2025 Skate Canada: Women’s Podium (From L to R): Isabeau Levito (USA), Mone Chiba (JPN), and Ami Nakai (JPN).
2025 Skate Canada: Women
Mone Chiba of Japan dominated the Women’s figure skating event in Saskatoon, taking her first Grand Prix gold medal on Saturday. USA’s Isabeau Levito earned the silver, her sixth Grand Prix medal, while Japan’s Ami Nakai captured the bronze in her second event.
Mone Chiba
The 2025 World bronze medalist produced an upbeat short program to “Last Dance,” only receiving an edge call on her solo triple Lutz. She otherwise landed a triple flip-triple toe and double Axel while earning a level four on all spins and the footwork. The layback spin, in particular, was awarded mostly +4 grades of execution (GOE), and she scored 72.29 points for first place.
“I was a bit nervous, but I kept focusing today, and I could enjoy my program,” said the 20-year-old. “I do feel very happy, but obviously nothing is finished. I can say actually that all will be decided during the free program. In my free program within this nervous atmosphere, I want to be able to express my world view, skate clean and keep my focus until the end.”
Skating to selections from Romeo and Juliet, the 2024 Four Continents champion landed seven triple jumps. However, four of them received a “q” for being slightly underrotated. This included the back end of her opening triple flip-triple toe, the first and last jump in a triple Lutz-double toe-double loop, and a solo triple flip. She earned many positive GOEs for her level four spins and footwork, and finished first in the free skate and overall with two new personal best scores (144.94/217.23).
“I’m very happy to have won my first ever Grand Prix title,” said Chiba. “Looking ahead to my next event in Finland, I will learn from this event. Both the improvements I need to make and what I did well, in order to be even more powerful and energetic in my performance.”
The skater now has 15 points as the Grand Prix Final nears with three events left before qualifications are established.
Isabeau Levito
The 2024 World silver medalist produced a triple flip-triple toe, double Axel and triple loop in her cultivated short program. Only the front end of her opening combination jump received an edge call. Otherwise, her cultivated routine to a “Sophia Loren” medley featured good spins and footwork, and she placed second with 71.80 points going into the free skate.
“I feel pretty satisfied with my performance,” said the 18-year-old who place fourth at Grand Prix de France two weeks ago. “I just try to do everything one step at a time and just enjoy my performance as well. And I felt very happy today, while skating my program and after.”
When asked if she felt pressure due to the Olympic season, Levito said she felt like her future was in her own hands.
“I just have been very focused on maintaining a stress-free mindset and just focus on myself and my jobs and my elements one at a time,” she said. “I’ve been just kind of removing the stress of all the big words like Olympics and making the team. “I’m rather just being focused on my competition and taking it one step at a time, and I feel like everything will fall into place.”
The five-time Grand Prix medalist delivered an expressive free skate to “Se” from Cinema Paradiso, however three of her jumps were deemed underrotated. This included the back end of her opening triple flip-triple toe, the front end of a triple loop-double toe-double loop, and a solo triple Lutz. A triple flip also received an edge call, but the triple loop and triple Salchow were clean. She earned a level four for her layback spin and footwork and placed second in this segment and overall (137.97/209.77).
“I felt very relaxed and at home today, and I was just very hopeful that it would translate to the ice,” said Levito. “I feel like I did very well today, and I’m satisfied with my performance, so I’m just very happy.”
Levito now has 22 points after finishing her two Grand Prix events. She now plans to “rest a bit” and will switch out her boots.
“I tend to change them during the season,” she explained. “I will just kind of take time to calm down and have a more relaxed training schedule. I’ll have a nice little break before the rest of my season continues.”
Ami Nakai
The 2023 World Junior bronze medalist went down on her opening triple Axel, but rebounded to land a triple Lutz-triple toe and strong triple loop in the short program. Only the back end of the combination jump was slightly underrotated, but she earned a level-four on two spins and the footwork. Nakai earned 66.55 points for her melodic routine to La Strada, placing fourth going into the free skate.”
“The Lutz-toe was a bit of a close call, but I still managed to keep it together,” said the 17-year-old. “The problem on the triple Axel probably was due to the take-off. I probably also over-thought it. It wasn’t great in practice either, so I’m not that surprised.”
Nakai pointed out that her debut on the Grand Prix was two weeks ago in France.
