Scoreography

All-Japan Championships 2025 gave us an Olympics-worthy collection of amazing performances — including final competitive skates from several of our favorite athletes. Kaori Sakamoto and Yuma Kagiyama clinched their Olympic spots, and Yuna Aoki gave two of the finest programs of any skater this season. We also talk about the results of the French and Italian nationals events, including their locks for Olympic teams.   Chapters 00:00:00 Intro 00:02:10 Women's Event 00:33:07 Men's Compeititon 00:44:32 Pairs Compeition 00:47:14 Ice Dance Competition 00:52:09 French Nationals 00:58:44 Italian Nationals 01:08:21 Gold in our Hearts 01:09:38 Wrap-Up

We preview the All-Japan Figure Skating Championships (Japanese Nationals) and its hotly contested Olympic team outcomes. We also look back at the Junior Grand Prix Final, particularly the very exciting junior women's event. Golden Spin 2025 receives a recap as well, along with a number of other smaller federation national championships. As mentioned in the episode, here is Rocker Skating's resource for how each federation selects its Olympic teams. Chapters 00:00:00 Intro 00:01:06 J-Nats Women's Competition 00:11:59 J-Nats Men's Competition 00:16:16 J-Nats Pairs Competition 00:17:34 J-Nats Ice Dance Competition 00:20:19 French Nationals 00:24:21 Italian Nationals Preview 00:30:57 German Nationals 00:32:08 Four Nationals 00:34:51 Estonian Nationals 00:36:18 Finnish Nationals 00:38:59 Junior Grand Prix Final Recap 00:39:18 JGPF Women's Competition 00:50:26 JGPF Men's Competition 00:55:13 JGPF Pairs — Guo and Zhang 00:56:13 JGPF Ice Dance — Abonian and Veselukhin 00:58:15 Golden Spin recap 01:09:17 Wrap-Up

The Grand Prix Final in Japan took us on a rollercoaster of emotions. Ilia Malinin shattered his own world record. Alysa Liu is golden once again. The pairs competition was outstanding. And ice dance somehow managed to generate even more controversy, outcry, and shocking twists. Chapters 0:00 — Intro 03:34 — Pairs Competition 04:22 — Miura and Kihara 08:17 — Conti and Macii 12:41 — Hase and Volodin 15:32 — Metelkina and Berulava 18:50 — Pavlova and Svietchenko 20:10 — Stellato-Dudek and Deschamps 23:45 — Women's Competition 24:36 — Alysa Liu 29:24 — Ami Nakai 33:41 — Kaori Sakamoto 36:14 — Amber Glenn 38:53 — Mone Chiba 45:00 — Rinka Watanabe 52:15 — Ice Dance Competition 54:34 — Chock and Bates 1:00:25 — Fournier-Beaudry and Cizerone 1:07:52 — FB/C vs F/G vs G/P scoring 1:11:00 — Fear and Gibson vs Gilles and Poirier Scoring Controversy 1:18:09 — Social Media Backlash 1:19:54 — Reed and Ambrulevicius, Zingas and Kolesnik 1:25:41 — Men's Competition 1:30:05 — Yuma Kagiyama 1:34:16 — Shun Sato 1:36:28 — Daniel Grassl 1:42:25 — Adam Siao Him Fa 1:45:15 — Mikhail Shaidorov 1:50:47 — Gold in our Hearts 1:53:15 — Wrap-Up

We get ready for the 2025 Grand Prix Final with a rundown of all the competitors across the 4 disciplines, comparing their scores and performances so far this season, and making our (highly dubious) podium predictions. Chapters 0:00 — Intro 1:58 — Men's Competition 19:09 — Men's Podium Predictions 20:47 — Pairs Competition 34:09 — Pairs Podium Predictions 35:39 — Women's Competition 52:57 — Women's Podium Predictions 56:16 — Ice Dance Competition 1:21:20 — Ice Dance Podium Predictions 1:22:59 — Other Skating News 1:24:23 — Talinn Trophy 1:28:00 — South Korean Ranking Competition 1:32:16 — Wrap-Up

