Above: Elyce Lin-Gracey competes at the 2024 Four Continents Championships. She's one of the athletes to watch for during the upcoming Grand Prix season. Photo credit: Getty Images
By Jackie Wong
It’s the pre-Olympic season, which means skaters traditionally start to make their case for the 2026 Olympic Winter Games. This is often the season in which we see surprising comebacks, new faces ready for the spotlight and established skaters shoring up their place at the top of the standings. With the Grand Prix Series starting next week, here’s my look at what to watch for in the next couple of months.
Unexpected Comebacks
A pair of two-time U.S. champions are making unexpected and highly anticipated comebacks. Alysa Liu famously retired three seasons ago after going to the 2022 Olympics and then winning bronze at Worlds. After a couple years off the ice, she has rediscovered her love for the sport.
Bradie Tennell has been trying to get back to the form that took her to the 2018 Olympics, but injury after injury made that seem like an impossible task. She had a solid return to international competition at Shanghai Trophy.
Fresh Faces Look to Impress
A lot of the talk in the past couple of months has been about how exciting the U.S. women’s field is shaping up, and that has a lot to do with Elyce Lin-Gracey and Sarah Everhardt. They each made huge splashes in the Challenger Series leading up to the Grand Prix Series. For the men, Lucas Broussard hoped last year would have been a breakthrough first senior season, but a series of issues kept him from being at his best. He looks solid after a win at Cranberry Cup.
In pairs, we saw a lot of potential at the 2024 U.S. Championships from Alisa Efimova and Misha Mitrofanov, and Katie McBeath and Daniil Parkman. Each team makes their debut on the Grand Prix Series at Skate America. Plus, the always jam-packed ice dance field includes World Junior champions Leah Neset and Artem Markelov in their first senior season.
All the Returning U.S. Champs
Each of the four U.S. champions from last season return, which means they are getting more serious about the Olympics. Ellie Kam and Danny O’Shea want their first U.S. title last year to be a steppingstone to more. Amber Glenn has checked a national title off her list and wants to prove that she can be consistent and a force internationally.
For Ilia Malinin, his two U.S. titles were followed by a first World title last season, and not much seems to be stopping his momentum right now. Two-time and reigning World champion Ice dancers Madison Chock and Evan Bates have committed to making a run at a fourth Games together. If successful, it would actually be Bates' fifth Olympics. He and Emily Samuelson competed at the 2010 Games.
To see where your favorite Team USA skaters are headed in the Grand Prix Series, visit the International Assignments page on the U.S. Figure Skating Fan Zone.
Jackie Wong is a figure skating analyst at Rocker Skating. He has been involved in figure skating for more than 22 years as a skater, coach, choreographer and judge. You can follow him at rockerskating. com and on Twitter and Instagram @rockerskating for comprehensive coverage of figure skating events all season long.
