points, but she delivered a free programme skated with confidence, earning 131.95 points which gave her a free and combined third-place finish with 193.21 points, an improvement from her sixth-place finish at Cup of China.
“I had some levels that I couldn’t achieve, and there were some underrotations”, she shared. “However, through the step and chore sequence I was able to do well and I was able to achieve this score, and that was totally unexpected, so I was happy with that”.
She recognized that the competition at this event was very strong.
“I was on the podium last year, and I had a strong desire, in fact, to be on the podium again, but I was looking at other athletes this year and thought maybe it might not happen”, she admitted. “But I am so happy I am able to be on the podium now and I am also relieved”.
Bradie Tennell earned 190.38 points and finished in fourth place, matching her result from Skate Canada International.
She was followed by Canada’s Madeline Schizas, who went from third after the short programme to fifth in the free programme and overall, with a total score of 188.60 points. She shared that her Federation asked her to bring back her Lion King programme, and she was really happy to do so.
Belgium’s Loena Hendrickx had to withdraw from the event after the short due to sickness.
Women qualified for the Grand Prix Final
The women that qualified for this year’s Grand Prix Final are:
Mone Chiba, Japan – 30 points
Kaori Sakamoto, Japan – 28 points
Amber Glenn, USA – 28 points
Alysa Liu, USA – 28 points
Ami Nakai, Japan – 26 points
Rinka Watanabe, Japan – 24 points
The substitutes are, in order:
Isabeau Levito, USA – 22 points
Anastasiia Gubanova, Georgia – 20 points
Bradie Tennell, USA – 18 points
Men
Japan’s Yuma Kagiyama was the winner of the men’s event, with a total score of 270.45 points that allowed him to secure a second Grand Prix gold medal and qualify for the Final. He and Ilia Malinin are the only two men to have won both of their Grand Prix assignments to qualify with full points.
His short programme wasn’t super smooth, with a fall on the quadruple Salchow and a third-place finish with 88.16 points. His free skate allowed him to redeem himself, earning 182.29 points and the top step on the podium. In the middle section of his free, he tried to rearrange his elements to allow for a quadruple toeloop that he wanted to land, but he then returned into great shape to end his Turandot programme with the intensity it is built to deliver.
“Yesterday’s performance was the most disappointing performance I gave this season, but I wanted to use this disappointment and give my all and get that energy into my free performance”, he shared. “During the first half of the performance, I was able to really give all and do exactly what I prepared, however later on, I couldn’t fit in the quad toeloop, so I had to rearrange the programme a little bit, but I was able to keep doing the jumps and I didn’t have to give up, which was good”.
France’s Adam Siao Him Fa finished the short programme in first place with 92.50 points, but dropped to second place in the free with 164.48 points, for an overall total of 256.98 points. With the silver medal he also won at Grand Prix de France, he qualified for the Grand Prix Final, which will be his second after he had to pull out of last year’s event due to injury.
He shared that the long break between the first and last Grand Prix events wasn’t easy for him and that he struggled with lack of motivation and confidence.
“Today I was quite stressed, but my coach helped me a lot to go through this and to take it more as a game or as a challenge, as I usually do in practice”, he said. “Somehow, I had fun today, even though it wasn’t perfect at all and it wasn’t the best performance that I can do, for sure. I think I was probably not believing enough in myself, and I think that is what I am going to work on”.
Canada’ Stephen Gogolev won his first ever Grand Prix medal, with 253.61 total points to take third place on the podium. He finished the short programme in second place with 89.35 points, to then place third in the free with 164.26 points.
His total score was close to the new personal best he set at Nebelhorn Trophy 2025, showing how he continues to grow in the field. He was quite surprised to have reached the podium and to win his first Grand Prix medal.
“I would say I was quite nervous going to the free programme today because it was the first experience for me to be in the top three on the short programme”, he shared. “I really had to fight for every element in the free programme, but I am glad I did. Obviously, there are a couple of mistakes that don’t usually happen in training, but overall I am very pleased that I stayed in the top three”.
Also from Canada, Roman Sadowsky finished in fourth place with 243.29 points, moving up from sixth after the short programme to skating the fourth free of the day.
Jason Brown finished in fifth place with 243.17 points, placing fourth in the short and sixth in the free. His Riverdance programme, which he brought back from the 2013/14 season, still proves to be a crowd pleaser and a programme he delivers in a very engaging way.
