The backbone of the international figure skating season gets underway this Friday as the Grand Prix tour opens in France.
To refresh your memory, there will be a total of six regular Grand Prix events through the end of November, including a Canadian stop next week in Kelowna., B.C. Skaters are allowed to compete in any two of them, and the top six finishers in the regular-season points standings for each discipline — men’s, women’s, pairs and ice dance — will be invited to the prestigious Grand Prix Final in December in China. After Christmas, the focus turns to national championships (Canada’s take place in early January in Mississauga, Ont.) and the world championships in Finland in March.
This season marks the start of a fresh Olympic cycle. A few major players retired in the wake of last winter’s Games in Italy, including Olympic pairs gold medallists Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara of Japan and Japanese women’s singles star Kaori Sakamoto, who hung up her blades after taking the women’s silver in Milan and then capturing her fourth gold in five years at the world championships.
Others are taking this season off to regroup and mull their future, including Olympic women’s champion Alysa Liu of the United States, Olympic and world men’s silver medallist Yuma Kagiyama of Japan, three-time ice dance world champions Madison Chock and Evan Bates of the U.S., and Canadian ice dance stars Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier. The 34-year-olds finally reached the Olympic podium with an emotional bronze in Milan and added a silver in Prague for their fifth world-championship medal in six years.
And so begins the climb to the 2030 Games in the French Alps. For Canada, it could be a long one.
With Gilles and Poirier stepping aside, possibly for good, Canada is without its only figure skating medallists from the last two Winter Olympics. The delightful dance duo was also one of just two Canadian qualifiers for last year’s Grand Prix Final, and the other one no longer exists as a unit. 2024 pairs world champions Deanna Stellato-Dudek and Maxime Deschamps broke up after their disastrous 11th-place finish at the Olympics, with Deschamps retiring and Stellato-Dudek repatriating to her native United States to skate with a new partner.
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Another significant split occurred between Canadian ice dancers Marjorie Lajoie and Zachary Lagha, who won eight regular-season Grand Prix medals together over the last four years, placed fourth at the 2024 Final and were 10th at the Milan-Cortina Olympics. Lajoie is now with Jean-Luc Baker, who represented the U.S. for the last few years. Lagha linked up with Hannah Lim, who skated for South Korea in Milan, but they’ll have to wait a year before she’s allowed to compete for Canada internationally.
Add up all these changes and it’s clear that Canadian figure skating has entered a rebuilding phase. So don’t expect a ton of medals this season. But there are some promising athletes to follow.
The pairs team of Lia Pereira, 22, and Trennt Michaud, 30, placed eighth in their Olympic debut last winter before winning bronze at the world championships for their first medal in four tries there. That does come with a disclaimer as Japan’s Miura and Kihara skipped the worlds after winning Olympic gold. But it’s still a significant accomplishment for the Canadians to build on as they look to return to the Grand Prix podium after placing fourth and fifth in their two appearances last year. They’re slated to compete at Skate Canada International next week and the Finlandia Trophy in November.
The most exciting Canadian prospect right now is 21-year-old Stephen Gogolev. The one-time junior prodigy earned his first Grand Prix medal last season with a bronze in Finland before placing a surprising fifth at the Olympics (where he earned the second-best score in the free skate) and fourth at the world championships.
Gogolev spent the summer working with his coach in Europe on building new short and free programs that include more quadruple jumps, which were his calling card before years of back problems limited him to just two quads in his free skate last season. By comparison, American star Ilia Malinin landed seven at last year’s Grand Prix Final, including his trademark quad axel — a Malinin exclusive that Gogolev’s coach believes he might be capable of doing too. However, Gogolev’s training has been hampered by a foot injury that first surfaced after the Olympics and continues to flare up at times.
Gogolev will join Pereira and Michaud at the Grand Prix stops in Canada and Finland. Here’s a closer look at Canada’s top singles skater coming off his breakthrough season.
For more on the Grand Prix tour, here’s a rundown of the international skaters to watch, and here’s a look at how Canada hopes to “set the stage” for future Olympic success from CBC Sports’ Myles Dichter.
You can catch every skate from every Grand Prix live on the free CBC Gem streaming service and the CBC Sports website, starting this Friday. There will also be regular weekend coverage of the tour on the CBC TV network, including as part of the new CBC Sports Primetime show on Saturday nights.
For details, see the full streaming and broadcast schedules.
