Olympics 2026 Ice Dance PREVIEW + We're in Glitter and Gold?!
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The Olympics are upon us, and we're here to help you get ready to watch Ice Dance! We walk you through the top 5 teams battling for the podium, and explain why there's one fight for Gold and another for Bronze. We thoroughly break down the competition between podium hopefuls Madison Chock & Evan Bates (USA), Laurence Fournier-Beaudry & Guillaume Cizeron (France), Piper Gilles & Paul Poirier (Canada), Charlene Guignard & Marco Fabbri (Italy), and Lilah Fear & Lewis Gibson (Great Britain). But there are plenty of other excellent teams in the hunt for a top 10 finish, so we...
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Four Continents 2026 RECAP
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We dive into the last major competition before the 2026 Olympics, Four Continents Championships in Beijing, China. We celebrate the surprise but oh-so-satisfying victory from Japan's Yuna Aoki. An Ice Dance gold medal should give an extra boost to USA's Zingas & Kolesnik as they prepare for Milano Cortina. The same could be said for Olympics-bound Kao Muira, who will represent Japan at the Games as well. And America's Efimova & Mitrofanov score an unexpected win over the legendary Sui & Han in the Pairs event. But there were thrilling skates all down the rankings, too, as well as...
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European Championships 2026 RECAP
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We react to the 2026 European Figure Skating Championships event in England, featuring a historic repeat win from Estonia's Niina Petrokina, two Georgian golds in Pairs and Men's, and a slightly surprising outcome in Ice Dance. Chapters 00:00:00 Intro 00:01:45 Ice Dance 00:20:55 Women's Competition 00:32:10 Pairs Competition 00:41:09 Men's Competition 00:56:00 Canadian Nationals 01:03:42 Four Continents Preview 01:07:29 Gold in our Hearts 01:08:26 Wrap-Up
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US National Championships 2026 RECAP
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The much anticipated 2026 US National Figure Skating Championships were everything they promised to be: thrilling, tense, bittersweet, and revelatory! The week-long event happened in our hometown of St. Louis, and we were on-site throughout the event to witness historic skates and the selection of the Olympic team. The Women's and Ice Dance events delivered powerhouse performances that will go down as some of the best Nationals competitions of all times. The Men's event featured shocking twists, tear-jerking surprises, and a dominant win from Ilia Malinin. And the Pairs ended with two...
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US Nationals 2026 PREVIEW
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It's our first episode of 2026, and we're preparing for US Nationals — which will be held in our home city of St. Louis! We preview the upcoming competition with a laser focus on the biggest stakes: who will represent the USA at the Olympics. From virtually guaranteed locks like Ilia Malinin, Chock & Bates, and Alysa Liu, to the uncertainty around the pairs and additional dance spots, there's so much to be excited—and anxious—about. We also cover the results of this past weekend's Korean Nationals, including Olympics selections for Junhwan Cha, Haein Lee, and Jia Shin. ...
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2025 Year End Figure Skating News and Review
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As 2025 comes to a close, we catch up on a bunch of last minute figure skating news: citizenships, announcements, Olympic teams, a combined ISU Worlds event (?), and much more. We also recap our top Gold in Our Hearts moments for the year. And we share our appreciation for our listeners and community, including a particularly touching Christmas Eve message from an audience member. Chapters 00:00:00 Intro 00:01:49 We'll be at US Nationals! 00:04:37 Skating News 00:20:50 ISU Combined Worlds Events 00:32:01 Four Continents announcements 00:43:30 Listener support and Poetry! 00:48:22 2025 Gold in...
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Japanese Nationals 2025 RECAP
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All-Japan Championships 2025 gave us an Olympics-worthy collection of amazing performances — including final competitive skates from several of our favorite athletes. Kaori Sakamoto and Yuma Kagiyama clinched their Olympic spots, and Yuna Aoki gave two of the finest programs of any skater this season. We also talk about the results of the French and Italian nationals events, including their locks for Olympic teams. Chapters 00:00:00 Intro 00:02:10 Women's Event 00:33:07 Men's Compeititon 00:44:32 Pairs Compeition 00:47:14 Ice Dance Competition 00:52:09 French Nationals 00:58:44...
