- Kaori Sakamoto leads figure skating worlds; U.S. in medal mix in women’s, pairs’ events Home of the Olympic Channel
- Alexa and Knierim and Brandon Frazier to Enter Pairs Free Skate in Second US Figure Skating Fan Zone
- New Jersey prodigy Isabeau Levito in medal mix at figure skating worlds The Guardian
- 2023 World Figure Skating Championships TV, live stream schedule Home of the Olympic Channel
- ISU World Figure Skating Championships 2023 – Home hopes Miura/Kihara lead pairs event after career-best short program Olympics
- View Full Coverage on Google News
Tag Archives: Skating
Ilia Malinin wins U.S. figure skating national title with quadruple Axel miss
SAN JOSE, California – Ilia Malinin clearly will have mixed emotions when he remembers winning his first U.S. figure skating title.
That was apparent from his reaction after finishing Sunday’s free skate.
The 18-year-old with limitless potential and seemingly limitless confidence had been rattled by his worst free skate of the season.
He shook his head sadly. Then he shook it again.
“Of course, this wasn’t the skate I wanted, but there’s always ups and downs, and you just after get over it and move on,” Malinin said.
FIGURE SKATING NATIONALS: Full Results
He planned the hardest technical program anyone ever had attempted, with six quadruple jumps and two challenging combinations in the second half of the four-minute program. And he gamely kept trying to execute it, even after significant mistakes that would leave him second to surprising Andrew Torgashev in the free skate.
Malinin (287.74 total points) still finished comfortably ahead of the evergreen Jason Brown (277.31). Torgashev was third overall at 256.56.
Malinin skated with doggedness rather the dynamism that infused his brilliant short program Friday, by far his best short program of the season.
“I think I was just a little bit sluggish, and I just wasn’t prepared for what was about to happen,” he said.
Malinin fell on his opening jump, the quadruple Axel, then reeled off three other quads flawlessly. He popped two other planned quads into doubles, then turned his final jumping pass, planned as a sequence of two jumps, into an unprecedented triple Lutz-triple Axel-triple toe loop sequence. For context: only Malinin has done a triple Lutz-triple Axel sequence.
“I think its’s not that I was planning too much,” he said. “I think it was I wasn’t really prepared for this amount. And it was mostly because we were focusing on that short program.”
Brown, 28, who first competed at senior nationals 12 years ago, skated magnificently. If it weren’t for a fall on his ambitious final free skate jump, a triple flip coming out of a knee slide, Brown’s overall performance in both the short and free would have been as good as any he had done in the U.S. Championships.
With his longevity and insight, Brown, a two-time Olympian and seven-time national medalist (gold in 2015) was able to put what had befallen Malinin into accurate perspective and encourage him not to lose confidence over it.
Brown heard the press conference questions Malinin was getting over what went wrong, questions both legitimate and expected, and he wanted his younger teammate not to dwell on them.
“You did a triple Lutz-triple Axel-triple toe at the end of your program, and I did a knee slide and could barely stand up to do the flip,” Brown said to Malinin, sitting next to him at the dais.
“The way you keep pushing the sport is incredible. So don’t stop being you.”
Malinin, an unexpected second at last year’s nationals, came here under a spotlight brighter than any he had experienced, largely due to his history-making success earlier this season as the first to land a quad Axel in competition.
For all his disarming bravado, evidenced by choosing quadg0d as his social media name, Malinin is not immune to the pressure of a big event and his position as favorite.
“There is an amount of experience (necessary) that it takes time to get,” Brown said. “I’ve been through it all. I’ve had a lot of ups, I’ve had a lot of downs. As you (Malinin) said, it’s how you take this experience and learn from it and grow from it. That’s what you’re going to do.”
Both Malinin and Brown leave Monday to perform eight shows in three Swiss cities over 11 days with the Art on Ice tour. They are both expected to be on the U.S. team for the world championships this March in Japan.
Malinin leaves with the title and the satisfaction of not having minimized risk given his big lead after the short program.
“This was an opportunity for me to try this new layout,” Malinin said. “Of course, it didn’t go off the best. We’ll take advice from this and look forward to worlds.”
Philip Hersh, who has covered figure skating at the last 12 Winter Olympics, is a special contributor to NBCSports.com.
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2023 U.S. Figure Skating Championships scores, results
One year ago, Ilia Malinin came to the U.S. Championships as, largely, a 17-year-old unknown. He finished second to Nathan Chen in 2022 and was left off the three-man Olympic team due to his inexperience, a committee decision that lit a fire in him.
