In the history of the Grand Prix Series, Ava Ziegler’s win on Saturday may have been the most unexpected by a U.S. figure skater.
At the NHK Trophy in Japan, Ziegler, a 17-year-old from New Jersey, won the free skate and the title by just 1.77 points over fellow countrywoman Lindsay Thorngren. She had been in fifth place after Friday’s short programme.
Thorngren, the short programme winner, ran over time in all of her shows, which cost her two points that were crucial.
Ziegler broke the U.S. women’s record for fastest rise to a Grand Prix title in just her second Grand Prix start. In January, she finished ninth in her first senior U.S. Championships.
At first, she wasn’t assigned to any Grand Prix events this season because ninth place at nationals isn’t always enough to get into the top Grand Prix events. However, she was added to NHK when another skater dropped out in August.
Ziegler was the first U.S. woman to win a Grand Prix without having been on the podium in a Grand Prix before. Her mum, Tricia, came in fifth at the 1995 U.S. Championships.
On Saturday, she did seven triple jumps, which was the best free skate score by an American this season.
In the U.S., she is now ranked second after national winner Isabeau Levito in terms of best total score for the season. Before NHK, she was ranked sixth in the country.
After the nationals in January, two women will be chosen for the world championships team. There are six Grand Prix Finals in two weeks, and Levito is the only American woman who made it. She is the clear favourite for one of them.
This weekend, Ziegler and Thorngren got ahead of the rest of the pack. It was the first one-two for the U.S. women in a Grand Prix since Ashley Wagner and Mariah Bell won at Skate America in 2016. It was also the first one-two at a Grand Prix other than Skate America since Tara Lipinski and Michelle Kwan won at the Grand Prix Final in March 1997.
Thorngren, also 17, is from New Jersey and made it to the podium in her first Grand Prix. It was her fourth Grand Prix start overall.
She had a better record than Ziegler going into NHK. She had won the U.S. junior title in 2020, won bronze at the 2022 Junior Worlds, and come in fifth or sixth at the last three senior nationals.
The International Skating Union says she said on Saturday that she hurt her ankle in practise before Friday’s short.
Two-time world champion and Olympic silver winner Yuma Kagiyama of Japan beat two-time world champion Shoma Uno of Japan by 1.84 points in the men’s event at NHK.
After being hurt for most of last season, Kagiyama won his first top-level title in two years.
This season, his best overall score puts him third in the world, just behind Alex Malinin of the United States and Adam Siao Him Fa of France. Uno comes in at number four. All of them are going to the Grand Prix Final.
The pairs’ title was won by Minerva Fabienne Hase and Nikita Volodin of Germany for the second week in a row in their first two Grand Prix starts as a team.
They beat Lucrezia Beccari and Matteo Guarise of Italy by 12.2 points and are now ranked second in the world by best score this season, just behind Deanna Stellato-Dudek and Maxime Deschamps of Canada.
In ice dance, Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson won Great Britain’s first Grand Prix title in any sport. They beat world silver medalists Charlene Guignard and Marco Fabbri of Italy by.63 points. Both pairs made it to the Grand Prix Final.
The Grand Prix Series ends with the Grand Prix Final, which will be shown live on Peacock in two weeks.
