Replay Lounge 2025-26 Grand Prix Final

[gsk8]

This is the place to dive deeper and continue conversations from the fast-paced 2025-26 Grand Prix Final competition threads!

Who impressed you the most? Who do you think will be a star in seniors next season? Any standout programs or surprises? How did your favorites do? Want to analyze scores? Share your thoughts!

Please remember to keep things friendly and respectful.

Have fun!

Japan's Miura and Kihara reclaim Grand Prix Final title

2025-26 Grand Prix Final: Pairs' Figure Skating Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara reclaimed the Grand Prix Final title in the Pairs' discipline on home ice on

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Madison Chock and Evan Bates deliver at Grand Prix Final

2025-26 Grand Prix Final: Ice Dance USA's Madison Chock and Evan Bates delivered two exceptional performances to win their third consecutive Grand Prix

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USA's Ilia Malinin lands record seven quads at Grand Prix Final

2025-26 Grand Prix Final: Men's Figure Skating USA's Ilia Malinin landed a record of seven solid quads in the free skate, rebounding from third place to

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USA's Alysa Liu captures Grand Prix Final crown

2025-26 Grand Prix Final: Women's Figure Skating USA’s Alysa Liu captured her first Grand Prix Final crown in the Women's event in Nagoya, Japan, on

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[noskates]

Just finished watching the Men's Short Program. I love Yuma's program. He was by far, to me, the most interesting of the skaters and presented a gold medal program. Outstanding choreography and delivery. And who on earth made Ilia's costume? That's probably the worst I've seen him skate this year but not worried - he'll definitely nail it in the free. Shaiderov had a really bad skate but I expect he'll come back also in the free. And poor Adam SHF - just doesn't seem to be able to skate clean this year.

Pairs - to me - were singularly boring. The Italians were the only pair that really stood out. I thought the Japanese were overscored and had a fairly sloppy skate....certainly not their usual.

 

[TontoK]

Just saw the men's short from Yuma and Ilia. Yuma deserved this short program win, and he deserved the margin he has. It goes to show that when skated brilliantly, any program can be appealing, because I haven't liked this until now. Ilia was off today, and not only with the opening combo. Just a little bit "lesser" than normal on the elements, even the spins.

But I love Ilia's approach. The daredevil mindset - and I'm sure he'll get that big 4A combo done next time. Maybe even in the free skate. I also love the reaction - essentially "Hey, I gave it a go. Why not?"

I'm not sure he cares about the outcome here, but who knows? He might, and even being down by a 14-point gap doesn't mean this thing is over. We'll see.

 

[noskates]

Agree Tonto. That 14 gap is nothing if he lands the quad axel clean. Actually it's okay for him to have a not-so-good skate on occasion. I don't think he takes anything for granted but this will keep his mind and attention refocussed.

 

[yfan1]

I'm just not impressed with Kagiyama's skating, outside his basic skating.

 

[4everchan]

I have been sleeping.. Will watch later... but I read the comments in the threads...
I am surprised that Miniki can lose their jump completely and be out of synch in their Spins and still lead over Stellato-Dudek and Deschamps whose programs had two minor flaws but didn't lose an entire crucial elements. I saw their skate and then went to bed and I thought the twist lift and steps were stellar.... so to find them in last place was surprising to me. I think judges need to reward teams who are cleaner first so it should be CM in first place... but the Japanese are once again, protected. It's getting a bit annoying and I say this as a fan of the Japanese team.

Dance : interesting to see Piper and Paul getting lower GOE and PCS than the Brits... and being saved by the tech panel. I will take it but this panel of judges clearly had a different agenda. It reinforces my frustration over the tech panel that wrecked the last two GPs... (and my LaLa). I will watch the RD later because I want to make my own mind but I was surprised/but not so surprised at all in the end because it's ice dance, that skating earlier for them meant less GOE and PCS. I hope that this effect is true in the FD to counterbalance the injustice... but I don't believe that two wrongs make a right... so I am conflicted with that.

Men... will have to watch also because Yuma's score is fabulous and I love Yuma . From the protocols it seems that Malinin finally was caught for his slightly under-rotated jumps... which was costly and that the gamble on the quad axel didn't pay out. Maybe he should save the quad axel for the LP... he certainly doesn't need it in the SP considering he does flip and lutz which nobody else can quite do..

 

[lariko]

Was mostly bored, with main highlight being Pavlova/Svyatchenko and Krouglov. Love my tryhards and underdogs. Found out that a thought of watching junior women makes me wanna go and wash dishes or vacuum clean or something else. Malinin trying that combo and two-footing it was a bit of a downer, particulary trying to see if the man's SP limitation was only that they need to do 3A separately. Another one was Sato's 3A. But, like, clean-ish Grassl? Nice. Am happy for Kagiyama fans, but he does absolutely nothing for me, so like... good for him/them.

Other than that, honesty, I just like C/B more, so the judges didn't really annoy me. Mark was talking how the things are so different in dance this time, but I don't really see that since all these teams has been around. I mean, maybe he meant Z/K, but it's not like it was Mrazkova/Mrazek qualifying or something totally out of the blue.

I really need something cool (in my books) to happen soonish, otherwise I am ready to take a break from watching figure skating. It's just not the same any more. I am bored.

 

[Skating91]

Shimada's performance probably the best I've seen from her. No wonder Kaori does not want to stick around next season. Don't agree with Okada being second Oka and Kanazawa a lot more enjoyable, plus Okada had her 3Lz on the q and the 3T was then underrotated but the tech panel missed it of course (plus unclear edge on the 3Lz). One judge had some integrity giving the combo a 0, the rest give it 2's and 3's

Oka skates with real maturity and Kanazawa has incredible presence for age 13. Hopefully they give Shimada a senior program next season, Shimada is still presented as if she was the 13 year old in the competition while Kanazawa (and Oka) skates more like a 17 year old about to go to seniors. Still, I looked past the odd presentation of Shimada and was kind of blown away by her performance. I don't think any Russian junior would beat her in a short program.

