2025 Saatva Skate America, the fifth of six events in the 2025 ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating series, took place November 14-16 in Lake Placid, New York. The last time the event was held in Lake Placid was 2017. This winter wonderland of a town was also home to the 1980 and 1932 Winter Olympics. Many skaters noted how special it felt to compete here in the Olympic season.
Men: Defining success on their terms
At his pre-event press conference, U.S. skater Jason Brown noted that, over the many years of his skating career, he has found his own ways to be successful. Jason does not have quadruple jumps in his arsenal but remains competitive (and a fan favorite) by perfecting the quality of his elements and investing in artistry.
In Lake Placid, Brown got the crowd on their feet with his “Reel Around the Sun” (Riverdance) short program, although mistakes kept him in fifth place after the short (he was third in the free skate and finished fourth overall).
“I wish it was a cleaner skate,” Brown said. “That said, it felt great to finally compete this program in front of a U.S. crowd…My first Grand Prix ever [in 2013], I performed Riverdance. And I just feel so proud and honored [to do it again]. It’s nice to see how the program will be received. So when I get to later events, I have a better understanding of how to pace myself, and where the crowd gets involved … and when to really pull from them. Right now, I’m still figuring that out.”
The gold medal in the men’s event went to another very artistic skater, Kevin Aymoz of France. It was Kevin’s 14th career Grand Prix event and his first title. An emotional Aymoz openly talked with reporters about his many physical and mental struggles to get to this point (he is skating with an ongoing injury).
“When I woke up this morning, I was going for the win,” Aymoz shared. “I said: Go big or go home. I have no chance to go to the Final. I thought: Try your best, just try and practice.”
Mikhail Shaidorov of Kazakhstan has been working through his own struggles to get back into full competition mode following the emotional highs of his 2025 World Championships success (he won silver behind “quadgod” Ilia Malinin in Boston). Shaidorov’s technical content in the free program was the strongest of the event (five quads, including his signature triple Axel-Euler-quad Salchow combination), but lower artistic marks and mistakes (he fell two times in the free program) earned him silver, just over two points behind Aymoz. Shaidorov’s placement here (combined with his third place in Cup of China) earned him a spot in the Grand Prix Final. He was proud of the fight he put up, despite the mistakes. (Editor’s note: Stay tuned for Victoria Burdman’s upcoming interview with Mikhail Shaidorov for A Divine Sport.)
Third-place finisher Kazuki Tomono’s success also came in the form of a fight. The Japanese skater had costly mistakes in the beginning of his free program, falling on his first two quad jumps. But Tomono regrouped from there. Afterward, he said he stayed “aggressive and pushed to the end … [and] never gave up.”
The only skater who was not fighting through his free skate was Vladimir Litvintsev of Azerbaijan, who cleanly landed both quad toe loops in his Joker program. “I could not have done it better…without a doubt [my] best of the season,” he shared. Litvintsev was bold and playful (with the judges nonetheless), and the audience gave him a standing ovation in return. Hhe earned fourth place in the free program–less than a point behind Jason Brown–and sixth overall).
Pairs: Victories, small and big
In the pairs event, World champions Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara of Japan had the most successful outing, finishing first with an almost flawless free skate (they were second in the short program). Georgians Anastasiia Metelkina and Luka Berulava led after the short program, but struggled with many elements in the free to finish second overall. Both pairs secured spots in the Grand Prix Final, where we look forward to see them battling it out again. (Editor’s note: Look for Victoria’s interview with Metelkina/Berulava, coming soon!)
With many pairs struggling in the free skate in Lake Placid, Canadians Kelly Ann Laurin and Loucas Ethier literally jumped at the opportunity and rose from sixth in the short program to second in the free skate, earning a bronze medal overall. Although a bit unexpected, it was Laurin/Ethier’s second career medal at Skate America (they also won bronze in 2022).
There were many “non-podium” successes for the pairs. Emily Chan and Spencer Akira Howe, for example, arrived as a last-minute substitution, following their appearance at NHK Trophy in Japan last week. They were third in the free skate and fourth overall.
“We had a lot of small victories,” said Chan. “We were really happy to take all of those.”
Howe added: “Coming off a little bit of jet lag, and our first Grand Prix in Japan … We didn’t have the scores we wanted, or thought we would get. But we just felt so good out there. Coming back, all those hours of travel, is not easy on the body. So I’m super-grateful that [we] can skate as well as we have, and we just want to keep going. We want to keep getting better.”
Chan and Howe have been skating together for six years now and feel this is an advantage, compared to a lot of other American pairs.
“Timing is everything. Being able to make that happen for us this season is super-crucial, and we feel like we’re on the right track,” Howe said.
Another U.S. pair, Olivia Flores and Luke Wang, finished eighth in their first-ever senior Grand Prix. “To go out there and perform how we did today feels like quite the accomplishment and one to be proud of,” the team said. They are still age- eligible to compete in juniors for several seasons, but chose to join the senior ranks.