After the biggest year of change in U.S. figure skating in three decades, Malinin came to this week’s nationals in San Jose, California, as the headliner across all disciplines.
Though he fell on his quadruple Axel and doubled two other planned quads in Sunday’s free skate (the most ambitious program in history), he succeeded the absent Chen as national champion.
Malinin, the world’s second-ranked male singles skater, still landed two clean quads in Friday’s short program and three more Sunday. He totaled 287.74 points and prevailed by 10.43 over two-time Olympian Jason Brown, a bridge between the Chen and Malinin eras.
“I think I was just not ready to deliver at that day,” Malinin, who was bidding to become the second man to land six quads in one program after Chen, said on NBC. “I was really so confident, I think I sort of overthought everything and tried to get ahead of myself. But I think it’s all right.”
FIGURE SKATING NATIONALS: Full Results
Brown, a 28-year-old competing for the first time since placing sixth at the Olympics, became the oldest male singles skater to finish in the top three at nationals since Jeremy Abbott won the last of his four titles in 2014. As usual, he didn’t attempt a quad but had the highest artistic score by 9.41 points.
Brown’s seven total top-three finishes at nationals tie him with Chen, Michael Weiss, Brian Boitano, David Jenkins and Dick Button for the second-most in men’s singles since World War II, trailing only Todd Eldredge‘s and Hayes Jenkins‘ eight.
“I’m not saying it’s super old, but I can’t train the way I used to,” Brown said after Friday’s short program. “What Ilia is doing and the way he is pushing the sport is outstanding and incredible to watch. I cannot keep up.”
Andrew Torgashev took bronze, winning the free skate with one quad and all clean jumps. Torgashev, who competed at nationals for the first time since placing fifth in 2020 at age 18, will likely round out the three-man world team.
Japan’s Shoma Uno will likely be the favorite at worlds. He won last year’s world title, when Malinin admittedly cracked under pressure in the free skate after a fourth-place short program and ended up ninth.
That was before Malinin became the first person to land a quad Axel in competition. That was before Malinin became the story of the figure skating world this fall. That was before Malinin took over the American throne from Chen, who is studying at Yale and not expected to return to competition.
Malinin’s next step is to grab another label that Chen long held: best in the world. To do that, he must be better than he was on Sunday.
“You always learn from your experiences, and there’s always still the rest of the season to come,” he said. “I just have to be prepared and prepare a little bit extra so that doesn’t happen again.”
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2023 U.S. Figure Skating Championships scores, results
Isabeau Levito won her first U.S. figure skating title at age 15, cementing her status as the new leading American woman to open the new Olympic cycle.
Levito, the world junior champion, tallied 223.33 points between two strong programs in San Jose, California. She distanced two-time U.S. champion Bradie Tennell, who went 19 months between competitions due to foot and ankle injuries in 2021 and 2022 and scored 213.12.
Tennell was just two hundredths behind Levito after Thursday’s short but had multiple jumping errors in the free skate.
Levito followed her as last to go in the free and nailed the most pressure-packed performance of her young career, including the hardest jump combination done of the entire field. She didn’t receive a single negative mark from a judge for her 19 technical elements in her two programs.
Moments later, she was in tears backstage.
FIGURE SKATING NATIONALS: Full Scores | Broadcast Schedule
“I was just so proud of myself for staying so calm and staying so focused, doing exactly what I aimed to do,” Levito, who hasn’t finished off the podium in more than 20 events dating to November 2016, said on NBC. “I’m ready to start bouncing off the walls.”
Amber Glenn, 23, placed third and will likely become the oldest U.S. women’s singles skater to make her world championships debut in at least 45 years. Glenn botched her 11th attempt to join the list of U.S. women to land a clean triple Axel (tally according to Skatingscores.com) but still moved up from fourth after the short program, passing Starr Andrews.
Last year, Glenn entered nationals as the fourth-ranked U.S. woman and a hopeful for the three-woman Olympic team. She placed 14th in the short program, competing unknowingly with COVID-19, then tested positive and withdrew before the free skate.
In 2021, Glenn was the U.S. silver medalist, yet passed over for a spot on the two-woman world team in favor of the more experienced Karen Chen, who finished 35 hundredths behind Glenn at those nationals.
Levito, Tennell and Glenn are expected to make up the team for March’s world championships, decided by a committee.
Gracie Gold, a two-time U.S. champion who was fifth after the short program, popped a pair of planned triple Lutzes and dropped to eighth.
