2026 Grand Prix Assignments

[Karen-W]

Okay, so I figured out how the GP Hosts went through the various lists & determined the assignments.

Every single skater or team that was on the SB and WS Top 24 lists received 2 GPs with the exception of 2 skaters - Ahsun Yun & Kimmy Repond, who were SB 59 and SB 66 respectively.

After that, they pretty much went straight down the SB Top 75 list and gave each skater or team 1 GP until all of the slots were filled.

For dance, the only deviations to this were host picks -
GPdF - Bordet/Chardain SB 62 and Fradji/Fourneaux SB 48
SCI - Veillon/Brandys SB 51
CoC - Ren/Xing SB 56 and Xiao/He SB 61

We already knew that Perrier Gianesini/Blanc Klaperman SB 47 were planning on staying on the JGP this coming season from the French news thread, but this confirms it.

For the men - it does appear that the JSF chose to NOT submit Tatsuya Tsuboi SB 34 who retired then unretired in the past few months; and it looks like Luc Economides SB 41 has also retired. Not about the status of Jaekeun Lee SB 43 or Matthew Newnham SB 57 as they were passed over in favor of Gartung & Ma for GP invitations. It would seem that Patrick Blackwell SB 53 and Grayson Long SB 54 are going to stay on the JGP this coming season given neither received GP assignments.

For the women - Haruna Murakami wasn't included - she also is in the process of switching from JPN to AUS, so I suspect she wasn't eligible at this time since it hasn't been a full year since she last competed. Inga Gurgenidze SB 54 was skipped while Sarina Joos SB 56 received 1 GP, so Inga may be doing the JGP again.

Host pick deviations from the SB Top 75 list -
GPdF - Eve Dubecq SB 144 (meets the GP minimum score requirement)
SCI - Fee Ann Landry SB 68
CoC - Ruiyang Zhang SB 60

Pairs also followed the same logic, however between retirements, splits & age-ineligible junior teams and none of the teams below SB 52 meeting the GP minimum score requirement, the GP Hosts gave the JWC medalists with only 1 GP a second GP and then cycled back to the TOP of the SB Top 75 list to award a 2nd GP to several teams until the slots were filled.

Teams in the SB Top 51 that got lucky & earned a 2nd GP -
Kovalev/Kovalev SB 26
Faula/Belle SB 28
Izzo/Maierhofer SB 30
Valesi/Bidar SB 31
Herrera/Khobta SB 39/JWC 3

It also looks like Ryom/Han PRK SB 41 and Gamez/Korovin PHI SB 50 are not competing this coming season; and that Moss/Galbavy SB 48 will be returning to the JGP.

 

[skateblessing]

So how does it work again if anyone WD? Now that the first assignments are given, the ones on the top of the replacement will rather get two spots if they already have one or will the one down on the list with no spots get a spot first? For example - Harris/Chan which I think should be on the top of the list are going to get their 2nd spot before Ichilov/Nosovitskiy?

 

[AngieNikodinovLove (ANL)]

How far down the list is Naumov?

 

[kwanfan1818]

The skaters with 0 or 1 spot stay on the list until they have two. They can, however, move up and down the list based on, for example, having someone win a Challenger or win their first event and go directly to the top of the list.

 

[AngieNikodinovLove (ANL)]

Does Japan potentially have two more ice dance teams to fill the host spots with minimum’s? No right?

 

[YukiNieve]

Will Champs Camp be held right after Cranberry like last year?

 

[kwanfan1818]

“If the host country plans to invite the maximum of three (3) skaters/couples per discipline, one (1) at least per discipline must be in the top 1 to 75 SB and have the minimum required GP points to be invited. In the case there are no skaters in the top 75 SB, two skaters maximum may be invited per discipline.”

This is new this season, as opposed to the “strongly recommended” language of previous Announcements.

Yoshita/Morita have both: they scored 173+ at worlds (vs. 138.x) and are SB 37. Japan can fill the other two slots with teams that have basic eligibility to skate.

 

[Karen-W]

Does Japan potentially have two more ice dance teams to fill the host spots with minimum’s? No right?

