The six-stop Grand Prix Series for figure skating begins October 18 at Skate America, near Dallas. The Winter Olympic Milan Cortina 2026 are just around the corner. With the figure skating season already underway, the Olympic squad is more than halfway done as the world’s best skaters head to Italy for the next winter Olympic in February 2026.
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World Figure Skating Championships 2024 winter Olympic Aspirations and Grand Prix Highlights
This season’s world figure skating championships in Boston also have Olympic implications: skaters will help earn winter Olympic quota spots for their respective countries at the event in late March. While Worlds will cap the second half of the season, the ISU Figure Skating Series Grand Prix is the focus of the first half, with six Grand Prix stops leading up to the Grand Prix Final, set for Dec. 5-8 in Grenoble, France.
The top six skaters or teams in each of the sport’s four disciplines will seek to qualify for the finals based on their respective finishes at two of the Grand Prix events in October and November. Skate America launches the Grand Prix Series on October 18 in Allen, Texas, just outside of Dallas.
Reigning men’s world champion Ilia Malinin kicks off the season there, while reigning three-time women’s champion Sakamoto Kaori begins next week at Skate Canada International. The 19-year-old American Malin enters the penultimate season before the winter Olympic as the man to beat in the men’s discipline, especially after the retirement of two-time world champion and three-time winter Olympic medalist Uno Shoma of Japan in the off-season.
Grand Prix Season Preview Sakamoto Aims for Historic Fourth Title
Malinin is set for Skate America and Canada (a rare, front-loaded schedule), while three-time world runner-up and Beijing 2022 silver medalist Kagiyama Yuma will begin his Grand Prix campaign in week three at NHK Trophy in Tokyo.
Kagiyama’s Japanese compatriot Sakamoto splits the difference between the two leading men: She will compete at Skate Canada in late October, then head to the NHK Trophy.
Sakamoto is aiming for an unprecedented fourth consecutive world championship title. Since Scott Hamilton in 1981-84, no singles skater has gone to four consecutive Worlds, while no woman has done so since Carol Heiss won five in a row between 1956 and 1960. Katarina Witt secured four World titles between 1984 and 1988, though they were not won consecutively.
Reigning world doubles champions Deanna Stellato-Dudek and Maxime Deschamps of Canada kick off their Grand Prix season in fitting fashion at Skate Canada, while ice dance champions Madison Chock and Evan Bates of the USA will be featured in Skate America.
Malinin, Sakamoto face challenges in singles
Malinin, armed with his historic quadruple Axel, aims to continue his momentum from the 2024 World Championships, where he delivered a world record free skate (227.79 points) to win his first world title.
With Uno out, Kagiyama will emerge as Malinin’s main challenger, along with Adam Siao Him Fa of France, the reigning world bronze medallist. You can read Sasha Cohen on U.S. Women’s Winter Olympic Figure Skating Medal Drought Since 2006.
American veteran Jason Brown is back at the Grand Prix for the first time since 2021, while 2023 world silver medalist Cha Jun-hwan of the Republic of Korea, Lukas Britschgi of Switzerland and Italy’s Nikolaj Memola all look set to leave a mark too.
Sakamoto will face challenges from 2024 world silver medalist Isabeau Levito of the USA, who leads experienced compatriots Amber Glenn, Bradie Tennell and Alysa Liu – who announced her comeback in April – as well as Korea’s Kim Chae-yeon, who had an escape last year. the season.
Belgium’s Loena Hendrickx, a two-time world medalist, looks to find more consistency in her scoring after a fourth-place Worlds finish last year (she was eighth in the free skate).
Sakamoto Kaori Rising Star of Japanese Figure Skating
Sakamoto Kaori, born April 9, 2000, is a Japanese figure skater.She is the 2022 women’s singles bronze medalist, 2022 Olympic team silver medalist, a three-time world champion (2022, 2023, 2024), 2023–24 Grand Prix Final champion, 2018 Four Continents champion, Sakamoto is a five-time ISU Grand Prix Champion and a four-time Japanese national champion. At the junior level, she won the bronze medal at the 2017 World Junior Championships and secured a bronze at the 2016–17 Junior Grand Prix Final. She made history as the first Japanese woman to win the World Championships since Mao Asada in 2014, the first Japanese figure skater to achieve three consecutive World titles in any discipline, and the first woman to win three consecutive World titles since Peggy Fleming (1966–1968).
Sakamoto began the season at the 2018 CS Lombardia Trophy, where a disastrous short program left him in ninth place going into the free skate. She placed second in the free skate, recovering to fourth overall. Afterwards, Sakamoto shared that he felt he hadn’t had enough time to practice before the event. Competing at Skate America 2018, she repeated as silver medalist, again finishing behind compatriot Miyahara.
She was satisfied with the results. In her second event, the 2018 Helsinki Grand Prix, Sakamoto fell twice in the short program, finishing seventh. She finished second in the free skate and third overall and said: “I gave it everything I had; this was the only chance I was going to have to get on the podium today. I forgot about yesterday’s program and just gave it my all. today.
Sakamoto Kaori A Season of Growth and Resilience in winter olympic Figure Skating
At the 2018–19 Grand Prix Final, Sakamoto finished fourth in both segments, just missing the podium after falling on the final jump of her three-jump combination. She was happy with her result, even with the mistake.
Competing at the 2018 Japan Championships, Sakamoto placed second in the short program, just over a point behind Miyahara, the four-time defending champion.In the free skate, Sakamoto again finished second, behind Rika Kihira, but accumulated more total points to secure the gold medal. With this victory, she became the first skater to outplace Kihira in senior competition.
She was subsequently named to the Japanese teams for the 2019 Four Continents Championships and the 2019 World Championships.
At the Four Continents, Sakamoto placed second in the short program with a new personal best, 0.55 points behind Bradie Tennell. In the free skate, she lost her three-jump combination when performing the opening double Axel, and despite adding a loop to her final jump, she lost some points as a result and placed fourth in the free.
She missed the overall podium by just 0.33 points. She was disappointed at the end saying that I was too nervous and I was missing some elements. It was disappointing, but I learned valuable lessons from this experience.
Sakamoto Kaori Aiming for Perfection and Success at the World Championships
I want to be stronger. At the World Championships, I want to give the performance, short and free, that is sharp and clean.
At the World Championships in Saitama, Sakamoto took second place in the short program, earning a minor silver medal. In the free skate, a triple flip dropped him to fifth overall. Sakamoto commented: I still can’t understand why I can’t always perform a perfect program, a performance without any mistakes. Sakamoto ended the season at the 2019 World Team Trophy, where he won the silver medal as part of Team Japan.
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