Three Terns

Here is a master post of the intros for the Sheffield Grand Prix! I’m aiming to cover at least all the men and pairs.

Men Edward Appleby Corey Circelli Daniel Grassl Tomoki Hiwatashi Morisi Kvitelashvili Jimmy Ma Graham Newberry Roman Sadovsky Shun Sato Koshiro Shimada Tatsuya Tsuboi Deniss Vasiljevs

Alexa Knierim & Brandon Frazier

Country: USA Age: 31 & 29 Career highlight: World Champions in 2022 SP music: Separate Ways by Journey (from Stranger Things)

Comments: The superstars of the roster at the MK John Wilson Trophy! Knierim and Frazier are the reigning world champions and should come to this competition with plenty of swagger. They won Skate America recently and although that competition for gold for closer than they were probably expecting, I don’t think they have such dangerous rivals in Sheffield and they’ll hopefully have cleaned up their free program (where they made some mistakes).

They have a lot of great elements and they skate “big”. Looking at their previous scores, they reliably get positive GOE on at least of all their non-jump elements, which really does add up. Her personality is very... loud... (see their different reactions in the kiss and cry above!) and I love when that comes through in their performances. I think they’re going to be very impressive to watch live.

Daniel Grassl

Country: Italy Age: 20 Career highlight: Silver at the 2022 European Championships SP music: Silhouette by Aquilo

Comments: Look, I don’t think I’ll ever adore his skating, but he endears me more every season. He first drew attention for some impressive quad jumping, especially as he’s gone straight for the harder quads like lutz and flip (and loop in the past) rather than the usual salchow and toe loop. He also some unusual, although maybe not all that aesthetically pleasing, spin positions. And he’s rather infamous for his head position in his jumps... 

But for all that I have to note that he’s a keen bean when it comes to improving his artistry. This year his short program is choreographed by Jason Brown – there is no better man to emulate!

He came 4th at the recent Skate America, and will no doubt be looking to medal in Sheffield.

Koshiro Shimada

Country: Japan Age: 21 Career highlight: Bronze at the 2018 Junior Grand Prix Final SP music: Sing, Sing, Sing

Comments: Shimada trains with Stéphane Lambiel (like Shoma Uno) and is one of a huge number of Japanese men we’ve got to keep track of! And which I’ve so far failed to keep track of...

But, catching up on his season so far, he came 9th at Skate America and I think will place higher than that in Sheffield. He’s landed a few clean quad salchows recently, and also regularly attempts the quad toe loop. He achieves level 4 spins, but usually not level 4 step sequences. Artistically, he’s got a very youthful vibe; I think he’ll be very sweet to watch!

Morisi Kvitelashvili

Country: Georgia Age: 27 Career highlight: Placing 4th at the 2022 World Championships SP music: Kaleo

Comments: Kvitelashvili has medalled thrice at the Rostelecom Cup (including one gold), but has never medalled at any other Grand Prix. That’s likely to change in Sheffield, as he’s surely one of the gold medal contenders here. He generally scores well, and has a quad salchow and quad toe. Although, as noted in the video, his quad toe is rather controversial. Looks suspiciously like a slightly disguised quad salchow, but seems to get by the technical panel and judges just fine. 

He’s coached by Eteri Tutberidze and co. – let me just link to this update on Valieva’s case – but he has such a different aura from her other skaters that I find it hard to imagine him in that training environment. By which I mean he doesn’t give off a vibe of being on the edge of a mental and/or physical breakdown. 

Irma Caldara & Riccardo Maglio

Country: Italy Age: 22 & 23 Career highlight: Silver at 2022 Lombardia Trophy SP music: Woodkid

Comments: Caldara and Maglio only teamed up last season, so can I be forgiven for never have watched them before? Based on this performance, I like their vibe a lot! Alas, looking at their results so far, I think they have a lot to work on to be competitive – they don’t have side-by-side triple jumps yet, and don’t often get positive GOE on their throw jumps, for example. But they have a nice triple twist, and some level 4s for spins and step sequences.

Roman Sadovsky

Country: Canada Age: 23 Career highlight: Bronze at the 2019 NHK Trophy SP music: Cold by Chris Stapleton

Comments: Roman Sadovsky is here to break our hearts. He’s got the goods (I especially love his spins, but I guess it’s also important to point out he has a quad salchow) and he’s got the artistry. But he is prone to having bad skates, so hasn’t reached the results that he’s capable of – yet! His season started with an amazing short program at the Nebelhorn Trophy, but he couldn’t capitalize on that, dropping from 1st after the SP to 3rd overall. He then came 5th at Skate America which, considering who placed ahead of him, was fine, but he could do so much better! He could medal in Sheffield, I believe!!

