By Carissa Feng, Team FSO contributing writer
Skate Canada International, the third event of the 2025-2026 ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating Series, was held in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, from Oct. 31 – Nov. 2.
Women
Mone Chiba, the reigning world bronze medalist, won her first Grand Prix gold by taking the lead in both her short program and free program, with 217.23 points, exceeding 7.46 points over USA’s Isabeau Levito, the 2024 world silver medalist. Her teammate, 17-year-old Ami Nakai, with 203.09 points, joined the podium with a bronze.
Chiba, the 20-year-old university student, kept both her “Last Dance” short program and Romeo and Juliet free program from last season and never faltered with her skating speed and smooth step sequence. She finished with a season-best score and took her first Grand Prix title.
“In both the short program and free program, there are obviously things that I can improve on, but in spite of my nerves, I was able to put it together. I want to be able to fight for even cleaner programs in the next event,” the Japanese skater said.
She now only has the Finlandia Trophy left for her second Grand Prix assignment.
18-year-old Levito performed to the music of Cinema Paradiso and landed all seven of her jumps in her free skate, though some of her jumps were called under-rotated. She was runner-up in both segments, earning 71.80 in the short program and 137.97 in the free, and earned a total of 209.77 points to finish second overall.
Levito placed fourth at the Grand Prix de France. With 22 points, she has to wait and see if she will have a spot at the Grand Prix Final in December.
“I will be resting a little bit, but I think I will change my boots and just kind of take time to calm down and have a more relaxed training schedule,” Levito explained. “I’ll have a nice little break before the rest of my season continues.”
In Canada, Nakai fell on her triple Axel in the short program and found herself in fourth place. In the free skate, she attempted the jump again, but popped it to a double. She earned a free skate score of 136.54, which was third in the free skate. She finished with an overall score of 203.09 to take the bronze medal.
The first-year senior skater, who won gold in her Grand Prix debut in France, planned to keep her Cinderella free program from last season for this Olympic season. But she had to change to “What a Wonderful World” by Lexi Walker, The Piano Guys due to the new copyright policy.
With her win at Grand Prix de France and finishing third in Canada, she has likely qualified for the Grand Prix Final in December. The ISU will confirm that upon the conclusion of the series.
“I think I will be using that time [before the Final starts] to brush up on my programs. It is also true that the percentage of landing my triple Axel is somewhat declining. I know I need to make improvements on that. I would also like to get more flow in my programs.” Nakai said in a press conference.
Team USA’s Bradie Tennell, who is the 2018 Olympic team bronze medalist, placed fourth overall with a new season’s best score of 195.07. She was eight points out of third place. Tennell will head to Finland for her second Grand Prix assignment.
Italy’s Lara Naki Gutmann placed third after the short program with a season’s best short program score of 68.11. She was edged out of the podium, placing fifth overall, because she fell on a triple Lutz and got called on two under-rotated jumps. Gutmann’s goal is to be named to the Olympic team as well as to perform better at the Nationals. Her next Grand Prix event will be Skate America.
Men
Ilia Malinin, the two-time World Champion, broke a world record in Saskatoon. He broke his own record for the highest men’s free skate score with a score of 228.97. The score was 1.18 points higher than his old world record from the 2024 World Championships.
If that wasn’t enough, the 20-year-old also became the first skater to cleanly land with no deductions five different quadruple jumps in a single program. His overall total score of 333.81 was an ISU personal-best score. He finished 76.60 points ahead of silver medalist Aleksandr Selevko of Estonia.
“I think that it was one of the best programs I’ve done so far this season,” Malinin said. “After coming back from Grand Prix de France, I really worked on just the cleanliness and feeling more confident on the ice, and I definitely felt that today in my program.”
With this win and his win in France, he is heading to the Grand Prix Final competition held in Nagoya, Japan. The ISU will confirm this upon the completion of the series.
Selevko took the silver at the Skate Canada International. In the short program, he skated to the music of “Kiss” by Prince, and landed one quadruple toe-loop but received level fours on all his spins and step sequence. He achieved a ISU personal best short program score (91.28) and was in third place, less than one point behind Kazuki Tomono of Japan. In the free skate, Selevko landed two flawless quadruple jumps, but did lose points on one of his combinations. He held the pressure and earned 165.93 points in the free skate and placed second overall with a new ISU personal best overall score of 257.21.
Selevko became the first Estonian man to win a Grand Prix medal and the first person to win a silver for his country. The first Estonian to win a medal was Niina Petrõkina, the European Champion, who won the bronze at Skate America in 2023.
