You Only Lutz Once

Chen remains to be a heavy favorite to win his second National title, and we’re pretty sure he’s already booked one of three spots in the Olympic team, Chen will be working on a cleaner skate for the most important podium finish of all, in Pyeongchang. Like Chen, he’s pretty much booked a spot in the Olympic team, but he’ll need a better performance in the Olympics, where he’s also a favorite to finish on the podium. Despite this, he’s still the heavy favorite to win his second National title, not to mention be part of the Olympic team. It looks like Rippon has a higher chance of making it to the Olympic team, while Brown has to redeem himself in U. S. Nationals.

Meagan Duhamel / Eric Radford (CAN) Duhamel / Radford is still not back to the same level of performance we’ve seen from them back in 2014-2016, but the bronze medal should help boost their confidence nonetheless. They will be working to polish their program in time for Canadian Nationals, and while they’ve more or less booked one spot in the Olympic team, they will need that solid skate to figure into the Olympic podium. Ksenia Stolbova / Fedor Klimov (RUS) missed the podium by less than a point, though their overall performance was a struggle, particularly on Stolbova’s part. Though the short program was solid (save for Stolbova’s fluke fall after the opening triple twist), side-by-side jumps became the issue in the free skate.

With gold medal-favorite Evgenia Medvedeva out of the Final due to injury, everyone wants a shot at the top spot on the podium. Both Wakaba Higuchi and Alina Zagitova make their senior Grand Prix Final debuts, while Carolina Kostner returns after five years. Meanwhile, Kaetlyn Osmond, Satoko Miyahara, and Maria Sotsokova are back again, aiming for better finishes than last year’s One of the most graceful skaters in the field, Miyahara’s jumps are admittedly smaller than the rest of the girls’.

Last season’s Grand Prix Final bronze medalist no doubt feels the pressure of competing in one of the biggest competitions in figure skating, on home ice nonetheless. His program content in his first few competitions have been conservative thus far, but we have no doubt that he’ll be leveling up his program content heading into this competition. Adam Rippon (USA) Looking better after he dislocated his shoulder in Skate America, Rippon is looking for a higher finish in the Grand Prix Final compared to last season’s fifth place. The last time we’ve seen Sergei Voronov on the Grand Prix Final was in 2014 in Barcelona, where he pulled out a surprise bronze-medal finish.