2025-26 Grand Prix Final Women's Free Skate

[CoyoteChris]

And here I was thinking I was the only one who loves the unusual combo of figure skating and F1

It is kind of funny what other sports skating fans enjoy. For me it is aircraft pylon racing, which sadly is disappearing. We should start an info thread on what sports we all enjoy to watch and/or participate in.

 

[Joekaz]

Alysa Liu reminds me of the last Olympic Champion Anna. She also has that 3Lz 3Lo that was in the arsenal of the last two Olympic champions.
My only negative feedback for Alysa is that she talked about adding a 3A and hasn’t. I know she doesn’t need to. But, I was hoping she would push herself more this season. Everything with her is safe. Also, she is skating to the same two programs. They fit her perfectly. I just want to see something different from her. She already has an Olympic gold secured in the team event. So, regardless, her Olympic experience will be golden. I wonder who they will give the second team spot to: Amber or Isabeau? Amber has had a better season. But, hasn’t placed top 4 at Worlds. Isabeau has placed top 4 in the last 3 worlds….

Ami just locked a spot to the Olympic team with her 2nd place here. She could have won if it wasn’t for that 3Lz. What I love about her, is that she has a 3F 3T as a back up plan when she misses her 3Lz 3T and it came handy here.

Kaori - I think she has everything she needs to win Olympic gold. One mistake in each program affected her. She still won the free skate (well deserved) with a mistake

Mone - She has to now pray that Ami, Kaori and Mao win nationals. Because if one of these three do not, she is off the team. She gets way too nervous and that is what affected her here. Still, to me she has the best PCS. Yes. Even better than Kaori.

There is zero chance Mone doesn't make the Olympic team. Lol

 

[Joekaz]

Nope. Not an under rotation. Maybe a Q, but not an underotation...

I disagree. It was pretty obvious for both. And the edges.This was very obviously a very friendly judging panel for everyone. Not a single edge call on anyone? Lol. But the Olympics can be pretty high scoring too.

 

[RafaelAstro]

I disagree. It was pretty obvious for both. And the edges.This was very obviously a very friendly judging panel for everyone. But the Olympics can be pretty high scoring too.

If the 2026 Olympics panel is strict but shows leniency toward certain skaters like the last one did, I’m done.

 

[Joekaz]

If the 2026 Olympics panel is strict but shows leniency toward certain skaters like the last one did, I’m done.

Honesty, that's the Japanese Nationals every year. Lol

 

[RafaelAstro]

Honesty, that's the Japanese Nationals every year. Lol

Yes but at least that's a national event not an international one, and not the most important competition in this sport...

 

[RatedPG]

There is zero chance Mone doesn't make the Olympic team. Lol

It isn’t zero percent.
Japan has a selection criteria.
If a senior eligible lady wins Nationals other than Mao Shimada, Ami Nakai or Kaori Sakamoto, that athlete makes the Olympics instead of Mone.
Yes. Chances of that happening is very low and maybe close to 1%. But, not zero.

 

[lariko]

It isn’t zero percent.
Japan has a selection criteria.
If a senior eligible lady wins Nationals other than Mao Shimada, Ami Nakai or Kaori Sakamoto, that athlete makes the Olympics instead of Mone.
Yes. Chances of that happening is very low and maybe close to 1%. But, not zero.

Okay, so really not happening for Rinka then. I can't imagine her winning the Nationals.

 

[Blades of Passion]

This a worrying result for Alysa, even though she won. Losing the LP by 3 points when Kaori singled an axel...the judges are only going to give Alysa the Bronze at the Olympics with this program, if Kaori and Mone both skate cleanly. Or no medal at all, depending on a certain Russian skater delivering or not.

Keeping her SP from last season was good, but this LP just feels stale now. She doesn't have the speed and wildness to totally sell a disco program. She needs a program that makes us forget about the japanese ladies having better skating skills. But there's probably no time now for a new LP.

 

[Joekaz]

It isn’t zero percent.
Japan has a selection criteria.
If a senior eligible lady wins Nationals other than Mao Shimada, Ami Nakai or Kaori Sakamoto, that athlete makes the Olympics instead of Mone.
Yes. Chances of that happening is very low and maybe close to 1%. But, not zero.

Zero percent that happens.