“We felt like we already accomplished everything we could as juniors,” Wang explained. “We felt like, as a developmental team, we did what we needed to do in that base, so we were ready to step into the new stage as seniors.”
Karina Akopova and Nikita Rakhmanin also made their Grand Prix debut in Lake Placid. This pair has been out of international competition for several years due to a change of federation (from Russia to Armenia). Now training in Sochi, Russia, they learned only three days before the event that they were invited to Skate America. It took over 24 hours of travel time to reach Lake Placid, and their coaches were not able to come, but the team was still thrilled to compete nonetheless. They had a successful outing in the short program, finishing fourth. Their free program did not go as well, as they had several miscues and Rakhmanin fell out of the pairs spin and had to cover his face to soften a possible blow. (Akopova was luckily able to stop her own rotation in time.) The pair qualified an Olympic spot for Armenia at the final Olympic qualifying event in September (Skate to Milano) and look forward to their first Olympic Games.
Women: Looking to turn results into Olympic opportunities
The women’s podium was headed by 2025 World Champion Alysa Liu, in a somewhat surprising win over Japan’s Rinka Watanabe.
Watanabe led after a sparkling short program. She delivered a strong free skate as well, but fell to third in that segment due to technical calls on jumps. Watanabe performed three triple Axel jumps in her two programs (one, in the free skate, was downgraded), and she knows she needs the triple Axels to to compete for the incredibly competitive Olympic team selection in Japan. While Liu secured her place in the Grand Prix Final with her gold medal in Lake Placid, Watanabe’s participation still depends on other skaters’ results at Finlandia Trophy.
Being an incredibly self-aware (and honest) skater, Alysa Liu recognizes successes and joys in many ways. “I feel good with that skate, and I also feel good because I had my friend in the audience, so that gave me extra energy. And the home crowd,” Liu said after her free skate. “The Lutz-loop [triple-triple combination] probably could have been better–I haven’t watched it back–but one competition, I’m going to hit it.” Liu did earn a season’s-best free skate score.
“I didn’t like how my jumps were today, but I tied my skates a little bit too tight when I went out there,” Liu shared at the press conference. “One good thing about making so many mistakes in a program is that I’m so motivated to not make any more mistakes in my next program. I’m going to work a lot harder on all my jumps and running my programs as well. I’m excited to be able to showcase more programs at the Final.”
Georgia’s Anastasiia Gubanova was third with a solid skate over Italy’s Lara Naki Gutmann. The Italian skater was a crowd favorite, but her mistake in doubling a planned triple loop jump was costly. Gubanova is coming into the season after a disastrous World championships in Boston, where she did not qualify for the free skate. But sometimes the lows truly lead to success later.
American Starr Andrews finished fifth overall with a personal-best free skate. She was skating to her own singing during some parts of the program (she also sang the national anthem to open the competition).
“Today I really let go,” Andrews said after the free skate. “I don’t think I ever had so much fun doing my footwork before. I’m usually like: ‘Better not put your foot down in this cluster, don’t step out of this twizzle, don’t drag your foot.’ But today I was going to have fun.” Andrews is planning to finish the singles era of her figure skating journey and start a new era next season– this time in pairs.
Ice dance: More gold for the World champions
The ice dance event saw some beautiful choreography and divine music choices–but also some notably harsh judging. Three-time and reigning World champions Madison Chock and Evan Bates, of the United States, won gold with an expressive flamenco-themed program.
“It is an honor to compete here in this historic venue,” said Chock. The couple made a number of changes to their program following their first Grand Prix outing in China (including a major costume change that is still a work in progress).
Marjorie Lajoie and Zachary Lagha of Canada earned silver with their lyrical Nureyev free program, and Evgeniia Lopareva and Geoffrey Brissaud of France finished third, dancing to the music of Bjork. They shared that they are known for their “weird” style and that Bjork is a very unique artist, fitting to that aesthetic. Of note, they changed their rhythm dance outfits to blue costumes (they wore red in China).
At any event, it’s fun to “discover” a new dance team or see a team in a new light. This time, it was the brother-sister team of Oona Brown and Gage Brown, from the United States, who made an impression. Finishing sixth overall, the Browns earned one of the biggest crowd ovations with their unique (at times acrobatic) choreography for their Godfather free dance. The Browns joked that they have had so much success in Lake Placid (they recently won the 2025 Ice Dance International competition there) that they will start calling it their third home base (after Montreal and Long Island, between which they split their training time).
The Lake Placid crowd also enjoyed the Browns’ funky 90s rhythm dance to “Jump Around.” “I feel like a lot of the older hip-hop–from the 80s, 90s, that era– a lot of the beats were derived from funk beats,” Gage said. “Something that’s groovy and in the pocket and makes us feel good.” Oona added: “It almost makes us feel more relaxed, because it’s just a very natural and easy dance to do, for us.”
The Grand Prix series will conclude this weekend with Finlandia Trophy (November 21-23). This event will determine the remaining participants of the Grand Prix Final in Japan (December 4-7).
