EXCLUSIVE Photos & Interviews + All the Latest News! GET THE INSIDE EDGE! SUBSCRIBE READ IT TODAY! ON YOUR IPAD, IPHONE, KINDLE OR U.S./CANADA NOOK 1-844-357-2044 Online @ ifsmagazine.com ASHLEY WAGNER ON THE ROAD TO RECOVERY GABRIELLA PAPADAKIS Guillaume & CIZERON THE BEST IS YET TO COME ALINA ZAGITOVA RISING ABOVE THE CHALLENGES Yuzuru Hanyu of Japan (center) claimed the gold at 2018 Autumn Classic. South Korea’s Jun-Hwan Cha (left) won the free skate but placed second overall. Canada’s Roman Sadovsky captured the bronze. Photo: Susan D. Russell Contents 24 Features VOLUME 23 | ISSUE 6 | DECEMBER 2018 ASHLEY WAGNER 6 On the Road to Recovery VANESSA JAMES & 10 MORGAN CIPRÉS Ready to Conquer the World FIERCELY COMPETITIVE! 14 Junior Stars Heading to the Grand Prix Final MIKHAIL KOLYADA 18 New Season, New Perspective STARR POWER VALLE PHOTO: FLAVIO 20 U.S. Teen Chasing Olympic Dream ALINA ZAGITOVA 6 22 Rising Above the Challenges ON THE GABRIELLA PAPADAKIS COVER Ê 24 & GUILLAUME CIZERON The Best is Yet to Come VANCOUVER CALLING 32 Final Three Grand Prix Events Play out in Japan, Russia & France Departments 4 FROM THE EDITOR 46 QUICKSTEPS 36 WEDDING BELLS 47 TRANSITIONS 38 INNER LOOP 48 MEDIA GUIDE COVER PHOTO: FLAVIO VALLE 2 IFSMAGAZINE.COM DECEMBER 2018 TOS: ROBIN RITOSS` PHO Reigning Olympic champion Alina Zagitova of Russia (center) scored a runaway victory at the 2018 Nebelhorn Trophy. Japan’s Mai Mihara (left) captured the silver medal ahead of Loena Hendrickx of Belgium, who placed third. TOS: MARIA KATESHOVA` PHO Russia’s Elizaveta Tuktamysheva (center) claimed her second Challenger Series victory at 2018 Finlandia Trophy. Kazakhstan’s Elizabet Tursynbaeva (left) mined silver and Finland’s Viveca Lindfors (right) claimed the bronze. DECEMBER 2018 IFSMAGAZINE.COM 3 4PK:LHZVU9LÅLJ[PVUZ Mental health has become an important discussion in igure skating, opportunity to watch all the events live. ever since Gracie Gold spoke out about her condition. It is the same with the Junior Grand Prix. Kudos to the In mid-October, Ashley Wagner went public with the news that International Skating Union for once again investing in and she has been sufering from depression since the U.S. Championships delivering live online coverage of every competitor at every event. last January. She hopes that by speaking out about it, others will be his is a costly venture, so it was heartening to see so many people encouraged to seek help, just as she did. watching the streams each week and getting engaged with the Canada’s Gabrielle Daleman also recently announced she was junior stars. sufering from mental health issues and was taking a break from What was again remarkable for me was how iercely competitive skating to heal. the juniors have become. Many of them will be front and center We wish them both a speedy return to good health. on your screens in the next couple of years as they transition into hough the irst half of the season has been a challenge for the senior ranks. some senior skaters, others have lourished. One of them, Elizaveta We have a recap in this issue of the top six in each discipline who Tuktamysheva, has returned this season with a vengeance. She are heading to the Junior Grand Prix Final in December. won both her Challenger events in the fall, her irst victories since Television and online schedules for the last three Grand Prix late 2015. events are included in this issue, along with those for the senior hough many top skaters withdrew from the Grand Prix Series Grand Prix Final in December and the competitions in the irst prior to the start of the events, the newcomers on the circuit half of 2019. have shown themselves to be worthy of earning places at these he IFS team will be in Vancouver covering both Finals, so stay competitions. I hope you are enjoying the Series as much as I am. up-to-date with our reports, news and photos at ifsmagazine.com, If you have been watching the Challenger Series online, I am and on Facebook and Twitter. sure you will join me in giving a shout-out to all the small skating federations that are providing live streams for those of us not at the actual competitions. hese eforts bring skating to many thousands Susan D. Russell of people around the world, and I certainly appreciate having the Publisher PUBLISHER Susan D. Russell [email protected] NORTH AMERICAN