The 2024 Finlandia trophy! The second to last competition of the 2024-2025 senior Grand Prix season. We are so close to finding out who will make the final! This GP event was one of the more predictable outcomes we’ve seen this season. However, there were a couple standout performances that still caught our eye. At this Grand Prix event, our house were able to watch some of their favorite skaters like Rino Matsuike. Rino blew us away with a phenomenal performance at the Skate Canada event earlier in the Grand Prix season. She redeemed herself at the Finlandia trophy with a much better short. Her long was still stunning! A truly beautiful program to watch. Laura Naki Gutman was a last-minute addition to this Grand Prix event and we enjoyed seeing her Skate even more than we did at the NHK trophy. She earned her spot on the podium at this event! We saw the return of America’s Sara Everhart. She delivered with consistency and strong skiing skills. Again Yun gave us the best short program to the start the entire weekend. Certainly a hard act to follow after that flawless performance. The winner of the Finlandia trophy was Hana Yoshida. Our hosts love her short program, from the experimental choreography to the unique skating dress. However, our hosts still didn’t enjoy the music selection for the long program. Claiming it feels disconnected from the dress and gives the feeling of background study music. It doesn’t showcase her skating skills to the best of their ability. Regardless, Hana still delivered a winning program earning her gold at this Grand Prix event. Cup of China is next! Will Amber Glenn win her second Grand Prix event? Can’t wait to find out next weekend here on the Lutz Talk About Skating Podcast! YouTube: ‪@LutzTalkAboutSkating‬ Instagram: @lutztalkaboutskating

The 2024 NHK Trophy! The fourth Senior Grand Prix event of the 2024 season! On this episode of the podcast, our hosts talk about the top 6 skaters from the Women's event at the NHK Trophy. Our last episode talked about everything that happened at the Grand Prix De France! Amber Glen gave us an amazing start to her Senior Grand Prix assignments with a stunning short program. She walked away with the gold last week. On this episode we journey to Japan for the NHK Trophy. We got to see a mix of stunning programs, costumes, and skaters. Contrary to last week in France, the Men's event was one of the strongest we've seen on the Senior Grand Prix this season so far. The senior women had strong skates, with some improving their score by over 20 points since the last Grand Prix competition. Ye-Lim Kim improved her scores dramatically since Skate Canada. However, she ended up in 12th again resulting in the end of her Grand Prix season. Ekaterina Kukarova gave us a short program filled with energy and everything this program was missing at Skate Canada. When it came to her free, she unfortunately made some mistakes, also resulting in the end of her Grand Prix season. Both were great to watch and we were sad to see they would not be making it to the finals. Lindsay Thorngren made a return to the Grand Prix with the same short program music as last year. Our hosts were not impressed with the music choice but thought she delivered a lovely short program. Her lines, edges, and consistent jumps are what wowed us at the NHK Trophy. Lara Naki Gutmann from Italy gave us a unique short program that left our hosts split on how they felt about it. Some liked the unique idea while others felt it fell flat of what it could've been. Regardless we all agreed that she is a great skater to watch. The height Lara gets on her jumps really showed at the NHK Trophy throughout both the short and long program. Bradie Tennell had an amazing long program. Her fall on the double axel might have cost her a spot on the podium but she still delivered an even stronger program than what we saw at Skate America. Our hosts agreed the short program is her weak spot this season. We don't think it is the best choice for her as a skater and wish it was something different. Alysa Liu came back for her second event in the series, giving us to lovely programs. We were in awe with how excited the crow was for her long program. That energy fueled her passion throughout the program and it showed! Yuna Aoki secured the bronze medal at this event and gave us the all of the smiles. Her radiant energy throughout both programs made us fall in love with her. This event was much stronger than her skate at Skate America. Yuna's kiss and cry moment was one of our favorites. Mone Chiba gave us disco perfection for her short program. The dress, the music, and the elements worked together perfectly. Her air position is extremely captivating and she jumps with such power. A well deserved silver medal at this Grand Prix. Finally the gold medalist of the NHK Trophy was no surprise to any of us. Kaori Sakamoto had the best long program we have seen yet, securing her win and a spot in the Grand Prix final. Our hosts were not a huge fan of the Chicago program when we saw it at the Skate Canada event. We felt it was lacking something. Kaori expressed in her interview that she was extremely nerves for Skate Canada which is what caused some of her mistakes. She talked about feeling excited for this event and that energy helped her connect to the program better. Our hosts agree, Kaori Nakamoto's long program grew on us at this event. We love it more than we did when we first saw it at the Skate Canada event. Join us next week for the Finlandia Trophy! Who do you think will make the podium? Instagram: @lutztalkaboutskating TikTok: @lutztalkaboutskating

