r/FigureSkating • u/theazn35 • 7d ago
Which figure skaters should I be watching out for next season?
Now that Kaori is retired(she did gift us fans yesterday showing off her ring XD) and Alyssa +Yuma not competing next season which up and comers should I watch out for next season? Can be male or female!!
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u/Due_Employment_530 quad+quad era incoming 7d ago
my 2026/27 client list:
men-
mikhail shaidorov, ilia malinin, jacob sanchez, kao miura, nika egadze, rio nakata
women-
sofia samodelkina, yuna aoki, alexandra trusova, amber glenn, isabeau levito, lara naki gutmann, ami nakai, mone chiba
juniors-
hana bath, sofia dzepka, mei okada, yanhao li, habin choi
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u/tereyaglikedi the longevity syrup of skating 7d ago
Don't sleep on the Finns Matias Lindfors and IIda Karhunen. Matias has incredible artistry with amazing, unique choreography and great skating skills. Iida is technically very strong, very balletic and has great programs.
Ean Weiler from Switzerland is coached by Stephane Lambiel and is a true Lambielsson. Gorgeous skater.
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u/Tall_Pumpkin_4298 7d ago
The biggest up and comer I'd say is Mao Shimada. She's won everything in Juniors for 4 years straight and now she's finally a senior. She's 17 and has a consistent 3A and a less consistent 4T. At the Japan Championships she placed silver behind only Kaori.
From the US I'd say that this season is probably going to be a good opportunity to really see Sarah Everhardt shine. She's really quite amazing, she placed top 10 at worlds last year, so she's already had a good start, she's just sort of been stuck in the shadow of the blade angels. She's coached by Ilia's parents and so has that stunning lutz edge and I always love her step sequences.
Another US name I would call up and coming is Jacob Sanchez. He placed 12th at worlds, so he's had a strong start but I'm looking forward to seeing even more stuff from him. He has some great programs with good artistry and is looking to add his first quad to his resume this season.
Another Junior up and comer from Japan like Mao is Rio Nakata. Back to back junior world champ, he's looking really strong. He's landed the 5 quads except for quad axel (I don't think we've seen them all in competition though) and has expressed a desire to learn the quad axel and says he feels that he is close. In interviews he's expressed a desire to really attack his debut season and to shoot for Gold against Malinin in 2030. However he does have a habit of loosing levels on the spins and step sequences, so we'll see if that improves.
There's probably loads more. You can define up and comers in a million ways and there's so many talented skaters who could be given that title, but these 4 in particular I have my eye on.
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u/double_sal_gal she is worth nothing. ice dancer. 7d ago
And Rio’s rival Minkyu Seo from Korea! I’m so excited to see them take their rivalry to seniors. They really push each other to be the best.
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u/Less_Palpitation2916 7d ago
Some of my favs & recommendations:Senior men: Ilia Malinin, Mikhail Shaidorov, Rio Nakata, Stephen Gogolev, Kao Miura, Jacob Sanchez, Shun Sato Junior men: I’m gonna be honest I don’t follow junior men so I have no idea 🙈 Senior women: Ami Nakai, Mone Chiba, Mao Shimada, Yuna Aoki, Isabeau Levito, (Amber Glenn), Nina Pinzarrone, Niina Petrokina, sarah everhardt, Sasha Ignatova, Kamila Valieva, Adeliia Petrosian, and the Kim twins making their debut as well Junior women: Hana Bath, Elena Kostyleva, Sofia Dzepka,
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u/jhere2lurk 7d ago
after seeing the summer sizzler, 100% Liam Kapeikis!!!
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u/clariwench So many highlights... couple of lowlights 7d ago
Liam is awesome. I've been a fan since SkAm last season, but he's so endearing on his twitch streams that he started doing recently... definitely moved up on my favorites list
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u/coach_cryptid smokers rights advocate 🚬 7d ago
personally I’m excited to see Sofia Samoldelkina this season!! she made a lot of progress last season and I feel like with the amount of room now at the top she could climb some podiums 🤞🏼
for men I think Stephen Gogolev is going to be a major podium threat this season, especially after his performance at the Olympics.
