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Ten Prominent Canadian Skaters Kick Off the Senior Grand Prix Season at Skate America
October 17, 2022/by Skate Canada

OTTAWA, ON (October 17, 2022) – The senior Grand Prix season officially kicks off this weekend with Skate America, where ten Canadian skaters will be vying for a spot on the podium. The event, which takes place in Norwood, USA from October 21-23, 2022, will include two Canadian entries in men, pair and ice dance.

17-year-old Wesley Chiu will be making his Senior Grand Prix debut after winning gold and bronze medals on the junior circuit last season, on top of placing third at the 2022 Canadian Tire National Skating Championships. He will be joined by Olympian Roman Sadovsky, who has had a successful season so far, claiming bronze at the 2022 Nebelhorn Trophy in Oberstdorf, Germany.

Deanna Stellato-Dudek and Maxime Deschamps kicked off their season in spectacular fashion with a first-place finish at the 2022 Nebelhorn Trophy. The duo also had a great showing at last year’s ISU Four Continents Championships®, where they finished just off the podium. Young pair team Kelly Ann Laurin and Loucas Ethier earned their spot at Skate America with a very solid performance at the U.S. International Figure Skating Classic, where they placed fifth.

Veteran ice dancers Marie-Jade Lauriault and Romain Le Gac, who finished fourth at the U.S. International Figure Skating Classic a few weeks ago, will be competing in ice dance, as will teammates Carolane Soucisse and Shane Firus. Soucisse and Firus put on a great display at the 2022 Nebelhorn Trophy, where they captured a bronze medal for Canada.

The competition starts on Friday, October 21 with the pair and men’s short programs. On Saturday, all disciplines will compete, starting with the rhythm dance, followed by the women’s short program, and the pair and men’s free programs. The event concludes on Sunday with the free dance and women’s free program.

The next stop on the circuit will be Mississauga, Ontario, for Skate Canada International 2022. Click here for more information or to buy tickets for the event.

U.S. Skaters to Perform on Home Ice at Skate America

A full slate of U.S. skaters are set to skate on home ice as 18 members of Team USA travel to Norwood, Massachusetts, for Skate America Oct. 21-23 at The Skating Club of Boston.

The first stop on the International Skating Union Grand Prix of Figure Skating Series, Team USA will feature a mix of veterans as well as up-and-comers with seven Olympians and two of the 2022 World Junior champions.

In ice dance, two of the three teams from the Olympic Winter games Beijing 2022 are back to compete at Skate America.

Always in the hunt for a medal on the world stage, Madison Chock and Evan Bates will make their season debut. The 2022 Olympic team event silver medalists and three-time U.S. Champions are seeking their 15th Grand Prix medal. In their 12 years skating together, they have won this event twice – although not since 2015 – and brought home silver last season.

Chock and Bates' teammates in Beijing, Kaitlin Hawayek and Jean-Luc Baker, already have a medal this season, earning silver at Finlandia Trophy, in which they set new international personal bests in the free skate and total score.

Rounding out the ice dance teams for the United States are Lorraine McNamara and Anton Spiridonov, who also own some hardware from earlier this season, winning gold at the Lake Placid Ice Dance International and bronze at the U.S. International Figure Skating Classic.

Traveling to Norwood as the reigning World champions – becoming the first U.S. pairs team to win the title since 1979 – Alexa Knierim and Brandon Frazier make their season debut at Skate America. The 2022 Olympic team event silver medalists won this event in their first competition together as a team in 2020 when it was held as a domestic event in 2020 due to COVID-19.

Also representing Team USA in pairs will be two younger teams in Valentina Plazas and Maximiliano Fernandez and Maria Mokhova and Ivan Mokhov.

Both competing at their first Grand Prix, Plazas and Fernandez, the 2021 U.S. junior bronze medalists, have claimed two medals at international events this season with bronze at both the U.S. International Classic and John Nicks Pairs Challenge. Mokhova and Mokhov began their season with two fourth-place finishes at the same events before taking eighth at Finlandia Trophy.

Headlining for Team USA in the men's event is Ilia Malinin, who became the first athlete to successfully land a quad Axel in competition at the U.S. International Classic, leaping into first place for the gold. With the exception of 2020 Skate America when it was held as a domestic event, this competition will mark the first Grand Prix for the 2022 World Junior champion and U.S. silver medalist.

Malinin's teammate at the 2022 World Junior Championships, Liam Kapeikis, is also competing in his first senior season internationally. After finishing in the top eight at last year's Junior Worlds, Kapeikis started his season with gold at the Philadelphia Summer International.

Dinh Tran will complete Team USA's lineup. The two-time U.S. junior silver medalist finished right behind Kapeikis with silver in Philadelphia in August.

A bright future star for Team USA in the women's event, Isabeau Levito enters Norwood as the 2022 World Junior champion and the 2022 U.S. bronze medalist. Although she'll be competing at just her first Grand Prix, Levito has stood on the podium at every senior competition she's competed, beginning in Nashville in January and continuing at both her international events this season, including at Ondrej Nepela Trophy earlier this month.

Returning to Skate America for the fourth straight season, 2021 U.S. silver medalist Amber Glenn began her season with bronze at the Cranberry Cup before claiming fourth at Lombardia Trophy.

A 2014 Olympic team event bronze medalist and two-time U.S. Champion, Gracie Gold has twice medaled at Skate America in her lengthy career. However, if excluding 2020 Skate America, when Gold takes the ice in Norwood, it will mark her first Grand Prix assignment since 2018 and comes on the heels of a bronze to start her season at the Philadelphia Summer International.

Competition begins Friday with the pairs and men's short programs. Skate America then continues Saturday with the rhythm dance and women's short programs before the first medals will be awarded that evening in the pairs and men's events. On Sunday, the event concludes with the free dance and women's free skate.

• McNamara & Spiridonov (7th in Ice Dance)
  Schott (7th in Women)
  Kapeikis (7th in Men)
  Muramoto & Takahashi (6th in ID)
  Sadovsky (5th in Men)
  Mokhova & Mokhov (4th in Pairs)
  Lee (4th in Women)
  Grassl (4th in Men)
  Lauriault & LeGac (3rd in Dance)
  Glenn (3rd in Women)
  Laurin & Ethier (3rd in Pairs)
  Tran (10th in Men)
  The Haydenettes (Synchro)

• Carrillo (12th in Men)
  Kurakova (5th in Women)
  Janse van Rensburg & Steffan (9th in Dance)
  Cha (3rd in Men)
  Stellato-Dudek & Deschamps (2nd in Pairs)
  Gold (6th in Women)
  Demougeot & le Mercier (4th in Dance)
  Miura (2nd in Men)
  Levito (2nd in Women)
  Hawayek & Baker (2nd in Dance)
  Malinin (1st in Men)
  Kneirem & Fraser (1st in Pairs)
  Sakamoto (1st in Women)
  Chock & Bates (1st in Dance)