If we thought the women’s event at Skate America was packed, well get ready for another one at 2021 Skate Canada International this week. Russia brings three of their best, the US brings two national champions, and Japan brings national medalists and purveyors of triple axels. It would be quite the feat to just finish in the top half of the standings. The Russian women, incidentally, are in a rematch of Finlandia Trophy, where Kamila Valieva, Elizaveta Tuktamysheva, and Alena Kostornaia finished 1-2-3.
2021 Skate Canada International predictions
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GOLD Kamila Valieva RUS - It’s hard to believe this is Valieva’s senior Grand Prix debut, especially considering that we’ve seen so much from her over the past few seasons. Yes, she has the most difficult content out of all the skaters here, but that also means that she’s taking on a lot of risk in her elements. We’ve seen it work really well, but we’ve also seen her mistakes snowball. Still, she’s definitely the favorite for gold in her first GP.
SILVER Elizaveta Tuktamysheva RUS - After her silver at Worlds last season - six seasons after her last appearance at Worlds, where she won the title - Tuktamysheva looked at her Olympic chances perhaps a bit differently, but still knowing that this season would mark the senior debut of even more talented teammates like Valieva. Still, she continues to hold that belief, and her silver medal at Finlandia ahead of Kostornaia featured some of the best skating (and scoring) of her career.
BRONZE Alena Kostornaia RUS - Two years ago, Kostornaia had an almost flawless season, winning everything internationally, including the Grand Prix Final and Europeans. Her only silver was at Russian Nationals behind Anna Shcherbakova. And then the pandemic hit, she lost some momentum, and subsequently made two coaching switches away from and back to Eteri Tutberidze’s camp. Her bronze at Finlandia and her early domestic performances have led her to scrap both programs and come into Skate Canada with new ones.
4. Alysa Liu USA - The past couple of seasons have seen a whole lot of change for Liu. After winning two US titles in a row, Liu had a rough last season, popping jumps and watering down her difficulty as she was trying to adjust to her growth spurt and coaching change. But her hard work led her back in the mix at US Nationals, where she took fourth. And her Olympic season has gotten off to a terrific start, earning the highest scores that any American woman has gotten so far in her senior international debut. It’s a far cry from this time last year, and she’s certainly looking ahead to figure out how she can insert herself in the conversation internationally.
5. Wakaba Higuchi JPN - Higuchi has been something of a comeback story over the current Olympic cycle. After winning silver at Worlds in 2018, she dealt with an injury the following season that took some time to recover from. The following season was a resurgent one, and she ended up back the podium at Japan Nationals before Worlds was cancelled due to the pandemic. Her pandemic (and domestic) season was again up and down, but she started this season with a bang by winning Japan Open.
6. Karen Chen USA - The miracle worker did it again last season. Karen Chen only seems to go to Worlds in order to help the US qualify three spots for the Olympics. In her two appearances at Worlds, she finished fourth and was the key to the US getting that third spot for the Olympics. Four years ago, she came into the Olympic season a bit lost, but her start to this season has been promising, taking sixth at Finlandia with a personal best free skate.
7. Mai Mihara JPN - The former Japanese bronze medalist took some time off due to a chronic health condition but came back last season to take fifth at Japan Nationals. Her comeback has been bumpy, and she’s lost a bit of her power across the ice and the consistency that helped her win three Grand Prix medals. She did skate strongly enough to win Asian Open over Kaori Sakamoto two weeks ago
8. Madeline Schizas CAN - Ninth at a competitive Finlandia Trophy earlier this month, Schizas is currently the Canadian woman with the highest scoring potential - her jumps are finding some consistency and her basics are solid. If she can put together a good short program her, she could set herself up well to distance herself from the rest of her teammates.
9. Haein Lee KOR - Tenth in her Worlds debut, Lee showed off some solid skating last season in her sole international event. She’s one of three frontrunners among a talented field of Korean women who are looking to grab one of the two Olympic spots. After teammates Young You and Yelim Kim competed at Skate America last week, it’s Lee’s turn to make her opening statement.
10. Mana Kawabe JPN - One of the multiple Japanese women trying triple axels this season, Kawabe has had that jump for a number of years now, but while she’s landed it cleanly in domestic events, she has yet to hit one in international competition. Her skating has grown since her juniro days two seasons ago, and if she can skate clean here, she’s got the potential to score some upsets.
11. Emily Bausback CAN - After winning Canadian Nationals two seasons ago, Bausback has not found the form that took her to that title. She didn’t get out of the short program at Worlds last season, finishing 27th, and was 7th at Autumn Classic a month ago.
12. Alison Schumacher CAN - The 2020 Canadian silver medalist is making her senior Grand Prix debut this week after starting her season with a tenth-place finish at Autumn Classic.