What happens when you’re an elite pairs skater, you’ve just achieved your biggest success at an ISU championship … and your partnership ends right afterward?  It’s a scenario that Alisa Efimova, 24, and Misha Mitrofanov, 26, both faced over the past two years. In 2022, Mitrofanov won the ISU Four Continents Championships with Audrey Lu. But then Lu announced she was stepping away from competitive skating to focus on college at UCLA.  Efimova, meanwhile, qualified for her first World Championships in 2023 with Ruben Blommaert, skating for Germany. Efimova and Blommaert placed top 10 a ..read more

Jimmy Ma, 28, ended last season brilliantly with a career-high 5th place at the 2023 U.S. Figure Skating Championships and a small medal at 2023 ISU Four Continents Championships, where he placed third in the short program. This season, however, was another story entirely. Ma struggled this past fall, placing a disappointing 9th and 11th at his two Grand Prix events, Cup of China and GP Espoo in Finland.  But he turned it around this past weekend at the 2024 Prevagen U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Columbus, OH. Ma started the competition with another 9th place in the short program ..read more

Emily Bratti and Ian Somerville head into today’s senior free dance at the 2024 Prevagen U.S. Championships in Columbus, Ohio, in fourth place after a sparkling rhythm dance on Thursday. It’s been a season of continued growth for Bratti, 21, and Somerville, 23, who train at the Michigan Ice Dance Academy (MIDA) with coaches Greg Zuerlein, Charlie White, and Tanith White. The duo placed 4th at their season opener, Lombardia Trophy, and 6th at both their Grand Prix events. They’re exploring a new artistic direction this season with their intense, romantic free dance to Celine Dion’s “Je me ne qu ..read more

Two-time Czech ice dance champions Natalie Taschlerova and Filip Taschler were excited to start their season this fall. The brother/sister team earned medals at two Challenger Series events and placed 5th at Skate America. There was one big problem, though: Filip Taschler was increasingly suffering from back pain. “I’d had a problem with my lower back for a long time,” Taschler revealed. “I was thinking it’s just a muscular problem, or inflammation from the hard training. But it was building up. Then it was constant.” With the pain worsening, Taschler decided to undergo an MRI after Skate Amer ..read more

At Skate America, we caught up with a few coaches to get their thoughts about their students’ performances at the first Grand Prix event of the season. Patrice Lauzon (I.AM) Ice dancers from the I.AM (Ice Academy of Montreal) school swept the podium at Skate America, with Chock/Bates taking gold, Lajoie/Lagha winning silver, and Lopareva/Brissaud earning a surprise bronze medal. Four other I.AM teams also competed at the event. Lauzon spoke about the medalists. Q:  Your team Evgenia Lopareva & Geoffrey Brissaud won the bronze, coming ahead of several teams that defeated them at 2023 W ..read more

Marjorie Lajoie and Zachary Lagha of Canada went home with a silver medal from last weekend’s Humana Skate America in Allen, Texas. The duo were happy with their results in Allen, Texas, especially since they spent the summer coping with shoulder and back injuries for Lagha, and also had a subpar start to their season at Ondrej Nepela Trophy in September. Now that they’ve won silver at their first Grand Prix, the team have a chance to qualify for the ISU Grand Prix Final if they place well at their next Grand Prix event, Cup of China. Lajoie and Lagha spoke with reporters in the mixed zone at ..read more

Chelsea Liu and Balazs Nagy will make their Grand Prix debut as a team this weekend at Skate America in Texas. Earlier this fall, they finished just off the podium at Autumn Classic International in Montreal, Quebec. Without question, it’s been a good start for their new partnership. Yet, arguably, Liu and Nagy shouldn’t be here.  Or, at least, it’s a bit of a wonder that they are here. Because, between them, Liu and Nagy have seen a lot in this sport. Some of the hurdles they’ve overcome are common to many figure skaters. Others are perhaps unique to pairs skating, in recent years, and i ..read more

Marie-France Dubreuil, co-head coach and co-founder of the Ice Academy of Montreal (I.AM), coaches many of the top ice dance teams in the world, including reigning World champions Madison Chock and Evan Bates. Dubreuil is also a highly esteemed choreographer–and not only for ice dancers, but other disciplines as well.   Dubreuil had to tackle some new choreographic challenges with this season’s rhythm dance, which is the first to have a “decades” theme–in this case, the 1980s. There’s also a new required element in this season’s rhythm dance: A choreographic rhythm sequence based on ..read more

Last season’s ISU Junior Grand Prix (JGP) series was notable for the emergence of several standout new talents in ice dance. Among the new stars were Hannah Lim and Ye Quan of South Korea. They captured fans’ attention starting with their first JGP event last year, where they skated with unexpected fire and aplomb. Lim and Quan won JGP gold in Courchevel, France, and a silver medal at the Junior Grand Prix Final. They also challenged for the Junior World title in March in Calgary, Alberta. Although they ultimately settled for silver, it was a close-fought battle with winners Katerina Mrazkova ..read more

A year ago this month, Ilia Malinin jumped into figure skating history when he landed the first-ever quadruple Axel in Lake Placid, NY. The skating world was stunned by his feat, which made international news. Malinin wowed skating fans by continuing to land the unprecedented jump in multiple competitions last season, including the 2023 ISU World Figure Skating Championships, in Saitama, Japan, where he won the bronze medal. However, the quad Axel was not in evidence this past weekend at Malinin’s season debut at 2023 Autumn Classic International in Montreal. This was by choice. Now 18, Ilia M ..read more