# This Week in Skating / Weekly Episode for January 6, 2026

An episode of [This Week in Skating Podcast](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1621874792), 6 Jan 2026, 8:49.

Audio: https://audio2.redcircle.com/episodes/e8e0e589-eb72-4be7-9998-fd94e8171f0e/stream.mp3

While Daphne and Gina are in St. Louis for the U.S. Championships, Matteo ran down the other figure skating news and events happening this week. Show Notes: https://www.thisweekinskating.com/2026/01/show-notes-jan-6-2026/ --- This Week in Skating is hosted by Gina Capellazzi, Daphne Backman and Matteo Morelli is a cooperative project between Figure Skaters Online and Ice-dance.com. New episodes are available every Tuesday. Website: https://www.thisweekinskating.com Email: thisweekinskating@gmail.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thisweekinskating Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/thiswkinskating Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisweekinskating Thread: https://www.threads.net/@thisweekinskating Patreon: patreon.com/ThisWeekinSkating Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/this-week-in-skating-podcast/donations Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

## Transcript

[0:00] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Hi everyone, I'm Vincent Joe.
[0:01] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Hi, I'm Kathy Reed.
[0:03] \[SPEAKER_01\]: And I'm Allison Reed.
[0:05] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Hi, I'm Ashley.
[0:06] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Hi, I'm Grace.
[0:07] \[SPEAKER_01\]: We're from the hidden apps.
[0:25] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Welcome to this week in Skating, the weekly podcast bringing you the latest news from the world of figure skating.
[0:31] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Here are your hosts, Daphne, Gina, and Mateo.
[0:35] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Hello, welcome back.
[0:37] \[SPEAKER_00\]: I am doing a solo episode this week to tell you the news and updates from the weeks just go Daphne and Gina are in 10 loaves enjoying the US national championships So we should have them to have a fantastic week there They've also recorded a special preview episode about the US and Canadian national championships Which are both taking place these weeks so make sure you don't miss that
[0:58] \[SPEAKER_00\]: But let's start with general skating news.
[1:01] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Olympic Ice Dance champions Jane Trollville and Christopher Dean were honoured in the UK's New Year honoured list with a Dane Hood and Night Hood for their voluntary services and services to ice skating.
[1:14] \[SPEAKER_00\]: This is a very prestigious recognition in the UK, so I am hoping to see the two of them in Cheffield in a couple of weeks to congratulate them in person at the European Championships.
[1:24] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Anastasia Golubova has received her Australian citizenship, which means that she and Skating partner Hector, Jatlopoulos Moor, are now a step closer to realizing their dream to compete at the Winter Olympics in Milano.
[1:37] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Also, the 2026 Challenge Cup entries were posted.
[1:41] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Moving on to events results in coverage, there were a couple of national championships that we wanted to mention because we couldn't really cover them doing our break between Christmas and New Year.
[1:53] \[SPEAKER_00\]: So let's start with a recent one which is the Korean Nationals in the men.
[1:57] \[SPEAKER_00\]: The gold medal was won by June 1, Cha, the silver by Mingyu Seo and the bronze by Habin Choi in the women.
[2:04] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Gold was won by Jiaxin, silver by Yuseong Kim and bronze by Juhu.
[2:10] \[SPEAKER_00\]: The 2024 World bronze medalist Jayon Kim finished 9th, so she's not named to the Olympic team.
[2:16] \[SPEAKER_00\]: In Iceland's Hanalim and Yekwan were the only competitors in the Icelandic event.
[2:21] \[SPEAKER_00\]: So that means that Korean Olympic team is women, pain, Lee, and Jiaxin, men, June 1 Cha and Yung Yung Kim and Iceland's Hanalim and Yekwan.
[2:34] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Let's talk about Chinese nationals.
[2:36] \[SPEAKER_00\]: The main competition was won by Bongyuan Jin, the women's by Xu Xian Jin, in a pair's waging sui and konghan won gold, and the ice dance winners were Shi Wei Wang and Xinyu Liu.
[2:51] \[SPEAKER_00\]: So the Chinese Olympic team will be in the men Bo Yang Jin,
[3:02] \[SPEAKER_00\]: We also want to mention the French Olympic team that was announced on December 23rd.
[3:07] \[SPEAKER_00\]: In the women, Loring Shield is going to represent France, for the men, Kevin Amos, and Adanciao Hemphar.
[3:14] \[SPEAKER_00\]: In the pairs at the team event, it's going to be Camille, Covalève, and Pavel Covalève.
[3:19] \[SPEAKER_00\]: And in ice dance, Eugenia Lupareva and Joffrey Brisot and Doron Swaniabudri and Yom Cesaron.
[3:25] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Lastly, Belgium's Olympic team was also announced on December 23rd.
[3:29] \[SPEAKER_00\]: They only have two women's going to the Olympic Games, which are Luna Hendricks and Nina Pinsaronne.
[3:34] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Let's move on to upcoming events for the week.
[3:37] \[SPEAKER_00\]: As we said before, U.S. Championships and Canadian championships are both taking place this week from FIFA to the 11th of January.
[3:45] \[SPEAKER_00\]: The U.S. Championships is taking place in Sendoez,
[3:48] \[SPEAKER_00\]: and Canadian championships is taking place in Gazi Noir, which is in Quebec.
