U.S. Men 2024-25 news & updates

[Debbie S]

He has been injured (only attempted 1 triple, 3S) and so that's why he held up a "See U Next Year Thank You!!!" sign in the kiss & cry afterwards.

He might have to change that sign to "See U in Wichita", depending on Mids results. We'll see.

 

[tony]

Sorry to see Lucas out for the season - fractured pelvis. Wow, still only in high school and have had so many injuries. Is it time to bail or will he make a Kaitlyn-Osborn comeback?

Kaetlyn Osmond?

 

[Sylvia]

He might have to change that sign to "See U in Wichita", depending on Mids results. We'll see.

Mindra (5th at Pacific Coast both this year & last year) did get the last spot to 2024 Nationals.
Last year's 9 qualifiers via Sectionals were:
M1 Tomoki Hiwatashi 249.11
P1 Goku Endo 226.88
P2 Yaroslav Paniot 218.45
P3 Kai Kovar 208.09
E1 Will Annis 200.31
P4 Michael Xie 198.84
M2 Joseph Klein 198.24
P5 Samuel Mindra 197.76
E2 Daniel Samohin 195.14

But this year appears to be much tougher with Tomoki, Taira, Joe K. & Beck expected to vie for the top 2 guaranteed spots at Mids & the now 4 spots for the next highest scores and Liam & Michael Xie currently ahead of Samuel (whose priority now should be to get fully healthy for next season).

ETA - Michael Xie’s Instagram post includes photos with teammates Samuel & Ryan Azadpour (who has qualified for his 2nd Nationals in Junior Men), 3 practice clips, and a shot of the Pacific Coast Sr. Men’s podium:

michael xie // 谢嘉楠 on Instagram: "sectionals! it was great to compete again + thank you to those who cheered me on 😁 see you next year! #iloveskating #imsoexcitedtobehere #chickencrumbls #eggs #weinerdogs #scaryredspiders #tarantularun #haircut #vas

mukeandukea on November 17, 2024: "sectionals! it was great to compete again + thank you to those who cheered me on 😁 see you next year! #iloveskating #imsoexcitedtobehere #chickencrumbls #eggs #weinerdogs #scaryredspiders #tarantularun #haircut #vaseline #bloodynoses #ccosptrauma...

www.instagram.com

 

[mtnskater]

Lucas Broussard is out for the rest of the season with a fractured pelvis.

Lucas on Instagram: "Hi! I really appreciate all of the support I’ve received recently. Unfortunately, I’ve fractured my pelvis and won’t be able to complete this season. I’ll continue working hard and come back stronger. Thank you! 🙏"

1,273 likes, 117 comments - lucas._.broussard on November 17, 2024: "Hi! I really appreciate all of the support I’ve received recently. Unfortunately, I’ve fractured my pelvis and won’t be able to complete this season. I’ll continue working hard and come back stronger. Thank you! 🙏".

www.instagram.com

Noooooooooooo

I’ve been a Lucas uber for years it seems starting in juniors. He just can’t seem to get a break from injuries lately. I’m so hoping he will be able to recover and continue his skating career. He is such a uniquely gorgeous quality and stylistic skater. Sending him all the best!!

 

[ice coverage]

... The Bye policy explicitly lists the events that qualify toward the 3 International Assignments - JGPs, GPs, and all the Challengers except Tallinn Trophy, Warsaw Cup & Golden Spin - though if a skater is assigned to Tallinn or Warsaw they receive a travel bye ...

It's only Golden Spin that is excluded from the list of Challengers that count toward the three international assignments.

Tallinn Trophy and Warsaw Cup are included on the Challenger list in the USFS document for 2024-25 -- at the same time that it turns out in practice (without being specified in the document) that just Tallinn or Warsaw has been sufficient basis for a travel bye.

https://www.usfigureskating.org/sites/default/files/media-files/2025%20Qualifying%20Bye%20Advancement%20Criteria%20FINAL.pdf

 

[ice coverage]

2 Sectionals are finished and the first 4 Senior Men's qualifers are Goku Endo (P-1), Kai Kovar (P-2), Emmanuel Savary (E-1) & Lucius Kazanecki (E-2) ...

