{"id":52227,"date":"2025-11-05T09:00:29","date_gmt":"2025-11-05T14:00:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/figureskatersonline.com\/news\/?p=52227"},"modified":"2025-11-13T16:11:11","modified_gmt":"2025-11-13T21:11:11","slug":"new-pairs-teams-series-elizabeth-yun-and-mitchell-castelletti","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/figureskatersonline.com\/news\/2025\/11\/05\/new-pairs-teams-series-elizabeth-yun-and-mitchell-castelletti\/","title":{"rendered":"New Pairs Teams Series: Elizabeth Yun and Mitchell Castelletti"},"content":{"rendered":"
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By Gina Capellazzi, Team FSO website administrator
\nPhotos courtesy Elizabeth Yun, Mitchell Castelletti and Trudy Oltmanns<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Figure Skaters Online<\/i> has started a new series to introduce fans to the new pairs teams who will be making their debut during the 2025-26 season. For this series, we recently chatted with Elizabeth (Liza) Yun and Mitchell Castelletti, who are a new junior team. They teamed up in summer of 2025 and are getting ready for the U.S. Pairs Final in Lansing, Michigan, Nov. 17-21.<\/p>\n

Tell us about your individual skating journeys, including any early special memories<\/span>.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Liza:<\/strong> I first stepped onto the ice at a birthday party when I was about five or six years old, and from the moment my skates touched the ice, I was hooked! Something about the feeling of gliding through the rink captured me. Since then, skating has become so much more than just an activity; it\u2019s been a source of joy and motivation on and off the ice.<\/p>\n

Mitchell:<\/strong> I started in hockey when I was three years old. As I grew up, I realized that I enjoyed skating but not much of the other aspects of the sport. When I was around seven, I tried on figure skates for the first time. It was an adjustment at first, but my passion quickly grew as I began to compete in singles. I especially enjoyed the challenge of trying to land increasingly difficult jumps.<\/p>\n

What drew you to pairs? Did you compete in singles before and if so, how long did you skate and compete as a single skater, and are you still doing singles?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Liza:<\/strong> Ever since I first started skating, I\u2019ve felt especially drawn to pairs. Even before I began learning pairs, I would dream about doing lifts and the thrill of being thrown through the air! I love everything about it, from watching competitions to learning and practicing new elements, but most of all, performing my programs and expressing myself on the ice. That passion has stayed with me from the very beginning and throughout my singles career. I competed in singles until the end of the 2024\u20132025 season, and competed at three Sectionals and various national qualifying competitions.<\/p>\n

Mitchell:<\/strong> I competed in singles until I was eighteen and decided to try pairs. I was hesitant to try it at first, but open to it. I quickly realized that I had found my place. Skating with another person opened my eyes to the stories that could be told in a program. Learning the difficult lifts, twists, and death spirals were things I could have never imagined doing, but have become some of my favorite things to do on the ice.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Tell us how your partnership started.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Liza:<\/strong> I had just ended my previous partnership and the opportunity to tryout with Mitchell came up. Still in California, I wrapped up my competitions at dance nationals and flew straight to Minnesota, where we had our tryout for a few days. I flew back to California, excited for what could be ahead, and flew back a week later to continue the tryout. We finally matched shortly after, and I was thrilled to start practicing with Mitchell!<\/p>\n

Mitchell:<\/strong> Our partnership began pretty late in the season, around the third week of July. We had our tryout and immediately partnered up.<\/span><\/p>\n

What is it that you already like most about skating with your new partner?\"\"<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Mitchell:<\/strong> I really admire Liza’s work ethic and her commitment. Her sense of humor and great attitude every day makes every lesson enjoyable.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Liza:<\/strong> I really love the energy Mitchell brings to the ice and to our programs. On top of that , he\u2019s incredibly hard-working and always gives his all during practices, which pushes me to do the same. We\u2019re actually quite similar in that we\u2019re both very competitive, and I really enjoy that dynamic because it challenges us to keep improving and brings out the best in both of us.<\/p>\n

What has been the biggest adjustment for each of you so far in the partnership?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Liza:<\/strong> One of the biggest adjustments so far in this partnership has been adapting to the height difference with Mitchell. Because we don\u2019t have a significant height gap, timing our movements precisely has been essential, especially for twists and lifts. It really pushed me to pay close attention to the refining of little details, as well as focusing on improving all of our skills in general.<\/p>\n

Mitchell:<\/strong> I think the biggest adjustment that we faced so far this season was our major schedule shift in the summer. For most of the summer we trained at night between 9 p.m. to 5 a.m.<\/span>\u00a0It took a bit of getting used to, but worked out well in the end and will make for a fun story in the future.<\/span><\/p>\n

Tell us about your training site.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Mitchell:<\/strong> We trained in a hockey rink in Edina, Minnesota while we waited for our training center to reopen in Bloomington, Minnesota. After major renovations for the past six months, we are finally back at the Bloomington Ice Garden.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Liza:<\/strong> One of the most memorable experiences in Edina was getting the opportunity to skate at night for the our first few weeks together, from sunset to sunrise, which was both challenging yet incredibly rewarding and exciting. Recently, the newly renovated Bloomington Ice Garden has become our home facility for training. With three full sheets of ice and plenty of space on and off the ice, it allows us to work on technique and focus on training new and more advanced elements. Skating at these rinks has allowed us to adapt to different environments, stay disciplined in our training, and continually push ourselves to improve.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Who are your coaches? \u00a0Did either or both have to relocate? If so, tell us about the move(s).<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Mitchell:<\/strong> We train with Trudy Oltmanns as well as her daughter Emily. \u00a0We\u2019ve also work in the summers\/breaks with Olivia Oltmanns and Sam Kazantsev. <\/span><\/p>\n