Since Selevko was only assigned one event, he will not meet the Grand Prix Final’s requirement.
“I’m really happy that this [first silver for his country] happened, and when I came here, I didn’t expect to be on the podium at all,” he said.
Japan’s Kao Miura was fourth after the short with 89.80 points, but came back strong and became the only Japanese medalist at this event by taking the bronze medal.
He mentioned that he only focused on his free program during the open practice and did not do a single run-through of his short. Returning to his free skate from last season, which is to the music of “Les Parapluies de Cherbourg (The Umbrellas of Cherbourg)” by Michel Legrand, he earned the last spot on the podium with a season’s best free skate score of 163.89 and an overall score of 253.69, also a season’s best score.
Miura added that this medal was the first one he earned this season and that he has not gotten any medals since Skate America last year.
“It’s been almost a year since I was able to do a good free program. So I think I see the light at the end of the tunnel. This performance today was one that I hadn’t sort of experienced in a long time. I was able to have fun,” he said.
The bronze medalist at the Skate Canada did not receive any points in France as he finished in 10th place, so he does not have a chance to perform in the Grand Prix Final.
Miura’s teammate, Kazuki Tomono, who was second after the short program, missed the podium by ranking fourth overall with a total score of 251.46, 2.23 points behind Miura. He had two falls in his free skate. His next Grand Prix assignment will be Skate America in two weeks.
Nika Egadze from Georgia climbed back from eighth to place fifth with a better free program, earning 162.03 points and getting an overall score of 247.95. With bronze in France and placing fifth in Saskatoon, he has a total of 18 points.
The home skater, Canadian National Champion, Roman Sadovsky, placed sixth with an overall score of 236.73. He had the highest ranking score among all three Canadian men at this event. His next Grand Prix event will be in Finland.
Pairs
Deanna Stellato-Dudek and Maxime Deschamps, representing Canada, won a gold medal at their third straight Skate Canada International event. With silver in France and gold at this event, the 2024 World Champions have 28 points and have pretty much solidified their trip to the ISU Grand Prix Final, taking place in Nagoya, Japan in December. However, they need to wait until the conclusion of the series for the ISU to confirm that.
“We’ve been to Skate Canada before, and we’ve won Skate Canada before, but this one, it holds so much weight being that it is the big year,” said Stellato-Dudek.
The Canadian duo skated their short program to the music of “Carmina Burana” by Carl Orff. They earned a score of 73.03, which was four and a half points behind the European champions Minerva Hase and Nikita Volodin, of Germany (77.53). Performed a free skate to the music of “Poeta en el Mar” by Vicente Amigo, mixing with “Amor Dulce Muerte” by Vicente Amigo, the Canadian National Champions completed a triple twist, a triple toe-double Axel-double toe combination, and a throw triple Salchow, along with a forward outside death spiral. They earned a season’s best score of 140.37 points, moving them from second to first.
“We’re really happy,” Stellato-Dudek said. “We’ve managed to show more of what we do in training. We want to compete in as many events as possible to iron out all the little details before the Olympics.”
Hase and Volodin were near perfect with their short program, performing to the music of “El Abrazo” by Maxime Rodriguez, Frederic Ruiz. The leaders after the short program, the two-time Grand Prix Final champions and world silver medalists placed third in the free skate due to two major mistakes on their jump combination and throw triple flip. They managed to take the silver with 207.18 points.
In a press conference during the event, the team mentioned they had been sick at the beginning of the season and had missed a week of training. Their next assignment will be Finlandia Trophy.
In fourth after the short program, Ellie Kam and Danny O’Shea, the 2024 U.S. National Champions, won the bronze after a strong free skate where they earned an new ISU personal best free skate score of 133.63, which was also second in the segment. They finished third overall with a total score of 199.11 in their first Skate Canada International appearance.
“It was a tough off-season for us,” O’Shea said, noting his surgery and missing a few months of training after Worlds. “To have ourselves be on a good path as we continue to grow each competition, we’re happy to be able to perform the way that we did today.”
Their next event of the Grand Prix will be in Finland, competing against Hase and Volodin again.
In the short program, Canadians Lia Pereira and Trennt Michaud earned a ISU personal best score of 70.66 and were in third place by five points ahead of the Americans. But mistakes in the free skate dropped them to fourth overall with a total score of 186.54, which was still a season’s best score. They will also head to Finland for the last Grand Prix event.
Dance
2025 World silver medalist Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier made their season debut and claimed the gold medal in Canada. For a recap of the dance event, visit Ice-Dance.com.