Yes. Kushida/Shimada are in the SB Top 75 and they have at least two other senior teams training - Marin Honda/Shoma Uno and Rika Kihira/Shingo Nishiyama.

How far down the list is Naumov?

SB 46, so he would have been assigned had he wanted to be included in the selection pool.

So how does it work again if anyone WD? Now that the first assignments are given, the ones on the top of the replacement will rather get two spots if they already have one or will the one down on the list with no spots get a spot first? For example - Harris/Chan which I think should be on the top of the list are going to get their 2nd spot before Ichilov/Nosovitskiy?

Here's how the initial Alternates List is created, per the new Selection doc -

• Any ISU Junior World Championships 2026 Medalist or ISU Junior Grand Prix Final gold medalists not yet chosen for a first event will be top ranked.
• Any skater/couple with a top 75 seasonal best score (as defined in category 5)
• Any Comeback Skater (per paragraph 9) for a first or second event in the order of the score.
• Any Return Skater/Couple (per paragraph 11), or Returning Split Couple (per paragraph 10)that may be chosen for a first or second event.

Skaters/Couples will be sorted by GP Points and the Host Countries must select the Skaters/Couples based on the order of the Alternate list (excluding any skaters from Members already included in a maximum capacity and subject to extenuating circumstances).

If a skater invited from the Alternate list for a first GP Event, medals in that Grand Prix event, the skater will be the first alternate for a second event.
...
In addition, winners of an ISU Challenger Series 2026/27 competition, provided they have scored the minimum total score, will be reordered or placed on the alternate list, based on their winning score at the 2026/27 ISU Challenger Series competition.

I haven't had time to go through these bullet points and generate the new Alternates Lists yet - maybe during my lunch break. What's clear is that Lajoie/Baker are at the bottom of the Alternates List. I'm really curious what this language about "sorted by GP Points" means. We won't really know until after the first Challenger how the Alternates List is going to function based upon the differing language used - "GP Points" versus "winning score" for the Challenger winners.

 

[Jay42]

Yes, and she's not that old - she just turned 23 in December. I have less of an issue with her staying in another year than someone like Schizas. At least Gubanova has a few Euros medals & Worlds Top 10 finishes to her credit.

Re: Schizas in particular, I believe she’s done school now so I am interested in how she’ll do when she can aftually focus on her training full time instead of splitting her focus.

Also, honestly, until Minsol Kwon is skating seniors or maybe if Sarah-Maude comes back this season really consistent with her triple axel, I don’t know how much it matters who our top woman is.

 

[Marta24]

Going through the dance assignments and I think this might be the first time without any Italian dance teams on the GP. At least Italian coaches will be present with the Czech and Finnish teams.

 

[AngieNikodinovLove (ANL)]

Going through the dance assignments and I think this might be the first time without any Italian dance teams on the GP. At least Italian coaches will be present with the Czech and Finnish teams.

Are Lafornara and Tali still injured or kaput

 

[Karen-W]

Are Lafornara and Tali still injured or kaput

They're still together and training for this coming season now that Noah's healthy. They were too far down the SB list to get an assignment.

 

[kwanfan1818]

Yes. Kushida/Shimada are in the SB Top 75 and they have at least two other senior teams training - Marin Honda/Shoma Uno and Rika Kihira/Shingo Nishiyama.

It's really exciting to see those names. There's no guarantee, but we are going to get a show!

 

[AngieNikodinovLove (ANL)]

Uno has gone to dance? See what happens when you take a few months off from these boards.

I had heard that Marin and Rika had switched but not him.

 

[skateblessing]

Going through the dance assignments and I think this might be the first time without any Italian dance teams on the GP. At least Italian coaches will be present with the Czech and Finnish teams.

Wow I didn´t even think about that. You are right!

 

[skatfan]

No Bradie- hmmm.

 

[Allskate]

Grand Prix assignments are up. Shocked but happy to see Jason continuing

I wouldn't be surprised if he just does a competition or two, and I wouldn't be surprised if he decides not to compete at all. It must be hard to have Nationals be his last competition. There definitely was more than physical issues going on there.

And all of my life I have never seen the USA so decimated in the women’s field.

Decimated? Alysa, Isabeau, Amber, Sarah, and Sophie? That's not exactly decimated, IMO. And there's a TBD spot for Skate America. Plus, it will be interesting to see Starr do pairs.

It's a bit of a bummer to see just one American pairs team, but I'm guessing that we'll see a pair added to Skate America. Let the new pairs teams battle it out with others for the spot.

I don’t necessarily need to see Amber and Alysa two superstars to go at it again together in another event.. I wish they were separated.

I think it will be fun and, given the field, they both should medal if they skate well. Alysa is not a seeded skater because she didn't compete at Worlds. Amber is seeded, and she is the reigning National champion. Plus, I would think that USFS would want both of them to be at Skate America to draw in fans. And maybe Alysa wants to skate with the energy of the home crowd.
And maybe Alysa wants to go to competitions with her friends.

Especially given the rules, I would guess that it was Alysa's decision to do back to back GPs in the U.S. and Finland. She may just have wanted to go later in the season if she is going to compete and then have a break before the GP Final. If she chose to go later in the season, then there's really not a way to avoid having her go up against Isabeau or Amber.

Isabeau is not competing at Skate America even though the rules say that it is a priority for a seeded skater to compete at her country's host event and she is seeded higher than Amber and Alysa is not seeded. She may be fine with that since she is competing at the same events as Gogo; both of them placed fourth at Worlds and both have a skater who finished above them not competing this season and are on the same continent. Isabeau will compete against Alysa at Finlandia (and will compete against Mao Shimada at both her events).

And FFS - some of these skaters really need to read the room & move on.

There is no need to read the room. They just need to read their own feelings. If they are still enjoying skating and competing, then why not? If they want to try a new discipline this late in their careers, why not? Lots of fans are happy to see them skate more. And you get the opportunity to slam some of them some more, so there's something in it for you, too.

 

[kwanfan1818]

There was talk about Margaglio moving from Helsinki, which is why I thought Turkkila/Verslius would retire rather than move. Perhaps Orihara/Pirinen are looking at Euros this season, and Worlds the next season, if T/V retire after Tampere.

I'm astonished at how they cleaned up the selection process document. The only thing that's missing is that the seeds get to choose their events in 1-2 and 4-5 order, with 3 and 6 getting what's left, but that could be custom, not anything official, official.

There is language that talks about travel in making the assignments:

​

"second, skaters/couples will be divided among the three continents in so far as possible so that only one overseas trip will be necessary​

​

third, every attempt will be made to not assign skaters/couples to back-to-back events with atravelling into 2 different continents"​

​

The did a decent job with this, except for the non-Asia-based skaters/teams who are doing CoC and NHK: Egadze (although coming from Russia), Demougeot/LeMercier, Smart/Dieck -- with Gilles/Poirier out, they would have moved up to 4, so presumably got their choices -- Akopova/Rahkmanin, and Desroshers/Thrasher. Fear/Gibson, who got what was left after FB/C and Zingas/Kolesnik chose, are skating back-to-back events (SC and CoC); at least their first is on their training continent. Turkkila/Versluis and Orihara/Pirinen are home for Finlandia and then off to NHK the following week. Liu is scheduled for Skate America -- a short flight from the Bay Area to Seatac -- and Finlandia the next week. If Daleman gets the TBD spot for SC, she'll go from France to SC.

The Japanese woman do have "only" two at SC and SA, which could mean a rare opening from the alternates list, without a JPN/JPN swap.

Korean women have two at five and three at NHK, or 13 spots. Not shabby for a non-host nation. US women start with 11, including the TBD.