[3:53] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Also taking place this week from the 6th to 11th of January is the Sophia Trophy, 2026.
[3:58] \[SPEAKER_00\]: It's an event that has got senior and junior men, women, and ice-dense, so no pairs will be competing at this competition.
[4:06] \[SPEAKER_00\]: entries include Cori Chutelli in a men's field, and Angelina could we have Sceva and Ilya Karankovic of Cyprus, Sophiava and Azav Kazimofo Spain and Maria Pinchuk and Mikita Pogorodidiev of Ukraine in Iceland.
[4:21] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Also taking place this week are an RW trophy which is a solo instance event taking place in Dortmund, Germany from January 9th to 11th,
[4:30] \[SPEAKER_00\]: The Irish use synchronized skating challenger series Britannia Cup 2026 which is taking place in Nottingham Great Britain from January 9th to the 10th and also same days the 2026 Dresden Cup which is a stink revend taking place in Dresden Germany.
[4:48] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Let's move on with online updates, of course, of the last 10 days to weeks, so let's start with Burak Demir Boga, who announced his retirement from competitive skating, and we had some announcement from Japan as well before the end of the year, so let's start with Kazuki Tumono who announced he will compete next season.
[5:07] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Then Rinka Watanabe announced that she will continue skating through the next Olympia quad, and so did Riyon Sumiyoshi.
[5:13] \[SPEAKER_00\]: She also shared on Instagram that
[5:18] \[SPEAKER_00\]: On December 31st, Counting Paul Kinen announced his withdrawal from the U.S. figure skating championships because of a herniotic disc in his back, wishing him a speed recovery.
[5:30] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Lastly, on December 30, Germany's Laticia Roscher and Luis Schuster announced the end of their partnership.
[5:37] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Moving on to articles and interviews that were published over the last two weeks as well, there were quite a few out there, so let me just go through them quickly.
[5:45] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Alismanly interviewed Olympian Timothy LeDook for the mainly woman podcast.
[5:52] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Jackie Wong interviewed Jason Brown in the rocker-skated podcast.
[5:56] \[SPEAKER_00\]: U.S. figures getting posted on article titled Eisenstein's Thames in Full Control or Day Faith.
[6:03] \[SPEAKER_00\]: The House of Mahir podcast posted an interview with Maya and Alex Shibutani, and lastly another U.S. figure skating article, Edfimoba and Metrophanova aim for second U.S. title and Olympic eligibility.
[6:17] \[SPEAKER_00\]: So that's it for today.
[6:19] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Very quick episodes.
[6:20] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Let's just go through our media as always.
[6:23] \[SPEAKER_00\]: So starting with this, we can skating.
[6:25] \[SPEAKER_00\]: You can check out our US and Canadian National Preview episode as I mentioned before, which definitely in general recorded before going to San Luis.
[6:33] \[SPEAKER_00\]: We have a new store so you can support our podcast while rocking some cool swag.
[6:38] \[SPEAKER_00\]: We also have items available with the iSdense.com and figure skaters online logos.
[6:43] \[SPEAKER_00\]: So make sure you check our store and look at our items.
[6:46] \[SPEAKER_00\]: There are also some with these weekend skatings tagline which is heaven ice week.
[6:52] \[SPEAKER_00\]: And there are incredibly cool and as you know that will support our journey throughout skating media which is something that we do out of our own time and our pockets
[7:03] \[SPEAKER_00\]: You can also support us by joining our Patreon for Access to Art Free Episodes.
[7:09] \[SPEAKER_00\]: At icedense.com, Daphne is busy updating the US Championships hub that she created, which already includes national previews and novice team feature for US Championships, and it will soon have photos and recaps from the US Championships.
[7:27] \[SPEAKER_00\]: at figurescators of line, same thing for Gina, so she has a U.S. Championships hub as well, she already has a national's preview and she will also have photos and recaps.
[7:37] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Meanwhile, she has a new interview with Junior Skater, Kanye Tiernan and her mom, three-time Olympian for Zobinia, Moika Kovaq, Tiernan.
[7:46] \[SPEAKER_00\]: So that's it.
[7:46] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Thank you very much for tuning in and see you soon with a recap of U.S. Nationals and a preview of the European Championships.
[7:54] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Thanks for tuning in to another episode of This Week in Skating.
[7:57] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Remember, you can keep up with us throughout the week by visiting our website at www.thisweekinscating.com.
[8:03] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Connect with us on social media for additional updates.
[8:06] \[SPEAKER_01\]: You can find us on Twitter at This Week in Skating without the ease or Facebook Instagram and Threads at This Week in Skating.
[8:14] \[SPEAKER_01\]: You got a burning question or feedback for Gina Daphne or Mateo?
[8:17] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Reach out to us via social media or drop us an email at thisweekenscading at gmail.com.
[8:22] \[SPEAKER_01\]: And if you're really enjoying the show and want to support us further, consider joining our Patreon community at patreon.com slash this week in skating.
[8:29] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Until next time, have a nice week!

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