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Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara (JPN) placed first in Free Skating Saturday to win the first ISU Grand Prix title of the season at Skate America © ISU

The first 2024 Skate America Champions have been crowned: Reigning World silver medalists Riku Miura/Ryuichi Kihara (JPN) skated to their first ISU Grand Prix Skate America title in the Pairs Free Skating Saturday in Allen, TX (USA).

Riku Miura/Ryuichi Kihara (JPN) win Skate America gold  

ISU 2023 World Champions Riku Miura/Ryuichi Kihara of Japan skated off with the gold medal in style. Ellie Kam/Danny O’Shea (USA) earned silver, while Alisa Efimova/Misha Mitrofanov (USA) rose from fifth to claim bronze. It was the first ISU Grand Prix medal for both U.S. teams.

Overnight leaders Miura/Kihara put out a strong performance to “Adios” by Benjamin Clementine, showing off their Pair Skating skills. They opened their performance with a triple twist and followed up with spectacular lifts and a throw triple Lutz, however Miura missed the throw triple loop. The 2024 ISU Four Continents silver medalists posted a new season's best of 136.44 points and accumulated 214.23 points overall to take the gold and their third ISU Grand Prix event title.

“We’re back to the Grand Prix series after two years and it’s great to be back,” Kihara said. “It’s been a while since we won a competition so we are happy about that as well.”

Their Free Skating program was choreographed by Marie-France Dubreuil at the Ice Academy of Montreal.

“We spent two weeks in Montreal training at the Ice Academy of Montreal, and it was our first experience to do choreography off the ice in front of the mirror,” Miura said. “That really opened up our eyes to a whole new sort of level, a whole new world of experiences.”

Performing to "Stand By Me", Kam/O'Shea impressed the crowd with their difficult lifts, level-four triple twist, throw triple loop and side by side triple toe. Kam stepped out of the throw triple Lutz. The 2024 ISU Four Continents bronze medalists earned a new personal best score of 131.07 points for a total of 201.73 points.

 Ellie Kam and Danny O'Shea (USA) took silver at Skate America in Allen, TX on Saturday © ISU

“It's pretty great being up here on a podium in the Grand Prix,” O’Shea said. “It's our first Grand Prix medal and it was a hard off-season. We worked really hard on all the programs and put a lot of work into creating programs that we felt really pushed us, so we're happy to see them paying off on both the technical and the component side.”

Efimova/Mitrofanov put out an excellent and clean performance to "Je suis malade", featuring a triple Salchow-double Axel sequence, throw triple loop and Salchow, as well as level-four lifts. Competing in their first ISU Grand Prix as a team, they scored a personal best 128.46 points for the Free Skating and totaled 191.51 points.

Alisa Efimova and Misha Mitrofanov (USA) took bronze at Skate America in Allen, TX on Saturday © ISU

“For us this result shows that the hard work pays off,” Efimova said.

Efimova won a silver medal at Skate America with her previous partner in 2018 and it has been a long journey for her since then. It was similar for Mitrofanov, whose previous partner retired in 2022.

“I just feel very grateful for all the experiences I had before. They come with me and I think they help now. All the joy from all the medals, the experience just from the journey with my former partners,” Efimova said. "Alisa and I felt that we were in the same boat, that both of our partnerships unfortunately ended and we both still had a desire to continue skating. We had a passion for it and we knew that we will claw and do everything that we can to continue the sport. When we had our tryout, I believe it clicked very quickly. We understood that we have a lot of potential and when we talked we understood that we shared the same passion and that’s why we believe this will be a great partnership." 

ISU 2024 World Junior Champions Anastasiia Metelkina/Luka Berulava (GEO) made some errors and slipped from third to fourth with 191.43 points overall, edged off the podium by just 0.08 points. Maria Pavlova/Alexei Sviatchenko (HUN) placed fifth on 184.01 points.

Miura/Kihara earned the maximum 15 points for the ISU Grand Prix Standings and are headed next to their home event, NHK Trophy in Tokyo. Kam/O’Shea received 13 points and will go to Japan as well, while Efimova/Mitrofanov have 11 points and will compete again at the Grand Prix de France in Angers.

For full entries, schedules & results, see the ISU Grand Prix Event Page & ISU GP Skate America Event Page & Official Skate America Website.

Check out the ISU Grand Prix Standings to find out who is on their way to qualify for the Final (data will be available after the conclusion of the first event):

Men      Women            Pair Skating      Ice Dance

What & When

The schedule of Skate America is as follows:

Friday, Oct 18: Pairs & Women’s Short Programs

Saturday, Oct 19: Rhythm Dance, Pairs Free Skating, Men’s Short Program & Women’s Free Skating

Sunday, Oct 20: Men’s Free Skating & Free Dance, Exhibition Gala  

Follow the ISU Grand Prix Series

The schedules of each ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating event are available below:

• 18 - 20 Oct 2024 Skate America in Allen, TX (USA)
• 25 - 27 Oct 2024  Skate Canada International in Halifax (CAN)
• 01 - 03 Nov 2024 Grand Prix de France in Angers (FRA)
• 08 - 10 Nov 2024  NHK Trophy in Tokyo (JPN)
• 15- 17 Nov 2024 Finlandia Trophy in Helsinki (FIN)
• 22 - 24 Nov 2024 Cup of China in Chongqing (CHN)

The ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating Final: 

• 05 - 08 Dec 2024 Grenoble/FRA

About ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating

The ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating Series started in 1995 (previously known a s the ISU Champions Series) and consists of six invitational international senior events and the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating Final. The top six of the past World Championships are seeded. Competitors collect points in their events towards the qualification for the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating Final. Only the top six Skaters / Couples in each discipline can qualify for the Final.