Three-time world champion Kaori Sakamoto repeated as Skate Canada champion, extending a 22-month win streak in top-level figure skating events.
Sakamoto, a 24-year-old from Japan, became the oldest women’s singles skater to ever win Skate Canada and the oldest to win any Grand Prix event since American Ashley Wagner at 2016 Skate America.
Sakamoto tallied 201.21 points between two programs at Skate Canada in Halifax, winning by 9.05 over countrywoman Rino Matsuike. Sakamoto held on despite falling twice in Saturday’s free skate.
Matsuike was 10th in Friday’s short program and won the free skate.
SKATE CANADA: Broadcast Schedule
Hana Yoshida rounded out the Japanese podium sweep. Japan last swept the women’s event at a fully international Grand Prix in 2008 at its home event, NHK Trophy (Mao Asada, Akiko Suzuki, Yukari Nakano).
Since placing third at the December 2022 Grand Prix Final, Sakamoto won her second and third world titles in a row, her third and fourth national titles and four events on the Grand Prix Series.
Last season, she became the first woman to win three consecutive world titles since American Peggy Fleming from 1966-68. Next March, she can become the first woman to win four in a row since American Carol Heiss took five consecutive from 1956-60.
Two-time U.S. champion Alysa Liu dropped from second after Friday’s short program to finish sixth overall. Liu competed on the Grand Prix for the first time in three years after ending a two-year retirement earlier this year.
Earlier Saturday, world champions Deanna Stellato-Dudek and Maxime Deschamps of Canada repeated as Skate Canada pairs’ winners despite a flawed free skate.
Stellato-Dudek, a 41-year-old who won the 2000 World junior singles silver medal for the U.S., broke her own record as the oldest Grand Prix winner in any discipline.
World champion Ilia Malinin topped the men’s short program as he seeks a second Grand Prix win in as many weeks. He landed a quadruple flip, triple Axel and a quad Lutz-triple toe loop combination.
Malinin, a 19-year-old from Virginia, three-peated at Skate America last week.
Skate Canada is the second of six competitions on the fall Grand Prix Series, which qualifies skaters for December’s Grand Prix Final.
The top six per discipline qualify for the Final. The top skaters compete twice each over the six-event series, then combine their results to determine who makes the Final. The Final is often a preview of the following March’s world championships.
2024 Skate Canada Results
Women’s Final
1. Kaori Sakamoto (JPN) -- 201.21
2. Rino Matsuike (JPN) -- 192.16
3. Hana Yoshida (JPN) -- 191.37
4. Kimmy Repond (SUI) -- 191.07
5. Madeline Schizas (CAN) -- 190.04
6. Alysa Liu (USA) -- 187.69
7. Elyce Lin-Gracey (USA) -- 182.37
8. Kaiya Ruiter (CAN) -- 162.32
9. Ekaterina Kukarova (POL) -- 162.07
10. Sara-Maude Dupuis (CAN) -- 160.46
11. Wi Seo-Yeong (KOR) -- 140.85
12. Kim Ye-Lim (KOR) -- 136.14
Pairs’ Final
1. Deanna Stellato-Dudek/Maxime Deschamps (CAN) — 197.33
2. Ekaterina Geynish/Dmitrii Chigirev (UZB) -- 189.65
3. Anastasia Golubeva/Hektor Giotopoulos Moore (AUS) -- 186.14
4. Annika Hocke/Robert Kunkel (GER) -- 184.30
5. Emily Chan/Spencer Howe (USA) -- 178.31
6. Ioulia Chtchetinina/Michal Wozniak (POL) -- 173.84
7. Daria Danilova/Michel Tsiba (NED) -- 171.02
8. Kelly Ann Laurin/Loucas Ethier (CAN) -- 163.60
Men’s Short Program
1. Ilia Malinin (USA) — 106.22
2. Shun Sato (JPN) -- 96.52
3. Sota Yamamoto (JPN) - 92.16
4. Cha Jun-Hwan (KOR) -- 88.38
5. Stephen Gogolev (CAN) -- 82.70
6. Vladimir Litvintsev (AZE) -- 79.11
7. Jason Brown (USA) -- 79.03
8. Luc Economides (FRA) -- 77.87
9. Aleksa Rakic (CAN) -- 76.74
10. Gabriele Frangipani (ITA) -- 76.18
11. Mark Gorodnitsky (ISR) -- 71.79
12. Roman Sadovsky (CAN) -- 63.37
Rhythm Dance
1. Piper Gilles/Paul Poirier (CAN) — 86.44
2. Marjorie Lajoie/Zachary Lagha (CAN) -- 77.34
3. Evgeniia Lopareva/Geoffrey Brissaud (FRA) -- 76.76
4. Emilea Zingas/Vadym Kolesnik (USA) -- 75.63
5. Natalie Taschlerova/Filip Taschler (CZE) -- 74.97
6. Oona Brown/Gage Brown (USA) -- 72.18
7. Emily Bartti/Ian Somerville (USA) -- 71.48
8. Hannah Lim/Ye Quan (KOR) -- 70.64
9. Alicia Fabbri/Paul Ayer (CAN) -- 70.10
10. Holly Harris/Jason Chan (AUS) -- 64.11
