In this Olympic season full of exciting comebacks, theirs is special: U.S. Ice Dancers Maia and Alex Shibutani returned to competing after a break of seven years. When the “ShibSibs” competed in their very first event at the ISU Grand Prix NHK Trophy in Japan, the audience in Osaka welcomed them back warmly and embraced them with a lot of love. The 2018 Olympic bronze medalists may not have won a medal at NHK Trophy but they won many hearts for their courageous return. They still have something to give and they proved it.

“Being on the ice together in a competition setting, specifically with this crowd exceeded our hopes and expectations,” Maia Shibutani said. “We’ve been putting in so much hard work so it felt good to share our skating with an audience again. Obviously, it is a competition format and there are things that we're going to improve, but I’m very proud of how we rose to the occasion for our reintroduction after seven years.”

“We believed that we still had a lot to show and we're excited to jump into the process again with the added ability to infuse our skating with things that we've learned over the past seven years away from competition,” Alex Shibutani noted. “We’re very happy with how we performed and I think it's a great starting place for us to build off of.”

After becoming the first Asian-American and non-white Olympic Ice Dance medalists in 2018, the siblings took a break from competing even though they were just 23 and 26 years old at the time. Any possible comeback plans were on hold when Maia was diagnosed with kidney cancer in 2019 and had to undergo surgery. In the following years, the Shibutanis explored new things outside the sport. They published a series of children’s books, were active as choreographers, creatives, influencers, ambassadors and advocates for diversity and representation. Their most recent book “Incredible” introduces historical and contemporary Asian-American and Pacific Islander personalities and was released last May.

Yet, the Japanese-Americans remained connected to figure skating and sport as well. While they did not perform in shows as many other skaters do, they became ambassadors of the PyeongChang Legacy Foundation mentoring young students and athletes for the Youth Olympic Games. They also worked at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games as creatives and media members.

An idea comes to life

Coming back to competition was an idea that slowly started to develop towards the end of 2023 when the dancers were in Japan working with Mao Asada as choreographers for her theatrical skating show, Everlasting 33.

Maia and Alex Shibutani (USA) competed for the first time in seven years at the NHK Trophy © ISU

“It wasn't even something that we verbalized at that point,” Maia said.

“It was just let's start practicing,” Alex chimed in. “Let's start skating together more for ourselves, not just for this choreography project. We were teaching Mao some ice dance for her show. We were seeing how ambitious she was. She was doing high-wire aerials in her show. She was tap dancing. She really challenged herself and had so much fun in the process. We started talking about how it would be so nice to skate in a show together again, the two of us, but also with Mao. We were thinking, if we would do that, we would want our skating to be at a different level than what is required for teaching and choreography. I think it started with that idea.”

“It was unspoken, I think, but we just began to notice how much we were loving being back on the ice and enjoying the process of creating and expressing ourselves through our bodies,” Maia continued. “We also felt that our personal growth in different creative fields was elevating and impacting the work we were doing on the ice. It just became a very exciting thing to start thinking about doing it for ourselves.”

The fascination for the craft of skating, the unique way the blade connects with the ice and how you can express emotions and tell stories on the ice attracted the siblings. Nevertheless, they could have just started to perform in shows. Instead, they chose to compete.

“It's a beautiful sport and we realize that competition requires some things that can be restrictive and maybe eliminate some of those qualities in the way that you would like to freely express them, but we also like that challenge,” Alex explained.

“One of our favorite things, albeit it was the Short Dance before, now it's the Rhythm Dance, but we like receiving an assignment and then trying to figure out how we can make it our own and come up with something special. It (the comeback) was just a natural evolution.”

 “It was listening to ourselves and also circumstances through our lives that continued to point to the importance of following your dreams. And if you feel like you have an idea, it’s best to believe and commit to it whole-heartedly,” Maia added.