“So, I was able to go all out without too much thinking,” she recalled. “Today, I didn’t feel so much pressure or expectations from the people around me. It was something that I put on myself. But putting pressure on yourself is not a bad thing in itself.”
The 2025 Grand Prix de France champion gave a delightful free skate to “What a Wonderful World,” but opened up too soon on a triple Axel attempt. She also slightly underrotated a triple flip later in the program, but produced a total of six solid triple jumps, including a triple Lutz-triple toe. Two spins were graded a level four, and she placed third in this segment with 136.54 points. With a total score of 203.09, she moved up onto the podium for third place overall.
“At the end of my program, I was anxious if my jumps were fully rotated,” Nakai admitted. “But the thought crossed my mind that I have done enough to get on to the podium.”
The skater has a total of 26 points after her win in France and is thrilled that she has earned a spot at the Grand Prix Final in December.
“I think I’ll be using that time to brush up on my programs,” she said. “It is also true that the percentage of the triple Axel is declining somewhat, so I know that I need to make improvements on that. And also, I’d like to get more flow in my programs. So that’s what I’ll be working on.”
Bradie Tennell
USA’s Bradie Tennell put out a haunting short program to “Young and Beautiful,” placing fifth with a season’s best of 65.55. The front end of her opening triple Lutz-triple toe was landed on the quarter, while the latter jump was underrotated. However, the double Axel and triple loop were solid. She also picked up a level four for two spins and the footwork.
“I was really excited to skate this program on the Grand Prix circuit for the first time,” said the two-time U.S. national champion. “I’m feeling so prepared for this event, more prepared than I’ve been in recent memory.”
However, when she was in the locker room changing into her dress, her nose started “gushing blood.”
“I got it all over my dress. I was panicking,” said Tennell. “The doctor gave me something to put in my nose for the warmup to stop the bleeding, but I got on and I was shaking. So the first jump was just a little bit off, which is unfortunate because it’s been going very, very well in practice. I was skating second, so there’s not a lot of time. But I think the rest of the program went so well and I love this program so much. So I’m a little disappointed in that first jump, but proud of how I bounced back and kept it together and I enjoyed the rest of the program.”
Reviving her free skate from the 2016-17 season to selections from The Mission, Tennell put out a cinematic routine that earned a season’s best of 129.52 points. She landed a total of five clean triple jumps, The back end of her opening triple Lutz-triple toe was underrotated, as was a solo triple Lutz, but two spins were awarded a level four. With a total score of 195.07, she moved up to fourth place overall.
“It was a whole lot better than yesterday, for sure,” said the 27-year-old. “I’m a little disappointed in some of the calls, but it was an improvement obviously, very much so over Japan. The Lutz toe was much better. My big goal here was to get like a quality combo and I believe I did that so I’m very happy about that. The second Lutz just got away from me a little bit but I proud myself for thinking on my feet and putting the combo on the Salchow. That gave me a couple extra points. There were some good things, obviously some things to improve on, but it is just my first Grand Prix of the season. So, lots of room to grow and I’m excited to get home and continue.”
Tennell takes nine points with her into her next event at Finlandia Trophy.
Lara Naki Gutmann
Lara Naki Gutmann of Italy put out a dramatic routine to music from La legge di Lidia Poët which featured a triple toe-triple toe, double Axel and triple Lutz. While the Lutz was landed on the quarter, Gutmann otherwise earned level four on the footwork and all three spins. She scored a new season’s best of 68.11 for third place going into the free skate.
“I’m really happy with my skate today,” said the 22-year-old. “I felt really good on the ice! When the music started, I could feel I was in the moment and I could believe in myself and skate. I’m really glad I could do my jumps and do my spins and choreography. I worked a lot in the last week, so I’m glad I could show it today.”
Skating to music from Jaws, the four-time Challenger series medalist slightly underrotated the back end of her opening triple Lutz-Euler-triple Salchow. She went on to land three clean triple jumps before falling on a solo triple Lutz and landing a double Axel on the quarter. She finished fifth in the free skate and overall (123.94/192.05).
Gutmann will compete next at Skate America in two weeks.
Japan’s Yuna Aoki placed sixth overall (182.85), followed by USA’s Sarah Everhardt (174.59) and Mariia Seniuk of Israel (171.75).
Related Info:
