Skate Canada International Grand Prix returns to Halifax, Nova Scotia, for the 2024 edition. The competition returns to the site for the first time in 20 years.
The ISU Grand Prix 2024 is set to be exciting with four reigning world champions featuring in its standout field.
The 2024 edition of the ISU Grand Prix series event takes place from 25-27 October.
Skate Canada is the second of six Grand Prix competitions that give skaters the opportunity to qualify for December’s elite Grand Prix Final in Grenoble, France.
Let us deliberate on the key players to take part at the ISU Grand Prix 2024.
ISU Grand Prix 2024: Top Contenders (Men)
Reigning world champion Ilia Malinin headlines the men’s event and is the lone male in the field to feature in back-to-back events to open the Grand Prix season. He won the Skate America last weekend.
Malinin will face a tough challenge from the 2023 world silver medallist Cha Jun-hwan.
Another American for the title contention is two-time Olympian Jason Brown, who returns to the Grand Prix Series for the first time since 2021. Two clean skates from Brown could land him on the podium.
2023 Skate Canada champion Yamamoto Sota returns to the arena of his first Grand Prix win, while his Japanese teammate Sato Shun is also looking forward to glory at the ISU Grand Prix 2024.
Another Canadian duo, Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier, are favorites in ice dance.
ISU Grand Prix 2024: Top Contenders (Women)
Three-time and reigning women’s world gold medallist Sakamoto Kaori leads the women’s lineup at the ISU Grand Prix 2024.
Grand Prix return of another American, the 19-year-old Alysa Liu, will make the competition exciting. Liu, who retired from skating in April of 2022 following her Olympic debut and then bronze-medal performance at Worlds, announced a comeback in March after two years away.
The Canadian duo of Deanna Stellato-Dudek and Maxime Deschamps will look to carry their momentum from Worlds last season in Montreal, where they claimed the title in front of the Montreal crowd.
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A long list of podium contenders, including Watanabe Rinka (the 2022 champion at this event); Kimmy Repond, who was fifth at Worlds in March; Yoshida Hana, Kim Yelim, and Elyce Lin-Gracey, a 17-year-old American who won the Nebelhorn Trophy Challenger Series title to open the season will make for an interesting race to the title.
Stellato-Dudek-Deschamps will face tough challenges from Annika Hocke and Robert Kunkel of Germany.
