ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating - Gran Premio d'Italia 2021 - Torino ITA - Preview

The ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating series 2021/22 continues this week with the Gran Premio d’Italia in Turin (ITA). ISU World Champion Anna Shcherbakova (RUS), four-time Ice Dance World Champions Gabriella Papadakis/Guillaume Cizeron (FRA) and two-time ISU World Champions Wenjing Sui/Cong Han (CHN) headline the event. 

The Gran Premio d’Italia is the first ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating series event to take place in Italy, although Turin did host the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating Final 2019/20. This event, the third of the 2021/22 series, was originally to be held in Chongqing (CHN) but was moved to Italy.

Overview of the competitors

Anna Shcherbakova (pictured above, RUS), the 2021 ISU World Champion, starts

her Grand Prix season in Italy. She will compete against Loena Hendrickx (BEL), Mai Mihara (JPN), who finished fourth at Skate Canada International last week, and two-time World medalist Satoko Miyahara (JPN). Others to watch include up-and-coming Maiia Khromykh (RUS), who beat Shcherbakova at the Budapest Trophy, 2019 European Champion Sofia Samodurova (RUS) and Yelim Kim (KOR).

The Men’s event looks open with several strong contenders. Yuma Kagiyama (JPN), the 2021 World silver medalist, 2018 World bronze medalist Mikhail Kolyada (RUS), 2020 European Champion Dmitri Aliev (RUS) and two-time Word bronze medalist Boyang Jin (CHN) are expected to battle it out for the podium spots. Other contenders are Daniel Grassl (ITA), Junhwan Cha (KOR) and Deniss Vasiljevs (LAT). All except Grassl compete in their first Grand Prix event this season.

Wenjing Sui/Cong Han (CHN) lead the Pairs. The 2018 Olympic silver medalists come fresh from a confident victory at Skate Canada International and aim for the top of the podium again to secure their spot in the Final. 2020 Four Continents silver medalists Cheng Peng/Yang Jin (CHN), Nicole Della Monica/Matteo Guarise (ITA) and 2020 ISU World Junior bronze medalists Iuliia Artemeva/ Mikhail Nazarychev (RUS) are challenging for a medal.

In the Ice Dance event, four-time World Champions Gabriella Papadakis/Guillaume Cizeron (FRA) face 2021 World silver medalists Madison Hubbell/Zachary Donohue (USA) and four-time European medalists Alexandra Stepanova/Ivan Bukin (RUS). Other competitors include Caroline Green/Michael Parsons (USA), who finished fourth at Skate Canada International, Shiyue Wang/Xinyu Liu (CHN) and Katharina Müller/Tim Dieck (GER).

Sixty competitors representing 11 ISU members have been entered for the event.

Schedule of the event

• Friday, November 5                Women’s & Pairs Short Programs, Rhythm Dance, Men’s Short
• Saturday, November 6           Women’s & Pairs Free Skating, Free Dance, Men’s Free Skating
• Sunday, November 7              Exhibition Gala

Viewers will be able to watch the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating series either via their national broadcaster / channel or via the Skating ISU YouTube Channel for countries where there is no broadcaster agreement in place. For more information please see here.

 

The General Announcement of the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating Series is available at the ISU website. The individual announcements are published under the respective events. For full entry lists and further information regarding the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating Series please visit here. The ISU has an anti-Covid protocol in place to keep all participants of the events as safe as possible.

 

The ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating series consists of six events: Guaranteed Rate Skate America in Las Vegas (USA) October 22-24, Skate Canada International in Vancouver (CAN) October 29-31, Gran Premio d’Italia in Turin (ITA) November 5-7, NHK Trophy in Tokyo (JPN) November 12-14, Internationaux de France in Grenoble (FRA) November 19-21 and Rostelecom Cup in Sochi (RUS) November 26-28. The ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating Final will take place in Osaka (JPN) December 9-12.