The groups look like:
Men:
1-3: Malinin/Sato/Gogolev (Kagiyama out)
4-6: Sia Him Fa, A. Selevko, Aymoz
7-9: Grassl, Britschi, Torgashev
10-12: Egadze, Sanchez, Marsak
Olympic medalist: Shaidorov

Women:
1-3: Chiba/Pinzerrone/Levito (Sakamoto out)
4-6: Gutmann/Glenn/Petrokina
7-9: Shin/Nakai/Gubanova
10-12: Everhardt/Samodelkina/H. Lee
Olympic medalist: Liu

Pairs:
1-3: Hase/Volodin, Metelkina/Berulava, Perreira/Michaud
4-6: Nagaoka/Moriguchi, Pavlova/Sviachenko, Efimova/Mitrofanov
7-10: Hocke/Kunkle, Akopova/Rahmanin, Zhang/Huang, Vouillamoz/Bouvart

Dance:
1-3: Fournier Beaudry/Cizeron, Zingas/Kolesnik, Fear/Gibson (Gilles/Poirier out)
4-6: Smart/Dieck, Lopareva/Brissaud, Reed/Ambrulevicius
7-10: Carreira/Ponomarenko, Davis/Smolkin, Mrazkova/Mrazek, Green/Parsons (Lajoie/Lagha out)

 

[Allskate]

The deadline to fill the TBDs is September 15. That should make the John Nicks Challenger competition very interesting.

 

[YukiNieve]

What do they mean by 'three continents' here? I thought it would be Asia (including the Pacific region including Australia), North America and South America, and Europe. However, Shun has been assigned to Japan and China.

Yes, China and Japan are not on the same continent, so it could mean an overseas trip for him to go to China. But then why does it say 'three' continents?

b. second, skaters/couples will be divided among the three continents

 

[haribobo]

Last I checked, Asia is a continent and both China and Japan are in Asia. Unless Trump found a way to change that too...

 

[haribobo]

My very unofficial Alternates list-

MEN
Vladimir Samoilov 29
Georgii Reshtenko 30
Yudong Chen 31
Francois Pitot 33
Andreas Nordeback 38
Tamir Kuperman 40
Hyungyeom Kim 42
Arlet Levandi 43
Deniss Vasiljevs 44
Liam Kapeikis 45

WOMEN
Young You 25
Yuseong Kim 26
Saki Miyake 27 (if not already 3 JPN @ event)
Olivia Lisko 28
Rino Matsuike 33 (if not already 3 JPN @ event)
Iida Karhunen 35
Julia Sauter 37
Sophie Joline Von Felten 38
Seoyoung Kim 39
Mariia Seniuk 46

PAIRS
Holichenko/Darenskyi 33
Liu/Bedard 34
Caldara/Maglio 35
Williams/Lewer 41
Schaller/Mayr 44
Wessenberg/Strekalin 45
Moss/Galbavy 49 (if not junior, no spots yet)
Ehrhard/Pellegris 50


DANCE
Harris/Chan 25
Wolfkostin/Tsarevski 27
Val/Kazimov 28
Bekker/Hernandez 30
Reitan/Majorov 31
Neset/Markelov 33
Lagouge/Caffa 34
Yoshida/Morita 35
Ichilov/Nosovitskiy 36 (no spots yet)
Manni/Rothlisberger 37 (no spots yet)

 

[AngieNikodinovLove (ANL)]

Decimated? Alysa, Isabeau, Amber, Sarah, and Sophie? That's not exactly decimated,

That’s not what decimated means. I’m not talking about Olympic champions, world champions, and Grand Prix champion. you’ve taken the definition wrong. Typically we see two or three fully booked US women at each event, but the last couple of years not so much. This coming year definitely not. Only Sarah in the first one.

Decimated = depth. There’s not much depth at the moment.

 

[Karen-W]

My very unofficial Alternates list-

PAIRS
Holichenko/Darenskyi 33
Liu/Bedard 34
Caldara/Maglio 35
Williams/Lewer 41
Schaller/Mayr 44
Wessenberg/Strekalin 45
Roscher/Schuster 46 (if still competing)
Moss/Galbavy 49 (if not junior)
Ehrhard/Pellegris 50
Gamez/Korovin 51 (if not retired)

RoSchu split. GamKor don't appear to be skating together - he seems to have relocated to Manila & is coaching there while she's been bopping around Florida. MossGal would have gotten a GP ahead of ValBid's 2nd GP assignment if they were going seniors fully next season. Feels safe to cross all three of those teams off any Alternates List.