Men qualified for the Grand Prix Final
The men that qualified for this year’s Grand Prix Final are:
Ilia Malinin, USA – 30 points
Yuma Kagiyama, Japan – 30 points
Shun Sato, Japan – 28 points
Adam Siao Him Fa, France – 26 points
Mikhail Shaidorov, Kazakhstan – 24 points
Daniel Grassl, Italy – 20 points
The substitutes are, in order:
Kazuki Tomono, Japan – 20 points
Lukas Britschgi, Switzerland – 20 points
Nika Egadze, Georgia – 18 points
Pairs
The pairs event proved to be quite engaging, with four teams entering the free skating segment with 70 points and a slim margin of 0.27 points.
Germany’s Minerva Fabienne Hase and Nikita Volodin won the pairs event with 206.88 points, earning a gold medal that, combined with the silver they won in Canada, secures their third consecutive appearance at the Grand Prix Final, an event that they have so far always won.
They placed first in both segments, earning 70.40 points for their short and 136.48 points for their free, a programme which they feel very connected to.
“The music was a suggestion by our choreographer, Benoît Richaud: he sent us the cut version of the programme and a text of what he wants to show”, Hase explained. “It sets our story really well, being at a point where we both thought ‘does it continue or not’, and then getting the whole skating together, being where we are right now and seeing that dreams can come true “.
With only a week off between this Grand Prix and Japan, they reflected on how they plan to get ready for the Final.
“Next week is really about recovery, having smart practice to work on what we didn’t work on this week, but also not overdoing it and trusting our coaches”, Hase said. “We did that in the past, in our first season we skated back-to-back, and then there was one week to go to the Final, so we are used to that”.
USA’s Alisa Efimova and Misha Mitrofanov were third after the short programme, with 70.19 points. Their free skating, however, was delivered with great confidence and earned them 135.30 points and a total of 205.49, which moved them up to second place and secured a silver medal. They achieved new personal bests for their short and overall scores, and their free skate was only 0.29 points short of their personal best.
“We are happy that we did all the elements in the programme”, Efimova said. “The audience was amazing, I heard so many screams with names, like ‘Go Alisa and Misha’ and normally I am a little scared of that, but today it did not throw me off, it just encouraged me and gave so much energy”.
Another USA team took the podium: Ellie Kam and Daniel O’Shea won the bronze medal with a total of 199.09 points, dropping from second place after the short with 70.24 points to third in the free with 128.85 points. They also won a bronze medal at Skate Canada International, however the two combined were not enough to qualify them for the Grand Prix Final (they are currently the second substitute).
Before their free programme, Kam had an issue with the zipper on her dress.
“I had a bit of a problem with my dress and that was a little bit of a distraction, but I am really proud of how Danny and I stayed together as a team and were able to put together a really good performance”, she shared. “When I got in in for the six-minute warm-up, it just wasn’t zipping anymore, then I got sewn in for the programme and we were good!”.
Japans’ Yuna Nagaoka and Sumitada Moriguchi finished in fourth place with 193.12 points, confirming the same final standing they had at NHK Trophy and showing that they are a team that is steadily climbing the rankings.
Canada’s Lia Pereira and Trennt Michaud finished fifth with 191.33 points, paying the price for some mistakes in the free programme which ended up being the sixth-best free skate of the day.
Pairs qualified for the Grand Prix Final
The pairs that qualified for this year’s Grand Prix Final are:
Sara Conti and Niccolo Macii, Italy – 28 points
Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara, Japan – 30 points
Minerva Fabienne Hase and Nikita Volodin, Germany – 28 points
Anastasiia Metelkina and Luka Berulava, Georgia – 28 points
Deanna Stellato-Dudek and Maxime Deschamps, Canada – 28 points
Maria Pavlova and Alexei Sviatchenko, Hungary – 24 points
The substitutes are, in order:
Sui Wenjing and Han Cong, China – 22 points
Ellie Kam and Daniel O’Shea, USA – 22 points
Alisa Efimova and Misha Mitrofanov, USA – 20 points
Ice Dance
France’s Laurence Fournier-Beaudry and Guillaume Cizeron won the event, followed by Canada’s Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier in the silver medal position, and the USA’ Emilea Zingas and Vadym Kolesnik in bronze medal position. All three teams qualified for the Grand Prix Final.
Read more about the dance event at Ice-Dance.com.