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Japanese Nationals 2025 Preview and Junior Grand Prix Final Recap
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We preview the All-Japan Figure Skating Championships (Japanese Nationals) and its hotly contested Olympic team outcomes. We also look back at the Junior Grand Prix Final, particularly the very exciting junior women’s event. Golden Spin 2025 receives a recap as well, along with a number of other smaller federation national championships. As mentioned in the episode, here is Chapters 00:00:00 Intro 00:01:06 J-Nats Women’s Competition 00:11:59 J-Nats Men's Competition 00:16:16 J-Nats Pairs Competition 00:17:34 J-Nats Ice Dance Competition 00:20:19 French Nationals 00:24:21 Italian Nationals...
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Grand Prix Final 2025 RECAP
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The Grand Prix Final in Japan took us on a rollercoaster of emotions. Ilia Malinin shattered his own world record. Alysa Liu is golden once again. The pairs competition was outstanding. And ice dance somehow managed to generate even more controversy, outcry, and shocking twists. Chapters 0:00 — Intro 03:34 — Pairs Competition 04:22 — Miura and Kihara 08:17 — Conti and Macii 12:41 — Hase and Volodin 15:32 — Metelkina and Berulava 18:50 — Pavlova and Svietchenko 20:10 — Stellato-Dudek and Deschamps 23:45 — Women's Competition 24:36 — Alysa Liu 29:24 — Ami Nakai 33:41 —...
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Grand Prix Final 2025 PREVIEW
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We get ready for the 2025 Grand Prix Final with a rundown of all the competitors across the 4 disciplines, comparing their scores and performances so far this season, and making our (highly dubious) podium predictions. Chapters 0:00 — Intro 1:58 — Men's Competition 19:09 — Men's Podium Predictions 20:47 — Pairs Competition 34:09 — Pairs Podium Predictions 35:39 — Women's Competition 52:57 — Women's Podium Predictions 56:16 — Ice Dance Competition 1:21:20 — Ice Dance Podium Predictions 1:22:59 — Other Skating News 1:24:23 — Talinn Trophy 1:28:00 — South Korean Ranking...
info_outlineThree time world champion Kaori Sakamoto announces her post-Olympics retirement plan, and we have some feelings about it. Plus lots of new program announcements, and we talk about our experience at the North American Adult Synchronized Skating Camp.
Chapters
0:00 — Intro
0:31 — NAASC Synchro Camp Experience
4:52 — Kaori Sakamoto Retirement Plans
10:43 — Other Skating News
11:06 — Young You’s Triple Axel
13:22 — Gabby Daleman returns
14:32 — Kovalevs change coaches
16:05 — US Summer Sizzler and Program Announcements
17:53 — Riku and Ryuchi choreographers
18:33 — Mai Mihara brings back her ’23-’24 programs
20:39 — Mao Shimada’s programs
22:05 — Mona Chiba’s programs
23:11 — Conti and Macii working with Romain Haganaur
24:38 — Thoughts on the Pre-Season
26:51 — Wrap-Up
This week, we glide through quite a few off-season updates. But first, we give a shout out to the North American Adult Synchronized Skating Camp — or NAASSC for short. We were able to record at this event for a YouTube video we’ll be sharing soon! This exciting, sold out event happened the weekend of June 20-22 in St. Louis, MO and was an absolute blast. Big thanks to founder & director, Ashley Carlson, COO Ryan Carlson, and Assistant Director Victoria Smith for allowing us to be flies on the wall… er, boards in this case. More to come from this soon!
Back to the news….
The most notable announcement of the week was certainly Kaori Sakamoto’s confirmation that she will retire at the end of the 2025-2026 season. Commence sobbing! In all seriousness, this was not a huge surprise — especially considering her Olympic short program music was announced to be “Time to Say Goodbye” — but it will absolutely make each remaining competition with her a little more significant. Kaori is such an incredible ambassador of figure skating, and we look forward to her still being one as a coach.
United States Figure Skating announced that they would again be having “Summer Sizzler” event at the Skating Club of Boston — which apparently will be the stage where some US skaters will be premiering their Olympic season programs. We are skeptical that we’ll see competitive program peeks from Chock and Bates, but they will be there on August 14th along with Ilia Malinin, Alysa Liu, Amber Glenn, Jason Brown, Isabeau Levito, and many more.
We talk about all of that, share a bunch more program announcements, and muse on a few more updates we’ve been drinking up online while we wait for Dreams on Ice (where it is rumored that a good number of Team Japan favorites will be debuting their programs for next season). Fingers crossed!