2025 NHK Trophy Ice Dance Podium (From L to R): Charlene Guignard and Marco Fabbri (ITA), Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson (GBR) and Caroline Green and Michael Parsons (USA).
2025 NHK Trophy: Ice Dance
Great Britain’s Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson won their fourth Grand Prix gold medal in the Ice Dance event with two charming performances at 2025 NHK Trophy in Osaka, Japan. Charlene Guignard and Marco Fabbri of Italy earned the silver, while USA’s Caroline Green and Michael Parsons pocketed the bronze.
Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson
Fear and Gibson delivered a vibrant and spirited rhythm dance to a Spice Girls medley, capped by a level-four rotational lift in the closing moments. Their twizzles also received level four, while the midline steps earned levels two and partial steps were awarded a level two. The 2025 World bronze medalists earned positive grades of execution (GOEs) for all elements and scored 81.57 points, placing them at the top of the standings heading into the free dance.
“The first day was great!” said Gibson. “It’s always so fun to be back in Japan and to be in front of such a large crowd, as well so early in the day of competitions. It was such a pleasure and just a great feeling to be back.”
Fear explained that when they found out that the theme for the rhythm dance was the 90s, it was “obvious” they would select the Spice Girls.
“Especially in Olympic season. We wanted to be very patriotic in both programs, and Spice Girls, they embody such empowerment,” she pointed out. “They are so individual in who they are. They all have such different personalities that they let shine. And I think that represents our sport very well, how we’re all so unique and go out there and express ourselves, and it’s so powerful. We also love the songs, and they’re incredibly catchy and we hoped that the crowd would too.”
The two-time European silver medalists presented a charming and reverent Scottish-themed free dance to “The Bonnie Banks of Loch Lomond” and “I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles).” Their level-four twizzles were exceptionally well-executed, and all three lifts and dance spin were also graded a level four. All elements earned many positive GOEs, and they finished first in both the free dance (personal best) and overall (124.31/205.88).
“We’re both very proud of the competitions that we’ve had so far this season,” said Gibson. “Just being able to feel more like it’s our training that’s in the competition has been such a big step up for us this season, and something that we definitely look to build upon for the rest of the season. Both Grand Prix locations are also fantastic and such a joy to compete in!”
“Lewis and I had an absolute blast in Japan, as always,” added Fear. “We’re just very proud of our performances because we put a lot of work in a short amount of time between France and here. It really showed up in competition, which is one of the most gratifying feelings, so we’re really proud.”
With this win, the team has earned a ticket to the Grand Prix Final later next month.
Charlene Guignard and Marco Fabbri
The two-time World medalists delivered a crowd-engaging rhythm dance set to music by The Backstreet Boys. Their level-three midline steps were smooth, but the Fabbri lost two levels on the twizzles fora break in rotation. The partial steps were graded a level two, and they showed intricate transitions throughout, earning a level four on the straightline lift. The team finished the segment in second place with 76.36 points.
“It’s always so nice to skate here in front of the Japanese crowd so that’s why I’m disappointed with myself,” said Fabbri. “Doing a mistake considering that Charlene was the one that was not feeling 100% doesn’t feel good for me. But it was still a pleasure to skate today.”
Guignard felt pain in her hand, hip and leg after a collision in practice with Japan’s Utana Yoshida and Masaya Morita on Thursday during practice.
“Now I feel pain in all my right part of the body,” she revealed. “We fix everything for the competition, so I skate without pain, but of course I don’t feel at the maximum. I can do everything so it’s okay nothing serious.”
The three time and current European champions delivered a refined and well-structured free dance to music from Diamanti, highlighted by level-four twizzles and lifts. The team showed emotion and connection throughout, executing good one-foot and circular step sequences. They earned a new season’s best of 122.31 points for second place in in this segment and overall (198.67).
“Actually, we are very happy that the competition is ending, because every day I feel worse for my physical condition,” Guignard revealed. “Today was very hard, but we felt good on the ice, we skated well. We are happy about the way we performed and the way we ended this competition.”
“Since we decided to start the season a little bit later, we are quite happy with the performances we had in both our Grand Prixes,” Fabbri added. “We know that’s just the beginning of the season for us. We just competed for the first time this year three weeks ago. So, the programs still have a lot of margins for improvement, but we got some feedback from these two competitions, and we will work on the feedback we got.”
