International Figure Skating January/February 2019

Welcome to 2019! I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season and enjoyed the time with family and friends. The 2018 Grand Prix Finals (senior and junior) provided an exciting conclusion to the first half of the season. Nathan Chen, who claimed his second consecutive title, was the only repeat champion It was refreshing to see new faces at this competition, gaining experience and, for some, achieving surprising results. Japan’s Rika Kihira stole the show in Vancouver. Her unexpected victory was, without a doubt, the most talked-about result not only by those in attendance. The skaters that competed in the Junior Final were so impressive, with new champions crowned in all four disciplines. With the first half of the season in the books, we are now gearing up for…

Yuzuru Hanyu was sailing through the 2018 Grand Prix Series, scoring runaway victories and making history each step of the way until an unexpected fall at his second Grand Prix event knocked the wind out of his sails. Hanyu racked up another historic notch at his first Grand Prix in Finland when he landed a quad toe-triple Axel combination in his long program. His total score at that competition (297.12) put 39.14 points between him and the runner-up, Michal Březina of the Czech Republic. Two weeks later, Hanyu headed to Rostelecom Cup in Russia. He claimed the lead in the short program with the highest score awarded so far this season (110.53 points). But exactly one year and eight days after Hanyu injured a lateral ligament in his right ankle…

Russia’s Sergei Voronov, one of the oldest men competing on the international circuit, has often been overlooked by his federation in favor of younger skaters. This season, the 31-year-old was the only Russian man to earn a place at the 2018 Grand Prix Final. He finished sixth in his second consecutive appearance. Voronov earned a trip to Vancouver by finishing third at Skate America and second at NHK Trophy. In the short program in Japan, he trailed Shoma Uno by just 1.12 points. “I really wanted to prove something to those who were skeptical about me changing the short program. This is my best score ever,” he said in reference to switching from “Appassionata” by Secret Garden to Rachmaninoff’s “Prelude No. 5 in G minor.” But it is his long…

“There are two sides to our sport — the athletic side and the artistic side.” Kristi Yamaguchi was the guest of honor at the annual Ice Theatre of New York (ITNY) benefit gala and home season opener at New York City’s Sky Rink at Chelsea Piers on Oct. 15. Moira North, ITNY founder and director, had wanted to honor Yamaguchi’s achievements — on and off the ice — for years, but finding dates that worked with her busy schedule had always been a challenge. “We’ve been trying for a while, but it’s always fallen on a date that I couldn’t make work,” Yamaguchi explained. “So this year Moira said, ‘you pick the date.’” Every year, ITNY celebrates the life and career of a notable member of the skating fraternity who…

Australia had enjoyed a long history in figure skating before Elizabeth Cain and Peter Cain burst onto the international scene in the 1970s, but the brother and sister duo were the first skaters from down under to find success on the global stage. Their bronze-medal finish at the 1976 World Junior Championships put Australia on the skating map. It was the first-ever international medal for a pairs team from the Antipodes. Forty-one years would pass before another Australian team ranked higher on the junior stage. In an ironic twist, Peter was in the building the night he and his sister’s record was finally surpassed. Though their parents had met at an ice rink many years earlier, it was by sheer chance that Elizabeth Cain and Peter Cain got into the…

Sara Hurtado and Kirill Khaliavin hope to follow in the footsteps of Javier Fernández, the Spanish trailblazer who put his nation on the figure skating map, rewriting history each step of the way. Hurtado and Khaliavin took their first step in that direction when they claimed Spain’s first Grand Prix medal (silver) in ice dance at 2018 Rostelecom Cup. Sara Hurtado’s ice dance career began with Adrian Diaz in 2008. Th ey were the first Spanish team to compete internationally and the first to represent their nation at an Olympic Winter Games (2014), where they finished in a respectable 13th place. In 2015, Hurtado and Diaz parted ways and both continued their careers with new partners. Kirill Khaliavin, the 2011 World Junior champion who formerly represented Russia with Ksenia Monko,…