Good to see Malinin get beat by a big margin just to introduce some excitement in the men's discipline for once. Strange how Malinin in Skate Canada could jump 6 quads, somersault at the end of the program, break the world record, and here struggled with two jump elements. Maybe the change of time zone had an effect . I know Malinin wants to do his 4A in front of the eyes of the world at the Olympics, but he wouldn't want to crack under pressure as he did today and open the door for someone. If he can crack in a short program, he can definitely fall apart in a free skate. Even doing that somersault at the end adds some unnecessary risk, but I think he doesn't want to just win gold he likes to showboat a little doing it to make a name for himself. I wonder if someone can convince him to play it safe at the Olympics?

Also, I was only glancing at the junior pairs I was surprised by how many adult skaters there were. 21 with 19, 20 with 19, was it 22 and 17! Some what against the spirit of the rules for a junior comp I would have thought? . Junior competitions should be for children. Do they at least separate the adults from the children in the locker rooms? Odd! The adults must feel a little sheepish about it all as well winning tournaments against 13 and 14 year olds. I would feel like Billy Madison.

 

[Mathman]

Not a good day for the big quads. The winner did the least, presenting "only" 4T+3T and 4S.

4Lz and 4T+3T clean... Second place
4A and 4Lz_3T... Third place.
4Lz+3T and 4Lo... Fourth place.
4Lz and 4T+?... Fifth place
4Lz and 4T+?... Sixth palce.

 

[Jontor]

Malinin just showed that anything can happen at the Olympics. He takes risks, and sometimes they don't pay off.
In my book, he just went from 100% gold candidate to 50%.

Other than that, didn't expect both Shaidorov and Siao Him Fa to bomb their programs. This opens up for Grassl to snitch 3rd-4th place in front of them.

 

[lariko]

I highly doubt Malinin will open with 4A3T in the Olympics. He was wondering and he's got his answer. But he showed 4A in the SP and tested the rules, so now we all know, a senior man can have both 3A and 4A as single jumps in an SP.

 

[Jontor]

Not a good day for the big quads. The winner did the least, presenting "only" 4T+3T and 4S.

4Lz and 4T+3T clean... Second place
4A and 4Lz_3T... Third place.
4Lz+3T and 4Lo... Fourth place.
4Lz and 4T+?... Fifth place
4Lz and 4T+?... Sixth palce.

Makes me think that the BIG quads are maybe not worth it. URs and Q's and edge calls are common.
Kagiyama showed here that excellent quality with +4s +5s on 4Ts and 4Ss scores just as much.
It's a bit like Britschgi at last seasons Europeans.

 

[Jontor]

I highly doubt Malinin will open with 4A3T in the Olympics. He was wondering and he's got his answer. But he showed 4A in the SP and tested the rules, so now we all know, a senior man can have both 3A and 4A as single jumps in an SP.

It's risky though. If he URs the 4A and it gets downgraded, then the second 3A would be invalid.

 

[Karoltyna]

Just watched this part of men I missed. Eh, Yuma was so brilliant and this was so well deserved. I guess Adam just feels lost and unsure without the pressure of expected redemption skate. As his fan - nothing can hurt me...

 

[ladyjane]

As usual I enjoyed the men, although Adam and Mikhail did not skate well. Daniel did. Good for him! And Shun and Yuma were the stars, especially Yuma. What a skate! Yay! Ilia not so good this time, but it does bring back some excitement in the sport.

 

[DancingCactus]

Do I even want to know why the scored Piper and Paul the way they did....

Yuma was brilliant, his landings are the best, although I think Adam is the most expressive even on a bad day.

Ilia's costume is so hideous, who thought this was a good idea? Looks like he can still lose the short, but he would really have to fall apart to lose the free.

 

[el henry]

Yuma.

I love this program. Love love love. Love the music, love the steps, love the choreo, I even love the jumps (don't stereotype me, bro ).

So exciting to see it clean!

Sorry that the other men did not skate their best, but there is always the free (well Shun skated well, but I just don't find his program as interesting, sorry to say. )

 

[skatingguy]

It's risky though. If he URs the 4A and it gets downgraded, then the second 3A would be invalid.

A downgraded 4A would still be listed as a 4A on the protocol sheet, and would not invalidate the 3A.

 

[ramurphy2005]

I highly doubt Malinin will open with 4A3T in the Olympics. He was wondering and he's got his answer. But he showed 4A in the SP and tested the rules, so now we all know, a senior man can have both 3A and 4A as single jumps in an SP.

He did the 4A and 3A in the SP at the 2023 GPF, and we all joked about how he broke the scoring box.

 

[ladyjane]

Watched ID RD and actually was not surprised that Emilea and Vadym got deductions for that assisted (double) axel. I've watched it many times, and always thought that it was surprising it didn't get called. Don't get me wrong: it's very, very watchable. Just not within the rules (and I am no expert but can see it). That doesn't mean I don't like their RD, I do. It is so energetic. But I do think it's strange it wasn't called before. Alison and Saulius have a wonderful ID. I would have had them a little higher in scores. Piper and Paul did great. Lilah and Lewis are always fun to watch, even if they might be less good technically. Enjoyed Laurence/ Guillaume and Madison/Evan as well. Madison/Evan in front, but this could be switched anytime. Exciting! Lovely that it's all so close!