Congratulations to all!

I enjoyed getting a peek at David Shapiro working with Emmanuel -- thanks to mini-video shared by Viktor Pfeifer today.

Wilmington Skating Academy on Instagram: "@david_shap_ working with @eman_savary on fine tuning their art! #SCW #Usfsa #figureskating #art"

121 likes, 5 comments - scw_academy on November 20, 2024: "@david_shap_ working with @eman_savary on fine tuning their art! #SCW #Usfsa #figureskating #art".

www.instagram.com

ETA:​

David Shapiro wrote on Instastory:
"Choreography is by himself @eman_savary and it's brilliant.
Super enjoying the opportunity to work with this artist, thank you "​

 

[YukiNieve]

I enjoyed getting a peek at David Shapiro working with Emmanuel -- thanks to mini-video shared by Viktor Pfeifer today.

Cool！　Is this his SP or FS?

 

[Sylvia]

Lorenzo Elano (186.64) won the Junior FS (128.19) & silver medal in Nice, as well as a special trophy for the highest PCS (clip of him receiving the award is after his 4 photos):

lorenzo elano on Instagram: "🥈 at the Trophy Metropole Nice Côte d’Azur🇫🇷! I am feeling so ecstatic to have placed first in the freeskate and second overall at my first international competition! I was also awarded a trophy for the Best Presentatio

422 likes, 95 comments - renzoskates on October 17, 2024: "🥈 at the Trophy Metropole Nice Côte d’Azur🇫🇷! I am feeling so ecstatic to have placed first in the freeskate and second overall at my first international competition! I was also awarded a trophy for the Best Presentation Component...

www.instagram.com

Lorenzo Elano's beautiful Junior SP performance from Mids last night to "Empty Chairs at Empty Tables" performed by Eddie Redmayne, choreographed by Tommy Steenberg (73.04; 3Lz+3T, 2A, 3F): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYzL-B_lJAg

 

[Stephanie]

Jason Brown is out of Golden Spin per the USFS international assignments page. So far no one has been substituted in.

 

[haribobo]

Go Samuel Mindra, 3salchow your way to Nationals!!! He gets the last spot again if I did math right

 

[Debbie S]

Go Samuel Mindra, 3salchow your way to Nationals!!! He gets the last spot again if I did math right

Yep, Klein, Kapeikis, Xie and Mindra get the final 4 spots. Taira Shinohara is 1st alt.

 

[Sylvia]

My 4-post thread on X starts here: https://x.com/SylviaUnseen/status/1860418886962753888

https://twitter.com/x/status/1860418886962753888

Emmanuel Savary E-2 - his post after Easterns (first Nationals since 2020 Greensboro when he was forced to withdraw after the SP warmup):

Emmanuel Savary on Instagram: "So excited and grateful to return to nationals for the first time in 5 years!!! Thank you to everyone for your continued support!❤️"

466 likes, 62 comments - eman_savary on November 16, 2024: "So excited and grateful to return to nationals for the first time in 5 years!!! Thank you to everyone for your continued support!❤️".

www.instagram.com

Lucius Kazanecki E-2
Goku Endo P-1
Kai Kovar P-2

ETA:

BYES (8): Ilia Malinin, Jason Brown, Camden Pulkinen, Maxim Naumov, Andrew Torgashev (top 5 at Nationals last year); Jimmy Ma, Daniel Martynov, Jacob Sanchez (JGPF).

 

[ice coverage]

For me, the glass is both half-empty and half-full.
I will miss Taira at Nationals very much.
Very sorry that today was just not Taira's day at sectionals (although I have been a fan of Mindra since 2020 Nationals).

What lifted my spirits today was Beck's great performance. I was getting teary along with him as his music ended.
He won the free skate by over three points, with highest TES and highest PCS.
Across all three sectionals, he had highest free skate score and second-highest total score.
Way to go, Beck -- excited for you to take this momentum to Santa Claus Cup next week!

