Indholdsfortegnelse for June 2020 i International Figure Skating

The past few months have seen many changes take place in our daily lives. We have had to make the transition from our “normal” lifestyles to new and unfamiliar ones that are primarily based on seclusion and social distancing. Every aspect of the way we used to live and work, and how we socially interacted, has undergone radical changes. While many publications have ceased printing and with many thousands of bookstores and libraries around the world now closed, the IFS team felt it was important to continue our work in the hope that we can deliver a small sense of “normal” to the lives of our loyal readers. Staying connected and in the loop with all things skating can provide a very positive distraction from what is going on in…

Japan’s Yuma Kagiyama was one of the standouts in the junior ranks last season. The 16-year-old rose from relative obscurity to capture the world’s attention with his solid performances and bright personallity. Kagiyama made his international debut on the junior circuit in the 2018-2019 season. That experience inspired and motivated the teenager to train harder and become a better skater. During the offseason, he began working on the quad toe with a particular determinination to not repeat the fourth-place finish he achieved in Canada in 2018. Kagiyama first captured the spotlight in August 2019 when he claimed the title at the Junior Grand Prix in Courchevel, France. He followed that up with a silver medal at his second event in Gdańsk, Poland, and punched his ticket to the Junior Grand…

Figure skating careers develop in many different ways. Some find success at an early age and rise to the top of the sport. Others have lengthy careers, slowly working their way up the ladder. Some stay in the sport a long time but never find success. And then there are those who turn to coaching and/or choreography and discover themselves on the other side of the boards. That was the life scenario that rolled out for Russia’s Daniil Gleikhengauz. The 28-year-old, who competed in singles and ice dance, had little success on the frozen stage. However, he found his calling on the other side of the boards as a coach and choreographer and is now part of one of the most successful coaching teams in the world for singles skaters.…

Montréal is a special place for Kirsten Moore-Towers and Michael Marinaro. Not only was it where their partnership began, they had developed a true fondness for the city, the people they trained alongside, and their coaches Bruno Marcotte and Richard Gauthier. But in late April 2019, everything changed when Marcotte accepted an offer from Skate Oakville to start a pairs program at the Sixteen Mile Sports Complex — a multi-rink facility that had hosted the Challenger Series event Autumn Classic International the previous year. Marcotte’s decision forced Moore-Towers and Marinaro to rethink their strategy: should they stay in Montréal or move back to Ontario? The duo eventually opted to follow Marcotte. “It was probably the hardest decision we ever had to make,” Moore-Towers recalled. “We made a lot of lists…

MADISON CHOCK AND EVAN BATES stormed into the 2019-2020 season with a vengeance. A strong fall campaign saw them land on five international podiums, followed by a U.S. Championships title in January and the Four Continents crown in February. That set the American duo up for a charge at the World Championships podium in Montréal in March, and the team seemed poised to make the leap onto the top rung of the ice dance ladder at the final competition of 2020. Then came the COVID-19 pandemic. For the second year in a row, Madison Chock and Evan Bates saw their season cut short — both times for very different reasons, neither of which were within their control. The American ice dance team had to sit out the 2018-2019 Grand Prix…

▸ IT’S A BOY! Isabella Tobias Lites, a former competitive ice dancer who represented Georgia and Lithuania during her career, and her husband Samuel Lites welcomed their first child, a boy, in the late afternoon on March 12. James Alvin Lites weighed in at 6 lbs. 15 ounces (3,146.8 grams) at birth. Former Russian ice dancer Elena Ilinykh, 25, and her fiancée Sergei Polunin, 30, became the proud parents of a son on Jan. 16. Their baby, Mir, was born in Miami, Florida. Polunin said he liked that the name was “short and powerful. World and peace at the same time.” “This date became the most important in my life! Since that day we keep the whole World in our hands,” Ilinykh said. “We are grateful to the universe for…

It seems that with each new season, Russia debuts a young shooting star that dominates the junior ladies discipline. That was the case with Adelina Sotnikova, Julia Lipnitskaia, Elena Radionova, Evgenia Medvedeva, Alina Zagitova, and Alexandra Trusova over the past decade. Last season marked the arrival of Kamila Valieva, 13, the fourth consecutive student of Eteri Tutberidze, Sergei Dudakov, and Daniil Gleikhengauz to rule the junior world. Though Valieva only made her international debut in August 2019, she was not a complete unknown to those who avidly follow the sport at the lower levels. Figure skating fans that had watched her compete at the novice level often posted videos of her performances online. The popularity of her final short program at the novice level — “Girl on the Ball,” inspired…

To say it has been a tumultuous year for Vincent Zhou would be an understatement. Fresh off his first podium finish at a World Championships in 2019, he had hoped to carry the momentum of that bronze medal triumph into his summer preparation for the upcoming season. However, a series of injuries and a move across the country to begin his freshman year at Brown University derailed that plan. Vincent Zhou was on a high as the 2019 New Year unfolded. A second-place finish at U.S. nationals earned him a trip to the World Championships, where he finished third in a tough field. He went back to Japan a month later for the World Team Trophy as a member of the gold-medal winning American contingent. Upon his return to the…

When Maxim Naumov arrived on the inter-national junior stage in 2017, his name turned heads right away. Wait a moment, many asked, wasn’t there a Russian pairs skater with that name? There was indeed, and both members of that pairs team — Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov — just happen to be his parents. Shishkova and Naumov captured a complete set of medals at a trio of World Championships (bronze in 1993, gold in 1994 and silver in 1995), and claimed steps on the podiums at five European Championships (1991-1995). At their two Olympic appearances the team finished fifth in 1992 and fourth in 1994. Shishkova and Naumov married in 1995 and retired from competition in 1998. The couple moved to the U.S. to start coaching careers in Hartford, Connecticut,…

Former Japanese ice dance competitor Chris Reed passed away from sudden cardiac arrest in the early morning of Sat., March 14, in Detroit, Michigan. He was 30. Tributes poured in from around the world when his death was announced. The Japan Skating Federation confirmed his death in an official statement on March 17. “I am absolutely stunned by the sad news,” said president Akihisa Nagashima. “I would like to offer my deepest appreciation to Chris Reed for his contribution to Japanese ice dancing over the years and extend condolences to his family.” Reed began skating at age 5 and was partnered with his then 7-year-old sister Cathy. The siblings represented Japan for more than a decade, winning the first of seven national ice dance crowns in 2008. Two-time Olympians, the…