It’s two events in a row for World champion Ilia Malinin, and after winning Skate America last week, he’s back at 2024 Skate Canada International and up against another slate of talented guys, including defending champion Sota Yamamoto. Looking at this list of competitors in Halifax this week, there’s a lot of potential for fireworks with the depth of this field.
Skate Canada International predictions
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GOLD Ilia Malinin USA - By no means is this going to be a walk in the park for Malinin. He made some errors in his free skate last week and faced some stiff competition at Skate America, and arguably, he’s going to get even more competition this week. He’s certainly got the technical edge, but he will need to make sure he keeps mistakes—especially pops—under control if he is to go two in a row. A win would make him the first to qualify for the Grand Prix Final in December.
SILVER Shun Sato JPN - It’s just felt like a berth to Worlds has been oh-so-close for Sato the past couple of seasons, but in a field as strong as the Japanese men, every little thing matters. This season, he already looks like he’s on a mission to finally get that call for Worlds. At Lombardia, he finished third but very competitive with Malinin and Yuma Kagiyama there. The score he got there is currently the third best of any men’s skater this season. A repeat of those skates will do him a lot of good.
BRONZE Sota Yamamoto JPN - Yamamoto’s win here last year set him up for a strong season, but he couldn’t keep it up. He won Nebelhorn last month with the strongest free skate of his career, but he also had a subpar short program to start that event. Putting a clean competition together has always been the challenge for him, but a medal is very much within reach.
4. Junhwan Cha KOR - It was at Skate Canada last season where Cha started dealing with an injury that took him out of part of the season. He did end up coming back to finish tenth at Worlds, but it wasn’t the season he was hoping for after winning silver at Worlds in 2023. Now three competitions in already this season, he looks to be getting back into form. The quad toe has been the biggest liability so far, and he will need that to get onto the podium.
5. Jason Brown USA - The last time we saw Brown on the Grand Prix circuit was the last Olympic season, so it’s been three years. And while he went about the last couple of seasons a different way, opting to backload his season and compete less, he’s getting back into the regular full season schedule this year. He was third at Shanghai Trophy three weeks ago, and we saw that he’s not up to full content quite yet. The triple axel will be key for him this week as he continues to ramp up.
6. Gabriele Frangipani ITA - Frangipani took silver at Nebelhorn last month with one of the best free skates of his career. He’s a go-big-or-go-home kind of guy, and he seems to have found a good balance of chaos and consistency over the past couple of seasons. He had a couple of top six finishes last season on the Grand Prix and will be looking to repeat those this year.
7. Vladimir Litvintsev AZE - Consistency has just not been there for Litvintsev the past couple of seasons. Usually very prepared for Worlds, he was 25th in the short last season and didn’t make it into the free skate. Though he started with a rough competition at Lombardia, he bounced back to take silver a couple weeks ago at Denis Ten Memorial with two of his best skates ever.
8. Roman Sadovsky CAN - Two Challengers already under his belt, Sadovsky has had a stronger to start to his season that he’s had in recent years. He was fifth at Nebelhorn last month, and this will be his first Grand Prix event since 2022.
9. Luc Economides FRA - The French silver medalist surprised everyone last year with a career-best international competition at Grand Prix de France, where he was sixth. He took silver at Cranberry Cup to start this season but was up and down at French Masters a month ago.
10. Mark Gorodnitsky ISR - Seventh at Nebelhorn, Gorodnitsky comes back to the event where he made his GP debut last season and finished a very strong sixth. His free skate at Nebelhorn showed potential issues with conditioning early in the season, and he will need to clean that up to get back to where he was last year, especially without a planned quad in either program.
11. Stephen Gogolev CAN - You just never know what you’re going to get from Gogolev. Last season, it was looking like he had figured out some of the mental lapses that kept him from being consistent, and he put down some solid skates in the fall. His skate at Sectionals in August was also promising, so we will see which Gogolev shows up this week. He’s got to watch for those pops.
12. Aleksa Rakic CAN - Eighth at Denis Ten Memorial, Rakic put down a solid free skate there that included a clean quad toe. He will be looking to get into that top ten this year.