Indholdsfortegnelse for April 2020 i International Figure Skating

With the 2020 World Championships just weeks away, one thing is certain — there are no defined frontrunners in three of the four disciplines, and that those who want to claim the titles in Montréal will truly have to fight for them. At every level — international, Championship and domestic — this season has been a rollercoaster ride for skaters and fans. But, in my book, that will make for a very exciting week at the upcoming World Championships. On the men’s side, Nathan Chen has not lost a competition in two years, and many expect he will continue that golden run at Worlds. However, the top two Japanese men, Yuzuru Hanyu and Shoma Uno, will both be gunning for gold in Montréal. At the European Championships, a rising Russian…

It has been a long and sometimes rocky road for Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier as they made the slow climb to the top of the ice dance ladder. But the results this season have boosted the confidence of this dynamic duo, who now believe they have the right plan and the competitive mindset to challenge the best. As Canada’s Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier drew ever closer to the summit of the ice dance world, they could see themselves on the same level as the sport’s best — but there was still something missing, something they felt was holding them back. It was certainly not the material they were bringing to the ice — their programs remain among the most innovative on the circuit — or their drive to…

South Korea was a lucky place for Yuzuru Hanyu in 2018, and almost two years to the day since he captured his second Olympic crown, he was back — this time in the hunt for a title that had thus far eluded him. Hanyu arrived at the 2020 Four Continents Championships in Seoul in early February, armed with two tried and trusted programs (Chopin’s “Ballade No. 1” and Shigeru Umebayashi’s “Seimei”), two new costumes, but just one goal. The programs, which took him to Olympic gold at the 2018 Winter Games in PyeongChang, were initially dedicated to two of his idols, Evgeni Plushenko and Johnny Weir. This time, Hanyu said, he was skating them for himself. With the Four Continents title the only one missing from Hanyu’s vast collection, the…

IT WAS ALL SUPPOSED TO BE TEMPORARY. When Margarita Drobiazko and Povilas Vanagas teamed up in 1989, it was understood that they would compete for a couple of seasons and then move on with their respective lives. In 2019, the couple celebrated three decades on the ice – and their 19th wedding anniversary. Mrargarita Drobiazko and Povilas Vanagas hold a special place in Lithuanian skating history. The first skaters from that nation to ever compete at an Olympic Winter Games, decades later they remain the only ones to ever medal at a European or World Championships in any discipline. Born in Moscow in the then Soviet Union, Drobiazko became interested in skating after watching a television program that featured 10-time World pairs champion Irina Rodnina Drobiazko began skating singles as…

ON THE MEND Canadian ice dancer Nikolaj Sørensen was sidelined in the late fall of 2019 after dealing with a knee problem that had been bothering him since last May. “I was able to keep it at bay until the Grand Prix season was over, but with the amount of pain during our second Grand Prix I knew it had to be addressed,” said Sørensen who underwent surgery for a cartilage graft and a meniscotomy on Dec. 16. The injury forced Sørensen and his ice dance partner Laurence Fournier Beaudry to miss the 2020 Canadian Championships. Just days after leaving the hospital following surgery to remove a tumor from one of her kidneys, Maia Shibutani confirmed the tumor was malignant. “This wasn’t the news I was hoping for, but I…

She could not have written a better script for her debut on the senior circuit this season. Though no one knew it at the time, when Alena Kostornaia scored a runaway victory at Finlandia Trophy in early October, it was a sign of things to come A decisive win in her debut on the senior Grand Prix circuit at Internationaux de France was followed by a third consecutive victory at NHK Trophy three weeks later. Kostornaia closed out 2019 by claiming the Grand Prix Final crown in Torino, Italy. The 16-year-old opened 2020 with a second-place finish at the Russian Championships in late December, and a month later led a Russian sweep of the ladies podium at the European Championships in Graz, Austria. What made all of this so surprising…

When Gracie Gold arrived in Greensboro, North Carolina for the 2020 U.S. Championships, nobody — including herself — knew what to expect. It had been three years since the former two-time champion had competed at the national level, and she had been to hell and back in the interim. Gold’s journey back to the U.S. Championships has been one of grit and determination. Her well-publicized battle with mental health issues and an eating disorder dominated the news for a long time, and it seemed her once promising career had come to an end. Her 12th place finish in Greensboro was irrelevant in the grand scheme of things. Just to have made it back to the national stage was accomplishment enough for the 24-year-old. At one point, Gold felt that returning…