World Championships 2026 RECAP

Cup of China — the third stop on the 2026 Grand Prix Series — offered up a surprising number of stunning skates. Mone Chiba's divine programs won her gold over other terrific performances from Sasha Ignatova, Haein Lee, and Anastasia Gubanova. Kao Muira finally nailed back-to-back short and free programs on his way to victory. But the rest of the men's podium, including Vladimir Dikidzhi and Evgeni Semenenko, put on an impressive show of jump mastery and artistic merit. The Pairs comp was handily won by Mashinia & Galliamov, over a slightly struggling Metelkina and Berulava. And once again Fear & Gibson took a GP gold — but we argue that Ice Dance Podium should have looked very different... And, of course, we address the audience's reprehensible treatment of Mone Chiba during the medal ceremony. Chapters 00:00:00 Intro 00:01:21 Women's Competition 00:27:11 Ice Dance Competition 00:39:38 Men's Competition 00:55:21 Pairs Competition 01:04:13 Gold in our Hearts 01:07:12 Skate America Preview 01:15:06 Wrap-Up

We dig into all the excitement from Skate Canada 2026: Mao Shimada remains undefeated! Kevin Aymoz rises to take gold! Ice Dance scoring was mostly normal and uncontroversial!  Chapters 00:00:00 Intro 00:00:47 Women's Competition 00:22:02 Pairs Competition 00:33:00 Men's Competition 00:46:11 Ice Dance Competition 01:03:22 Gold in our Hearts 01:05:02 Cup of China Preview  01:12:44 Wrap-Up he second stop of the Grand Prix of Figure Skating series took us to Skate Canada, where Japan's Mao Shimada continued her winning streak in dominant fashion. In her first appearance on the Senior Grand Prix of Figure Skating, Shimada delivered 2 nearly flawless programs that landed her a whopping 235.44 total. The second place finisher, Estonia's skating queen Niina Petrokina, also had an incredible competition and truly established herself as one of the top women to watch this season. In third, Isabeau Levito had a glorious short program that had her only a few points behind Shimada. However, the free skate didn't go as well and she just held on for bronze over the fabulous Saki Miyake. The Pairs competition was a showcase for World Bronze medalists, Lia Pereria and Trennt Michaud of Canada. Their short program looked as confident and strong as we have ever seen them. The free had some issues, but overall this sets them up well as a top team. Alisa Efimova and Misha Mitrofanov of the US were solid in their season debut  for silver, but the surprise bronze for Oxana Vouillamoz and Tom Bouvart of Switzerland had perhaps the "moment" of the competition with a clean free skate. As for the men, Kevin Aymoz charmed his way to his second Grand Prix gold with technically imperfect but artistically brilliant skates. In silver, Japan's superstar rookie, Rio Nakata, looked set up for victory in the short. His free skate, however, was much messier and couldn't keep him ahead. In third, Estonia's Mihhail Selevko had a particularly strong free skate that took him from fifth to third. Lastly, the dance event saw vibrant, crowd pleasing performances for gold from Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson of the UK. In second, the innovative French team of Evgeniia Lopareva and Geoffrey Brissaud delivered phenomenal versions of their new programs to hold them about 9 points behind the Brits. Rounding out the podium was Caroline Green and Michael Parsons of the US, who scored the first level 4 Golden Waltz of the season from any team!

The 2026 Grand Prix is officially underway! These season's first event, the Grand Prix de France, was a stunner. Outstanding performances from Ami Nakai, Adam Siao Him Fa, Fournier-Beaudry & Cizerone, and Metelkina & Berulva brought home gold in their respective disciplines. There were a number of stellar comebacks, too—including podium placing free skates from Kao Muira and Lara Naki Gutman. There were also heartbreaking moments, as with Yuna Aoki's drop from first to 4th, and a shockingly poor outing from Olympic champion Mikhail Shaidorov. Chapters 00:00:00 Intro 00:01:48 Grand Prix de France Recap 00:02:58 Men's Competition 00:19:40 Ice Dance Competition 00:31:54 Women's Competition 00:44:34 Pairs Competition 00:50:44 Gold in our Hearts 00:51:57 Look ahead to Skate Canada 00:57:16 Other News 00:58:53 Wrap-Up