 

[haribobo]

JUNIOR MEN Nationals Qualifiers

Lorenzo Elano 207
Aleksandr Fegan 190
Vaclav Vasquez 186
Ryan William Azadpour 183
Jared Sedlis 181
Isaac Fulton 179
Patrick Blackwell 176
Kirk Haugeto 175
Thomas Chen 165
Alek Tankovic 165
Arsen Meghavoryan 159
Sergei Evseev 156
Brendan Man 146
Louis Mallane 143
David Zhao 140
Evan Neuhaus 128
Ethan Yan 122
Michael Jin 119

 

[haribobo]

SENIOR MEN Nationals Qualifiers
Top 2 season scores listed, regardless of National or International
Ranked by top score

Ilia Malinin 312/301
Andrew Torgashev 246/233
Jason Brown 242/229
Jimmy Ma 236/229
Goku Endo 230/222
Jacob Sanchez 229/220
Tomoki Hiwatashi 228/226
Michael Xie 227/201
Camden Pulkinen 226/195
Beck Strommer 220/213
Maxim Naumov 216/199
Joseph Klein 215/212
Emmanuel Savary 214/201
Daniel Martynov 212/207
Kai Kovar 210/203
Liam Kapeikis 208/207
Lucius Kazanecki 202/200
Samuel Mindra 197/194

 

[zigzig]

Loving that Sam Mindra qualified and loling that he did it with less tech content than Deanna Stellato did to win silver at intermediate nationals in 1997

 

[Vagabond]

Loving that Sam Mindra qualified and loling that he did it with less tech content than Deanna Stellato did to win silver at intermediate nationals in 1997

If Singles doesn't work out for him, he can always take up Pairs in another ten years or so.

 

[Jammers]

For some reason i thought that Jacob was competing in Juniors since he's never won the US Junior title before and he wants that before he moves up.

 

[Karen-W]

For some reason i thought that Jacob was competing in Juniors since he's never won the US Junior title before and he wants that before he moves up.

Clearly, he decided that moving up to seniors domestically this season was more important to his long-term future than winning the US Junior Men's title.

 

[layman]

Congratulations to Ilia Malinin for qualifying for the Grand Prix Final!

https://results.isu.org/events/gp2024/gpsmen.htm

 

[Sylvia]

What lifted my spirits today was Beck's great performance. I was getting teary along with him as his music ended.
He won the free skate by over three points, with highest TES and highest PCS.
Across all three sectionals, he had highest free skate score and second-highest total score.
Way to go, Beck -- excited for you to take this momentum to Santa Claus Cup next week!

Watch Beck Strommer's 1st place Mids FS! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ba3tPksRSQE
He landed 7 clean triples (3Lz+3T, 2A, 3S, 3Lo, 3Lz+2T, 3F+2A+2T & 3F) to place 2nd overall and both his and Jonathan Cassar's kiss & cry reactions to his scores are worth seeing! He also thanked Julie Berlin (in the k&c with them - IIRC, she previously coached Cassar at Detroit SC before he moved to California to work with Frank Carroll) "for the unexpected but very deeply appreciated emotional support over this competition" according to his Instagram story afterwards.

August 14, 2024 was when Beck announced his move to SoCal and his FS music & choreographers:

2024-2025 FS: Violin Concerto No. 2 in C Major by Camille Saint-Saëns
(Choreographed by Nick Buckland, Beck, and Jonathan Cassar)

Beck Strommer on Instagram: "Program announcements + life updates🙃 Senior Free skate 2024/24 🎵: Violin Concerto No. 2 in C Major by Camille Saint-Saëns Choreo: @n_buckland myself and @jjcassar :) Music editing: @sk8mixhugo 🎥: @janetdianephotography

516 likes, 32 comments - beck_s_sk8s on August 14, 2024: "Program announcements + life updates🙃 Senior Free skate 2024/24 🎵: Violin Concerto No. 2 in C Major by Camille Saint-Saëns Choreo: @n_buckland myself and @jjcassar :) Music editing: @sk8mixhugo 🎥: @janetdianephotography When picking...

www.instagram.com

Oct. 11:

Beck Strommer started a GoFundMe today.
Beck's own words on his GoFundMe page and his @beck_s_sk8s Instastory are eloquent and moving.
Some of the gist: "... We have always understood that skating is a privilege and not a necessity. With this in mind, we never have asked for financial support from anyone else, regardless of how much financial strain we've been under ..." But only two weeks after his parents moved to Asheville, NC, they were displaced from their home by Hurricane Helene. They are currently living more than three hours away from Asheville, and it could be several weeks or more before they can return to their home. (Beck trains in California.)