If you want to get to know him better, he vlogs! https://www.youtube.com/c/Romsky

Sara Conti & Niccolò Macii

Country: Italy Age: 22 & 27 Career highlight: Bronze medal at this year’s Skate Canada SP music: Oblivion performed by Mina

Comments: Conti and Macii are three-time Italian Championship bronze medallists, which reminds me that Italy has a lot of good skaters! I think I forget that sometimes. Although Conti is relatively new to pairs (switching from singles in 2019), they look strong together. Their triple twist is one of their weakest elements – you can see she doesn’t have enough height to cleanly complete the rotations – but they are pretty good overall. I mean, the pairs field at the moment has regressed technically, so they don’t need to have absolutely stellar elements to still be aiming for a medal in Sheffield.

I agree with the commentators that they could skate with a bit more passion and chemistry, but there’s still a lot to enjoy in their elegant presentation.

Edward Appleby

Country: Great Britain Age: 17 Career highlight: A bronze medal on last year's Junior Grand Prix circuit SP music: Dawn of Faith by Eternal Eclipse

Comments: Appleby is our reigning junior British champion and has competed at the World Junior Championships thrice; his best result was 20th this year. I’ve only watched a couple of his performances (the one above, and his medal-winning JGP free skate from last year), and I think he’s already improved. It’s a bit hard to compare with the difficult camera angle, but I think he has more power this year. And I’m impressed that he has a pretty consistent triple Axel!

Letizia Roscher & Luis Schuster

Country: Germany Age: 18 & 21 Career highlight: Placing 5th at last year's World Junior Championships SP music: A cover of In the Air Tonight, originally by Phil Collins

Comments: While they did compete at a couple of senior competitions last year (including the European Championships), this is Roscher and Schuster’s first year fully as seniors. They competed at the Finlandia Trophy, where they placed a very respectable 4th (behind two other German teams), and they’ve already competed on the Grand Prix in the USA, where they placed 7th.

Their technical content is not particularly high (e.g. they don’t have side-by-side triple jumps, and they very rarely achieve level 4 for the level elements, so they’ll need plenty of positive GOE to rise in the rankings. But they’re young for pairs skaters – the Grand Prix is a great opportunity for them to gain competition experience without the pressure the potential medallists have.

Shun Sato

Country: Japan Age: 18 Career highlight: Silver at the 2021 Internationaux de France SP music: Carol of the Bells

Comments: Shun Sato is one of the “big next generation” of Japanese male skaters. In such a competitive field, he hasn’t managed to establish himself as one of the absolute top contenders yet, but he’s had some highlights along the way so far, including gold at the 2019 Junior Grand Prix Final. Unfortunately he had to have surgery on a shoulder injury earlier this year, and missed the Junior World Championships for that.

He has a relatively consistent quad toe loop, and a relatively less consistent quad lutz, and he projects well to the crowd. As someone who cannot offer constructive technical criticism, I’ll offer my aesthetic criticism instead: I want him to add some stretch to that free leg!

Anastasiia Metelkina & Daniil Parkman

Country: Georgia Age: 17 & 23 Career highlight: Placing 16th at the 2021 World Championships SP music: I'll Take Care Of You by Beth Hart and Joe Bonamassa

Comments: Metelkina and Parkman were born and train in Russia, but competing for Georgia has increased their opportunities for the big competitions – especially now! They were the first Georgian pairs team to compete at the World Championships (see video!). I am a little concerned that they’re still recovering from injury? (They withdrew from 2022 Europeans, 2022 Worlds and 2022 Finlandia Trophy, although they did make it to 2022 Nebelhorn Trophy.)

Their best elements are their twists and lifts, and their biggest liability are their side-by-side jumps. Style-wise, I think his flair and her beautiful poise shine through!

Graham Newberry

Country: Great Britain Age: 24 Career highlight: Placing 20th at the 2022 World Championships SP music: No Good by KALEO

Comments: Newberry is our reigning national champion and has represented us at two World Championships. This will be his Grand Prix debut!

Lori-Ann Matte & Thierry Ferland

Country: Canada Age: 23 & 25 Career highlight: Competing at the 2022 Four Continents Championships SP music: TBC

Comments: Matte and Ferland have placed in the top five at the last three Canadian Championships, so they haven’t yet made it to the World team and this will be only their second time competing at a senior Grand Prix event. However, this year I think they’re one of two teams who are gunning for the Canadian gold, so hopefully they’re coming into this season with a lot of focus and determination. 

Jimmy Ma

Country: USA Age: 26 Career highlight: Competing at the 2022 Four Continents Championships SP music: TBC

Comments: I mostly associate Ma with quite modern music (like Daft Punk and DJ Snake) and while I didn’t pick one of those programs to highlight here (because the one that stands out is ruined by completely inane commentary...), I think you can see even from this Black Swan program, that he has the swagger for hip-hop and dance music!

Ma is still looking to break through in the American men’s team; he’s placed 6th at the last two US Championships. But with Chen, Zhou and Brown likely all retired, he’s in a good position to nab a medal and a trip to Worlds this year.