The State of American Women's Figure Skating
It's a new season and a new olympiad, so let's check into one of the biggest federation's women's field!
Isabeau Levito/Alysa Liu/Amber Glenn
Now that all three of the Blade Angels have confirmed that they're competing next season, I think that they are definitely going to continue dominating the American Women's field as they have much higher seasons and personal bests! I would bet good money on them being the 2027 US Nats women's podium as well as the Tampere Worlds team.
Coach: Yulia Kuznetsova, Otar Japaridze, Slava Kuznetsov
Isabeau's thirsty for blood. Despite having the highest scoring season of her career (this was her first season where she never scored under 200), Isabeau barely didn't qualify for GPF due to having the misfortune of getting assigned to a stacked GPdF lineup, had an unfortunate fall during the Olympics where every other girl brought their best that costed her a position within the top ten, and was justttt off the podium for the THIRD time at Worlds. Isabeau's definitely the most underrated out of this trio despite her NEVER being lower than 4th at Worlds, and I think that combined with the Olympics lit a fire inside of her and that 3Lz+3Lo at Worlds was proof.
Isabeau's biggest problem her toe jump technique. Isabeau is a known flutzer, has some UR issues, and she slows down significantly before taking off on a toe jump (though this is gotten less and less bad). People have also commented about her very Eteri-girl technique that involved hunching her entire back forward (pictured below). Some people have used this to express genuine concern considering her idol, Evgenia Medvedeva, had very similar technique and now struggles with permanent back injuries; others have used this to concern troll Isabeau, but either way, it makes her jumps look more labored and results in lower GOE for her lutzes and flips in particular.
(Isabeau's 3Lz takeoff position vs Yuna Kim's 3Lz takeoff position)
That being said, Isabeau makes her technique work and has pretty good consistency on all of her jumps, does very difficult transitions in and out of jumps, and she has very nice edge jumps, especially her 2A and 3Lo! Her biggest strength however, is her artistry and spins. Isabeau is very flexible, expressive, and while a lot of skaters look like they're flailing their arms, Isabeau has beautiful upper body carriage.
I'm so excited to watch Isabeau get better and her B E N O I T free skate to Pirates of the Caribbean sounds so exciting! I think her goals for next season should be to qualify for and medal at GPF and Worlds! Isabeau definitely has it in her and deserves more respect on her name.
Coach: Philip DiGuglielmo & Massimo Scali
What is there to say about our raccoon haired Olympic champion that hasn't already been said? I'd argue that Alysa and Isabeau have very similar ceilings and scoring potential, however Alysa's consistency and much better jump technique tends to get her higher GOE and more wiggle room from judges.
As a junior, Alysa had very small jumps that were extremely pre-rotated and relied on a lower body weight, but starting around COVID and especially post-retirement, Alysa's jumps have relied more on her muscles making them more powerful, bigger and more aesthetically pleasing imo (she has a beautiful running edge landing now! huzzah!) Even though she no longer competes a 4Lz, Alysa's highest scoring element is definitely her backloaded 3Lz+3Lo and she's revealed that she has restored 3A, though it wasn't competition ready in December. She's also one of the best spinners in the game right now, with incredibly centered spins that have great posture and show off her flexibility on top of her being an incredibly captivating performer with great musicality.
Alysa's greatest weakness is that she tends to slow down more into a long program and a lot of people attribute this to her skating skills, when in reality I think it's more of a stamina issue. Truthfully, I don't think she's significantly lacking in skating skills. Like its not her strong suit but comparing now vs pre-retirement, it’s she's clear she works a lot on edge drills with Massimo.
Alysa skates for the love of the game and seems to have worked hard to detach her idea of 'success' away from placements and medals so saying things like "I hope she medals at xyz comp!" feels a little wrong to me. I found a USA Today interview (sorry for using a TT link, couldn't find it on YT) where Alysa describes her goals as having faster spins, prettier jumps, and enough stamina so that she can do double runthroughs. So, for this next season, I hope that Alysa has the stamina of a horse and has the fastest spins in the entire sport.
Coach: Damon Allen & Tammy Gambill
Revealing myself to be a 30 for 30 truther, Amber Glenn is my 2030 Olympic Champion and I will take no questions at this time. Amber is the opposite of a successful junior-burnt out senior. Amber was 20 when she first medaled at nationals, 23 when she first landed her triple axel and won US Nationals for the first time, and 26 when she became an Olympian, the second oldest competitor after Romania's Julia Sauter. Very impressive considering 21 year old Amber was considering retirement after missing the 2022 Olympic team.