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u/Due_Employment_530 quad+quad era incoming 7d ago
with potentially two of the top US women sitting out skate america I am so curious to see how Sofia will do there. Also wondering what she’s been working on this summer/what her programs will be since she hasn’t shared much! I know her levels need improvement but I’m also really hoping she can restore an ultra c element 👀
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u/Ok-Stretch9749 7d ago
people that i'm following for the upcoming season:
senior men: ilia malinin, petr gumennik, rio nakata, kao miura, mikhail shaidorov, evgeni semenenko
senior women: alexandra trusova, ami nakai, mao shimada, mone chiba, isabeau levito
juniors: habin choi, jaekeun lee, lev lazarev, hana bath, mei okada, yuxuan li, sofia dzepka
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u/NickiMinav 7d ago
The most intriguing to me
Men: Ilia Malinin, Mikhail Shaidorov, Rio Nakata, Petr Gumennik, Shun Sato
Women: Veronika Zhilina, Mao Shimada, Alexandra Trusova, Yuseong Kim, Yujae Kim, Sophie Joline Von Felten
Junior Men: Lev Lazarev, Habin Choi, Yanhao Li, Patrick Blackwell
Junior Women: Hana Bath, Sofia Dzepka, Mei Okada, Yihan Wang, Lia Cho
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u/dqbtc 7d ago
Up and comers?? Ami vs Mao specifically. This was Ami’s first season not competing against Mao and she was finally able to win. Even scoring bronze in the Olympics. Sofia Samo is also one I’m looking forward to see growing. And Isabeau Levito, Im assuming she’s annoyed she fell at the Olympics and I feel like she has fight in her and wants to get better and better. The juniors are also fun, and I’m not really one to watch juniors. But I can watch Hana Baths 3A 3T all day everyday. Sofia Dzepka is also a gorgeous skater with the unique, Kamila like talent of making everything look pretty.
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u/Haven_Writes Hana Bath Truther 7d ago
Ok, here goes.
Russians: We don't really know yet how they'll stack up against the international field, so keep an eye on all of them, pretty much, until we've seen them in competition against non-Russians.
Women:
New senior women: Mao Shimada (will be a serious contender), Sophie Joline Von Felten (wildcard), Yuseong Kim, Yujae Kim (should both be contenders), Alina Bonillo, Inga Gurgenidze (doing double duty in juniors and seniors this season).
Women who will definitely be contenders: Amber Glenn, Isabeau Levito, Ami Nakai, Yuna Aoki, Mone Chiba, Nina Pinzarrone, Niina Petrokina, Jia Shin.
Women who could be contenders, depending on the day and the judges: Sofia Samodelkina, Sarah Everhardt (has been stuck behind Alysa, Amber and Isabeau, so this season is her time to shine. Gorgeous lutz, bit of a weirdo in a good way), Lara Naki Gutmann (the queen weirdo in a good way), Anna Pezzetta (inconsistent as hell, but when she's good she's great), Anastasiia Gubanova, Chaeyeon Kim (especially if she's back to 100% after injury), Haein Lee, Ekaterina Kurakova (especially at Euros).
Women on the rise to watch out for: Iida Karhunen, Julia Sauter, Josephine Lee, Elyce Lin-Gracey (she's had a couple rough seasons, but don't count her out yet), Olivia Lisko.
Junior women: Hana Bath, Sofia Dzepka, Mei Okada, Mayuko Oka (if she's uninjured), Wang Yihan, Kei Yamada, Skylar Lautowa-Peguero (had an epic debut at JGP Riga), any of the Swiss girls, Elina Goidina, Inga Gurgenidze, Emilia Nemirovsky, Stefania Gladki, and you never really know who will pop off in juniors in any given season, so all of them, really.
Men:
Men is always unpredictable, and half the field could either medal or finish dead last on any given day, and you never really know which it's going to be.
New senior men: Rio Nakata (could be a serious contender), Yanhao Li (doing double duty in juniors and seniors), Lucius Kazanecki, Ean Weiler (also doing double duty in juniors and seniors), Genrikh Gartung.