Guignard and Fabbri currently sit in third place in the Grand Prix standings with 22 points in the Grand Prix standings, but other teams that will be vying for spots at the Final when they compete at Skate America and Finlandia Trophy.
Caroline Green and Michael Parsons
Two weeks ago, Green and Parsons withdrew from Cup of China prior to the free dance after Parsons sustained a pelvic injury during their rhythm dance.
However, the team looked solid on Friday, placing third with a new season’s best of 75.14 in the rhythm dance at this event. Their fun routine to “Groove Is in the Heart” and “I’m Too Sexy” was highlighted by a very good level-four rotational lift which garnered mostly +3 GOEs. The twizzles were graded a level three and level four, while the midline steps were a two and three.
“The feeling that we had finishing the program today on this ice in this rink in front of this crowd is why we skate,” said Parsons. “We’re so proud of what we did. Just the contrast of having probably the hardest competitive experience of our careers two weeks ago, to come here and put down the skates that we know we can, just feels incredible. We’re so happy to be here!”
The 2022 Four Continents champions displayed good level-four lifts throughout their intriguing and contemporary free dance to “Escalate” and “Son of Nyx.” The opening dance spin was also graded a level four, while the twizzles received a level two and four. They earned a new season’s best for third place in both the free skate and overall (112.76/187.90).
“I think it’s safe to say that Michael and I have learned a lot in these past three weeks that we’ve been away here in Asia,” said Green. “To go from one of the most difficult experiences of our careers, having to withdraw from the free dance in China, to having the skates that we did here at NHK, has just been really rewarding. We came into this competition with a lot of gratitude for being able to come back and get that out there and just really soak in this experience.”
Parsons described a special moment of reflection when they took an early morning bus to practice.
“(We were) watching the sun come up,” he explained. “I just thought, ‘how amazing is this that we get to be here?’ Even though you still feel like you’re asleep and you’re thinking about all the things you have to do ahead of you in that day. To be able to be here and to go through that with some of the best teams in the world and to skate your hearts out. I think we’re so lucky and we’re so proud of what we did today.”
Natalie Taschlerova and Filip Taschler
Czech Republic’s Natalie Taschlerova and Filip Taschler placed a close fourth for their upbeat rhythm dance with 74.70 points. The team showed solid level-four twizzles and earned a level two on the midline and partial steps. The straightline lift was also graded a level four, and they picked up many positive GOEs for all elements.
The six-time Challenger Series medalists placed sixth (108.63) in their dramatic free dance to music from The Matrix. While the curve-curve combination lift received mostly positive GOEs, one judge gave them a -3. The twizzles were graded a level four and three, and the team showed a unique position in the level-four straightline lift. The team placed sixth in this segment, however, with a total score of 183.33, they maintained fourth place overall.
The brother-and-sister team will compete next at Finlandia Trophy in two weeks.
USA’s Katarina Wolfkostin and Dimitry Tsarevski posted all new personal bests throughout the event in their Grand Prix debut, placing a respectable fifth overall (182.85). This was a solo event for the 2025 World Junior silver medalists.
Maia Shibutani and Alex Shibutani
Coming off a seven-year hiatus, USA’s Maia Shibutani and Alex Shibutani finished sixth overall (180.50). The three-time world medalists will compete again in two weeks at Finlandia Trophy.
“I feel stronger than I did before,” said Maia of their comeback. “I think that last time around we were only 23 and 26. So certainly, being adults gives you a sense of perspective, but then also additional gratitude, and so it feels really good.”
After the free dance, Maia Shibutani pointed out it was their first competition or performance in front of an audience since 2019.
“I’d say that we’ve grown and lived so much life outside of the sport,” she said. “But to still be able to capture and meet the moment the way that we did for this very special audience is something that I will always remember.”
“It’s taken so much work to get to this point, and we believe in ourselves, which is why we’re here,” Alex Shibutani added. “We’ve always believed that we have what it takes and we have each other. This performance today was incredibly special to us because ‘Fix You,’ the song, is a very meaningful piece to us. For anyone who’s followed our career, we skated to ‘Fix You’ in 2015 and 2016 in that season, and so this marks 10 years since we first debuted that song. Now, naturally, the program is very different than it was then, and so are we, but we’ve grown, and our relationship and our understanding to the song as our lives have developed has taken on a new meaning for us.”
Jennifer Janse van Rensburg and Benjamin Steffan of Germany placed seventh overall (177.54), followed by Finland’s Yuka Orihara and Juho Pirinen (175.52).
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