This Week in Skating is hosted by Gina Capellazzi, Daphne Backman and Matteo Morelli is a cooperative project between Figure Skaters Online and Ice-dance.com. New episodes are available every Tuesday.
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General Skating News
- 12 year old South African figure skater Kira Meyer passed away less than two weeks after a tragic electric scooter accident.
- New York Post article: https://nypost.com/2026/05/21/sports/12-year-old-figure-skater-dead-after-tragic-electric-scooter-accident/
- SAFSA’s Instagram tribute: https://www.instagram.com/p/DYcN-uMlypA/
- On April 30th, the survivor in the Nikolaj Sorensen case, Ashley Foy, spoke publicly for the first time in a video released on Lori Ward’s Broken Ice substack.
- Broken Ice also reported on May 6 that two-time world pairs champion and coach Meagan Duhamel has been suspended by Skate Canada for two weeks for “bullying and harassment” of another coach.
- U.S. Figure Skating announces 2025-26 Coach I.C.E. Award recipients
New Partnerships
- Marin Honda and Shoma Uno will compete in ice dance for Japan with the intention of competing at the 2030 Olympics.
- Fiona Bombardier and Loucas Ethier will compete in pairs for Canada.
- Fiona Bombardier and Benjamin Mimar and Kelly Ann-Laurin and Loucas Ethier announced their respective splits in late April. Kelly Ann is looking for a new partner.
- Starr Andrews and Daniil Parkman will compete in pairs for the U.S.
- Katie McBeath and Daniil Parkman announced the end of their partnership; Katie hasn’t announced a new partnership yet.
- Tallulah Tanner and Blake McGee will compete in junior pairs for the U.S.
- Milania Vaananen and Filippo Ambrosini will compete in pairs for Italy.
Dissolved Partnerships
- Italy’s Sara Conti will look for another partner while Niccolo Macii is retiring and plans to start a journey as a coach.
- Canada’s Marjorie Lajoie and Zachary Lagha dissolved their partnership after 15 years of skating together.
- Australia’s Anastasia Golubeva plans to look for another partner while Hektor Giotopoulos Moore is “taking a step back” from competitive skating.
- Great Britain’s Anastasia Vaipan-Law is looking for a new partner while Luke Digby is retiring.
- Poland’s Ioulia Chtchetinina has retired while Michal Wozniak is looking for a new partner.
- Korea’s Hannah Lim and Ye Quan announced they would be searching for new partners.
- USA’s Olivia Flores and Luke Wang have announced the end of their partnership.
- Canada’s Julia Quattrocchi and Etienne Lacasse have ended their partnership and are looking for new partners.
Retirements
- Riku Miura/Ryuichi Kihara
- Vladimir Litvintsev
- Landry le May
- Marie Dupayage/Thomas Nabais
- Josefin Taljegard
Updates on their future plans
- Madison Chock and Evan Bates said in a Forbes Magazine article that they plan to “move toward show skating.”
- Yuma Kagiyama plans to take next season off. He also announced that he’s not working with Carolina Kostner anymore.
- Minerva Fabienne Hase and Nikita Volodin announced they plan to continue skating through the 2030 Olympics.
- Gabrielle Daleman will compete next season.
Coaching Changes
- Rachel Samiri will now be coached by Philip Deguglielmo and Massimo Scali
- Isabella Flores and Linus Colmor Jepsen will now be coached by Adrian Diaz, Madison Hubbell, Cara Moir, Scott Moir
- Sophie Joline von Felten will now be coached by Elena Petrenko and Vladimir Petrenko
- Mei Okada will now be coached by Mie Hamada.
ISU Updates
- ISU Athletes’ Committee Election Results (April 22)
- Challenger Series in Figure Skating Season 2026/27 (April 24)
- Synchro Well Balanced Program Content for the 2026/27 season (April 24)
- Synchro9 Well Balanced Program Content for Synchro9 Effective for the 2026/2027 and 2027/2028 season (April 27)
- ISU Calendar of Events for the 2026/27 season (April 27)
- Synchro Difficulty Groups of Elements for 2026/27 season (May 5)
- Single & Pair Skating Scale of Values 2026/27 (May 8)
- ISU List of Candidates for Elections (May 10)
- Agenda for the 60th Ordinary ISU Congress 2026 (May 11)
- Guidelines for International Novice Competitions for 2026/27 (May 11)
- Synchro Novice Competitions for 2026/27 (May 19)
- Singles & Pairs Levels and GOE 2026/27 (updated May 19)
- Synchro GOE (May 21)
Other News
- Skate Canada announced the 35 Athletes Named to Skate Canada’s 2026-2027 NextGen Team: https://skatecanada.ca/community/athletes/nextgen-team/
- All-Event Tickets to Skate Canada International are on sale. The event is Oct. 30-Nov. 1 in Kelowna, British Columbia.
- 2027 U.S. Championships All-Event and Weekend Tickets are on sale. The event is at the Maverick Center in Salt Lake City Jan. 5-11.
- The dates changed for juvenile, intermediate, novice and junior events. They will now take place Jan. 10-14.
Event Recap
Upcoming Events for the Week
| DATES | EVENT | LOCATION |
| May 28 – 31 | 2026 Traverse City Cherry Classic (National Solo Dance Series) | Traverse City, Michigan |
| June 4-7 | 2026 4th Annual Paradise Coast Classic (National Solo Dance Series) | Estero, Florida |
| June 4-7 | 2026 Ice Fest (National Solo Dance Series) | Mountlake Terrace, Washington |
| June 10 – 13 | 2026 Utah Skatefest (National Solo Dance Series) | West Valley City, Utah |
| June 10-12 | 60th Ordinary ISU Congress | Tenerife, Spain |
Online Updates
| DATE | POST/INFORMATION/PLATFORM | |
| Belgium’s Olivia Shilling & Leo Baeten got married on May 16. | ||
| Kaori Sakamoto got married. | ||
| DATE | ARTICLE SUBJECT | OUTLET / OUTLET TYPE |
| May 22 | Interview with Wakaba Higuchi | Rocker Skating |
| May 18 | Interview with Sofia Val and Asaf Kazimov | Golden Skate |
| May 10 | Interview with Denis Krouglov | Golden Skate |
| May 14 | ‘I Loved Every Minute of it.’ (Audrey Lu) | U.S. Figure Skating |
| May 8 | A Love Beyond The Ice: Alexa Knierim Embraces Motherhood | U.S. Figure Skating |
| May 23 | Fee Ann Landry Article | Rob Brodie’s Substack |
IDC and FSO spotlight & TWIS updates
- New at TWIS: This Week in Skating, Figure Skaters Online and Ice-Dance.com’s new store, Three Turns Shop
- New at TWIS: This Week in Skating on Patreon
- New at TWIS: This Week in Skating on YouTube
- New at IDC: Photos from ITNY Gala and Exhbition
- New at IDC: Photos from Stars on Ice Canada
- New at IDC: Photos from Stars on Ice U.S.
- New at FSO: Photos from 2026 Ice Theatre of New York Home Season Performance and Gala
- New at FSO: Photos from 2026 Canada Stars on Ice Tour (Toronto Show)
- New at FSO: Photos from 2026 U.S. Stars on Ice Tour (San Jose Show)
- New at FSO: Review: 2026 Stars on Ice tour was a special ending to the 2025-2026 Olympic season