As a competitor, Amber's a powerhouse on the Grand Prix and at nationals. She's a 3x US Champion, medalled at 6/8 of her GP events this quad and is the 2024 GPF Champion. Her biggest strength is her athleticism and powerful skating style. Amber's 3A is glorious and insanely consistent, her jumps overall tend to be high very quality, and I've noticed that she generates speed very easily.
However, similar to Rinka, Amber has stamina, artistry, and consistency problems. Especially since she does a 3A in the beginning, it can use up a lot of energy for the rest of the program. While Amber has a very well defined on ice image as a womanly, athletic, and powerful skater (sidenote: this is also why I wish she'd drop those dramatic cover ballad programs she does quite often, I feel like it never matches her skating and she doesn't seems present during them. For example: her short vs free this season), like a lot of technical skaters, her programs can be a bit empty as she doesn't do as many transitions or choreography as her peers.
And of course, a discussion about Amber Glenn can't escape her consistency issues. I don't think Amber's ever put two clean skates together in one competition. Amber has been open about her mental health struggles and I deeply admire her for it. It's also very unfortunate that she tends to get into her head during major competitions like Worlds and the Olympics. (though I think it's important to state that Amber's improved soo much in this regard, I remember when her consistency and self-doubt issues were much, much worse, and I'm confident she's always working on her mental health).
All in all: Amber Glenn should win everything. She’s certainly capable of doing so.
Sarah Everhardt/Sophie Joline von Felten/Bradie Tennell
Coach: Tatiana Malinina & Roman Skorniakov
Sarah's had a rough season. When she first became senior, Sarah had Alysa Liu levels of consistency which was a massive help considering she's more of a technical skater than an artistic one. However, this past season, her underrotation problems have gotten worse and she wasn't as consistent. This is creates a compound effect with her artistic issues making her not as competitive as she is capable of being.
As for her artistry, Sarah's programs are either warhorses or strange and more unique. While I personally LOVE her weird girl programs (see: poor things), this puts her in a position where she's trying to sell something not palatable to the judges or the judges are comparing her to the hundreds of other warhorses they've seen. Sarah also has chronic blank performing face, which can take you out of a performance since why would you care about a program if it looks like the skater doesn't care either.
Still, I see Sarah being America's solid fourth lady this upcoming season and the third when Amber retires, especially if she gets better packaging and improves her performance skills. She'll definitely be within the 2027 4CC top five and maybe she’ll snag another worlds spot this season. Sarah's very young and I think her solid technique can keep her within the top of American ladies for long time.
Coach: Vladimir Petrenko & Elena Petrenko; formerly Boyko Aleksiev, Olga Ganicheva, Denis Petukhov, & Melissa Gregory
If we're talking about technical skaters, we can't not talk the only American with quad jumps, Miss Sophie Joline von Felten. SJVF is very interesting, she skated for her birth country Switzerland until 2023 when she moved with her mother to Boston and started representing the United States! If you've never heard of her before, that's probably because this will be her first senior season after dominating the American juniors.
SJVF's biggest asset is her 3A (and it’s her 3A is her best jump!) and 4S (fun fact, she's the first American woman to jump a 4S). Despite her insane tech content, her results place her within the middle of the juniors pack due to her struggling with the easier triples and non jumping elements. Concerning her missing her triples, SJVF's issue seems to be stamina as her jumps get worse and worse the further she gets into a program. Apparently, after 2025 JWCs, her coach (NOT THE PETRENKOS, IT'S BOYKO OR OLGA BUT I FORGOT WHICH ONE) made unsportsmanlike comments about how SJVF should have placed much higher and complained about Mao's scores and her 3A and 4T being URed but not called, so I feel like her previous coaching staff were very ultra C focused and neglected other parts of her skating, something seniors will not be kind towards.
She's recently announced a coaching change to the Petrenkos and I hope this will be a good change for her! Her jumps are definitely impressive but she'll be easily beaten unless she manages to increase her PCS and gain stamina to stabilize her non ultra C jumps. She’s probably going to go to 2027 4CC and I’d expect a top ten finish from her there. I can definitely see USFS pushing her more if Russian quadsters start being rewarded like they were pre-ban.
Coach: Benoit Richaud & Jeremy Allen
Bradie's insistent that she is not retiring, but I'll be honest, considering her age and injury history, I wouldn't be surprised if she retires after this next season. I'm a little heartbroken Bradie only went to one Olympics. It was pretty clear that Alysa, Amber, and Isabeau were going to be the Milano-Cortina team but Bradie was not giving anyone an inch. If one of those girls messed up on the grand prix or US Nats, Bradie was going to take her spot and my god did she come close.