 

[Joekaz]

Okay, so really not happening for Rinka then. I can't imagine her winning the Nationals.

The reason I say zero percent is because this is not a legitimate sport with honest competition. The Japanese Fed would not allow Rinka to win Nationals even if she possibly could, especially in an Olympic year.

 

[withwings]

It isn’t zero percent.
Japan has a selection criteria.
If a senior eligible lady wins Nationals other than Mao Shimada, Ami Nakai or Kaori Sakamoto, that athlete makes the Olympics instead of Mone.
Yes. Chances of that happening is very low and maybe close to 1%. But, not zero

Really? Hmm... maybe my memory fails , deceives me... my memory recollection tells me that one year, when Tahakiko Kozuka won Japanese Nationals, he was not selected for Olympics. Daisuke Takashi was.

 

[withwings]

It wasn't an insult. It's that she just takes life as it comes and enjoying it, and it's that Carefree let's just give it a shot attitude that allows her to be so loose and consistent and appear so unfazed when everybody else looks like they're going to be facing a firing squad. So there's a degree of light-heartedness about her - I think that's what people are saying.

To be in inner freedom does not mean to be carefree.

 

[rabidline]

Really? Hmm... maybe my memory fails , deceives me... my memory recollection tells me that one year, when Tahakiko Kozuka won Japanese Nationals, he was not selected for Olympics. Daisuke Takashi was.

Kozuka made the National podium that season, but he didn't win. Only the National champion automatically gets to the Olympics no matter what they did before Nationals.

 

[withwings]

Thank you for explanation!

 

[RafaelAstro]

I can't believe the judges didn’t mark Alysa Liu’s flip with a wrong edge, it was pretty obvious on camera. I guess the favorites like Kaori and Alysa are going to get away with wrong edge calls while being much harsher on Chaeyeon, Mone, etc. After analyzing the event, I'm pretty sure Ami should have been first. Even though I don't like her program, she had the cleanest jumps and her presentation was good enough… but oh well.

 

[reneerose]

I don't get much why Nakai is above Kaori

 

[SmileHappy34]

Ami Naki got lenient call on her mistake.
It should have been counted as a fall with 2 hands down.
All she at most receive was a minus 1 and zeros .
But actually neither here nor there.
I actually like the didnt judge her too harshly.

Based on that Alysa got judge harder so did Kaori, Rinka for their small mistakes.

Want to win clean up jumps. Skate clean as possible.
How tech call will call at olympic is any one guess.
Just because call at one event doesn't mean call and judge same at olympic.

So many are capable of winning and meddling, scores are close anything can happen.
How skate and handle own nerves.

 

[yfan1]

This a worrying result for Alysa, even though she won. Losing the LP by 3 points when Kaori singled an axel...the judges are only going to give Alysa the Bronze at the Olympics with this program, if Kaori and Mone both skate cleanly. Or no medal at all, depending on a certain Russian skater delivering or not.

I do think Mone is likely to skate clean, if she gets her head screwed on tightly by then - and I'd love for her to win. And think she'd deserve to, from this field. She has some great spins herself, her basic skating is much better, she has somewhat better jumping technique than Liu, and her LP choreography is better (LPs get more of a PCS advantage - hers is the best one this season).

Kaori's been messing up quite a lot for the last two years, and for me would be the least satisfying Olympic Champion of the skaters we saw here, save Nakai and Watanabe.

 

[lariko]

I dunno, I think there is a lot going for Sakomoto as Olympic champion favorite. She is the very embodiment of the Grande Dame of Figure Skating that the fandom and judging hive mind wants to win after 3 wins by the young women of tarnished rep. She has the programs that have grandeur too, and skates them with appropriate power and emotion. JSF waits for the coming of Shimada next year, so the other youngsters are overshadowed there. Unless Sakomoto messes up colossaly like she did here, the judging hive mind will likely tell Alysa to take her ticket and wait to be called. Let's see how they score in Japanese and States' nationals. If it is a race to overscore one women on each side, there will be competition of feds, I think. If Americans decide that team gold and men/dance is enough for them, and Sakomoto is better for the future... I dunno. Hard to call, because Americans have some sort of a national bias toward women over everyone, no matter how awesome other disciplines perform. So, they might pick this over the common good.