The final 2025 Grand Prix qualifier event provided a terrific women's competition, more judging controversies in ice dance, plus blood, tears, and several truly memorable, beautiful performances. Chapters 0:00 — Intro 0:31 — Dance Scoring Controversy 19:47 — Errors and Incompetency 21:21 — Ice Dance Competition 47:50 — Ice Dance GPF Qualifiers 49:47 — Men's Competition 1:02:54 — Men's GPF Qualifiers 1:03:38 — Pairs Competition 1:12:21 — Pairs GPF Qualifiers 1:14:27 — Women's Competition 1:29:00 — Women's GPF Qualifiers 1:30:32 — Gold in our Hearts 1:32:04 — Warsaw Cup 1:36:19 — Wrap-Up

The penultimate Grand Prix Qualifier, Skate America, featured a hotly contested women's podium, some spectacular ice dance performances, numerous disasters in pairs, and a surprisingly weak men's event. Chapters 0:00 — Intro 1:44 — Women's Competition 1:51 — Alysa Liu vs Rinka Watanabe 4:56 — Anastasiia Gubanova vs Lara Naki Gutman 7:06 — Starr Andrews 10:00 — Top 5 score comparisons 11:31 — Chaeyeon Kim 12:21 — Lea Serna 12:43 — Haein Lee 14:31 — Hana Yoshida 15:11 — Ekaterina Kurakova 15:49 — Wakaba Higuchi 17:47 — Josephine Lee 18:26 — Pairs Competition 18:54 — Miura and Kihara 19:58 — Metelkina and Berulava 24:55 — Laurin and Ethier 27:05 — Chan and Howe 29:18 — Hocke and Kunkel 29:57 — Akopova and Rakhmanin 31:30 — Plazas and Fernandez 31:53 — Flores and Wang 32:10 — Men's Competition 32:23 — Kevin Aymoz 36:39 — Mikhail Shaidorov 41:33 — Kazuki Tomono 44:14 — Jason Brown 45:33 — Daniel Grassl 47:16 — Vladimir Litvintsev and Joker Cosplayers 52:45 — Ice Dance Competition 52:48 — Chock and Bates 56:53 — Lajoie and Lagha 1:00:42 — Lopareva and Brissaud 1:03:00 — Demougeot and le Mercier 1:04:29 — Carreira and Ponomarenko 1:06:54 — Brown and Brown 1:10:12 — Mrazkova and Mrazek 1:13:31 — Bekker and Hernandez 1:18:24 — Gold in our Hearts 1:20:51 — News and Errata 1:23:08 — Nat Taschlerova Post 1:28:40 — Finlandia Trophy Preview 1:30:51 — Wrap-Up

Kaori Sakamoto reigned supreme at her final NHK Trophy competition! The Japanese Grand Prix event gave us exciting podium wins, surprise come-ups, frightening injuries, and a disappointing debut from the returning Shib Sibs. #FigureSkating #GPfigure Chapters 0:00 — Intro 1:33 — Women's Competition 1:50 — Kaori Sakamoto 5:52 — Sofia Samodelkina 7:55 — Loena Hendrickx 10:34 — Young You 14:05 — Sarah Everhardt 16:29 — Yuna Aoki 19:23 — Anna Pezzetta 20:02 — Wakaba Higuchi 21:17 — Elyce Lin-Gracey 22:17 — Canadian Women / Ice Challenge 24:18 — Ice Dance Competition 25:25 — Fear and Gibson 25:56 — Guignard and Fabbri 29:02 — Green and Parsons 33:09 — Taschlerova and Taschler 34:21 — Wolfkostin and Tsarevski 36:36 — Shibutani Siblings 44:49 — Orihara and Pirinen 45:36 — Fabbri and Ayer 46:49 — Men's Competition 46:58 — Yuma Kagiyama vs Shun Sato 50:39 — Lukas Britschgi 52:17 — Boyang Jin 53:06 — Junhwan Cha 54:39 — Adam Hagara 56:00 — Andrew Torgashev and Jimmy Ma 1:02:35 — Pairs Competition 1:02:38 — Conti and Macii 1:03:49 — Pavolva and Sviatchenko 1:06:04 — Sui and Han 1:09:56 — Nagaoka and Moriguchi 1:12:36 — Efimova and Mitrofanov 1:13:58 — Chan and Howe 1:14:52 — Kovalev and Kovalev injury withdrawl 1:17:26 — Other NHK thoughts 1:18:34 — Gold in our Hearts 1:21:10 — Skate America Preview 1:23:02 — Wrap-Up