Donate to Donate to support Beck Strommer’s skating journey, organized by Lynda Strommer

Hello Everyone! My name is Beck Strommer. I am a Team USA Athlete for… Lynda Strommer needs your support for Donate to support Beck Strommer’s skating journey

www.gofundme.com

www.instagram.com/beck_s_sk8s​

We here at FSU have been talking a lot lately about funding issues for numerous skaters, and I wanted to spread the word for Beck's sake somewhere. This thread seems like the most suitable place to me.
Beck is one of my favorites -- not only a beautiful skater, but also a super-nice guy.

 

[her grace]

Looking back from beginning of season for Juniors at Junior Team Cup, these are the men who qualified for nationals. Bold = senior, Italics = Juniors]. I suppose Sanchez and Blackwell are the early favorites for Junior Worlds, but let's see how nationals go.

		Junior Team Cup
1	21	Patrick Blackwell, SC of Boston	5	66.58	1	136.41	202.99
2	13	Aleksandr Fegan, SC of New York	9	63.77	2	133.05	196.82
3	16	Lorenzo Elano, Skokie Valley SC	4	68.78	4	128.02	196.80
4	17	Taira Shinohara, Chicago FSC	2	69.92	5	126.12	196.04
5	18	Lucius Kazanecki, Washington FSC	6	65.99	3	129.78	195.77
6	14	Jacob Sanchez, Hudson Valley FSC	8	64.65	6	124.42	189.07
7	19	Kai Kovar, Wasatch FSC	1	71.05	8	117.66	188.71
8	20	Nicholas Brooks, All Year FSC	3	68.97	7	119.67	188.64
9	15	Kirk Haugeto, SC of New York	7	64.82	10	115.87	180.69
10	11	Vaclav Vasquez, Glacier Falls FSC	10	61.60	9	116.01	177.61
11	12	Zachary LoPinto, SC of Boston	11	58.71	12	110.83	169.54
12	10	Louis Mallane, Broadmoor SC	14	53.97	11	110.95	164.92
13	6	Caleb Farrington, Columbia FSC (MD)	12	56.29	13	105.32	161.61
14	8	Ryedin Rudedenman, All Year FSC	16	52.02	14	97.79	149.81
15	7	Marlo Rosen, DuPage FSC	15	53.28	15	94.35	147.63
16	3	Ryan William Azadpour, Carousel Sherwood FSC	18	49.94	16	91.52	141.46
17	4	Alek Tankovic, Atlanta FSC	17	51.32	17	87.54	138.86
18	5	Sergei Evseev, All Year FSC	19	49.78	18	84.86	134.64
19	9	Jared Sedlis, SC of Boston	13	54.35	19	75.23	129.58
20	1	Alvin Luu, Broadmoor SC	21	32.74	20	69.98	102.72
WD		Nhat-Viet Nguyen, Dallas FSC	20	48.68

 

[Stephanie]

Daniel Martynov will also be contending for a junior worlds spot. He hasn’t had a great season, but has a solid 3A and did better at the Tallinn challenger than earlier in the season. That being said, I agree that Jacob and Patrick are definitely the favorites, but I would expect Martynov to be one of the alternates.

