The 2025 ISU Figure Skating Grand Prix Cup of China, the second occasion within the ISU Grand Prix sequence, will start in Chongqing on Friday.
Serving as a warm-up occasion for the 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics, the competitors will characteristic high skaters from around the globe.
Sui Wenjing (R)/Han Cong of China carry out their free skating at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, Feb. 19, 2022. (Xinhua/Zhang Yuwei)
Highlights embody the return of China’s pairs stars Sui Wenjing and Han Cong, who will make their first aggressive look in additional than three years. The occasion can even function an Olympic choice competitors for Chinese language skaters.
COMEBACK OF THE CHAMPIONS
Sui and Han, the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic pairs champions, introduced their comeback in June. The Cup of China will mark their first competitors since returning to the ice.
Whereas Sui and Han, aged 30 and 33 respectively, had been as soon as famend for his or her synchronization, questions stay about how a lot of their high type they will regain. They are going to carry out two new packages in Chongqing.
Following the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, Sui by no means totally left the game and resumed formal coaching at the tip of final yr with the purpose of that includes at Milan-Cortina. Han had beforehand introduced in 2023 that he would withdraw from all competitions throughout the 2026 Olympic cycle due to damage.
Because the Beijing Olympics, China’s dominance in pairs skating has diminished, making the veteran pair’s comeback notably vital. Latest coaching movies shared by Sui confirmed the duo coaching intensively via China’s Nationwide Day vacation.
Moreover, Zhang Jiaxuan and Huang Yihang, who secured China’s Olympic spot in pairs, can even compete in Chongqing.
TOP SKATERS COMPETE IN CHONGQING
Because the second cease within the ISU Grand Prix sequence, the Cup of China attracts elite skaters from around the globe. The occasion options 60 skaters from 14 nations and areas.
The U.S. workforce has despatched its high opponents in each ladies’s singles and ice dance. The sector contains 2025 world champion Alysa Liu in ladies’s singles and three-time world ice dance champions Madison Chock and Evan Bates. One other notable American entry is defending champion Amber Glenn, who additionally received the 2024 Grand Prix Ultimate and positioned fifth at the 2025 World Championships.
In ladies’s singles, South Korea’s Shin Jia, thought-about the successor to Kim Yuna, and Lee Hae-in, the 2023 world silver medalist, are among the many favorites. Whereas Japan’s high skater Kaori Sakamoto isn’t competing, different robust contenders together with Hana Yoshida will characteristic. 2023 European champion Anastasiia Gubanova of Georgia has additionally chosen to compete. China’s ladies’s singles will characteristic Zhu Yi and younger skater Zhang Ruiyang.
The boys’s singles competitors might be equally aggressive, that includes defending champion Shun Sato of Japan, South Korea’s Cha Jun-hwan, and Kazakhstan’s Mikhail Shaidorov, the 2025 world silver medalist. China’s veteran Jin Boyang can even make his season debut at the occasion.
In pairs, Sui and Han will face defending champions Sara Conti and Niccolo Macii of Italy.
RACE FOR MILAN
The mixed outcomes of the Cup of China and this yr’s Nationwide Championships will decide Olympic qualification for Chinese language skaters. The skater with the very best whole rating in every self-discipline will safe a spot a the 2026 Winter Olympics.
China has secured one Olympic spot every in males’s singles, ladies’s singles, ice dance and pairs. The returning Sui and Han will compete in opposition to the younger pair of Zhang Jiaxuan and Huang for an Olympic ticket.
Zhang Jiaxuan and Huang, who not too long ago moved up to the senior degree, earned China’s Olympic spot in pairs at the September qualification occasion and had been final season’s ISU Junior Grand Prix Ultimate champions.
In ice dance, veteran pair Wang Shiyue and Liu Xinyu will face challenges from youthful groups Ren Junfei and Xing Jianing, and Xiao Zixi and He Linghao.
In ladies’s singles, Zhu and Zhang Ruiyang will compete for the Olympic spot, with 17-year-old Zhang Ruiyang having secured China’s Olympic berth at the qualification occasion. In males’s singles, Jin Boyang, Dai Dawei and Peng Zhiming will vie for the Olympic place.
The Cup of China will happen from October 24 to 26, with Sui and Han performing their quick program on the competitors’s first night. This marks the fifth time Chongqing has hosted the occasion.