The third stop on the Grand Prix series gave us a bombastic new world record from Ilia Malinin, a shaky win from Gilles and Poirier, some pleasant surprises in pairs, and a charming trio of medal-winners in the women's event. Plus more frustrating judging, and potentially racist kiss 'n cry fan gifts. Chapters 0:00 — Intro 1:57 — Men's Competition 21:39 — Ice Dance Competition 52:34 — Women's Competition 1:10:06 — Pairs Competition 1:18:20 — Racist Kiss 'n Cry fan gifts? 1:23:22 — Gold in our Hearts 1:24:53 — NHK Trophy Preview 1:29:13 — Wrap-Up

The second Grand Prix event of 2025 featured the return of Olympic champions Sui & Han, exciting wins from Amber Glenn and Shun Sato, and a nervous victory for Chock & Bates. Plus more questionable judging, and a kiss 'n cry controversy. Chapters 1:37 — Women's Competition 24:10 — Pairs Competition 39:16 — Men's Competition 57:21 — Ice Dance Competition 1:21:45 — Final thoughts on Cup of China 1:22:25 — Gold in our Hearts 1:23:42 — Skate Canada Preview 1:26:23 — Wrap-Up   #figureskating #gpfigure #cupofchina #figureskatingpodcast

The first 2025 Grand Prix event featured extraordinary upsets (Ami Nakai, Fournier-Beaudry and Cizeron), expected dominant wins (Ilia Malinin, Miura and Kihara), and controversial Ice Dance scoring (Guignard and Fabbri) sure to spark heated debate for some time… We dig into the incredible highs, and truly WTF moments, from Grand Prix de France. Adron savors his perfect podium prediction for the Women's competition. The wild ice dance judging ties us in knots. If this is the sign of things to come, this season is gonna be a roller coaster… Chapters 0:00 — Intro 2:44 — Ice Dance Competition 22:32 — Guignard and Fabbri Controversy 35:10 — Ice Dance Continued 41:10 — Women's Competition 54:10 — Pairs Competition 1:02:47 — Men's Competition 1:22:42 — Skaters out of the GP from injury 1:23:54 — Gold in our Hearts 1:24:55 — Deniss Vasilyevs coaching change 1:27:51 — Cup of China preview 1:32:19 — Wrap-Up

We discuss Georgia's first ever Challenger event, the Trialeti Trophy, where Georgian skaters (rightfully) swept the golds. We also preview and give predictions for the Grand Prix de France, which kicks off the GP season. And we talk about the unsettling Shibutani Siblings rink video. Chapters 0:00 — Intro 2:07 — Trialeti Pairs Competition 14:52 — Trialeti Men's Competition 24:57 — Trialeti Ice Dance Competition 35:32 — Trialeti Women's Competition 45:04 — Grand Prix de France Preview 46:46 — GP France Men's Preview 52:05 — GP France Dance Preview 57:18 — GP France Women's Preview 1:05:21 — GP France Pairs Preview 1:09:13 — Podium Predictions 1:13:34 — Shibutani Siblings rink video 1:26:46 — Gold in our Hearts 1:29:02 — Wrap-Up

