In our first episode of 2025, we catch up on all things figure skating since the Grand Prix Final, including national championships in Japan, France, and Italy, plus other news.

After a short winter’s nap, we’re back in 2025 and catching up on a lot of National competitions that have happened since the Grand Prix Final.

Japanese Figure Skating Championships 2024

To no one’s surprise, Yuma Kagiyama was formally crowned Japan’s next great legend as he won his first national title. Much more surprising was the rest of the strong men’s field, which greatly underperformed. Up-in-coming junior star, Rio Nakata, took silver and a surprising bronze went to Tatsuya Tsuboi.

On the Women’s side, Kaori Sakamoto reminded us all of her brilliance after a disappointing Grand Prix Final and performed two excellent programs that earned her a fifth national title. The reigning queen of juniors, Mao Shimada, came in a strong second and the surging Wakaba Higuchi continued her comeback in taking bronze — and a spot on the world team with Sakamoto.

French National Championships 2025

The story of these games was the continued comeback of Kevin Aymoz, who went from 7th last year after a devastating free skate to winning his 6th national title this year. Adam Siao Him Fa remained MIA due to continued injury, though did claim a spot on the Europeans team where we’ll see him and Aymoz.

Italian Nationals 2025

Both Conti & Macii in Pairs and Guignard & Fabbri in Dance continued to show their dominance at home — winning their disciplines by 33 and 46 points over their closest competitors, respectively.

A much closer competition was the men’s, where we saw Daniel Grassl take his fifth national title over last year’s winner, Nikolaj Memola — who won the free skate, but was too far behind to catch Grassl after the short program.

Other Skating News

The ISU’s decision to allow Russia and Belarus to each nominate one female, one male, one pair team, and one ice dance team for the Olympic Qualifying competition means we very well may be seeing Russians competing internationally at the Olympic Games.

Lastly, we want to wish a big and loud CONGRATULATIONS to both Deanna Stellato-Dudek and Allison Reed — who each received their respective citizenship to Canada and Lithuania recently. We cannot wait to see you both at the 2026 Olympic Games in Milano-Cortina!

Mid-Season 2024-2025 Catch-Up