 

[Karen-W]

That’s not what decimated means. I’m not talking about Olympic champions, world champions, and Grand Prix champion. you’ve taken the definition wrong. Typically we see two or three fully booked US women at each event, but the last couple of years not so much. This coming year definitely not. Only Sarah in the first one.

There have been several seasons in recent memory where we were lucky to have 1 woman at each GP apart from SkAm. This doesn't feel any less "decimated" than 2022 or 2023, to be honest.

 

[Allskate]

That’s not what decimated means. I’m not talking about Olympic champions, world champions, and Grand Prix champion. you’ve taken the definition wrong. Typically we see two or three fully booked US women at each event, but the last couple of years not so much. This coming year definitely not. Only Sarah in the first one.

Decimated = depth. There’s not much depth at the moment.

There were six American women in the GP last season and there are six this season. That's pretty darn good considering that Bradie and Starr aren't competing and Elyce had a rough season. Four of those skaters from last season are still competing. Elyce didn't exactly add a lot of "depth" last season. Now we have Sophie and Alina. I don't see the decimation you are seeing. Bradie is not competing. That's it. You clearly have a different understanding of "decimated" than I do.

 

[kwanfan1818]

What do they mean by 'three continents' here? I thought it would be Asia (including the Pacific region including Australia), North America and South America, and Europe. However, Shun has been assigned to Japan and China.

The three continents they're talking about are Asia, the Americas, and Europe. There are not very many skaters from Oceania, so Australia and New Zealand are likely considered Asia for this purpose, and there are only a couple of South African skaters, who would also be exceptions.

Sato has one home event and another event on his continent. Cha has CoC and NHK, both on his continent.

 

[Allskate]

Sato has one home event and another event on his continent. Cha has CoC and NHK, both on his continent.

Ditto for Mone Chiba and Chaeyeon Kim. But, the point of the rule is for the skaters not to have to travel too much, so they really are trying to prevent someone from having to travel to other continents for both of their GP events. (And they are trying to prevent them from having to go from one continent to another in back to back competitions.) Obviously, they will have to fly to at least one other country, but that is different from flying to another continent half-way around the world.

They are not concerned about someone having both competitions on the same continent where they live. I would guess that these skaters who have both CoC and NHK are not unhappy about it since it's less travel and they have a break between the competitions.

 

[YukiNieve]

The three continents they're talking about are Asia, the Americas, and Europe. There are not very many skaters from Oceania, so Australia and New Zealand are likely considered Asia for this purpose, and there are only a couple of South African skaters, who would also be exceptions.

Sato has one home event and another event on his continent. Cha has CoC and NHK, both on his continent.

Ok, I now kind of got this. As for the men, Europe, America and Asia each had four seeded skaters, although Japan had three and China only one.

 

[kwanfan1818]

(And they are trying to prevent them from having to go from one continent to another in back to back competitions.)

Either this isn't what they mean, or "try" is the operative word, because the competitions are in Europe, The Americas, Asia, The Americas, Europe, Asia, and there are no back-to-back competitions on the same continent. However, skaters at their host event are only traveling to one other continent, and host skaters are explicitly at the top of the hierarchy. If Daleman is assigned to the TBD at Skate Canada, she'll travel from Angers to Kelowna.

Cha, like every other skater who is not part of a host nation or a non-host pick, has to travel outside his home not matter what, and he's got two assignments within his own continent. Similarly, Japan-based Sumiyoshi, Montreal-based Reed/Ambrulevicius, Colorado Springs-based Herrera/Khobta, and Sochi-based Pavlova/Sviachenko got both European GP's, as well as European-based Siao Him Fa and Hocke/Kunkel, while Euro-based Pidgaina/Koval, the Mrazkovi, Vouillamoz/Bouvart will travel twice to North America, along with NA-based Samodelkina, Kemp/Elizarov, Loparova/Brissaud, and Efimova/Mitrofanov.