The Denis Ten Memorial Challenge gave us our first look at Mikhail Shaidorov's new programs, a terrific showing and win from Haein Lee, and solid first outing from Davis & Smolkin. We also talk about Rika Kihara's move to ice dance, Bradie Tennell's successful program switch, and more. Chapters 0:00 — Intro 0:54 — Men's Competition 23:21 — Dance Competition 39:38 — Women's Competition 49:35 — Adam Siao Him Fa improvements 52:20 — Rika Kihara and Shingo Nishiyama ice dance pairing 57:49 — Bradie Tennell changes short, scores big 1:03:06 — Gold in our Hearts 1:05:01 — Wrap-Up We examine the performances and results from the Denis Ten Memorial Challenge, including wins from Mikhail Shaidorov, Haein Lee, and Diana Davis & Gleb Smolkin. We discuss the skates from men's competitors Nika Egadze, Jason Brown, and Siyeong Lee, women's competitors Ashun Yun, Maddie Schizas, and Josephine Lee, and Ice Dance teams Oona Brown & Gage Brown, Milla Ruud Reitan & Nikolaj Majorov, Alicia Fabbri & Paul Ayer, and Leah Neset & Artem Markelov. We also talk other news from around the figure skating world, including improvements from Adam Siao Him Fa at a French domestic event, Bradie Tennell's change of short program and big score at the Boston Open, and the new Japanese ice team of Rika Kihara and Shingo Nishiyama.

We recount a long, LONG weekend of skating with two major Challenger Series competitions: Nebelhorn Trophy and Nepela Memorial. The highlight reel includes big wins from Amber Glenn, Lara Naki Gutmann, Hase & Volodin, and Smart & Dieck. But, wow, were there some sloppy skates in there too… Chapters 0:00 — Intro 2:13 — Nebelhorn Women's Competition 14:31 — Nebelhorn Pairs Competition 24:06 — Nebelhorn Men's Competition 31:20 — Nebelhorn Ice Dance Competition 41:28 — Nepela Women's Competition 1:01:50 — Nepela Men's Competition 1:09:38 — Nepela Ice Dance Competition 1:37:58 — Gold in our Hearts 1:40:36 — Wrap-Up

The final Olympic spots have officially been decided, the Russians have (sort of) returned, some of our favs punched their tickets, and the judges pulled some funny business at the Skate to Milano Cortina — aka Chinese Nebelhorn. Chapters 0:00 — Intro 1:26 — Women's Competition 25:01 — Ice Dance Competition 39:24 — Men's Competition 53:03 — Pairs Competition 59:52 — Gold in our Hearts 1:01:05 — Outro The (officially unaffiliated) return of the Russians. Many sighs of relief as some favorites lock their spots. And what's an official Olympic-related event without some suspicious judging and unfair-feeling outcomes? Oh, and this is our 75th episode. That's kinda neat. #FigureSkating #SkateToMilano #ChineseNebelhorn

We examine the results from a very enjoyable Lombardia Trophy competition, including a great season debut from Ilia Malinin, a dominant gold from Conti and Macci, and surprise wins from Rion Sumiyoshi and Pate & Bye. Chapters 0:00 Intro 1:07 — Men's Comeptition / Ilia Malinin 7:26 — Yuma Kagiyama 12:24 — Nikolaj Memola 14:00 — Shun Sato 14:48 — Adam Siao Him Fa 16:28 — Kao Muira 17:22 — Andreas Nordeback 17:41 — Luc Economedies 18:28 — Maxim Naumov 19:44 — Pairs Competition / Conti and Macci 22:11 — Ghilardi and Abrosini 23:27 — Valesi and Bidar 24:04 — Women's Competition / Rion Sumiyoshi 26:54 — Ami Nakai 29:21 — Sarah Everhardt 32:15 — Alysa Liu 37:36 — Lara Naki Gutmann 39:59 — Seoyoung Kim 40:32 — Olivia Lisko 41:50 — Rino Matsuike 42:51 — Josefin Taljegard 43:54 — Ekaterina Kurakova and Judging 47:24 — Ice Dance Competition / Pate and Bye 51:50 — Mrazkova and Mrazek 56:46 — Wolfkostin and Tsarevski 1:00:13 — Gold in our Hearts 1:02:31 — Wrap-Up   Follow Scoreography: Website — https://scoreography.show Instagram — https://www.instagram.com/scoreography BlueSky — https://bsky.app/profile/scoreography.show  