None of the three 2022 U.S. Olympians competed. Alysa Liu and Mariah Bell retired. Chen is a student at Cornell and might not return.
Nationals continue Saturday with the free dance and pairs’ free skate, live on NBC Sports and Peacock.
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2023 U.S. Figure Skating Championships TV, live stream schedule
The U.S. Figure Skating Championships, in some ways marking a new era in the sport, air live from San Jose, California, on NBC Sports, USA Network and Peacock.
After last February’s Olympics, U.S. figure skating saw its greatest turnover from one season to the next in more than 20 years.
Nathan Chen and Vincent Zhou, the top two men last season, are not competing this season and may be done altogether. Alysa Liu and Mariah Bell, the top two women, retired. As did the top ice dance couple of Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue. Ashley Cain and Timothy LeDuc, last year’s national pairs’ champions, also left the sport.
So, for the first time since 1993, the U.S. Championships feature a reigning national champion in just one of the four disciplines.
Amid all that, U.S. skaters performed well in the fall Grand Prix Series and made the podium in all four disciplines at December’s Grand Prix Final for the first time. Note the absence of Russian skaters, banned from international events due to the war in Ukraine.
At nationals, skaters are vying for spots on the team — three per discipline — for March’s world championships in Japan.
Ilia Malinin, an 18-year-old from Virginia, is the headliner after becoming the first skater to land a quadruple Axel, doing so at all four of his events this season. He ranks second in the world by best total score, a whopping 38.28 points ahead of the next American (Camden Pulkinen).
Jason Brown is the lone Olympian in the men’s field, competing for the first time since placing sixth at the Games.
Isabeau Levito, 15 and a reigning world junior champion like Malinin, took silver at the Grand Prix Final against the world’s other top skaters. She enters nationals with a best score this season 18.13 points better than the next American, Amber Glenn. Bradie Tennell, a 2018 Olympian coming back from foot and ankle injuries, is also a threat to gain one of the three women’s spots at worlds.
Ice dancers Madison Chock and Evan Bates are the lone defending national champions and will likely make the podium for an 11th consecutive year, which would be one shy of the record.
Bates, who last year at 32 became the oldest U.S. champion in any discipline in decades, has made 12 career senior nationals podiums with Chock and former partner Emily Samuelson. It is believed that a 13th finish in the top three would break the U.S. record for a single discipline he currently shares with Michelle Kwan, Nathaniel Niles and Theresa Weld Blanchard.
In pairs, Alexa Knierim and Brandon Frazier return after missing nationals last year due to Frazier contracting COVID-19 the week of the event. Since, they posted the best U.S. pairs’ finish at an Olympics in 20 years, the first world title for a U.S. pair in 43 years and the first Grand Prix Final medal ever for a U.S. pair.
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2023 U.S. Figure Skating Championships Live Broadcast Schedule
| Day | Event | Time (ET) | Platform |
| Thursday | Pairs’ Short Program | 3:30-5:45 p.m. | Peacock | Skate Order |
| Rhythm Dance | 6:30-9 p.m. | Peacock | Skate Order | |
| Rhythm Dance | 7-9 p.m. | USA Network | |
| Women’s Short Program | 9:10 p.m.-12 a.m. | Peacock | |
| Women’s Short Program | 10 p.m.-12 a.m. | USA Network | |
| Friday | Men’s Short Program | 4:10-7 p.m. | Peacock |
| Men’s Short Program | 5-7 p.m. | USA Network | |
| Women’s Free Skate | 7:45-11 p.m. | Peacock | |
| Women’s Free Skate | 8-11 p.m. | NBC | |
| Saturday | Free Dance | 1:45-4:30 p.m. | Peacock |
| Free Dance | 2:30-4:30 p.m. | NBC | |
| Pairs’ Free Skate | 7:30-10 p.m. | Peacock | |
| Pairs’ Free Skate | 8-10 p.m. | USA Network | |
| Sunday | Men’s Free Skate | 2:30-6 p.m. | Peacock |
| Men’s Free Skate | 3-6 p.m. | NBC |
*All NBC and USA Network broadcasts also stream on NBCSports.com/live and the NBC Sports app for subscribers.
The Concept Art Behind Roller Skating Shooter Rollerdrome
One of my favourite Fine Art posts for the year was our showcase for OlliOlli World, so it’s a huge pleasure that we’re able to be looking at art from Roll7’s latest game (Rollerdrome, which is out this week) so soon.