 

[Sylvia]

USFS made the 2025 Nationals entries official in their press release today (I've included the Sectional placements below):

Senior Men (18):

• Jason Brown (bye)
• Goku Endo (senior sectionals, P-1)
• Tomoki Hiwatashi (senior sectionals, M-1)
• Liam Kapeikis (senior sectionals, P-3)
• Lucius Kazanecki (senior sectionals, E-2)
• Joseph Klein (senior sectionals, M-3)
• Kai Kovar (senior sectionals, P-2)
• Jimmy Ma (bye)
• Ilia Malinin (bye)
• Samuel Mindra (senior sectionals, P-4)
• Daniel Martynov (bye)
• Maxim Naumov (bye)
• Camden Pulkinen (bye)
• Jacob Sanchez (bye - JGPF)
• Beck Strommer (senior sectionals, M-2)
• Emmanuel Savary (senior sectionals, E-1)
• Andrew Torgashev (bye)
• Michael Xie (senior sectionals, P-3)

Junior Men (18):

• Ryan William Azadpour (junior sectionals, P-2)
• Patrick Blackwell (junior sectionals, E-3)
• Thomas Chen (junior sectionals, M-3)
• Lorenzo Elano (junior sectionals, M-1)
• Sergei Evseev (junior sectionals, P-4)
• Aleksandr Fegan (junior sectionals, E-1)
• Isaac Fulton (junior sectionals, M-2)
• Kirk Haugeto (junior sectionals, E-4)
• Michael Jin (novice sectionals, P-2)
• Louis Mallane (novice sectionals, M-1)
• Brendan Man (novice sectionals, E-1)
• Arsen Meghavoryan (junior sectionals, P-3)
• Evan Neuhaus (novice sectionals, M-2)
• Jared Sedlis (junior sectionals, E-2)
• Alek Tankovic (junior sectionals, M-4)
• Vaclav Vasquez (junior sectionals, P-1)
• Ethan Yan (novice sectionals, P-1)
• David Zhao (novice sectionals, E-2)

 

[Sylvia]

Competing this week at the Santa Claus Cup in Budapest:

Goku Endo and Beck Strommer (his Senior international debut) - Senior Men's event is on Thursday, Nov. 28 & Friday, Nov. 29.

Junior: Marlo Rosen (his Team USA debut) - competes on Wednesday, Nov. 27 & Thursday, Nov. 28 - a very quick turnaround after he missed qualifying for Nationals (5th at Mids ) on Friday. His Instagram stories show he has arrived in Budapest (sunny there today).

 

[YukiNieve]

Re-posting this here:

Jason did a short Q&A at the Shanghai Trophy.

The venue was where he skated his first senior Worlds in 2015 and he talks about the memories. He also talks about his new exhibition program, Hit The Road Jack.

- YouTube

Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.

www.youtube.com

 

[YukiNieve]

Camden withdrew from Golden Spin of Zagreb.

2024-25 International Assignments and Results

2024-25 International Assignments and Results

usfigureskatingfanzone.com

 

[HappyFS@15]

Kaetlyn Osmond?

She broke her leg in 2 places in September 2014. Missed the whole season but returned and we all now what happened next!

 

[Theatregirl1122]

She broke her leg in 2 places in September 2014. Missed the whole season but returned and we all now what happened next!

I believe Tony’s question was because you said Kaitlyn Osborn

 

[Sylvia]

^^^ It was @SkateFanBerlin who mistakenly wrote "Osborn" and then was able to edit to Osmond.

Santa Claus Cup U.S. Men’s results this past weekend:

Goku Endo 4th - 198.26 total, 5th in SP (65.31) new ISU SB & 2nd in FS (132.95); his 2 other ISU SBs are from CS Denis Ten Memorial (140.53 FS, 203.03 total).

Beck Strommer 7th in his senior international debut with 188.41 total, 8th in SP (62.82) & 6th in FS (125.59).

Marlo Rosen - 7th in his Team USA & junior international debut with 166.29 total, 7th in SP (59.13) & 6th in FS (107.16) - considerably better than his 152.04 Midwestern Sectional 5th place finish 10 days ago.

In Jana Horcickova's (CZE junior bronze medalist in Budapest) 4th photo, you can see all 3 guys sitting together with her & Josephine Lee: https://www.instagram.com/p/DDFJKf_oqnC/