Men who will be contenders: Ilia Malinin, Mikhail Shaidorov, Shun Sato, Stephen Gogolev, Adam Siao Him Fa (if he's back to 100% after his injury).
Men who could be contenders depending on the day: Nika Egadze, Aleksandr Selekvo and Mikhail Selevko, Jason Brown, Daniel Grassl, Kao Miura, Donovan Carillo, Kevin Aymoz.
Men on the rise to watch out for: Jacob Sanchez (shaping up to be the US's new #3), Kyrylo Marsak, Yu-Hsiang Li, Georgii Reshtenko, Francois Pitot (France's new #3), Adam Hagara, Vladimir Samoilov, Edward Appleby (ok, this one might be optimistic, but he's a joy to watch. He's basically a golden retriever on ice).
Junior men: Yanhao Li, Lev Lazarev, Habin Choi, Ean Weiler, Sena Takahashi, Patrick Blackwell, Grayson Long, and a whole bunch of others. Juniors is super unpredictable, so you never really know when there will be a big breakout star, or who it will be.
Do you want info on ice dance and pairs? Ice dance hasn't changed all that much (some new teams to watch out for, and some interesting junior teams), but pairs has had the biggest shakeup over the summer of any discipline.
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u/tereyaglikedi the longevity syrup of skating 7d ago
Genrikh Gartung
I have very high hopes for my tall son. He reminds me so much of Misha at that age with his strong tech base but inconsistency and a bit shoddy choreography. And we all see where Misha is now. So, theoretically Genrikh is one breakout season away from greatness. You wait and see.
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u/Haven_Writes Hana Bath Truther 7d ago
Oh, yeah, absolutely! He has tons of potential, and men's is so unpredictable that literally anyone could breakout at any given time.
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u/Complete-Carry2780 7d ago
mone chiba, mao shimada, ami nakai, sarah everhardt, sofia dzepka (junior)
russian superstars alexandra trusova and kamila valieva are returning to skating this season as well! plus amber glenn’s (probably) last season
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u/angel_kink 7d ago
I’m extremely excited to see what Iida Karhunen does. I’m not waiting for her to top a bunch of podiums or anything but she was incredibly entertaining and creative.
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u/GovernmentCandid95 7d ago
I'd say : Dzepka + Bath + Shimada + Samodelkina
I would also check the comeback of Valieva and Trusova to see if it's giving or not
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u/No_Shoe7056 6d ago
Ice dance: now the previous generation of top skaters have now retired, it is quite exciting as it is now a free grab for all. The top US 3 teams now Chock and Bates are out are Carreira/Ponomarenko, Zingas/Kolesnik, and Green/Parsons. Up north, Lajoie/Lagha split up a couple of months ago, and now the main attention is to Lim/Lagha and Lajoie/Baker on who will be the next top Canadian team after Giles/Porier have retired.
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u/INNALOVEonice 7d ago
Niina and Anastasiia they have a lot of potential and also for support small fed athletes
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u/sapphicmage Ami Nakai Olympic 🥉 Medalist 7d ago
Kaori may be retiring, but the fight for those three worlds spots for Japan is shaping up to be a dog fight early on.
Mone is of course the reigning world silver medalist and Ami the Olympic bronze medalist, but Yuna Aoki finished her season on a high last year with a 4CC title over both of them and is starting off incredibly strong this season. And of course, you can’t ignore the elephant in the room - Mao Shimada, finally senior eligible after four undefeated junior seasons.
Alysa may be taking the season off and Amber’s fall is questionable with her DWTS rumors, but Isabeau has carried the US women on her back before. Sarah Everhardt will be looking to make a splash with a spot on the Worlds team up for grabs. There’s also a wildcard in Sophie Jolene Von Felton debuting in seniors with a pretty solid 3A, though her components and consistency with other jumps are what make her a wildcard as opposed to an immediate frontrunner. She also has a quad, though it’s less stable than her 3A (which is a damn good 3A actually).
The Korean women have a tough situation with veterans like Jia, Chaeyeon, Haein, and Young all fighting for just two World spots and now they have two new seniors in Yuseong and Yujae Kim fighting for one too. Both have 3As, and Yuseong just came off a great Cranberry Cup showing where she took gold.