2025 Skate Canada Men’s Podium (From L to R): Aleksandr Selevko (EST), Ilia Malinin (USA) and Kao Miura (JPN).
2025 Skate Canada: Men
USA’s Ilia Malinin seized his seventh Grand Prix gold in the Men’s figure skating event in Saskatoon after a record-breaking free skate. Aleksandr Selevko of Estonia surprised with a silver medal—the first Men’s Grand Prix medal for his country, while Japan’s Kao Miura moved up one spot to capture the bronze.
Ilia Malinin
The two time and current World champion gave a commanding short program that featured a solid quad flip and triple Axel. He also landed a quad Lutz-triple toe, but the front end was landed on the quarter. He picked up a level four for all three spins and the footwork in his routine to Prince of Persia and placed first with 104.84 points.
“I feel overall pretty good about my performance today,” said Malinin. “I would say that compared to Grand Prix de France, this one was a lot better feeling, and I felt a lot more stable on the ice. I’m really glad that I was able to perform a lot better than how I felt.”
While Malinin acknowledged the scoring for the “whole event was strict,” he wasn’t worried. “I think all of us went out there and tried our best.”
The 20-year-old put out a technically demanding and solid free skate, breaking his previous score from 2024 Worlds with 228.97 points. He landed a total of six quad jumps: flip, Lutz, loop, as well as a quad Lutz-Euler-triple flip, quad toe-triple toe, and quad Salchow-triple Axel sequence. All elements, including spins and footwork, earned positive grades of execution (GOE), particularly on the jumps. His free skate program component scores were 90.48, and he placed first overall with a personal best total score of 333.81 points.
“I feel really satisfied with my performance today,” said Malinin. “I think that it was one of the best programs I’ve done so far this season.”
The skater said that after Grand Prix France, he worked on “cleanliness and feeling more confident” on the ice.
“As I started to settle in a bit, I would say specifically maybe after the third jump, I felt that it was really coming together,” he said, regarding his record score. “It almost felt like I was on autopilot and everything was just happening one element after the other. I felt really confident even going into that second half. Of course, in my personal opinion it wasn’t perfect; there’s always more to add to the program. I know that hopefully that record can be even higher.”
With his win from 2025 Grand Prix de France, he has 30 points and has qualified for the Grand Prix Final.
Aleksandr Selevko
The 2024 European silver medalist put out a strong short program that featured a solid quad toe, triple Axel and triple Lutz-triple toe. All spins and footwork were graded a level four in his entertaining and confident routine to “Kiss” by Prince. He placed third with a new personal best of 91.28.
“I feel really good with my short program today and I’m really happy that I did it clean,” said Selevko. “I decided not to go for the quad Lutz.”
This is a solo Grand Prix event for the skater who explained the Olympic selection criteria for the Estonian skaters: “The scores of the best two Grand Prix or Challengers are combined, and whoever has the highest total score, gets the spot.”
Skating to music by Nico Cartosio, the seven-time Challenger Series medalist opened with an excellent quad Lutz followed by a quad toe and triple Axel. he later fell on a triple Axel and also received an edge call on both triple flips, but earned a level four on two spins. He earned a season’s best 165.93 for second place, and with a personal best total score of 257.21, moved up one spot to second place overall.
“When I came here, I didn’t expect to be on the podium at all,” said the 24-year-old. “I’m really happy with what I did today. It wasn’t perfect, but I’m proud of my free skate.”
The skater said the concept of the free skate was based on a “storm inside a person.”
“Towards the end, where the second Axel comes that didn’t work out today, unfortunately, is the peak of this eruption,” he explained.
Kao Miura
The 2023 World Junior champion reeled off a quad Salchow-triple toe and triple Axel in his short program. He stepped out a quad toe in the second half, but two spins and the footwork were graded a level four. He placed fourth with 89.80 points for his intense routine to “Conquest of Spaces.”
“I thought I jumped the quad toe on a very good rhythm, so I’m a little bit disappointed about the mistake,” said the 20-year-old. “I don’t know how I was able to land the quad Salchow because the axis was really bad. I probably jumped a bit too high, so that kind of sort of messed up the axis.”
He was also a “little disappointed with his score.”
