International Figure Skating August 2022

It has been an interesting couple of months since the final competition of the 2021-2022 season concluded. One of the most important events that took place was the International Skating Union (ISU) Congress in early June. Many proposals were voted on by ISU delegates, but perhaps the most important one was raising the age limit for senior skaters from 15 to 16 in the 2023-2024 season and 17 in 2024-2025. Former Canadian pairs skater Eric Radford, the Athletes Commission representative, presented two strong arguments in favor of the change. He also requested that no secret vote be held so that “every nation can take responsibility for how they vote, regardless of the outcome.” The proposal was subsequently accepted by an overwhelming majority (100-16). We do not know which nations voted…

When Jason Brown embarked on a four-year campaign back in 2018, he felt prepared to deal with the many challenges he knew he would encounter along the way, and while there were many unexpected twists and turns he had to navigate during this journey, the end result could not have been more fulfilling. After not competing on an international stage for 15 long months, Jason Brown was excited and relieved that figure skating was finally back on track for the 2021-2022 season. He opened his Olympic campaign with a victory in his debut appearance at Finlandia Trophy in early October. Brown followed that up with a second-place finish at his first Grand Prix event in Canada, and captured bronze at the second in France. Those results marked the first time…

His career has been one of highs and lows, but the five-time Italian ice dance champion is now in his groove and he could not be happier. Adecade has passed since Massimo Scali and his former ice dance partner Federica Faiella took their final bows, after which both went in different directions: Faiella became a full-time member of the Italian police force, married and had a child, while Scali turned to coaching and choreography. A few months after teaming up in 2001, Faiella and Scali surprised everyone when they danced into second place at Nebelhorn Trophy and qualified for the 2002 Olympic Winter Games. The duo finished in 18th place in Salt Lake City. The next four seasons saw them slowly climb the international ice dance ranks, and shortly after…

With their amateur and professional skating careers far behind them, Tanith White, Charlie White and Greg Zuerlein have embarked on a new adventure in the world of ice dance. In March, they threw open the doors of the Michigan Ice Dance Academy (MIDA) based at their former training rink, Arctic Edge Ice Arena in Canton, Michigan. Following their respective retirements from the competitive world, Tanith White, Charlie White and Greg Zuerlein went in different directions. Tanith, 37, retired in 2010 and moved into the world of television, working as a broadcast host and a sports reporter for the NBC network. During her competitive career, she and her ice dance partner Benjamin Agosto claimed silver at the 2006 Winter Games in Torino, Italy, winning the first Olympic ice dance medal for…

When Madeline Schizas looks back on her busiest competitive season to date, she acknowledges it was a campaign that forced her to adopt a more mature approach. One competition rolled into the next in a season of many firsts for the 19-year-old Canadian — the highlight being her first appearance at the Olympic Winter Games. It was a thrilling ride that rarely slowed and forced Schizas to learn how to adapt on the fly. Madeline Schizas entered the Olympic season with little in the way of international experience beyond the 2021 World Championships in Sweden, where she placed 13th — and that came at the end of a COVID-19 interrupted season in which Canada’s top senior skaters did not have any live competitions, except for the small, elite group that…

As they crisscrossed their homeland on Stars On Ice, the first skating tour in two years, they kept hearing the words “Alexa Knierim and Brandon Frazier, World champions.” On the surface, words that were meant to be nothing more than an introduction to their presence on the ice. But to the people being introduced they meant so much more. To many observers, Alexa Knierim and Brandon Frazier were among the favorites heading into the 2022 World Championships in Montpellier, France. They had finished sixth at the Olympic Winter Games a month earlier, and the five teams that placed ahead of them in Beijing were not in the field in France. The Russian skaters had been banned after their country’s invasion of Ukraine, and the Chinese federation chose not to send…