LAUSANNE, Switzerland (AP) — Olympic figure skating champion Alysa Liu and world champion Ilia Malinin are set to make their returns to top-level competition at Skate America next season.
The International Skating Union published the lineups Tuesday for the new season’s Grand Prix events, listing Skate America in Everett, Washington, on Nov. 13-15 as the first event on the circuit for Liu, U.S. champion Amber Glenn and Malinin.
Skaters can take part in two of the six Grand Prix events to qualify for the finals in Chongqing, China, in December.
Liu and Glenn are set to skate against Ami Nakai, the Olympic bronze medalist from Japan, and world bronze medalist Nina Pinzarrone of Belgium in a stacked field at Skate America. Malinin is up against experienced American skater Jason Brown and Italy’s Daniel Grassl.
It’s not immediately clear if Liu, Glenn and Malinin plan to skate any lower-level Challenger Series events before that. Liu hasn’t skated competitively since winning her Olympic gold medal in February. She skipped the world championships after that as Kaori Sakamoto retired with a fourth title.
Malinin retained his world title in March after missing the medals at the Olympics with a disastrous free skate.
After Skate America, Liu is listed as competing again one week later in her second Grand Prix of the season at the Finlandia Trophy. Malinin’s second event is the NHK Trophy in Japan against world bronze medalist Shun Sato.
Olympic gold medalist Mikhail Shaidorov of Kazakhstan is in the Grand Prix season opener in France from Oct. 23-25 and then skates the Cup of China in November.
There’s no Grand Prix assignment for U.S. ice dance team Madison Chock and Evan Bates, who have said they’re taking a break from competition. Olympic gold medalists Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Guillaume Cizeron start at their home Grand Prix de France.
Pairs world champions Minerva Hase and Nikita Volodin of Germany start their Grand Prix season at Skate America. Olympic pairs gold medalists Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara of Japan retired in April.
AP sports: https://apnews.com/sports
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