Our long-promised annual Question and Answer episode is finally here. We respond to your queries about the origins of the show, our expectations with the return of the Russians, figure skating's popularity and how to sustain it, and lots more. Chapters 00:00:00 Intro 00:02:19 Questions We Get Asked a Lot 00:03:18 Do we skate / have experience skating? 00:04:51 How did Wendy convince Adron to do a FS podcast? 00:14:02 Do you use AI in your thumbnails/videos? 00:16:16 Old fans of a young sport 00:21:06 Can FS sustain a surge in popularity? 00:29:44 Russian Return Impacts 00:31:44 Incorrect Historic Olympic Results 00:34:58 Decreasing Jumping Passes 00:36:59 Should Synchro be in the Olympics? 00:37:57 Stars on Ice Questions 00:44:52 Wish Fulfillment Questions 00:49:21 Grand Prix predictions? 00:53:20 Misc, beyond Figure Skating 00:58:52 Wrap-Up

Oh boy, we've been gone for awhile! But the new season has started and, like the Russians, we have returned! Kinoshita Cup gave us the first look at this new season, and we're gonna talk about it and some other figure skating news we've missed. Chapters 00:00:00 Intro 00:01:55 Skating News Catch-Up 00:13:13 Kinoshita Cup 2026 Recap 00:14:01 Women's Event 00:27:53 Men's Competition 00:37:03 Pairs Competition 00:43:56 Ice Dance Competition 00:52:11 Some Other News and Wrap-Up A new skating season (and quadrennial) is here, and we are back and ready. This summer has seen lots of off ice news including Amber Glenn joining Dancing With the Stars to Alysa Liu taking a break from competition. We'll definitely be following their journeys, but today we're talking Kinoshita Cup. The second event in the Challenger series, this event was especially significant as the first senior international event that saw neutral Russian athletes in four years. In the women's event, Mao Shimada put on an incredible show in her first senior international. She was second in the short, just behind a brilliant Ami Nakai. In the free skate, however, Mao pulled away with a breathtaking skate that included her triple axel, quad toe loop, and the best spins we saw in the competition.  In second place, after missing a full Olympic cycle, Alexandra Ignatova (Trusova) made her highly anticipated return. Her short program was refreshing and evolved, while her free skate was an absolute clinic of technical difficulty. Rounding out the top three with a strong overall showing was Anna Frolova of Russia.

We were away for awhile, and a TON of off season skating news dropped. We catch-up on retirement announcement, exciting new ice dance and pairs teams, the return of the Russians, and more. Chapters 00:00:00 Intro 00:01:42 Ilia Malinin's... Announcement? 00:05:11 Retirement Announcements 00:12:17 Riku and Ryuchi's Destiny Tour 00:14:12 Alysa Liu wins an ESPY award 00:16:15 New Ice Dance pairings 00:29:16 New Pairs teams 00:37:16 Return of the Russians 00:47:53 First International Events of the Season! 00:55:41 Next up: our annual Q&A episode 00:56:43 Wrap-Up

Marin Honda and Shoma Uno have officially announced that they are returning from retirement — to compete in Ice Dance for Japan. We dig into this exciting news, plus round up what else has happened in this wild off season: Italy's Team Bronze pairs team Conti and Macii have officially split, as have the promising Australian pair Golubeva and Giotopoulos Moore. Starr Andrews has officially teamed up with Danill Parkman to compete for the USA in pairs, while Fiona Bombardier and Loucas Etheir have joined forces in Canada. Other retirements and team-ups have been announced, all while the competition plans for some of the US and Canada's biggest names remains in question. Chapters 00:00:00 Intro 00:00:33 Marin Honda and Soma Uno Ice Dancers 00:12:07 Conti and Macii Split 00:14:12 Golubeva and Giotopoulos Moore Split 00:15:44 Vladimir Litvintsev Retires 00:16:52 Starr Andrews and Danill Parkman Pairs Partnership 00:20:31 Fiona Bombardier and Loucas Etheir Pairs Team 00:22:01 Milania Kristina Vaananen and Fillipo Ambrosini Pairs Team 00:23:02 What will Team USA and Team Canada look like this season? 00:28:46 Free Agent Skaters Dropping Hints 00:29:34 Wrap-Up and Continued Call for Q&A Submissions

