Innholdsfortegnelse for February 2023 i International Figure Skating

The first half of the season produced some interesting results, with twists and turns at every competition on the circuit. It was exciting to see skaters and teams rising to the challenges and capturing medals and titles for the first time, and with so many fabulous performances along the way, it was impossible in the end to choose any favorites. The Grand Prix Finals continued that trend, with the junior stars producing results that rivaled some of the seniors. It was also inspiring to me that skaters from many nations stood on the podiums in Torino, giving them a truly international feel. In this issue we have a full recap of both the junior and senior Grand Prix Finals, along with lots of photos from those competitions and flashbacks from…

Deniss Vasiljevs just might be one of the most interesting men in the world of figure skating. One minute he is quoting Winston Churchill to illustrate one of his many thoughts, and the next he is talking about the “fantasy world” book he is writing. But first and foremost, it is figure skating that is closest to the heart of the 23-year-old Latvian whose passion is to perform and compete at the highest level. It is what drives him daily in the pursuit of excellence and even perfection. And when he falls short of that aim … well, you get this: “I believe that I have much greater potential than I am currently showing, and I wish for it so much,” he said following his short program at Skate Canada…

NEW GENERATION! Michal Březina and Danielle Březina celebrated the birth of their second child on Nov. 20. Noah Michal came into the world at 12:20 p.m. weighing a healthy 8 pounds 8 ounces with a birth height of 21 inches. The couple’s daughter, Naya Rose, turns 3 in February. Former Canadian ice dancers Alexandra Paul and Mitchell Islam welcomed their first child, a son Charlie, in late October. Romain Haguenauer and his husband Jamal Othman, a former Swiss skater, announced they had become parents to a son, Noam Camille, who was born on Nov. 27. The couple, who live in Montréal, Canada, married in 2017. Former Canadian pairs skater Jessica Dubé is expecting her first child, a girl, in June 2023. Dubé and her former pairs partner Bryce Davison won three…

When Caroline Green and Michael Parsons decided to pull up stakes last July, a whole new world of possibilities opened up for them. The American ice dancers spoke with enthusiasm about their decision to relocate to Canton, Michigan, to train with 2014 Olympic champion Charlie White, Tanith White (the 2006 Olympic silver medalist) and Greg Zuerlein (the 2008 World junior champion). “It’s the only coaching change we’ve ever made. We have a lot to learn with all that comes with it,” said Parsons, 27. “It’s a much bigger adjustment than I was expecting, but we are both really excited about the direction we are taking. “Charlie, especially, has a profoundly unique perspective on competition, on skating and life, and the balance of training in general. “We have a lot to…

HER BIGGEST GOAL had been achieved, that cherished opportunity to skate on the sport’s biggest stage — the one with five rings emblazoned on the ice. While Young You embraced her Olympic moment in Beijing, a few months later, as the memories faded and the season-ending World Championships were behind her, the 18-year-old South Korean was faced with a question many ask themselves: What’s next? Young You fell in love with figure skating after watching her hero Yuna Kim bring home gold from the 2010 Olympic Winter Games. As a child, You’s family was based in Singapore and, following those Games, she begged her mother to let her try skating. Her passion for the sport was born at Kallang Ice World, the only ice rink in the country at that…

While many of the top stars from the 2021-2022 campaign had moved on to new careers, Uno did not miss a beat, returning this season well prepared to face the young guns that awaited him at every competition. Also absent from the scene were three of his longtime rivals: Two-time Olympic champion Yuzuru Hanyu, who turned professional last July; Nathan Chen, the 2022 Olympic champion and Vincent Zhou, the 2022 World bronze medalist, who had both returned to university to pursue an education. Yuma Kagiyama, who finished ahead of Uno at the 2022 Olympic Winter Games but second to Uno at the World Championships, was forced to miss the first half of the season due to an ankle injury he sustained over the summer that was slow to heal. Uno…

The smile was back on Rika Kihira’s face as she took one small step on the journey back into the mix on the international competitive scene. For the 20-year-old from Japan, just dipping her toes into the Grand Prix waters at Skate Canada International once again was worthy of a celebration, given that her 2021-2022 season was completely wiped out by a stress fracture to her right foot. Kihira had been scheduled to compete at the same Grand Prix one year earlier, but the injury forced her to withdraw from both her Series events as well as the All Japan Championships. It was surely an exercise in massive frustration for a skater whose résumé includes a Grand Prix Final title in 2018, a pair of victories at the Four Continents…

THERE WAS MUCH TO CELEBRATE AT THE JUNIOR GRAND PRIX FINAL. Skaters from nine countries qualified to compete in Torino, Italy, with the top guns from the Junior Grand Prix Series challenged — and sometimes overtaken — by others in the field. In the end, skaters from four nations stood atop the four podiums, with Japan and Italy capturing the singles crowns, and Canada and Australia winning the ice dance and pairs titles. HISTORIC WIN FOR ITALY Three Japanese, two American and one Italian man qualified for the Junior Grand Prix Final. All six came armed with triple Axels and two of the Japanese competitors attempted quad toes in the free skate. Lucas Broussard of the U.S. was the only man to win both his assignments this season and headed…

The Grand Prix Final returned to the figure skating calendar this year for the first time since 2019. Torino, Italy, was once again the host for this prestigious event, as it had been three years earlier. The 2022 campaign promised to be an exciting one with skaters from seven nations qualifying and with no single country dominating the line ups and no clear-cut winners in any discipline, who would emerge the victor in every event was an unknown. The reigning World champions in men, women and pairs competed in Torino but only one would take home gold. Four new champions were crowned, and many skaters added new chapters to the annals of figure skating history with their personal accomplishments at this competition. Japan qualified the most singles skaters for the…

A lexandr Gorshkov, the 1976 Olympic ice dance champion with partner Liudmila Pakhomova, passed away on Nov. 17 at age 76. The official cause of death was listed as myocardial infarction. Born in Moscow on Oct. 8, 1946, Gorshkov first took up skating at age 6. In 1965 he began his ice dance career and, following a short-lived partnership with Irina Nechkina, teamed up with Pakhomova. The team won the first of six national titles in 1969, bronze at the European Championships and silver at the subsequent World Championships. They claimed the first of six European and World crowns in 1970. In 1968, Pakhomova and Gorshkov were invited to perform a demonstration dance at the Olympic Winter Games in Grenoble, France, in a do-or-die effort to have the ice dance…