ALLEN, Texas — Short program leader Isabeau Levito had the chance to become the youngest U.S. figure skater to win Skate America since Michelle Kwan. Bradie Tennell, second in the short, could have been the oldest women’s singles skater to ever win Skate America.
Neither happened.
Instead, Japan’s Wakaba Higuchi, who was arguably the most accomplished active skater without a Grand Prix title, earned the biggest victory of her career. She had finished second or third in five of her 13 prior Grand Prix starts dating back to 2016.
Higuchi, fourth after the short program, overtook the Americans Levito and Tennell and her countrywoman Rinka Watanabe. She totaled 196.93 points, edging Watanabe by 1.71.
SKATE AMERICA: Broadcast Schedule | Results
Levito was third (2.1 points back), while Tennell ended up fifth.
Higuchi was flawed — she had two jump combinations rather than three and no triple-triple — but she fully rotated all her jumps, while the rest of the top six all had multiple under-rotations and/or popped jumps.
“I’m so happy, surprised,” the 23-year-old Higuchi said, adding that her victory was “70% luck.”
A decade ago, Higuchi was third in her Japanese senior nationals debut at age 13. She finished second at nationals in 2015 and 2016, then missed the two-woman 2018 Olympic team by one spot.
She rebounded to win silver at the 2018 World Championships held a month after the PyeongChang Games.
Higuchi did make the 2022 Olympics and placed fifth in Beijing (with a triple Axel), moving up to fourth after Russian Kamila Valiyeva’s disqualification for doping.
But she missed most of the 2022-23 season due to a right shin injury, then placed 12th at last season’s Japanese Championships.
“Last season I really was just happy to be able to come back, so I was not really clear in my mind as to what placements I wanted or the results,” Higuchi said through a translator. “I was just aiming to finish both programs at each event.”
Levito, bidding at 17 to become the youngest American to win Skate America in any discipline since Kwan in 1997, was done in by a fall on a late triple Lutz.
Levito had called her 2023-24 season, where she was third in defense of her U.S. title, then took silver at worlds, “up and down.” That’s how her 2024-25 Grand Prix season debut went, too.
“I’m proud of myself for what I did do,” she said on NBC Sports. “I had a little fluke today, but it’s OK. I’ll keep working. ... I got excited with how well I was getting through the program, and I rushed the (Lutz) take-off. Immediately as I was in there, I was like, oh, that was not a good thing to do. But it’s OK. Live and learn.”
Tennell, a two-time U.S. champion and 2018 Olympian, was the story of Friday’s short program with an emotional Grand Prix return from breaking her ankle last Halloween.
The 26-year-old said the wrong cut of her music played for her free skate, and it distracted her. She was sixth on the day, singling a planned triple Lutz late in her program.
“I’m disappointed because I’ve been skating clean programs every day at home,” she said.
Despite Saturday’s results, the U.S. appears at its deepest in women’s singles skating in years.
There’s Levito’s recent rise, Tennell’s latest injury comeback and two-time U.S. champion Alysa Liu’s unretirement. Plus, 2024 U.S. champion Amber Glenn landed a triple Axel in both programs at an event for the first time last month. Elyce Lin-Gracey, who outscored Levito in two events earlier this season, was sixth at Skate America in her senior Grand Prix debut.
Only three women can make the team for March’s worlds in Boston, which will be named after January’s national championships.
Skate America is the first of six events on figure skating’s top circuit, the Grand Prix Series.
The top six per discipline over the series — where skaters compete in two of the six competitions — qualify for December’s Grand Prix Final, which is often a preview of worlds.
Earlier Saturday, world champion Ilia Malinin topped the men’s short program. He’s trying to become the second man to win Skate America three times in a row since 2000.
Malinin, a 19-year-old from Virginia nicknamed the “Quadgod,” landed a quadruple flip (with a negative grade of execution) and then a triple Axel and a quad Lutz-triple toe loop combination.
He tallied 99.69 points, taking a scant .15 of a point lead over Japan’s Kao Miura going into Sunday’s free skate (live on NBC and Peacock).
“It was a pretty decent start to my Grand Prix Series,” Malinin, who also received a one-point time deduction, said on NBC Sports. “A little bit, I felt really nervous before the event today. I don’t know why that was, but I just felt really tense and kind of a little stiff in the beginning.
“I think that might be the reason is just kind of all that pressure from the world championships, wanting to defend the title and kind of show who the world champion is, maybe, made me a little more nervous, but, overall, I got through it, and I’m pretty happy about that”
Malinin can join 2022 Olympic champion Nathan Chen as the only male singles skaters to win Skate America three consecutive times since 2000.
With Chen stepping away from competition after the 2022 Olympics, Malinin has established himself as the leading man going toward the 2026 Milan-Cortina Games.
At last March’s world championships, Malinin landed the most difficult set of jumps in one free skate in history — six quads, including a quad Axel, a jump no other man has ever landed.
