The four countries with the most depth in women figure skating talent are all at 2021 Skate America this week - and among the four of them, they make up 11 of the 12 entries in the event. There’s a lot to be said about the depth in women’s skating in general. This competition will showcase newcomers and veterans, and a great range of skating styles and prowess. It’s one of the rare GP events where finishing 12th might not even mean you skated poorly - the field is really that well-matched.
2021 Skate America predictons
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GOLD Alexandra Trusova RUS - Trusova has been making history the past few seasons with her technical talent, and she comes into the Olympic season with the two strongest programs of her career. She still lags behind a few of the other skaters here in her basics and her music interpretation, but she can more than make up for it with her jumps. The curious thing for me is how Trusova will perform in international competition. Since her breakthrough winning her first two Grand Prix events two years ago, her international outings have been marred by inconsistency. Skating well here will be an important step in her quest for Olympic gold.
SILVER Daria Usacheva RUS - Very much flying under the radar, Usacheva makes her Grand Prix debut as one of the remaining top Russian skaters without a triple axel or quad. But her all-around skating is very strong, and combined with her consistency, it all makes her a strong contender for a medal this week. After all, she took that same approach to finishing fourth at a jam-packed Russian Nationals last year, so she’s got the potential for some great skating.
BRONZE Satoko Miyahara JPN - I’ll just say I’m incredibly excited to see Miyahara’s Tosca free skate in person - it was one of the standout programs from last season, and she brings it back this season looking to qualify for her second Olympics. Her consistency has waned over the past few seasons, and after skating superbly at Japan Nationals in December, she finished all the way down in 19th at Worlds a few months later. Her coaching arrangement has been difficult with the pandemic, but she looked strong just a couple weeks ago at her Regionals competition in Japan.
4. Kaori Sakamoto JPN - It’s been a middling early season for Sakamoto so far - fourth at Japan Open and then second just last weekend at Asian Trophy to Mai Mihara. Even her win at Regionals a month ago was a bit subpar in her performances, so we don’t really know if she will be able to step it up at her first Grand Prix of the season, especially given the potential of fatigue with all the travel.
5. Ekaterina Kurakova POL - Fresh off some great success early in this Olympic season, including easily qualifying a spot for Poland (and presumably her) at Nebelhorn Trophy with a silver medal, Kurakova is putting out some of the best skating of her career so far this season. She is also one of the skaters whose COVID season was greatly affected due to travel - she was training in Canada prior to the pandemic and subsequently had to turn a temporary arrangement in Italy into a permanent one.
6. Amber Glenn USA - We’ve been waiting for that breakthrough from Glenn for a few years. Supremely talented and emotionally raw on the ice, she has just not been able to put together clean competitions and build the momentum that could propel her to the top. After a career-best silver at Nationals last year, she has had a bit of a slow start to her season, withdrawing from an early competition and then finishing tenth at Finlandia. At her best, she is a medal contender here.
7. Yelim Kim KOR - 11th in her Worlds debut earlier this year, Kim has been putting out some very strong skating over the past couple of seasons. Like we saw with the men’s event, there is a bit of domestic competition intrigue here - Kim and You are the two most recent South Korean champions, and their head-to-head here could give one or both some momentum and cred as the season progresses.
8. Kseniia Sinitsyna RUS - Sinitsyna has shown a whole lot of promise over the past few seasons, but she hasn’t put up the kind of consistency that some of her teammates have. An injury last season derailed her domestic season, but she has since added a quad toe to her repertoire, though she has yet to land it in competition. It will be interesting to see how she fares among this field - she’s a strong all-around skater and really could be a dark horse for a medal here.
9. Young You KOR - You could end up on the podium or much lower in the standings, especially among this group. She’s got the technical goods - one of a few skaters in this event who will be trying triple axels - but her consistency the past two seasons has been lacking, to the point where she went from a strong favorite to win Korean Nationals last year to being left off the World team. She took silver at Autumn Classic earlier in the season.
10. Audrey Shin USA - Shin was the breakout star at last year’s very domestic Skate America, where she finished with the bronze and set herself up for a solid first senior season. She’s now in her first full international senior season. Her breakthrough last year came on the heels of some very strong jumping, but she hasn’t been able to show that same form since that event.
11. Yuhana Yokoi JPN - She has really become the queen of free skate comebacks. At Chubu Regionals just a couple of weeks ago, she once again skated a subpar short program and ended up with a free skate comeback that moved her up to win silver. She will need to be a two-program skater here to have a chance at finishing in the top half of this field.
12. Starr Andrews USA - A late substitution for Bradie Tennell, who withdrew earlier this week still recovering from a foot injury, Andrews is no stranger to the Grand Prix. She finished fifth earlier this season at Autumn Classic.