Valentina Plazas & Maximiliano Fernandez
Isabeau Levito
Ilia Malinin
MEN Defending event champion Ilia Malinin of Reston, Virginia, headlines the men’s field. The 2023 U.S. champion landed the first-ever quad Axel in competition last season. He started this season with a dominant victory at the Autumn Classic Invitational in Canada, where he landed three quads in the free skate. U.S. pewter medalist Maxim Naumov makes his Grand Prix Series debut (exc. the 2020 domestic Skate America). The 2020 U.S. junior champion’s main goal is to improve the quality of his elements and accumulate World ranking points. “I’m excited to keep improving my ‘Tosca’ free skate and performing it with better and better execution,” the Boston-based Naumov said. Andrew Torgashev, who trains in Irvine, Califor- nia, is looking to build on last season, in which he earned the bronze medal at the U.S. Cham- pionships and competed at Worlds. He started the current campaign with a bronze-medal finish at the Lombardia Trophy in Italy. France’s Kevin Aymoz, fourth at the 2023 World Championships, leads of list of outstand- ing international skaters; athletes from Japan and Canada also are projected to push for a podium finish. WOMEN U.S. champion and 2022 Skate America silver medalist Isabeau Levito figures to contend for
PAIRS Valentina Plazas and Maximiliano Fernandez hope to take a leap forward — literally — start- ing at Skate America. “I feel like we’ve improved a lot in our jumps. We took the time in the offseason to drill our jumps, technique and patterns,” Plazas said. “We have a much quicker pattern into our [triple] toe and we are excited to show that this season.” Plazas and Fernandez, who train in Canton, Michigan, finished fifth at 2022 Skate America and sixth at the 2023 U.S. Championships. “Our goal is to find consistency within our components and elements and use it to build a storyline,” Fernandez said. Having joined forces in May, Chelsea Liu and Balazs Nagy competed for the first time last month at the Autumn Classic International in Canada, where they barely missed making the podium. Based in Irvine, California, both have competed with multiple partners and bring a wealth of pairs experience to the partnership. Grace Hanns and Danny Neudecker kick off their second season together in Allen. The Colorado Springs-based duo placed ninth at the 2023 U.S. Championships. World champions Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara of Japan arrive as the team to beat. They won each event last season that they competed in, except for the World Team Trophy.
the gold medal. The 16-year-old New Jersey native wrapped up her first senior international season in March by placing fourth at the 2023 World Championships. Levito arrives with an array of triple jumps, tight spins, effortless footwork and a presence that lights up on the ice. She embarks on this season ready to prove she belongs with the world’s elite skaters. “I’m definitely not Isabeau from last season,” Levito said. “Isabeau from last season was just happy to be there. It was my first year as a senior and I was getting to skate with all these seniors who have been around for a while. This season I feel like a senior that belongs there. I do belong there.” Amber Glenn, the 2023 U.S. bronze medalist, returns to Skate America where last season she collected the bronze medal. Glenn trains in Colorado Springs, Colorado, but is from Plano, Texas, just a few minutes from the Allen Events Center. Glenn is a fan favorite, winner of the 2023 SKATING magazine Readers’ Choice Award. Clare Seo, the 2022 U.S. junior champion, makes her Grand Prix Series debut in Allen. Seo, like Glenn, trains in Colorado Springs. “My goal for this competition is to enjoy the game without trembling, doing my best at every moment and leaving with no regrets,” Seo said.
2023 HUMANA SKATE AMERICA | ALLEN, TX
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