We’ve looked at the game a few times on the site already; it’s basically a deathmatch shooter, which combines skating tricks with third-person gunplay. And where OlliOlli World was an adorable cartoon adventure that looks like it should have its own animated series, Rollerdrome’s cel-shaded aesthetic looks like a comic from the 1980s met a gory sci-fi movie from the 1970s. And I mean all of that in the best way possible.
I should note here that while Rollerdrome is from the same studio as OlliOlliWorld—Roll7—these are actually different artists. Everything you’re seeing below is the work of Kim Hu and Grégoire Frot, and you’ll also find links to both their portfolios in their names below:
MORE ROLLERDROME:
Rollerdrome Is Like Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater But With Guns
It’s like Max Payne, Jet Set Radio, and My Friend Pedro had a baby together…is that possible?
5 Hot Tips To Survive The Fiery New Skating Shooter From OlliOlli World Devs
Rollerdrome is an indie rollerskating murder game from the OlliOlli crew out on Playstation 4, 5, and Steam starting August 16. Rollerdrome is a single-player third-person shooter that sends you rolling toward your fate on bulletproof white skates. Rollerdrome is a shaken can of soda, exploding with color and energy, and I was able to preview it to deliver you hot gossip on what to expect and how to play.
Figure Skating Will Raise Age Limit to 17
Eric Radford, a three-time Olympic medalist from Canada, stepped up to the microphone at a meeting of figure skating’s global governing body on Tuesday, where delegates were preparing to vote to increase the minimum age limit for elite competitors in the sport to 17 over the next three years.
“The life of an athlete is short and intense,” said Radford, an athlete representative for the body, the International Skating Union. “The experience in this short period of their lives sets the stage for the rest of their lives, physically, mentally and emotionally.”
Radford acknowledged that any change could create short-term disruptions in the sport, which has increasingly featured young athletes executing spectacularly acrobatic moves.
But, he added, “Is a medal worth risking the health of a child or young athlete?”
Moments later, the delegates voted 100 to 16, with two abstentions, to pass the proposal, a decision that could significantly change the complexion of one of the most popular Olympic sports on the international stage.
The I.S.U. afterward characterized the move as an effort to safeguard “the physical and mental health, and emotional well-being” of skaters. But the decision came only after the governing body faced worldwide criticism for a doping scandal involving a 15-year-old Russian champion that marred the women’s singles event at this year’s Beijing Olympics.
The change, which came at a meeting of the body in Phuket, Thailand, will be gradual: There will be no change for the 2022-23 competition season. But so-called senior skaters will need to be 16 years old in 2023-24, and 17 in the 2024-25 campaign.
The phase-in means the new, higher age limit will be in place in time for the next Winter Olympics, at Milan and Cortina, Italy, in 2026.
In Phuket on Tuesday, attendees in the conference room where the meeting was held erupted in applause when the vote count was displayed on the screen.
“This is a very important decision,” Jan Dijkema, the I.S.U. president, said about the rule change as the clapping subsided. “I would say a very historic decision.”
The decision comes on the heels of a major doping scandal at the Winter Olympics in Beijing involving Kamila Valieva, a Russian skater who was just 15 at the time. Valieva, one of the top competitors in the world, was found to have tested positive for a banned substance in the run-up to Olympic competition.
Valieva, who had helped Russia win a gold medal in the team competition before her positive test was publicly disclosed, was allowed to go on to compete in the singles event, which she was favored to win. But amid the swirling scandal, she finished fourth with an uncharacteristically uninspired free skate.
The ordeal once again raised questions about the physical and mental safety of young skaters and whether enough was being done to protect them from the adults guiding their careers.
Speaking during the Games, Thomas Bach, the president of the International Olympic Committee, called for sports federations to examine the conduct of so-called entourages after seeing the way Valieva’s coaches interacted with her after she stumbled through her performance.
“It was chilling to see this,” Bach said of the interactions between Valieva and her coach Eteri Tutberidze. “Rather than giving her comfort, rather than try to help her, you could feel this chilling atmosphere, this distance.”
The proposal had seemed to have broad support in the international figure skating community, where the issue of implementing some sort of minimum age had been discussed and debated for years.
The I.S.U.’s athletes’ commission cited polls of its membership that showed a vast majority of its athletes wanted the minimum age limit raised.
Mirai Nagasu, who won a bronze medal with the U.S. team in 2018, said she was mostly in favor of raising the minimum age limit in figure skating to better ensure that athletes are mature enough to “make their own decisions and have access to resources that can allow them to understand the full scope of their decisions.”