“The program component scores were lower than in France,” he explained. “My practices have been pretty uneven coming into this competition, so I’m pretty glad that I was able to sort of take it step by step. I had promised myself that I’d switch on the day of the competition. I was able to do that, so I’m pretty satisfied at how it went. After the Grand Prix of France, I worked with a mental training coach.”
While the skater had trouble finding his rhythm free skate, he still placed third with a season’s best of 163.89 for his routine to Les Parapluies de Cherbourg. He opened with a solid quad loop, quad Salchow and quad toe-triple toe. The mistakes came when he stepped out of a triple toe before underrotating both jumps in a triple Axel-Euler-triple Salchow. He also underrotated and stepped out a triple Axel and stepped out of the back end of a triple loop-double Axel. Nevertheless, his total score of 253.69 was enough to move up to third place overall.
“I’m happy to be sort of released from my nightmarish Grand Prix of France,” said the 2023 Four Continents champion. “And it’s been almost a year since I was able to do a good free program. So, I think I see the light at the end of the tunnel. This performance today was one that I hadn’t sort of experienced in a long time. I was able to have fun.”
The skater said he started the season with Phantom of the Opera before going back to The Last Samurai.
“Then here I am with The Umbrellas of Cherbourg,” he said. “Just before I entered the season, I was still dealing with injuries, and I couldn’t really train properly for an extended period of time. I thought I might go back to The Last Samurai and then I realized that I was really not comfortable with the rhythm of the program and was struggling with it. After the Grand Prix of France, it just came to the point where I couldn’t even listen to the music. I had those flashbacks from the French event. Then I thought maybe I should go back to last season’s program The Umbrellas of Cherbourg. That this is a program that I think that I’m comfortable with. It lets me breathe during the program and I love the music as well.”
Kazuki Tomono
Japan’s Kazuki Tomono opened his short program with a solid quad toe-triple toe, but put a foot down on both the quad Salchow and triple Axel. However, his colorful and energetic routine “That’s It (I’m Crazy)” featured two level four spins and strong level-three footwork. He placed second with a new season’s best of 92.07 points.
“I was very nervous today, but I was able also to stay composed and was able to perform pretty well,” said the 27-year-old. “I’ve been doing a lot of practices, and I think that this short program performance is a very good stepping stone to my free skate.”
The 2022 Four Continents silver medalist took two falls in his free skate to “Halston” by Stephan Moccio, placing fifth in the free skate. He opened with a quad toe-double toe, but went down on the following quad toe and quad Salchow. The triple loop was landed on the quarter, but the triple Axel-Euler-triple Salchow and triple flip-double Axel sequences were clean. He also produced a solid triple Axel and earned a level four on two spins. With a total score of 251.46, he slipped from second to fourth place overall.
“The main thing is, I was really able to focus on myself out there, and I think I approached it with confidence,” said Tomono. “Still, I couldn’t quite hang on at the very end. There are definitely things that I could polish more. That said, I do feel like I’ve been improving, and if I keep doing things properly from here on, I think it’ll all connect. I’ll take it positively. Of course, it’s frustrating that I couldn’t make the podium, but I’ll accept that, and I really believe I can keep getting better.”
He will compete next at Skate America.
Kevin Aymoz
Kevin Aymoz of France was focused in his edgy and captivating short program, placing fifth (87.46). His routine to “Le lac” and “Judas” featured a solid triple toe-triple toe, triple Lutz and triple Axel. His level-four footwork earned mostly +4 and +5 GOEs, and two spins were graded a level four as well.
“I’m very happy with how I skated today,” said the 28-year-old. “I had a foot injury three weeks ago and I could not train for a week, and I started jumping a week ago. Therefore, I decided to not go for the quad. The foot is better now. I really enjoyed my program because I choreographed it myself.”
While the 2022 Olympian landed a quad toe in his free skate to “Boléro,” there were too many errors. He fell on three jumps, a triple loop, triple Axel and triple flip. He finished 11th (142.64) in the free skate and dropped to 10th overall (230.10).
Aymoz is scheduled to compete again in two weeks at Skate America.
Georgia’s Nika Egadze placed fifth overall (247.95), followed by Nikolaj Memola of Italy (238.20). Canadians Roman Sadovsky and Stephen Gogolev finished seventh and eighth, respectively.
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