“We only have one life to live and decided that we wanted to spend our time together doing this even though it's hard, even though it's a challenge,” Alex explained. “But we love skating and the fact that we've been able to spend so much of our lives together doing it is incredibly special and we also know that you can't do it for forever.”

Maia and Alex Shibutani (USA) perform their Rhythm Dance "ShiibSibs in Shibuya" at NHK Trophy © ISU

Programs with a deep meaning

The dancers came up with a unique idea for their Rhythm Dance, catching the energy and atmosphere of a night out in Tokyo in the 90s.

“It was special to be able to perform this Rhythm Dance in particular for a Japanese audience because it's a celebration and a tribute to our heritage and 90s culture, both in Japan and the United States,” Alex Shibutani shared.

“The program starts with a reintroduction of ourselves to the audience,” Maia explained. "Then we hop on the Tokyo Metro and hit the streets for our footwork sequence before we dance our way through Shibuya Crossing and a Japanese game center. We chose Shibuya as the location because our last name, ‘Shibutani’ is connected to the Shibuya district. We were both born in the 90s and were particularly inspired by movements in culture that expressed creativity, rebellion, and innovation. Hip hop, B-boy culture, streetwear, racing, and arcade games like Mario Kart 64 and Dance Dance Revolution.”

They named the program “ShibSibs in Shibuya” and each little detail even on the costumes has a meaning, such as the number 777. “The 777 is very meaningful to us because we started skating together as an ice dance team 21 years ago,” Maia said. “When you look at our career in chapters, we realized that from the time that we first started skating together, to our first medal at the World Championships in 2011, it was only seven years, a very, very rapid ascent through the ranks. Then it was seven years after that that we won the two medals at the Olympic Games. And now seven years later we’re back. It wasn't planned out this way, but it definitely feels meant to be for us to reunite and do what we love together.”

For the Free Dance, the siblings returned to “Fix You” by Coldplay, a song they had used ten years ago.

Maia and Alex Shibutani (USA) put a lot of thoughts into their programs © ISU

“Since it's our return we put a lot of thought into why we're skating and it's very personal. It always is but our understanding of how we express ourselves through our bodies in this art form and how it engages us is very different,” Maia explained. “We reflected on our journey, our experiences and it really feels as though we've been on our own odyssey as a team. The ice is our home and the odyssey was a 10-year journey home. We looked back 10 years ago and ‘Fix You’ was a very transformative program for us at the time, but the depth with which we relate to it now is at a completely different level.” 

“It's based on lived experience,” Alex continued. “Now the program is different, the music arrangement is different, and so are we. The lyrics, Lights Will Guide You Home, really inspired us in this return to competition this season.”

Moving Forward

The NHK Trophy was just the beginning of the comeback. The Shibutanis will compete again in two weeks at the ISU Grand Prix Finlandia Trophy in Helsinki in Finland.

Maia and Alex Shibutani (USA)  wait with coaches Marina Zueva and Massimo Scali for their scores at NHK Trophy © ISU

“We are so happy that we were present in both programs,” Alex said. “I think one thing that I talked to other skaters about over the years is how you put in all this preparation and work for such brief competition moments. One of the biggest challenges in our sport is that we only have three or four minutes. Somehow, you need to try and harness your nerves, the energy of the crowd, the importance of the moment, the pressure of the competition and put your best forward. I think we did the best that we could in this situation so that's what I'm most happy about. I know that we will do even better going forward and it'll take a little bit of time, but we have that time before the next competition.

“This week was really about enjoying our skating and confirming our belief that we could still do this. We love our programs and we got good feedback so we are moving forward with a lot of confidence. There are some elements that we haven't done before and there are definitely different requirements for levels now. We were well-prepared in that regard but competition presents different circumstances and judging panels have their own interpretation. Just like any other season, we will take the opportunity to learn and improve. The overall goal is to peak at the end of the season and that's when we want to be at our strongest,” he concluded.

Watch Maia and Alex Shibutani competing again at the ISU Grand Prix Finlandia Trophy in Helsinki, Finland, November 20-23.