The ISU Four Continents Figure Skating Championships 2022 will return this week after a year's hiatus due to the pandemic. In an unusual twist, Four Continents will take place in Europe for the first time. This year's event, originally scheduled for Tianjin, China, was canceled by the Chinese Skating Association due to pandemic concerns. The Estonian Skating Union, host of the ISU European Figure Skating Championships 2022, then offered to host the event in Tallinn.
 
Here's a look at what to expect from the U.S. figure skaters in Tallinn.
 
Pulkinen Looks to Extend Hot Streak
 
A season that started out slowly for Camden Pulkinen picked up momentum over the past two months. After placing last at NHK Trophy in mid-November, Pulkinen realized it was time to switch up his training.
 
"Going to [my] first Grand Prix and scoring absurdly low for what I feel my caliber is at, was very eye-opening," Pulkinen admitted. "It showed that there are things mentally that I needed to focus on. I needed to shift my focus more to mental training [rather] than just on-ice repetitions."
 
Pulkinen placed seventh at his next Grand Prix and improved his score by 44 points. He then delivered two personal-best programs to finish a career-high fifth at the 2022 Toyota U.S. Figure Skating Championships.
 
"This whole season, I had the mind[set] of progressing up to this U.S. Championships," Pulkinen noted. "So I'm happy to have done that. The good thing is, there's further ways I can improve. Just fine-tuning those details and training those two quads."
 
Jimmy Ma will join Pulkinen in Estonia. Ma won three international medals and finished fifth at 2021 Guaranteed Rate Skate America this season.
 
"I had a lot of pent-up excitement and energy to compete," Ma said of his results. "Lots of hard work went into this season. All I wanted to do was compete, and compete, and compete. Being able to go out there and show people Jimmy Ma …. It was a blast."
 
While preparing for the U.S. Championships, Ma focused on "nailing everything comfortably, with good GOE. Honestly, that's the name of the game nowadays–good GOE. Also, my second score: Emoting, skating for the audience."
 
However, things didn't go as Ma hoped in Nashville. After a strong short program, he struggled in the free skate and finished sixth.
 
"To be honest, I'm quite disappointed," Ma admitted. "I wanted it a little bit too bad."
 
Still, he was pleased to be assigned to Four Continents.
 
"I've always wanted to do an [ISU] championship-level event. That was my goal for this year," Ma said.
 
His plan for Four Continents is simple: "Do my job. There's nothing special, nothing extra. The results have shown [that if] I do my job, I get to keep on doing what I want to do [that is, get more international assignments]. My roommate, Misha Mitrofanov, taught me that. He said: 'Jimmy, you don't need your best [every time]. Just do your normal.' I've been trying to follow that as best I can, and it's kept me relatively sane for the last couple of months."
 
Mitrofanov and other skaters in Ma's group are also headed to Four Continents.

"I'm ecstatic that we're going together," Ma said. "We keep each other motivated, laughing, and inspired."
 
Tomoki Hiwatashi will round out the U.S. men's team. Hiwatashi, a two-time medalist at the U.S. Championships, was forced to withdraw this year after falling sick and testing positive for COVID-19 on December 31.
 
"It was a very big disappointment," Hiwatashi said of his withdrawal. "But I watched everyone at home. I'm very happy for Nathan and Jason and Vincent, making the Olympic Team. Camden did amazing. All those moments just made me want to get on the ice, too. It made me want to fight for it again."
 
Hiiwatashi returned to the ice this week and said the biggest challenge is getting his conditioning back.
 
"Staying off the ice for 10 days is a lot," he said. "I usually take one day off every week, but that's it. So having to take 10 days out of my training was a big thing that usually never happens. But today, the programs felt fine. I'm regaining the confidence I need."
 
In the battle for the podium, the U.S. men will face tough competition from Junhwan Cha and Sihyeong Lee of South Korea; Kazuki Tomono and Kao Miura of Japan; and more.
 
Up-and-Coming Ice Dance Teams Look to Gain Experience
 
Caroline Green and Michael Parsons will lead the U.S. ice dance team. In their third season, Green and Parsons made a strong impression on fans and judges with their innovative, Martha Graham-inspired free dance. For the second consecutive year, they won the pewter medal at the U.S. Championships.
 
"We skated our hearts out, and I think it's the best skate we put down this year," Parsons said of their free dance in Nashville. "I think we're a significantly stronger team than when we started. We're going to continue our trajectory. I think this high will be our new low. And we'll keep working from here."
 