She noted, too, that athletes under 16 are classified as “protected persons” by the The World Anti-Doping Agency and are subjected to a different set of disciplinary procedures and punishments. In the case of Valieva, the Court of Arbitration of Sport considered her young age when determining that she could continue to compete at the Olympics while her case was unresolved, a decision that caused some uproar around the sport. Raising the minimum age could prevent similar situations from materializing in the future.
Still, there were some people in the sport opposed to any change, often citing the short-term disruptions it would impose on the careers of young athletes and the federations who support them in search of medals.
Tatiana Tarasova, a top figure skating coach in Russia, suggested in an interview with Match TV that the rule had been made specifically to target the Russian team.
“They see that in our country, there’s a huge amount of girls and boys, and they want to block it,” Tarasova said. “That’s why they started this whole rigmarole. They can block it only by removing from competition.”
Family identifies 11-year-old boy shot in the head outside Decatur skating rink – WSB-TV Channel 2
DECATUR — Family members have identified an 11-year-old boy shot and critically injured outside an Atlanta skating rink and are now offering a $10k reward for information leading to an arrest.
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D’Mari Johnson was shot in the back of the head outside the Golden Glide Skating Rink in Decatur on April 10.
The incident happened around 1 a.m. just outside the front doors of the building.
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So far, no arrests have been made. Johnson is in a medically-induced coma fighting for his life, his parents said.
The family’s lawyers said in a news conference Monday that they blame not only the shooter, but Golden Glide for the shooting.
“D’Mari’s fighting for his life, so we’re asking this community to fight for him,” attorney Sean Williams said.
Williams asked anyone who saw the shooting or might have any more information to call the DeKalb County Police Department.
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A $10,000 is being offered for any information leading to an arrest.
“The bottom line is, the most important thing to this family is finding the out and bringing to justice the people, or individuals involved in the shooting of their son,” Williams said.
Williams said the family feels like they are not getting enough information from DeKalb County Police about the status of the investigation. They also feel that the skating rink should be held accountable.
“Their child was shot at a place that has a history of issues and violence,” Williams said. “Golden Glide has a history of violence at that place, a history of violence and shooting. We believe the shooting wouldn’t have occurred if the place had adequate security.”
A GoFundMe set up to help the family with medical expenses has raised nearly $5,000.
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Russia barred from all international ice skating events following invasion of Ukraine
LAUSANNE, Switzerland — Russia was excluded from all international ice skating events as sporting sanctions continued to mount Tuesday following the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
A day after Russian teams were barred from soccer, rugby and President Vladimir Putin’s preferred sport of hockey — rulings backed by the International Olympic Committee — the International Skating Union’s decision pushes Russia out of another sport that is hugely popular at home.
The ISU said no athletes from Russia or its ally Belarus “shall be invited or allowed to participate” in its events until further notice.
“The ISU Council reiterates its solidarity with all those affected by the conflict in Ukraine and our thoughts are with the entire Ukrainian people and country,” the ISU said in a statement.
Barring Russian skaters means the figure skating world championships later this month are expected to take place without Olympic gold medalist Anna Shcherbakova and her teammate Kamila Valieva, who was the focus of a still-unresolved doping dispute at the Winter Olympics last month.
The International Volleyball Federation on Tuesday said it had stripped Russia of hosting rights for the men’s world championship in August and September and would seek another host country or countries.
“It would be impossible to prepare and stage the World Championships in Russia due to the war in Ukraine,” the FIVB board said.
Pairs Figure Skating: Photos and Results
Figure skating’s last competition at the Beijing Games is the pairs free skate Saturday at the Capital Indoor Stadium.
Sui Wenjing and Han Cong, a popular Chinese team, finished first in the short program on Friday. They are eager for redemption: They had victory within their grasp at the 2018 Olympics, but lost the gold medal by a mere 0.43 points.
They face tough competition from three Russian pairs. Evgenia Tarasova and Vladimir Morozov placed second in the short program, trailing Sui and Han by a fraction of a point. Anastasia Mishina and Aleksandr Galliamov, the reigning world champions, were in third.
Aleksandra Boikova and Dmitrii Kozlovskii of Russia led after 13 of 16 pairs had performed the free skate, with Peng Cheng and Jin Yang of China in second. The top medal contenders will skate last.
Pairs are judged on two events: Friday’s short program and Saturday’s free skate, which lasts four minutes. Medal winners will be determined by adding the scores from the two events.