The world’s figure skating elite returns to the ice starting Friday at Skate America, the first stage of the prestigious Grand Prix circuit that the Japanese will attempt to fly over again. If the season will only culminate next March in Montreal with the World Championships, it gets to the heart of the matter this weekend near Allen in Texas.
Skate America is the first of six Grand Prix stages, which precede the grand finale where the top six competitors in each category will compete for the title in December in Beijing. This year also marks the return of Chinese stopovers after serial cancellations due to the Covid pandemic. In the absence of the Russians, still excluded until further notice from international competitions because of the war in Ukraine, Japan will try to extend its supremacy. Last year, the Japanese skaters, led by Shoma Uno, won three of the four titles during the Grand Prix final and did it again a few weeks later at the Worlds.
Uno, 25, will enter the scene in November during the Cup of China and then during the Japanese stage. The men’s calendar should be marked like last year for his distance duel with the American Ilia Malinin, the rising figure on the global scene, world bronze medalist last March. The 18-year-old American prodigy distinguished himself by becoming the first skater to complete the quadruple axel, the jump known to be the most difficult in skating. For his second season at the senior level, he opens hostilities on Friday, during Skate America where he defends his title, and will also be in Angers at the beginning of November for the French Grand Prix.
Among the women, the reigning double world champion Kaori Sakamoto is the headliner. In a category where Russian skaters are traditionally at the top of the hierarchy, she should especially face competition from the Belgian Loena Hendrickx. In ice dancing, the French Olympic champions Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron having decided to continue their sabbatical leave, the Americans Madison Chock and Evan Bates will want to remain the bosses of the discipline. Last season they went for the world title in the category, the only one to have escaped Japanese hegemony.
Finally in pairs, Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara had to postpone their resumption due to an injury. During the World Championships at home, they became the first Japanese duo to become world champions in pairs.
– October 20-22: Skate America (Allen, United States)
– October 27-29: Skate Canada (Vancouver, Canada)
– November 3-5: French Grand Prix (Angers, France)
– November 10-12: Cup of China (Chongqing, China)
– November 17-19: Finnish Grand Prix (Espoo, Finland)
– 24-26 novembre: NHK Trophy (Osaka, Japan)
– December 7-10: Grand Prix Final (Beijing, China)
