Latest news with #GrandPrixSeries
NBC Sports
12 hours ago
- Sport
- NBC Sports
Kaori Sakamoto to retire from figure skating after Olympic season
Kaori Sakamoto, a three-time world champion and Olympic silver and bronze medalist, plans to retire from competitive figure skating after the upcoming 2026 Olympic season, a move she previously hinted at over the past year. 'I feel like I have less than a year left,' she said in her native Japan on Thursday, according to a Kyodo News translation. 'I'll be 29 at the following Olympics (in 2030), which is out of the question. I'll try to bring things to a close the year I turn 26. 'I've made the decision really fast. I felt now was the time. I was more or less fixed on it since saying, 'I see two years as one cycle' last year.' Sakamoto, speaking at the opening of a new rink in her hometown of Kobe, said she plans to continue in the sport as a coach, according to Japanese media. Sakamoto followed her 2022 Olympic team silver and individual bronze medals by becoming the first women's singles skater to win three consecutive world titles (2022-24) since American Peggy Fleming from 1966-68. This past March, she earned silver at the worlds, just missing becoming the first woman to win four titles in a row since American Carol Heiss from 1956-60. At worlds in Boston, she was fifth after the short program and improved to second in the free skate. She finished 4.99 points behind Alysa Liu, who won both programs to become the first American to claim a women's singles world title since 2006. Sakamoto had the highest total international event score over the entire season, recording that in last fall's Grand Prix Series. Sakamoto's short program for the 2025-26 season is set to 'Time To Say Goodbye' by Sarah Brightman and Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli, a fitting choice for her final season and the Milan Cortina Games. 'Winning at least silvers in both the individual and team events (at the Olympics) would be mission completed,' she said, according to Kyodo. 'The time left is short, so I'll live each day to the fullest, and hopefully the results turn out to be what I'm wishing for.' Nick Zaccardi,
Yahoo
06-06-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Figure skating Grand Prix assignments: Alysa Liu, Chock/Bates headline Skate America
World champions Alysa Liu and Madison Chock and Evan Bates headline November's Skate America as figure skating's Grand Prix Series assignments for the Olympic season have been announced. The world's top skaters each compete twice over the six-event regular season in October and November, with the top six per discipline over the series qualifying for December's Grand Prix Final in Nagoya, Japan. Advertisement The Final will be the last gathering of the world's top skaters before the 2026 Milan Cortina Olympics. Liu and Chock and Bates will be joined by at Skate America in Lake Placid, New York, by two-time U.S. Olympian Jason Brown. GRAND PRIX ASSIGNMENTS: Women | Men | Pairs | Ice Dance This season, Skate America is the fifth of six Grand Prix stops from Nov. 14-16. The Grand Prix season starts in France from Oct. 17-19, then moves to China, Canada and Japan before Skate America. After Skate America, the last regular season Grand Prix is in Finland. Two-time world champion Ilia Malinin is entered in the first and third Grand Prix events in France and Canada. Adeliia Petrosian ISU names figure skaters from Russia eligible for Olympic qualifying as neutral athletes Adelia Petrosian has been cleared to compete in Olympic figure skating qualifying and is a gold-medal contender.
NBC Sports
06-06-2025
- Sport
- NBC Sports
Sui Wenjing, Han Cong to return to pairs' figure skating for first time since 2022 Olympic gold
Sui Wenjing and Han Cong are set to return to pairs' figure skating competition next season for the first time since winning the 2022 Olympic title on home ice in Beijing. Sui, 29, and Han, 32, are entered in Grand Prix Series events in China in October and Japan in November. Their return could also help China earn an Olympic spot spot in pairs' for the 2026 Milan Cortina Games. China had no pairs' teams at this past March's World Championships, so the nation so far has not qualified any 2026 Olympic pairs' spots. China can qualify a maximum of one pairs' spot at the last qualifier in September in Beijing, where three total pairs' spots are available. Entries have not been announced. Han announced his retirement in August 2023 and has been a member of the International Skating Union's singles and pairs' skating technical committee. Sui has worked as a choreographer for Chinese pairs since the 2022 Beijing Games. Sui and Han also won Olympic silver in 2018 and world titles in 2017 and 2019 among five total world championships medals. The last pairs' team to repeat as Olympic champion was Irina Rodnina and Alexander Zaitsev for the Soviet Union in 1976 and 1980. None of the other top seven pairs from the 2022 Olympics are currently competing together internationally. That includes the Russian pairs who finished second, third and fourth behind Sui and Han in Beijing. Russian skaters have been banned from international competition since shortly after the Russian invasion of Ukraine two and a half years ago. While singles skaters from Russia have been cleared to compete as individual neutral athletes at the last Olympic qualifier in September, no pairs' teams from Russia were cleared. At last season's World Championships, the pairs' medalists were Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara of Japan, followed by Minerva Hase and Nikita Volodin of Germany and Sara Conti and Niccolò Macii of Italy. As of last season, Volodin was in the process of obtaining German citizenship to become eligible for the Olympics. Nick Zaccardi,
NBC Sports
06-06-2025
- Sport
- NBC Sports
Figure skating Grand Prix assignments: Alysa Liu, Chock/Bates headline Skate America
World champions Alysa Liu and Madison Chock and Evan Bates headline November's Skate America as figure skating's Grand Prix Series assignments for the Olympic season have been announced. The world's top skaters each compete twice over the six-event regular season in October and November, with the top six per discipline over the series qualifying for December's Grand Prix Final in Nagoya, Japan. The Final will be the last gathering of the world's top skaters before the 2026 Milan Cortina Olympics. Liu and Chock and Bates will be joined by at Skate America in Lake Placid, New York, by two-time U.S. Olympian Jason Brown. This season, Skate America is the fifth of six Grand Prix stops from Nov. 14-16. The Grand Prix season starts in France from Oct. 17-19, then moves to China, Canada and Japan before Skate America. After Skate America, the last regular season Grand Prix is in Finland. Two-time world champion Ilia Malinin is entered in the first and third Grand Prix events in France and Canada. Nick Zaccardi,
Yahoo
12-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Ilia Malinin appears on TODAY, looks ahead to Olympic season
Ilia Malinin reflected on his undefeated 2024-25 figure skating season and looked ahead to the 2025-26 Olympic campaign while appearing on TODAY on Monday. The 2026 Milan Cortina Games open in 270 days. Advertisement "I feel really good," Malinin said. "I'm really excited to start off this Olympic season." Malinin, a 20-year-old from Virginia, won his last nine individual competitions dating to December 2023. In March, he repeated as world champion by becoming the first skater to land all six different types of quadruple jumps in one program without any under-rotations. The self-nicknamed "quad god" is the only skater to ever land the most difficult quad — the four-and-a-half-revolution quad Axel. Malinin is coached by his parents, who each skated at the Olympics for Uzbekistan and moved to the U.S. before Malinin was born. Advertisement "They're such an inspiration to me," Malinin said, while joking that his mom is the stricter parent. Malinin is expected to begin his 2025-26 Olympic season in earnest on the top-level Grand Prix Series in October and November. Maia Shibutani, Alex Shibutani announce ice dance comeback after 7 years away Maia Shibutani and Alex Shibutani, 2018 Olympic medalists, are returning for the 2025-26 Olympic season.