This season, he has added a backflip to his free skate, doing one in his season debut last month. The International Skating Union made backflips legal over the offseason. The move had been banned since 1976, carrying a points deduction if performed in competition.
In ice dance, Brits Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson were the surprise rhythm dance leaders after two-time world champions Madison Chock and Evan Bates counted a fall.
Fear and Gibson, fourth at the last two world championships, tallied 83.56 points, taking a 5.68-point lead over Chock and Bates going into Sunday’s free dance.
Last season, Chock and Bates outscored Fear and Gibson in two head-to-head free dances by 5.8 points and 6.43 points.
Early in their rhythm dance, Chock went for a small jump in a choreography sequence and landed on Bates’ foot instead of the ice. She tripped and dropped to the surface in what she called “an odd fluke mistake” that’s never happened before.
“Considering that it happened quite early in the program, I feel like we really used our experience to recover well and to do the rest of the program very well,” Bates said.
Chock and Bates are undefeated since the start of 2023, winning their last eight competitions. They are seeking a record-tying fifth Skate America ice dance title.
Chock and Bates earned their first Grand Prix title of any kind together at Skate America in 2014, then won the event again in 2015, 2022 and 2023.
Their closest rivals — Canadians Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier and Italians Charlène Guignard and Marco Fabbri — are competing in different Grand Prix events over the next five weeks.
All three couples could face off for the first time this season at the December Grand Prix Final, should each be ranked among the top six couples during the six-week Grand Prix regular season.
In pairs, 2023 World champions Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara became the first Japanese team to win Skate America.
Miura and Kihara totaled 214.23 points between two programs, prevailing by 12.5 points over U.S. champions Ellie Kam and Danny O’Shea.
Kam and O’Shea posted the best international score by an American pair since the start of last season. O’Shea cleared 200 points for the first time in his 13th season in pairs.
Alisa Efimova and Misha Mitrofanov were third, giving the U.S. two pairs on the podium at a fully international Skate America for the first time since 2006.
2024 Skate America Results
Women
1. Wakaba Higuchi (JPN) -- 196.93
2. Rinka Watanabe (JPN) — 195.22
3. Isabeau Levito (USA) — 194.83
4. Nina Pinzarrone (BEL) -- 193.61
5. Bradie Tennell (USA) — 192.04
6. Elyce Lin-Gracey (USA) -- 183.94
7. Yuna Aoki (JPN) — 183.03
8. Livia Kaiser (SUI) -- 177.67
9. Olga Mikutina (AUT) -- 166.77
10. Kim Min-Chae (KOR) -- 165.57
11. Lea Serna (FRA) -- 151.87
12. Sofja Stepcenko (LAT) -- 137.92
Men’s Short Program
1. Ilia Malinin (USA) — 99.69
2. Kao Miura (JPN) — 99.54
3. Nika Egadze (GEO) -- 93.89
4. Kevin Aymoz (FRA) -- 92.04
5. Deniss Vasiljevs (LAT) -- 85.10
6. Koshiro Shimada (JPN) -- 81.88
7. Nozomu Yoshioka (JPN) -- 80.79
8. Maxim Naumov (USA) -- 83.11
9. Donovan Carrillo (MEX) -- 67.48
10. Wesley Chiu (CAN) -- 66.86
11. Lucas Broussard (USA) -- 65.31
12. Francois Pitot (FRA) -- 56.16
Rhythm Dance
1. Lilah Fear/Lewis Gibson (GBR) — 83.56
2. Madison Chock/Evan Bates (USA) — 77.88
3. Diana Davis/Gleb Smolkin (GEO) -- 73.16
4. Alicia Fabbri/Paul Ayer (CAN) -- 71.75
5. Olivia Smart/Tim Dieck (ESP) -- 70.99
6. Marie-Jade Lauriault/Romain le Gac (CAN) -- 70.38
7. Katerina Mrazkova/Daniel Mrazek (CZE) -- 70.09
8. Leah Neset/Artem Markelov (USA) -- 69.68
9. Annabelle Morozov/Jeffrey Chen (USA) -- 66.57
10. Elizabeth Tkachenko/Alexei Kiliakov (ISR) -- 65.13
Pairs
1. Riku Miura/Ryuichi Kihara (JPN) — 214.23
2. Ellie Kam/Danny O’Shea (USA) -- 201.73
3. Alisa Efimova/Misha Mitrofanov (USA) -- 191.51
4. Anastasiia Metelkina/Luka Berulava (GEO) -- 191.43
5. Maria Pavlova/Alexei Sviatchenko (HUN) -- 184.01
6. Anastasia Vaipan-Law/Luke Digby (GBR) -- 180.13
7. Katie McBeath/Daniil Parkman (USA) -- 168.08
8. Milania Vaananen/Filippo Clerici (FIN) -- 156.55