Liza:<\/strong> Yes, Trudy Oltmanns is our amazing coach. We also train with her daughter, Emily Oltmanns, throughout the day. I previously lived in California, so I moved to Minnesota and currently stay with an amazing host family. Moving to Minnesota and living without my family has been challenging, but rewarding in so many ways. Living with my host family and my three host \u201csiblings\u201d has made the transition significantly easier, and I\u2019ve really enjoyed getting to know them. This experience has helped me become more independent and adaptable, which I am grateful for.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Who choreographed your programs. Is someone else arranging your music? If so, please share those experiences.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Mitchell:<\/strong> Our programs were created and choreographed by our coach, Trudy. We also worked with her daughter, Olivia. I also had worked with Alex Aldridge prior to partnering with Liza and we have taken that inspiration in choreographing our programs. We also work weekly with our ballroom dance teachers, Gene and Elena Bersten.<\/span><\/p>\n

Liza:<\/strong> Elena and Gene Bersten have trained dancers on Dancing With the Stars<\/i>, So You Think You Can Dance<\/i>, and World of Dance. <\/i>They worked on sections of our short program, elevating the choreography and really bringing the performance to life. Their guidance added a lot of energy and detail, not just in our movements but also in our expressions!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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What are you skating to this year, if you would like to share with us?\"\"<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Liza:<\/strong> This year, we are skating to \u201cBoogie Wonderland\u201d by Earth, Wind, & Fire for our short program. For our free skate, we are skating to \u201cTalking to the Moon\u201d by Bruno Mars. Our first competition was just a few weeks after we got partnered, so we had to work e\ufb03ciently, and I am excited with how they came out.<\/p>\n

Mitchell:<\/strong> We love our short program and although it is difficult, it is so much fun to perform.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

If you could have a lesson with any pair skater past\/present, who would it be?<\/strong> Why?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mitchell:<\/strong> A lesson with 2018 Olympic Champion Aljona Savchenko and Bruno Massot would be incredibly inspiring to me because of their beautiful skating skills.
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Liza:<\/strong>\u00a0If I could have a lesson with any pair skater, it would probably be the 2022 Olympic Champions <\/span>Sui Wenjing and Han Cong. Their speed into each element is the most mesmerizing and each element looks precise and effortless. Sui possesses such a charismatic poise, and together, they have such a great connection.<\/p>\n

What is each of you looking forward to most this skating season? What will be your <\/strong>biggest challenge(s)?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Liza:<\/strong> The thing I am looking forward to most about this season is developing new and more di\ufb03cult skills. We are constantly improving, and I can\u2019t wait to see how much progress we will make toward the end of this season. This will also probably be our biggest challenge as we are trying to improve every aspect of each of our elements. Furthermore, I\u2019m also looking forward to showing ourselves in competition and seeing how all of our hard work comes together on the ice.<\/p>\n

Mitchell:<\/strong> I\u2019m looking forward to continuing to train with Liza and see how our skills grow and develop by the end of the season. I feel our improvement every day, and our mutual drive and dedication makes me so excited to see what our future holds. This will be both of our first junior season , and hopefully our first US Championships at Junior. so that is something that I\u2019m really looking forward to.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Tell us about your debut competition this season?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Liza:<\/strong> Our first competition, just weeks after we paired up, was the 99th Annual Middle Atlantic Championship in New York, NY. Although our short program didn\u2019t go exactly as planned, we were able to perform a stronger free skate and ended up finishing first in the free and first overall at the competition. It was an incredible experience and a great way to start our partnership.<\/p>\n

Mitchell:<\/strong> Since our partnership was barely a month old by that point, we didn\u2019t know what to expect. Despite some silly mistakes, it was a great experience that we both learned a lot from, and we were satisfied with the performances we delivered.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What are your goals for this season?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Liza:<\/strong> We have just recently accomplished our biggest goal of being added to the ISP (International Selection Pool) and hope to be assigned an international event soon.<\/p>\n

Mitchell:<\/strong> We also want to develop our triple throws, our triple twist, and our side-by-side triple jumps. We are hoping to qualify for and would love to medal at this year\u2019s U.S, Championships in January, and compete internationally for the U.S. National Team.<\/p>\n

Please share anything you would like our readers to know about you as a team?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Liza:<\/strong> We are excited to see what this season will bring and will continue to work hard to improve not just our elements, but our skating skills and connection on the ice. We hope to grow not just as skaters but as partners, and that our passion and hard work will continue to show through all of our performances.<\/p>\n

Mitchell:<\/strong> Keep an eye out for us! We\u2019re incredibly excited to show you how hard we\u2019ve been working.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Gina Capellazzi, Team FSO website administrator Photos courtesy Elizabeth Yun, Mitchell Castelletti and Trudy Oltmanns Figure Skaters Online has started a new series to introduce fans to the new pairs teams who will be making their debut during the 2025-26 season. For this series, we recently chatted with Elizabeth (Liza) Yun and Mitchell Castelletti,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":52411,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[594],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-52227","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-new-pairs-teams-series"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/figureskatersonline.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52227","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/figureskatersonline.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/figureskatersonline.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/figureskatersonline.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/figureskatersonline.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52227"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/figureskatersonline.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52227\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":52456,"href":"https:\/\/figureskatersonline.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52227\/revisions\/52456"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/figureskatersonline.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52411"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/figureskatersonline.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52227"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/figureskatersonline.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52227"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/figureskatersonline.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52227"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}