2025 Grand Prix Assignments

[Karen-W]

They gave the TBA for Skate America to Liam Kapeikis??? WHY? It should have been Jacob Sanchez or Max Naumov since Camden Pulkinen is injured and Tomoki Hiwatashi got the withdrawal spot from Luca Broussard

Camden is injured?

 

[Kiki5375]

Yes he posted it on Insta and it's also here

2025-26 International Assignments and Results

2025-26 International Assignments and Results

usfigureskatingfanzone.com

 

[Rob]

I thought Sanchez was the next chosen one. Bizarre.

 

[Evgeniafan]

I thought Sanchez was the next chosen one. Bizarre.

Liam has been gifted a few times these past 4 years. And Jacob has won major competitions, and Liam never has. I have never been so upset by a host pick , ever.

 

[haribobo]

Jacob scored 211 at Cranberry, Liam 201. Liam also scored 208 at Glacier Falls vs no other results so far for Jacob. Liam's fs tes was actually a few points higher than Jacob at Cranberry. Maybe some of the men at Champs Camp were less than convincing in their performances...

 

[panda42]

I could be wrong, but I thought I read somewhere about Liam's parents having some pull with USFS. Also, isn't it true that Jacob is still eligible for Junior Worlds? Maybe the idea is to give a few more men the opportunity to do well this season.

 

[Kiki5375]

Or maybe there some more secret moves backstage like there were with the host spot they gave away. Hopefully at GP finals we will understand why all these decissions happened...

 

[Evgeniafan]

I could be wrong, but I thought I read somewhere about Liam's parents having some pull with USFS. Also, isn't it true that Jacob is still eligible for Junior Worlds? Maybe the idea is to give a few more men the opportunity to do well this season.

I totally believe someone has pull for Liam, because he has been gifted a few times.

 

[Karen-W]

I could be wrong, but I thought I read somewhere about Liam's parents having some pull with USFS. Also, isn't it true that Jacob is still eligible for Junior Worlds? Maybe the idea is to give a few more men the opportunity to do well this season.

Even if that is true, the fact is that of the US men competing at Cranberry who had ZERO GP assignments, Liam scored the highest. That seems to be the most obvious explanation as to why he was given the SkAm host spot. I would not have made the same choice, especially when we had 4 men much higher up on the Alternates List with 1 or 0 GP assignments, but the USFS' doesn't seem to be exercising much sense at all when it comes to the SkAm Men's, Women's or Pairs TBD assignments.

Also, yes, Jacob is still eligible for Jr Worlds. We only have 2 spots though, so my expectation is that we'll probably see Blackwell & Kazanecki given that assignment. If Jacob doesn't make the Olympic team then I'd guess he's in line for a 4CCs assignment.

 

[haribobo]

Lucius has had a few decent results but I don't think he's a sure bet yet for Jr worlds, nor is Jacob for 4cc. This season should be interesting. I loved that old Footloose program like everyone else, but Jacob at 2025 Nationals felt seriously underbaked. I wonder if we are hoping for that spunky kid from 3 years ago to show back up more than actually seeing him as a successful senior skater currently. If Maxim, Jimmy, and Torgashev are on at Nationals, and maybe even Lorenzo and Taira, Jacob could find himself in alternate territory. I guess we will have a better sense next weekend of Jacob, Liam and Andrews status at Nepela and Nebelhorn, and then Taira the week after. Right now nobody is really breaking out of the 200 to 225 range so far, besides Ilia of course

 

[Karen-W]

Lucius has had a few decent results but I don't think he's a sure bet yet for Jr worlds, nor is Jacob for 4cc. This season should be interesting. I loved that old Footloose program like everyone else, but Jacob at 2025 Nationals felt seriously underbaked. I wonder if we are hoping for that spunky kid from 3 years ago to show back up more than actually seeing him as a successful senior skater currently. If Maxim, Jimmy, and Torgashev are on at Nationals, and maybe even Lorenzo and Taira, Jacob could find himself in alternate territory. I guess we will have a better sense next weekend of Jacob, Liam and Andrews status at Nepela and Nebelhorn, and then Taira the week after. Right now nobody is really breaking out of the 200 to 225 range so far