Grand Prix De France 2024! The third Senior Grand Prix event of the 2024 season! On this episode of the podcast, our hosts came straight from a long day of competing at a local competition to discuss this Grand Prix event. Sharing how their day went along with their thoughts and options about the top 6 skaters in the Women's event. Our last episode talked about everything that happened at Skate Canada! On this episode we journey to Angers, France. We get our first look at skaters representing France in the Women's event and we got to see Amber Glenn! Out of all the Grand Prix events we have seen so far in the season, this event did not have much dramatic placement changes between the short program and long program for the women's event. However, when it came to the Men's event we witness a dramatic shift between the short and long program. None of the top 3 skaters in the Men's short program maintained their spot after the long. Sarah Everhardt wowed us at her first Senior Grand Prix event! Her short program, from the dress to the effortless elements in the program gave us everything we wanted to start the weekend. Our hosts absolutely loved her short program dress and how well she executed each element in the program. When it came to her long, Sarah delivered with the elements but we felt she needed to find her true firebird when it came to the choreography. Very excited to watch her grow as an athlete! Chaeyeon Kim gave us a unique short program look for her Tron program. Her performance left her in a place for medal contention after the short but a few painful mistakes bumped her off the podium after the long. Rion Sumiyoshi delivered two very well executed programs at this Grand Prix event. A few minor mistakes here and there left her in 3rd after the long program. Our hosts loved her effortless flow throughout each program! Even her smile and positive energy she brought to the completion resinated well with us and the audience. Wakaba Higuchi did it again! She delivered a strong short and long program at this event. We will most likely see her at the Grand Prix finals given her 1st and 2nd place wins at her Grand Prix events. Our hosts are still not in love with the music choice for her long, and discuss why they wish it was one song or the other but not both combined. Finally, America's own Amber Glenn makes a return to the Grand Prix this season with a fantastic short program. She earned a record breaking high score to start the competition off right. Triple axel perfection! Amber's stunning short put in a great place for the long. Even with a few mistakes made during her long program, she still pulled through with a score over 210 as a total combined score! Making Amber our winner for the Women's event at the Grand Prix De France. Overall this Grand Prix competition left us so excited to see how the rest of the events in the sires play out. Who will we see at the finals?! We are so excited to see what the 2024 NHK Trophy brings. Instagram: @lutztalkaboutskating TikTok: @lutztalkaboutskating #GPFigure #figureskating #isufigureskating #grandprix #grandprix2024 #isugrandprix #podcast #skater #isu #worldskating #yuzuruhanyu #iliamalinin #quad #triples #doubles #backflip #freeskate #competition #wintersport #spins #jumps #iceskater #adultskaters #podcast

Skate Canada2024! The second competition of the 2024-2025 Grand Prix was filled with programs that had us on the edge of our seats! On this episode of the Lutz Talk About Skating podcast, our hosts discuss their favorite moments from the Senior Women's event at the Skate Canada International competition. Covering everything from Rino Matsuike's absolutely breathtaking Freeskate to the return of our favorite athletes. Our last episode covered the first of six events in the 2024-2025 Grand Prix series that took place in Allen, Texas. This week we share our thoughts and opinions regarding the Skate Canada event that took place in Halifax, Nova Scotia. At each competition in the Grand Prix series, 12 athletes in the women's event compete for a spot on the podium and a chance to compete at the Grand Prix Finals. Last week we discussed the overall top 6 consisting of Elyce Lin-Gracey, Bradie Tennell, Nina Pinzarrone, Isabeau Levito, Rinka Watanabe, and Wakaba Higuchi. This week we expanded our discussion to the top 9-8 women in the Senior Ladies event. Starting off the episode by briefly discussing our favorite Canadian figure skaters like Kurt Browning, Kate Charbonneau Shurts, Tessa Virtue, and Scott Moir. Following that with talking about Ilia Malinin's win that secured him a spot at the GP Final. He was one of two Americans that competed back to back weekends. Elyce Lin-Gracey also competed this weekend, sliding into 6th place overall after making a few mistakes. Ekaterina Kurakova wowed us with her Cats themed Freeskate program. A quick change dress, rhinestoned cat ears in her hair, and a flawless comeback from the short program left us speechless. The new rising star for senior women in Canada Kaiya Ruiter caught our eye with two strong programs. Alysa Liu makes a fabulous comeback to skating with a Freeskate like no other! Her Donna Summer tribute program was golden, giving us the creative spark we've been waiting to see during this GP season. One of Canada's favorite skaters Madeline Schizas gave us a powerful performance with her Lion King themed short program. Her genuine reaction at the very end said it all. Madeline delivered two fantastic programs! Another skater that made us jump for joy was the return of Kimmy Repond. Battling injuries all of last season, she came back with a bang taking 3rd after the short. She unfortunately fell to 4th after the Freeskate due to a time violation that cost her the Bronze medal. Of course we had to mention the costumes at this GP event. Hana Yoshida always gives us the best looks on the GP circuit. She gives us creative programs and costumes that are extremely unique. With a 0.07 lead, Hana takes home the Bronze medal at the Skate Canada event. The completely unexpected turn of events was when Rino Matsuike's STUNNING Freeskate took her from 10th after the short to 2nd overall. Her program is being regarded as an example of perfection. A combination of perfect jumps, spins, and skating skills that never skipped a beat gave her a well deserved win for the Freeskate event. This program certainly loves rent free in most skaters and skating fans minds. Finally the current world champion Kaori Sakamoto took home the gold at this GP event. Her win was no surprise to us but the uncharacteristic mistakes in the Freeskate shocked us. Kauri's short program gave her a 10 point lead which ultimately saved her after a couple falls and what looked to be a constant fight with her jumps throughout the program. Overall this Grand Prix competition was a rollercoaster of dramatic events that kept us on the edge of our seats! We are so excited to see what the Grand Prix De France brings.

Ava, Madeline and Melissa discuss the top 6 ladies skaters at the first Grand Prix of the season, Skate America.