"We're taking this season as a jumping-off point," Green agreed. "I'm excited to see where else this journey takes us. I think we have something that is very unique."
 
Emily Bratti and Ian Somerville will join Green and Parsons. A brand-new team, Bratti and Somerville made a splash with a fifth-place finish in Nashville.
 
The Michigan-based team feel that their rapid progress is a natural outcome of their shared approach to ice dance.
 
"We have the same opinions and work ethic," Bratti noted. "We're just really similar people."
 
"We relate to each other on such an easy level," Somerville added. "We get scared of the same things; we get joy out of the same things. We think about skating very similarly. Also, we're really close friends."
 
Christina Carreira and Anthony Ponomarenko will complete the U.S. ice dance team. The couple finished seventh at the U.S. Championships.
 
Other medal contenders include Kana Muramoto and Daisuke Takahashi of Japan, as well as Carolane Soucisse and Shane Firus, and Marie-Jade Lauriault and Romain le Gac of Canada.
 
Izzo Continues Busy Season
 
It's been an eventful season for Gabriella Izzo, as she combines elite-level training with full-time undergraduate studies at Harvard. Izzo earned the pewter medal at the U.S. Championships. 
 
"It feels unreal; it's been quite a season," Izzo said. "I ended up having surgery after last year's nationals [U.S. Championships] and switching coaches, and it's just been a whirlwind. This is my eleventh competition this season. It's been up and down, and this [medal] is definitely an up."
 
Audrey Shin will join Izzo. Shin finished sixth at the U.S. Championships. However, the event didn't go quite as she hoped.
 
"I was pretty disappointed with my performance overall," Shin confessed. "I felt a little overwhelmed. I was cautious both in the short and long programs. I was pretty sad about all the under-rotations in my free skate. I think that's the difference between holding back and not holding back."
 
Shin was, however, thrilled to get the Four Continents assignment.
 
"That was one of the goals–getting a Four Continents spot. It will be my first time going, so I'm super-excited," Shin said.
 
Her preparation was slowed when she got food poisoning on the last day of the U.S. Championships.
 
"It was pretty awful," Shin said. "I couldn't eat or drink for a couple days, and getting back on the ice was pretty rough."
 
Still, she expects to be ready for Tallinn.
 
"I just want to put out two great performances. I hope that I can get my jumps clean. I was working so hard on clean jumps before Nationals [U.S. Championships]," Shin said.
 
Starr Andrews will complete the U.S. women's team. Andrews finished ninth at the U.S. Championships.
 
The U.S. ladies will compete against a raft of talented women, including Mai Mihara and Rino Matsuike of Japan; Young You, Yelim Kim, and Haein Lee of South Korea; and Gabrielle Daleman of Canada.
 
Lu and Mitrofanov Lead U.S. Pairs
 
Audrey Lu and Misha Mitrofanov had hoped to challenge for a spot on the U.S. Olympic Team at the U.S. Championships. Although their bid fell short, this season has been the best of the duo's four-year senior career. They won their first senior international title at the Golden Spin of Zagreb and skated well at their Grand Prix events. Lu and Mitrofanov capped their season with a bronze medal at the U.S. Championships.
 
"We had some mistakes on the ice that kind of surprised us," Mitrofanov said. "But that's the beauty about the sport; you never know what's going to happen. I'm proud that we were able to push through. And we fought to the end."
 
"We've been doing clean programs. And this one time–[at] the most important time–it just didn't work out. But we're going to continue pushing," Lu added.
 
"We never give up," Mitrofanov agreed.
 
Emily Chan and Spencer Howe, training-mates of Lu and Mitrofanov, will join them in Tallinn. Chan and Howe won the pewter medal at the U.S. Championships in their third year together.
 
"We're very grateful. The goal is to always better our best," Howe said. "We want the elements, but we also want to touch people and showcase our skating, and I think we did that well [in Nashville]."
 
Second-year pair Katie McBeath and Nate Bartholomay will round out the team. They placed fifth at the U.S. Championships.
 
"We're really happy," Bartholomay said. "I took Katie's hand before the free skate and said, 'Let's just skate for us. Nothing [else] matters. We want to be here, and we want to show that we love this program.' And that's what we did."
 
The U.S. pairs will face a trio of Canadian teams: Evelyn Walsh and Trennt Michaud, Deanna Stellato-Dudek and Maxime Deschamps, and Lori-Ann Matte and Thierry Ferland.

Fans can watch Four Continents this week on E! and NBC (see the television schedule for details), as well as live and on-demand on Peacock Premium. Check out the Four Continents Competition Central for the latest news and results.