EDITOR Robert Brodie EUROPEAN EDITOR Tatjana Flade DESIGNED BY Laurea Media EDITORIAL Elina Paasonen, Akiko Tamura, Elvin Walker PHOTOGRAPHY Vicki S. Luy, Elina Paasonen, Robin Ritoss, Flavio Valle INTERN Brooklee Han ADVERTISING/SALES [email protected] CORPORATE OFFICE International Figure Skating/Laurea Media 270 Queens Quay West, Suite 1301, Toronto, ON M5J 2N4 Please include your name, mailing and e-mail addresses and a telephone number in all correspondence to International Figure Skating. SUBSCRIPTIONS (U.S./Canada) 844-357-2044 International: 973-627-5162 WEBSITE www.ifsmagazine.com International Figure Skating is published bimonthly by Laurea Media, 270 Queens Quay West, Suite 1301, Toronto, ON M5J 2N4. One-year subscriptions: US$29.99, Canada US$34.99, International US$49.99. Subscribers should allow 1 to 2 weeks for change of address to become effective. POSTMASTER: Send changes of address to: International Figure Skating, PO Box 3000, Denville, NJ, 07834 USA. Subscriptions ordered are nonrefundable unless otherwise promoted. 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CPC PUB #0913103. 4 IFSMAGAZINE.COM DECEMBER 2018 Canada’s Keegan Messing and Piper Gilles, Chris Knierim and Alexa Scimeca Knierim of the U.S., and Nolan Seegert, Minerva Fabienne Hase, and Thomas Stoll of Germany accepted the trophies on behalf of their respective teams. he 2018 Nebelhorn Trophy was a historical celebration. Nebelhorn Trophy has been used as the testing ground This year’s event marked the 50th anniversary of one for changes to the judging system, most notably the switch Tof the oldest competitions in igure skating. to the International Judging system in 2002. The following Throughout the decades, the careers of many skaters year it was the irst competition to oficially implement the have taken ight at this event. new scoring system. Ted Barton, the commentator for the International Skating It also serves as the testing ground for judges who wish Union’s Junior Grand Prix Series, won the title in 1975. Tom to gain international judging status. Dickson, now a renowned choreographer from the U.S., In 2009, Nebelhorn served as the qualifying event for the mined gold in 1980, defeating Brian Orser. 2010 Olympic Winter Games. That tradition continued in Ilia Kulik, Takeshi Honda, and Timothy Goebel all found 2013 and 2017. early success in Oberstdorf. This competition is unique in that skaters are not only Many notable ladies also struck gold at this competition. awarded medals, but also receive trophies. At the end of the Debi Thomas captured the 1984 title, followed by Surya event, the three highest-scoring teams are also presented Bonaly in 1990, and Irina Slutskaya, who claimed two with trophies. This year, top honors went to the U.S.; Canada TO: ROBIN RITOSS` consecutive titles in 1993 and 1994. ranked second and Germany placed third. PHO DECEMBER 2018 IFSMAGAZINE.COM 5 I said, ‘I gotta turn this big ole lemon into my lemonade.’ accomplishments and longevity in the sport, she realized that competing at the elite level for more than a decade had taken its toll. “Skating is incredible for so many reasons, and I have been at the elite level as one of the top U.S. ladies — if not the top U.S. lady — for about a decade,” Wagner said. “When you’ve been at that level as long as I have, you also get tired — emotionally tired, physically tired. I was exhausted from years of that pressure on my shoulders, from competing in the sport. “In the inal months of last season, I was so incredibly unhappy. I was stressed out; I had too much on my plate and I was doing everything by myself. My life just became work. Work happened to be skating, and it really afected my relationship with the sport. “Not a lot of people understand that as an elite athlete, my life was a one-track record — it just played over and over again. You don’t really learn much about yourself as a person beyond who you are as an athlete. I wanted to give myself some time to do that and I knew that was not going to happen in California. I do not miss “I was at a point where I said to myself, ‘you can go live some life to see what you like and feeling so what you don’t like.’ I don’t think I really started to push myself into a better place until I moved lonely.. out of California. I was trying to build a new life in the bones of my old one.