Can the Quad God save figure skating?
17-year-old phenom might be the cure for the sport's latest crises
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Figure skating and controversy seem to go hand in hand, and last season was a stronger example of that than most.
In February, the Beijing Winter Olympics were rocked by a doping scandal involving 15-year-old women's gold-medal favourite Kamila Valieva, who was allowed to continue competing after a drug test she took back on Christmas Day finally came back positive for a banned heart medication. Valieva crumbled under the scrutiny, stumbling to a fourth-place finish in the women's competition. But she and her Russian teammates were allowed to keep their victory in the team event pending an investigation (more on that later).
Four days after the closing ceremony in Beijing, Russia invaded Ukraine. Like many of sports' world governing bodies, figure skating's promptly banned Russian and Belarussian athletes, causing them to miss the world championships in late March. That eliminated the reigning world champs in three of the four disciplines and, in the minds of some, attached an asterisk to many of the medals.
WATCH | Previewing the Grand Prix at Skate America:
As the 2022-23 Grand Prix of Figure Skating season gets set to lift off Friday night near Boston, the Valieva saga and the Russian/Belarussian ban continue to hang over the sport. Here's the latest on those things, plus some other storylines to follow this season:
Russians aren't around, but their shadow remains
Eight months after the Russian Anti-Doping Agency said it would open an investigation into Valieva's positive test, the deeply corrupt organization (yes, the same one that played a key role in the country's massive, state-sponsored doping scheme) is still dragging its feet on that process. This is causing frustration for skaters from other countries involved in the Olympic team event (including fourth-place Canada) who are in line for a medal upgrade if the Russians are disqualified. Read more about that here.
Meanwhile, Russian and Belarussian athletes remain persona non grata in the figure skating community. Skating's world governing body decided in June to extend its ban on athletes from Russia and Belarus and to not hold any international competitions in those countries "until further notice." Russia has traditionally hosted one of the six regular stops on the Grand Prix circuit, but this year's (in late November) was moved to Finland.
In lieu of the Grand Prix, Russians will compete in their own shadow circuit of six events to be held around the country at the same time as the Grand Prix. Valieva is among those slated to skate in the opener in Moscow, which begins Friday.
WATCH | Catching up on Russian figure skating:
The Grand Prix season is finally back to normal (sort of)
For the first time in three years, skaters won't have to worry about competing in empty arenas and season champions will be crowned as the Grand Prix Final returns to the calendar in December in Italy. The Final — reserved for the top six in each of the four disciplines, based on results in the regular stops — was cancelled the last two years due to COVID-19 restrictions in the host countries (China in 2020 and Japan last year).
The shadow of the pandemic, though, continues to loom over the Grand Prix. With China still clinging to harsh COVID-19 measures, its annual stop on the circuit (cancelled last year) was moved to England.
Apart from the aforementioned relocation of the Russian stop to Finland, the rest of the Grand Prix is comfortingly familiar. After the traditional Skate America opener in the United States this weekend, the series continues, as usual, with Skate Canada — being held this year in Mississauga, Ont., starting next Friday. Then it's off to France, England, Japan and Finland before the Final in Italy. Skaters are allowed to enter up to two of the regular events. All of those, plus the Final, will be streamed live on CBCSports.ca, the CBC Sports app and CBC Gem, with additional coverage of certain events on the CBC TV network. See the full streaming and broadcast schedule here.
Can the Quad God save the sport?
With all the bad, Russian-related vibes around figure skating right now, the arrival of Ilia Malinin could hardly come at a better time. The 17-year-old American phenom (whose parents are Russian-born former singles skaters that competed mainly for Uzbekistan) had already branded himself the "quadg0d" on social media before he pulled off the most impressive jump in the history of the sport last month.
Skating at a lower-tier event in Lake Placid, N.Y., Malinin became the first person ever to land a quadruple Axel in competition. The 4½-rotation jump — the most difficult in the quad family and the last one to be conquered — happened in front of almost no fans. But video of Malinin's feat spread virally throughout the skating world, which had seen current Olympic men's champion Nathan Chen only toy with the quad Axel in practice and former Olympic champ Yuzuru Hanyu try unsuccessfully to land it at this year's Games.
With Chen stepping away from the sport after his Olympic victory, Hanyu announcing his retirement in July and Russia's dominant women all banned from competition, the teenage Malinin could be figure skating's main attraction this season. He'll make his senior-level debut at Skate America, where the men's event begins Friday night at 8:50 p.m. ET. Watch it live here.
Can Canada break out of its slump?
Canadian figure skating hasn't been the same since the great Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir walked away after winning their second Olympic ice dance gold in 2018. Virtue and Moir also helped Canada to gold in the team event at those Games, while Kaetlyn Osmond (women's) and Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford (pairs) took bronze. Since the following season, Canadians have won just two medals at the world championships — a bronze by ice dancers Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier in 2021 and a pairs bronze by Radford and Vanessa James at the badly depleted 2022 worlds. At last winter's Olympics, Canada was shut out of the medals completely for the first time since 1980.
As the new Grand Prix season gets underway without the retired Radford and James, Gilles and Poirier remain Canada's most consistent podium threat while 2019 world junior champions Marjorie Lajoie and Zachary Lagha are also worth watching in ice dance (both tandems will make their seasons debut next week at Skate Canada). In singles, 19-year-old Madeline Schizas will try to build on her strong performance in the Olympic team event, while 17-year-olds Stephen Gogolev and Wesley Chiu are interesting prospects in the men's division.
