Winning a first World title was life-changing for Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara, according to their coach, Bruno Marcotte. The Japanese team’s triumph at their home World Championships last year was a career high point and opened many new doors. However, when Miura/Kihara returned to training in summer 2023 with plans to defend their title, …
Continue reading Bruno Marcotte: “It’s going to be important for Miura/Kihara to push the envelope”
In figure skating, there are great performances that win medals. And then there are performances that transcend medals to enter the lore and iconic history of the sport. Adam Siao Him Fa had both last month at the 2024 ISU World Championships in Montreal: He won his first career World medal--but it’s how he did …
Continue reading Adam Siao Him Fa: “I want to skate in a way that no one did before”
Last night, Loena Hendrickx won the women's short program at the 2024 ISU World Figure Skating Championships with a new personal-best score. It was a triumph for the Belgian skater--one of many this season, which has seen her winning a Grand Prix event at Skate America and her first European Championships title. And Hendrickx is …
Continue reading Choreographing for Loena Hendrickx: Adam Solya
What happens when you’re an elite pairs skater, you’ve just achieved your biggest success at an ISU championship … and your partnership ends right afterward? It’s a scenario that Alisa Efimova, 24, and Misha Mitrofanov, 26, both faced over the past two years. In 2022, Mitrofanov won the ISU Four Continents Championships with Audrey Lu. …
Jimmy Ma, 28, ended last season brilliantly with a career-high 5th place at the 2023 U.S. Figure Skating Championships and a small medal at 2023 ISU Four Continents Championships, where he placed third in the short program. This season, however, was another story entirely. Ma struggled this past fall, placing a disappointing 9th and 11th …
Continue reading Jimmy Ma: “This is a better representation of who I am as a skater”
Emily Bratti and Ian Somerville head into today’s senior free dance at the 2024 Prevagen U.S. Championships in Columbus, Ohio, in fourth place after a sparkling rhythm dance on Thursday. It’s been a season of continued growth for Bratti, 21, and Somerville, 23, who train at the Michigan Ice Dance Academy (MIDA) with coaches Greg …
Two-time Czech ice dance champions Natalie Taschlerova and Filip Taschler were excited to start their season this fall. The brother/sister team earned medals at two Challenger Series events and placed 5th at Skate America. There was one big problem, though: Filip Taschler was increasingly suffering from back pain. “I’d had a problem with my lower …
Continue reading The Taschlers Return from Career-Threatening Injury
At Skate America, we caught up with a few coaches to get their thoughts about their students’ performances at the first Grand Prix event of the season. Patrice Lauzon (I.AM) Ice dancers from the I.AM (Ice Academy of Montreal) school swept the podium at Skate America, with Chock/Bates taking gold, Lajoie/Lagha winning silver, and Lopareva/Brissaud …
Marjorie Lajoie and Zachary Lagha of Canada went home with a silver medal from last weekend's Humana Skate America in Allen, Texas. The duo were happy with their results in Allen, Texas, especially since they spent the summer coping with shoulder and back injuries for Lagha, and also had a subpar start to their season …
Chelsea Liu and Balazs Nagy will make their Grand Prix debut as a team this weekend at Skate America in Texas. Earlier this fall, they finished just off the podium at Autumn Classic International in Montreal, Quebec. Without question, it’s been a good start for their new partnership. Yet, arguably, Liu and Nagy shouldn’t be …
Continue reading “We’re Back”: The Surprising Return of Chelsea Liu & Balazs Nagy