We recap a busy week of skating comps with the four-discipline Kinoshita Cup in Japan, the John Nicks Pairs Challenge, and the Bolero Cup ice dance event. Many heavy hitters debuted their new programs, and we have lots of feelings about them! Chapters 0:00 — Intro 0:50 — John Nicks Pairs Competition 15:06 — Kinoshita Cup Men's Competition 22:49 — Kinoshita Cup Pairs Competition 30:52 — Kinoshita Cup Women's Competition 45:18 — Kinoshita Cup Ice Dance Competition 54:51 — Bolero Cup Ice Dance Competition 1:07:16 — Gold in our Hearts 1:10:20 — Wrap-Up

We check out the French Masters event, featuring the debut of ice dance team Fournier-Beaudry and Cizeron, and a fantastic performance from Kevin Aymoz. We also look at the Junior Grand Prix, including a controversy in Pairs, and a breakout gold in women's.   French Masters 2025 — Fournier-Beaudry & Cizeron Debut, Aymoz Dazzles In this week's episode of Scoreography, we dig into the French Masters competition where Laurence Fournier-Beaudry & Guillaume Cizeron made their much-awaited competitive debut. With two very refined programs — including an especially memorable free dance — they came out on top over country-mates Lopareva & Brissaud and Demougeot & LeMercier. This sets up what will be an interesting few months leading to the Olympic team selections.  In the men's event, Kevin Aymoz reminded us why his Bolero is so iconic, winning the event in style. Adam Siao Him Fa had some unfortunate skates to start his season, but no one outside the arena will ever see them since he requested they not be streamed.  Junior Grand Prix — Quad Twist Controversy and Breakout Performances Also, after quite a few requests from listeners to cover more Juniors, we take advantage of less happening on the senior circuit to look at a bit of what's happened at the first two junior Grand Prix events. Of particular note, the new-to-juniors pairs team from China, Guo & Zheng, threw a rarely-seen quad twist — the first since Sui & Han did one in Beijing in 2022! Unfortunately, the judges mis-called it and only a triple was counted. While this was disappointing, there was a lot to be excited about for them as well as the Canadian team Kemp & Elizarov, who earned gold. We were also impressed with the evolution of both Minkyu Seo and Rio Nakata — who are already setting up the men's events this season to be strong and exciting. Both scored new personal bests in their respective wins in the Grand Prix of Riga (Nakata) and Grand Prix Ankara (Seo.) The Junior international debut of Japan's Mayuko Oka delighted us, as did Yujae Kim's strongest performance to date and an emotional short program from Sophie Joline Von Felten. Upcoming Event Previews Last but not least, we begin previewing what feels like the "real" start to the Olympic season with 2 events — the John Nick's Pairs Challenge and the Kinoshita Cup — happening the first week of September. Chapters 0:00 — Intro 0:40 — French Masters Ice Dance 17:39 — French Masters Men's Competition 23:13 — French Masters Women and Pairs 24:25 — JGP Quad Twist Controversy 29:36 — Kemp and Elizarov pairs victory 31:28 — JGP Men: Nakata vs Seo 34:57 — JGP Women: Oka, Kim, and Von Felton 44:18 — Williams and Lewer JGP Medal 45:36 — John Nicks Pairs Challenge Preview 48:40 — Kinoshita Cup preview 57:18 — Look ahead to Lombardia and Olympic Qualifiers 59:16 — Wrap-Up

We dig into the new program previews on display at the US Summer Sizzler gala, featuring almost all the top American skaters and teams. But first — Canadian hero Keegan Messing returns for the Olympic Season! Chapters 0:00 — Intro / Return of Keegan Messing 5:59 — Returns Uncertain? (Sui and Han, Shib Sibs) 9:40 — Fear & Gibson Free Dance Announcement 10:35 — Lombardia Trophy Men's Comp is mini Oly 13:48 — US Summer Sizzler 2025 15:22 — Isabeau Levito short program 17:42 — Jason Brown free skate preview 19:16 — Amber Glenn's Like a Prayer short 21:51 — Efimova and Mitrofanov short program 24:41 — Andrew Torgashev free skate 26:05 — Maxim Naumov short program 30:18 — Carreira and Ponomarenko rhythm dance 32:17 — Bradie Tennell Lana Del Ray short 34:23 — Elyce Lin-Gracey Broken Vow short 35:28 — Chan and Howe and McBeath and Parkman shorts 37:55 — Sarah Everhardt returning short 39:34 — Jimmy Ma's Cyber Phoenix short 40:50 — Green and Parson's Sunset Blvd gala 42:59 — Starr Andrews brings back Fur Elise 45:59 — Women adding Ultra-C's 47:40 — Post-Olympic program requirement changes 50:18 — Wrap-Up

