Above: Madison Chock and Evan Bates salute the crowd after their free dance at 2024 NHK Trophy. Photo credit: Robin Ritoss
Thirteen of Team USA’s top junior and senior skaters travel to Grenoble, France, this week for the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating Final 2024 and ISU Junior Grand Prix of Figure Skating Final 2024, the pinnacle events of the fall figure skating season.
Taking place Dec. 5-8, six senior and seven junior athletes will represent Team USA with eight competing at the Final for the first time.
The United States will have skaters compete in all four disciplines of the Grand Prix Final for the third time since it began in 1996. Team USA will skate in three of the four junior events.
Team USA has two entries competing in France as the defending gold medalists: Ilia Malinin and Madison Chock and Evan Bates.
Undefeated in the 2024 calendar year, Malinin topped the Grand Prix Series leaderboard to qualify to the Grand Prix Final. He secured gold in back-to-back weekends, taking the top step of the podium at Skate America before obliterating the competition at Skate Canada International, becoming the first man to sweep those two events in the same season in 25 years.
The reigning World champion won his events this season by an average of 22.97 points, breaking the 300-point mark twice.
Two-time and reigning World champions Chock and Bates are eyeing their sixth Grand Prix Final medal, which would tie Meryl Davis and Charlie White, Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir, and Marina Anissina and Gwendal Peizerat for the most ice dance medals all-time at the event.
Chock and Bates head to France with the highest combined score in the Grand Prix Series this season and the season’s top total score worldwide. The 2022 Olympic team event gold medalists followed up their silver at Skate America with gold at NHK Trophy this season, their 20th Grand Prix medal.
Entering the women’s event, Amber Glenn is undefeated at her three international events so far this season. She clinched gold at Grand Prix de France and Cup of China, becoming the fifth U.S. woman to win two Grand Prix events and the first since 2012. Joining elite company, only Ashley Wagner (2012), Alissa Czisny (2010), Sasha Cohen (2002, 2003) and Michelle Kwan (1995, 1996, 1997, 1999) have accomplished the feat.
Qualifying behind only three-time World champion Kaori Sakamoto, Glenn, the reigning U.S. champion, owns the second-highest senior women’s score in the world this season and hit her triple Axel at each of her three international events.
Rounding out the senior U.S. entries are pairs team Ellie Kam and Danny O’Shea, who punched their ticket to the Final in just their third season together. The 2024 U.S. champions earned silver at Skate America, where they broke 200 points for the first time, and bronze at NHK Trophy. They have podiumed at all four of their international events this season.
In the junior events, Team USA will be led by Jacob Sanchez, who is the top qualifier in the junior men’s event after becoming the only man worldwide this season to win two Junior Grand Prix golds. The winner at the Junior Grand Prix events in Turkey and Slovenia, the 2024 World Junior Team member claimed his first senior gold medal at Tallinn Trophy, a Challenger Series event, last month.
If Sanchez wins gold at the Junior Grand Prix Final, he would be the first U.S. junior man to do so since 2017.
The sole entry for Team USA with experience at the Junior Grand Prix Final is Olivia Flores and Luke Wang, who will become the first U.S. pairs team since Jessica Rose Paetsch and Jon Nuss in 2006 and 2007 to make a second JGP Final appearance.
Looking to improve on their fifth-place result last year, the 2024 World Junior silver medalists earned silver and bronze at their two JGP events this season in Turkey and Latvia.
For the second straight year, Team USA will have two junior ice dance teams in the Final, and both will make their JGP Final debut.
In their second season together, Katarina Wolfkostin and Dimitry Tsarevski clinched gold at JGP Poland and silver at JGP Czech Republic.
Brother and sister duo Elliana and Ethan Peal secured bronze at the Junior Grand Prix in Thailand before taking gold at the final stop of the Series in China.
The Grand Prix Final, which began in 1995 with junior events added in 1997, includes the top six point earners in each discipline from the six Grand Prix and seven Junior Grand Prix events in the 2024 season.
Competition kicks off Wednesday with the junior pairs short program and the junior rhythm dance as well as the senior pairs and women’s short programs. Competition continues Friday with the junior men’s short program, senior rhythm dance, senior pairs free skate and senior men’s short program. The event concludes Saturday as medals are awarded following the senior women’s free skate, junior men’s free skate, junior free dance, junior pairs free skate, senior free dance and senior men’s free skate.
The senior competition will be streamed live on Peacock Premium while the junior competition will be available to watch on the ISU's YouTube page. Figure skating events can be accessed on Peacock for 72 hours following their conclusion. Find the full Peacock streaming schedule at peacocktv.com/skating.
In addition, E! and NBC will be broadcasting The Grand Prix Final on Dec. 7 and 8, respectively. Visit the U.S. Figure Skating Fan Zone for the full schedule.
For results, news and more at the Grand Prix Final, visit the Grand Prix Final Competition Central.
U.S. ENTRIES AT ISU GRAND PRIX OF FIGURE SKATING FINAL 2024
Athlete | Hometown | Training Town
Women
Amber Glenn | Plano, Texas | Colorado Springs, Colo.
Men
Ilia Malinin | Vienna, Va. | Reston, Va.
Pairs
Ellie Kam and Danny O’Shea | Colorado Springs, Colo.; Colorado Springs, Colo. | Colorado Springs, Colo.
Ice Dance
Madison Chock and Evan Bates | Redondo Beach, Calif.; Ann Arbor, Mich. | Montreal, Quebec
U.S. ENTRIES AT ISU JUNIOR GRAND PRIX OF FIGURE SKATING FINAL 2024
Athlete | Hometown | Training Town
Men
Jacob Sanchez | Montgomery, N.Y. | Newburgh, N.Y.
Pairs
Olivia Flores and Luke Wang | Colorado Springs, Colo.; Ellicott City, Md. | Colorado Springs, Colo.
Ice Dance
Elliana Peal and Ethan Peal | Nashville, Tenn.; Nashville, Tenn. | Nashville, Tenn.
Katarina Wolfkostin and Dimitry Tsarevski | Ann Arbor, Mich.; Lakewood, Colo. | Canton, Mich.