The Stars On Ice 2026 Tour is in full swing, and we were fortunate enough to get ice-side seats at the St. Louis show. We give you a full breakdown and reaction to this (spoiler: FANTASTIC) show. Plus some skating news, including the announced split of Canadian ice dance team Lajoie and Lagha. Chapters 00:00:00 Intro 00:00:46 Skating News 00:08:26 Stars on Ice Reaction 00:12:12 The Stargazer Experience 00:15:19 Andrew Torgashev 00:16:18 Isabeau Levito 00:16:59 Carreira and Ponomarenko 00:17:46 Zingas and Kolesnik 00:19:38 Jason Brown 00:22:32 Chock and Bates 00:23:53 Kam and O'Shea 00:25:10 Ilia Malinin 00:27:50 Amber Glenn 00:31:16 Alysa Liu 00:33:57 Final thoughts about SOI 2026 00:39:23 Wrap-Up

After a week away, we catch-up on a ton of figure skating news, including dance and pairs team splits, retirements, and other surprises. We also recount our trip to the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs. And Adron talks about learning his oldest sister was also a big figure skating fan, just days before her untimely passing last week. Chapters 00:00:00 Intro, the passing of Adron's sister (and connection to skating) 00:08:36 Our Denver Twice Trip 00:11:36 Skating News: Team Splits 00:25:02 Skating News: Retirements and Gap Years 00:32:29 Skating News: Misc 00:41:29 Our Colorado Springs visit 00:55:12 Call for Q&A Episode Questions 00:56:22 Wrap-Up We're back with some offseason news after a short break. There's A LOT happening in figure skating for late April! This month has been a roller coaster for us personally. Adron lost his oldest sister suddenly, which has been difficult for many reasons. We discuss this and how it actually connects to figure skating in the first 8 minutes of this week's episode. We know this type of discussion is challenging for some, so if you prefer to go right to the skating news, the chapter breaks can skip you ahead. In terms of skating, the rumor mill has been going strong after video was shared by Marin Honda from Japan of her and Shoma Uno training at I.AM. The two have been doing ice dance routines in Shoma's tour, Ice Brave, and their time at I.AM. may be a continuation of that. Or, as we and many others are trying not to get too excited about, it could mean a possible return to competition. They have confirmed nothing, so let's keep it chill for now (with our fingers crossed). When it comes to factual news, we talk through the splits of both Korea's Hannah Lim and Ye Quan, as well as Olivia Flores and Luke Wang from the USA.  We also get into our feelings over the un-surprising retirement of Japan's Riku Miura and Ryuchi Kihara. Following their victory at the Olympics, it was very much expected that they would hang up their competitive skates, but this one hurts. Others who have announced they are retiring are Ioulia Chtchetinina of Poland and Josefin Taljegard of Sweden.  Not retiring but taking a break for a season is Japan's Yuma Kagiyama. His absence will be a significant loss for the men's field, but may open opportunities for other Japanese men like Kazuki Tomono — or Rio Nakata, who will be moving up to the Senior ranks next season. There are many other tidbits — like Alysa Liu's music video debut and Johnny and Tara hosting The Kelly Clarkson Show — which all makes for a very active month without competition. There's also discussion of our recent trip to Colorado Springs — the home of the Olympic and Paralympic Training Center for the U.S.. — which was admittedly not as exciting as we'd hoped for. 

With the season finally complete, we reflect on the post-Worlds ISU Awards, catch-up on the latest skating news, and hand out our own 2nd annual Scoreography Awards. After an amazing Olympic season of figure skating, it feels appropriate to give out awards to the skaters, programs, and costumes we loved most. Inspired by the ISU Awards, which we discuss in this episode, we  give out our own Scoreography awards that, while involving no actual trophy or medal, we are sending from our hearts ti the skaters. The ISU Awards, given out directly following the Gala Exhibition at the World Championships, is still a fairly young award show but appears to be something the skaters are enjoying — and even campaigning for in a few cases. Chapters 00:00:00 Intro 00:02:55 Skating News 00:12:12 ISU Awards 00:28:25 The 2026 Scoreography Awards! 00:49:20 Gold in our Hearts — Season Edition 00:52:49 Wrap-Up