Earlier in her career, Bradie was more of a jumper and her greatest strength was her consistency, you could not knock this girl down. Bradie's artistry really flourished when she entered her B E N O I T, her Young and Beautiful short program was a beautiful plea for the 2026 Olympic team.
Bradie had the misfortune of peaking during the Russian quadster era and she often injured herself trying to chase bigger jumps (especially that 3A that never came...) but I want to remember the Bradie Tennell that got a team bronze in Pyeongchang, medal twice at 4CC (and was 4th this year!) and since US Nats does pewter medals, has never been off the nationals podium since 2018. Bradie has given so much to USFS and seeing her SP be underscored at nationals was such a spit in the face to all of her hard work (SHE SHOULD HAVE BEEN FOURTH IN THE SP!!)
Since Bradie doesn't have a GP assignment despite her meeting the requirements while repeatedly saying that she isn't retiring yet, I can see Bradie retiring at nationals this year and I am BEGGING USFS to give Bradie a proper send off.
Josephine Lee/Sonja Hilmer/Alina Bonillo/Logan Higase-Chen/Sherry Zhang/Elyce Lin-Gracey
I think that while those six girls are the most competitive internationally, the United States has a very very very deep field! I've spent so much time talking about the Blade Angels, Sarah, SJVF, and Bradie so I'm gonna speed run these next six girls.
Josephine Lee - Josephine had a crazy season a couple of years ago when she won the 2024 US nationals free skate and got the silver medal ahead of Sarah Everhardt and Isabeau Levito. Unfortunately, she hasn't been able to recapture that magic due to struggling during her free skates (i think she gets too in her head, especially at 2026 nationals), but she's a got great 3F+3T and she's so young! She has so much time to improve and maybe she'll surprise us again this year.
Sonja Hilmer - Sonja's the coolest. Sonja started representing the US internationally when she was 23, qualified for her first Nationals after 13 years, made custom artwork for the Milano team, and can jump counterclockwise and clockwise! I'd love to see her get a SkAm host spot but I think Sonja's competing more so domestically and at senior b international comps. Doesn't detract from her in the slightest.
Alina Bonillo - Alina's a very good technical skater (I believe she's working on a 3A or has a 3A but it's not competition ready) but she can get inside her head and that leads to some consistency issues. I'm very excited for her GP debut at Cup of China this year. I think Alina's who I'd place money on for surprising people.
Logan Higase-Chen - Logan's made her senior debut on Cranberry Cup and she's currently comfortably 3rd after the SP. Truthfully, I don't have much to say about Logan, but I think she's got a lot of potential! She's got a bit of work to do on her PCS, but she's pretty well rounded and I hope she has a length career.
UPDATE: Logan got bronze behind the Kim twins! I think it’s clear that she has a lot of work to do on her PCS since, despite having a higher BV and a clean free skate, she still couldn’t beat Yujae who had 3 falls but was still pulled out ahead due to being more well rounded.
Sherry Zhang - Sherry's probably got the greatest shot of making the 4CC team out of this group. She's a bit inconsistent but when her jumps work, she's on fire! Sherry's a very artistic skater with amazing performance abilities, she has so much energy and you can feel her emotions when you see her skate (you should watch her Turandot ChSq, she does an Ina Bauer right after a spiral before doing ANOTHER spiral, it's incredible). She's also very flexible leading to great spins. She's recently been admitted into Stanford and I hope she continues skating competitively!
Elyce Lin-Gracey - Elyce's biggest weakness is her extreme inconsistency. Elyce can score BIG (her PB is 213.33) and she's got great jump technique but she's declined a bit since last season. Hopefully she works on becoming more consistent.
And of course, we've got the rest of the women's field! Katie Shen's a great skater, though I've heard that she's giving pairs a try and my favorite underground US skater is YN Machida! They competed under the name Erica at nationals, but YN is a badass enby who learned all their triples in their 20s and is currently working on a 3A! Call me optimistic, but I totally believe they can do it. There's also Brooke Gewalt whose consistently made it to nationals the past couple of years, Anabel Wallace, and Alexa Gasparotto whose the first black woman to land a 3A in practice!
I believe that this season will continue the Blade Angels dominance but over the quad, we'll see some younger skaters grow and maybe even challenge them at the top!
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