Jacob was well-positioned after the SP given he doesn't have a reliable quad yet. He faltered some in the FS, but I think that was more from the adrenalin and rush of excitement at being in the final group for the FS at his first senior nationals. He also dropped a spot to 7th in the final standings despite finishing 6th in both the SP and FS, but could have easily finished 5th if he hadn't popped his solo 3A and if he'd landed the planned 3A+3T instead of just a 3A+2T.

Jacob accomplished better & more consistent results during the fall season than Max, Jimmy & Camden. Torgy was, unexpectedly, in a good competitive head space at both of his GPs and then again at Nats, but he then fell apart again at Worlds. I've got zero tolerance for those 4 older guys if they happen to Ross Miner their way through Nats again after another less-than-stellar fall season.

No offense to Lorenzo & Taira, but they're even less baked than Jacob.

 

[Allskate]

Jacob was well-positioned after the SP given he doesn't have a reliable quad yet. He faltered some in the FS, but I think that was more from the adrenalin and rush of excitement at being in the final group for the FS at his first senior nationals. He also dropped a spot to 7th in the final standings despite finishing 6th in both the SP and FS, but could have easily finished 5th if he hadn't popped his solo 3A and if he'd landed the planned 3A+3T instead of just a 3A+2T.

Jacob accomplished better & more consistent results during the fall season than Max, Jimmy & Camden. Torgy was, unexpectedly, in a good competitive head space at both of his GPs and then again at Nats, but he then fell apart again at Worlds. I've got zero tolerance for those 4 older guys if they happen to Ross Miner their way through Nats again after another less-than-stellar fall season.

Sure, Jacob could have placed better if he hadn't popped his 3A and had done a 3/3. But, all of the guys could have done better if not for their mistakes. Jacob did not just have problems with the Nationals free skate last season. I remember him having triple axel problems earlier in the season. And I don't think he has the kind of GOE and PCS that should clearly put him ahead of all the older guys, either.

Having said that, I think he has a very realistic chance of being named to Four Continents (especially if Lucas and Camden have injury issues). But, it's definitely not a sure thing. The U.S. simply doesn't have any reliable men beyond Ilia and Jason, and the season could play out in a variety of different ways.

 

[rinettoii]

I totally believe someone has pull for Liam, because he has been gifted a few times.

Honestly, I would push back on the "Liam getting gifted" narrative because, looking at his competition history, I feel like he is adequately rewarded for his scores.

He was chosen for SkAm in 2022 because Nathan and Vincent retired, and everyone else (Jimmy, Tomoki, Camden, and Ilia) all had assignments. No one else was above him on the SB list except for Eric Sjoberg (who was the host pick later on), and Liam placed 7th at Nationals and 8th at JW that year. He was also sent to 4CC in 2023 after placing 6th at Nationals. Maybe you could argue he was gifted, but I would argue against it because this was a post-Olympic year where the 5th-8th placing range at Nationals is nebulous.

In the 2023 GP season, he got 2 invites to GP from federations that weren't the US. One was for his place on the SB list the previous season, and one was as a replacement.

His CS assignments are pretty standard. People placing lower than him at Nationals one season regularly get CS invites next season, so why should Liam be an exception? He's only skated at 4 CS events, by the way, one of them being the pay-to-play 2024 CS Trophée Métropole Nice Côte d'Azur. I would say the other 3 CS assignments are warranted.

For the Road to 26 Trophy, he was the replacement assignment after Daniel Martynov (who I honestly am confused as to why he was the first assignment at all) withdrew. Liam placed above Daniel at Nationals, and everyone above him probably wouldn't want to go to Road to 26 because they had Worlds/4CC/JW.