The Olympic season is upon us with our first notable singles competition, Cranberry Cup. We talk about exciting wins from Isabeau Levito and Roman Sadovsky, a standout showing from Sofia Samodelkina, and Sonja Hilmer's marvelous short program. Plus news and other program debuts. Stargate Fandom Podcast Appearance You can hear — and SEE — Wendy and I as guests on the Stargate Fandom podcast! We talk with hosts Alyssa & Emily about our mutual fandom crossovers between Figure Skating and Sci-Fi/Fantasy. We had a terrific time with them in this wide-ranging conversation, and we hope you give it a listen and a Like! Watch it here: https://youtu.be/R23QXvLQmxI Chapters 0:00 — Intro 1:56 — Stargate Fandom Podcast Appearance 4:19 — Cranberry Cup 2025 5:15 — Women's Competition 19:43 — Men's Competition 35:07 — Other News 35:23 — Fear and Gibson and Spice Girls 36:33 — Smart and Dieck and Dune Part Two 39:18 — Yuma Kagiyama debuts his free skate 43:13 — Mai Mihara brings back her best programs 44:50 — Jason Brown brings back Riverdance 46:59 — Sarah Everhart's Poor Things free skate 48:21 — Wrap-Up

Three time world champion Kaori Sakamoto announces her post-Olympics retirement plan, and we have some feelings about it. Plus lots of new program announcements, and we talk about our experience at the North American Adult Synchronized Skating Camp. Chapters 0:00 — Intro 0:31 — NAASC Synchro Camp Experience 4:52 — Kaori Sakamoto Retirement Plans 10:43 — Other Skating News 11:06 — Young You's Triple Axel 13:22 — Gabby Daleman returns 14:32 — Kovalevs change coaches 16:05 — US Summer Sizzler and Program Announcements 17:53 — Riku and Ryuchi choreographers 18:33 — Mai Mihara brings back her '23-'24 programs 20:39 — Mao Shimada's programs 22:05 — Mona Chiba's programs 23:11 — Conti and Macii working with Romain Haganaur 24:38 — Thoughts on the Pre-Season 26:51 — Wrap-Up This week, we glide through quite a few off-season updates. But first, we give a shout out to the North American Adult Synchronized Skating Camp — or NAASSC for short. We were able to record at this event for a YouTube video we'll be sharing soon! This exciting, sold out event happened the weekend of June 20-22 in St. Louis, MO and was an absolute blast. Big thanks to founder & director, Ashley Carlson,  COO Ryan Carlson, and Assistant Director Victoria Smith for allowing us to be flies on the wall… er, boards in this case. More to come from this soon! Back to the news…. The most notable announcement of the week was certainly Kaori Sakamoto's confirmation that she will retire at the end of the 2025-2026 season. Commence sobbing! In all seriousness, this was not a huge surprise — especially considering her Olympic short program music was announced to be "Time to Say Goodbye" — but it will absolutely make each remaining competition with her a little more significant. Kaori is such an incredible ambassador of figure skating, and we look forward to her still being one as a coach. United States Figure Skating announced that they would again be having "Summer Sizzler" event at the Skating Club of Boston — which apparently will be the stage where some US skaters will be premiering their Olympic season programs. We are skeptical that we'll see competitive program peeks from Chock and Bates, but they will be there on August 14th along with Ilia Malinin, Alysa Liu, Amber Glenn, Jason Brown, Isabeau Levito, and many more. We talk about all of that, share a bunch more program announcements, and muse on a few more updates we've been drinking up online while we wait for Dreams on Ice (where it is rumored that a good number of Team Japan favorites will be debuting their programs for next season). Fingers crossed!