Beijing hosts the 2023 Junior and Senior Grand Prix Finals this week. This event is always different because it’s a nonstop showcase of the best of the best so far this season. There are six entries per discipline, and the competition goes by like a flash. So just like the GPF, here’s a lightning round preview of the eight disciplines in Beijing.
Grand Prix Final predictions
Official hashtag: #GPFigure; unofficial hashtag: #GPFinal
Senior men predictions
GOLD Ilia Malinin USA
SILVER Adam Siao Him Fa FRA
BRONZE Yuma Kagiyama JPN
4. Shoma Uno JPN
5. Kao Miura JPN
6. Kevin Aymoz FRA
Potential for chaos: Medium-high
You better believe the quad axel will be back this week for Ilia Malinin. After taking second to Adam Siao earlier this season (as did Shoma Uno a week later), Malinin probably comes in with a different base value strategy. But if you look at this field, the potential for 300 is there for three, maybe four, of these guys. It’ll be a high-risk/high-reward kind of event. And it could also be Yuma Kagiyama who sneaks in there for a medal.
Senior women predictions
GOLD Kaori Sakamoto JPN
SILVER Loena Hendrickx BEL
BRONZE Isabeau Levito USA
4. Hana Yoshida JPN
5. Rion Sumiyoshi JPN
6. Nina Pinzarrone BEL
Potential for chaos: Almost absolute
The women’s fields this season have very much been the ones where you really have no idea what’s going to happen, and less because everyone is skating lights out and more because mistakes creep in and sometimes even feel contagious. Kaori Sakamoto was looking like she was putting a gap between her and everyone else, but then GP Espoo brought her back down to earth a bit. And yes, Loena Hendrickx and Isabeau Levito may be favored for the podium, but there is some great potential among the other three in this field.
Senior pairs predictions
GOLD Deanna Stellato-Dudek/Maxime Deschamps CAN
SILVER Minerva Fabienne Hase/Nikita Volodin GER
BRONZE Sara Conti/Niccolo Macii ITA
4. Lia Pereira/Trennt Michaud CAN
5. Rebecca Ghilardi/Filippo Ambrosini ITA
6. Maria Pavlova/Alexei Sviatchenko HUN
Potential for chaos: Low-medium
I say low-medium for pairs chaos, but I guess you never know. There’s been some notable changes in the world pair order this season, with Knierim/Frazier not competing and Miura/Kihara on the sidelines with injury. But stepping in has been a very motivated Stellato/Deschamps and the new team of Hase/Volodin. Expect the fight for the title to come down between them, with Conti/Macii looking to regain some of the magic they had last season.
Senior dance predictions
GOLD Piper Gilles/Paul Poirier CAN
SILVER Charlene Guignard/Marco Fabbri ITA
BRONZE Madison Chock/Evan Bates USA
4. Lilah Fear/Lewis Gibson GBR
5. Laurence Fournier Beaudry/Nikolaj Soerensen CAN
6. Marjorie Lajoie/Zachary Lagha CAN
Potential for chaos: Very high
This may be the most unpredictable ice dance field that we’ve seen in recent memory. Does the on-paper pecking order apply or will we see some unexpected promotions of the previously-next set of dance teams? If the scores on the Grand Prix so far are any indication, the gap between last year’s Worlds podium and the other three teams in this field has closed dramatically.
Junior Grand Prix Final predictions
Official hashtag: #JGPFigure; unofficial hashtag #JGPFinal
Junior men predictions
GOLD Rio Nakata JPN
SILVER Juheon Lim KOR
BRONZE Francois Pitot FRA
4. Adam Hagara SVK
5. Daniel Martynov USA
6. Hyungyeom Kim KOR
Of the four junior disciplines, the junior men is likely going to be the one that has the closest race among all six competitors. They are all very evenly matched, and there really isn’t one standout favorite among them. It will come down to cleanness, and so a quad or two could help differentiate among this group.
Junior women predictions
GOLD Mao Shimada JPN
SILVER Jia Shin KOR
BRONZE Ami Nakai JPN
4. Rena Uezono JPN
5. Yuseong Kim KOR
6. Minsol Kwon KOR
No stranger to this event, Mao Shimada won it last year and has been undefeated on the junior international circuit. Not only does she have the highest score among all the junior women, but that score also puts her third among the senior women. Her free skate is very risky with both a triple axel and a quad toe, so if she makes mistakes, clean skates from the likes of Jia Shin or Ami Nakai could make a difference.
Junior pairs predictions
GOLD Anastasiia Metelkina/Luka Berulava GEO
SILVER Ava Kemp/Yohnatan Elizarov CAN
BRONZE Martina Ariano Kent/Charly Laliberte Laurent CAN
4. Olivia Flores/Luke Wang USA
5. Violetta Sierova/Ivan Khobta UKR
6. Jazmine Desrochers/Kieran Thrasher CAN
The new pairing of Metelkina/Berulava has been fruitful this season, and they come in as the heavy favorites for the title, both having had success on the senior level with their former partners and together. Among the other five pairs, it’s really a fight for the podium and it could be anyone’s to medal.
Junior dance predictions
GOLD Leah Neset/Artem Markelov USA
SILVER Elizabeth Tkachenko/Alexei Kiliakov ISR
BRONZE Darya Grimm/Michail Savitskiy GER
4. Mariia Pinchuk/Mykyta Pogorielov UKR
5. Celina Fradji/Jean-Hans Fourneaux FRA
6. Yahli Pedersen/Jeffrey Chen USA
On paper, it looks to be a two-way battle for gold between Neset/Markelov and Tkachenko/Kiliakov. But one thing about ice dance (especially junior dance) is that it’s tough to really discern how teams stack up against each other until they are all on the same ice together.