Cup of China 2024! The final Senior Grand Prix event of the 2024-2025 season. Amber Glenn skates to amazing programs landing her triple axel better than we’ve ever seen it before! Our last episode of the podcast covered the Finlandia Trophy, which was the second to last event in the Grand Prix series. As we drew closer to the final competition of the Grand Prix, Our hosts made their vote on who they thought would end up on top. On today’s episode of the podcast our house go over the top six women from the Cup of China! This last competition was crucial to finding out who would make the Grand Prix series final. This competition consisted of Madeline Schizas, Kimmy Repond, Rion Sumiyoshi, Rinka Watanabe, Chae-yeon Kim, Mone Chiba, Amber Glenn, and more! Starting off the episode, we talked about one of our favorite skaters, Kimmy Repond. It’s clear she’s been hard at work since her last Grand Prix event. Despite ending up in six place again, she made noticeable improvement with both her score and Skating skills. No doubt, leaving a great impression on everyone watching. Rinka Watanabe is a strong skater. Her short was delivered beautifully! She landed the triple axel in her freeskate but unfortunately made a few mistakes that ultimately cost her a spot on the podium. Rion Sumiyoshi also started off strong in the short program but let her nerves get her a little in the freeskate event. Despite that she earned a spot as an alternate for the series final! Chae-yeon Kim may of had some noticeably mistakes at her last Grand Prix event that did keep her from making the podium but she certainly redeemed herself in China. She delivered two amazing programs that earned her a bronze medal at this event. We loved both her short and her long program! Our house even discovered that her mom makes all of her skating costumes. It was absolutely no surprise to see that Mone Chiba earned the silver medal at this event. Her short program is disco perfection and we enjoy watching it every time! The unfortunate fall on her footwork during her freeskate may have cost her the Gold. Despite that both programs were lovely to watch. America’s own Amber Glenn came out on top winning her second Grand Prix event in the series! Amber landed a triple axel in both programs, shocking not only the crowd in the arena but the fans watching at home. This gave Amber 30 points and guaranteeing a spot at the Grand Prix series final. Now that we have our list of the final six skaters making it to the Grand Prix series final for this season, who do you think will win? Our host gave their predictions with everyone agreeing Amber and Kaori are the two front runners of this upcoming competition. Stay tuned for our Grand Prix Series final episode! Live reactions and so much more⛸️Instagram: @lutztalkaboutskating TikTok: @lutztalkaboutskating

The 2024 Finlandia trophy! The second to last competition of the 2024-2025 senior Grand Prix season. We are so close to finding out who will make the final! This GP event was one of the more predictable outcomes we’ve seen this season. However, there were a couple standout performances that still caught our eye. At this Grand Prix event, our house were able to watch some of their favorite skaters like Rino Matsuike. Rino blew us away with a phenomenal performance at the Skate Canada event earlier in the Grand Prix season. She redeemed herself at the Finlandia trophy with a much better short. Her long was still stunning! A truly beautiful program to watch. Laura Naki Gutman was a last-minute addition to this Grand Prix event and we enjoyed seeing her Skate even more than we did at the NHK trophy. She earned her spot on the podium at this event! We saw the return of America’s Sara Everhart. She delivered with consistency and strong skiing skills. Again Yun gave us the best short program to the start the entire weekend. Certainly a hard act to follow after that flawless performance. The winner of the Finlandia trophy was Hana Yoshida. Our hosts love her short program, from the experimental choreography to the unique skating dress. However, our hosts still didn’t enjoy the music selection for the long program. Claiming it feels disconnected from the dress and gives the feeling of background study music. It doesn’t showcase her skating skills to the best of their ability. Regardless, Hana still delivered a winning program earning her gold at this Grand Prix event. Cup of China is next! Will Amber Glenn win her second Grand Prix event? Can’t wait to find out next weekend here on the Lutz Talk About Skating Podcast! YouTube: ‪@LutzTalkAboutSkating‬ Instagram: @lutztalkaboutskating

The 2024 NHK Trophy! The fourth Senior Grand Prix event of the 2024 season! On this episode of the podcast, our hosts talk about the top 6 skaters from the Women's event at the NHK Trophy. Our last episode talked about everything that happened at the Grand Prix De France! Amber Glen gave us an amazing start to her Senior Grand Prix assignments with a stunning short program. She walked away with the gold last week. On this episode we journey to Japan for the NHK Trophy. We got to see a mix of stunning programs, costumes, and skaters. Contrary to last week in France, the Men's event was one of the strongest we've seen on the Senior Grand Prix this season so far. The senior women had strong skates, with some improving their score by over 20 points since the last Grand Prix competition. Ye-Lim Kim improved her scores dramatically since Skate Canada. However, she ended up in 12th again resulting in the end of her Grand Prix season. Ekaterina Kukarova gave us a short program filled with energy and everything this program was missing at Skate Canada. When it came to her free, she unfortunately made some mistakes, also resulting in the end of her Grand Prix season. Both were great to watch and we were sad to see they would not be making it to the finals. Lindsay Thorngren made a return to the Grand Prix with the same short program music as last year. Our hosts were not impressed with the music choice but thought she delivered a lovely short program. Her lines, edges, and consistent jumps are what wowed us at the NHK Trophy. Lara Naki Gutmann from Italy gave us a unique short program that left our hosts split on how they felt about it. Some liked the unique idea while others felt it fell flat of what it could've been. Regardless we all agreed that she is a great skater to watch. The height Lara gets on her jumps really showed at the NHK Trophy throughout both the short and long program. Bradie Tennell had an amazing long program. Her fall on the double axel might have cost her a spot on the podium but she still delivered an even stronger program than what we saw at Skate America. Our hosts agreed the short program is her weak spot this season. We don't think it is the best choice for her as a skater and wish it was something different. Alysa Liu came back for her second event in the series, giving us to lovely programs. We were in awe with how excited the crow was for her long program. That energy fueled her passion throughout the program and it showed! Yuna Aoki secured the bronze medal at this event and gave us the all of the smiles. Her radiant energy throughout both programs made us fall in love with her. This event was much stronger than her skate at Skate America. Yuna's kiss and cry moment was one of our favorites. Mone Chiba gave us disco perfection for her short program. The dress, the music, and the elements worked together perfectly. Her air position is extremely captivating and she jumps with such power. A well deserved silver medal at this Grand Prix. Finally the gold medalist of the NHK Trophy was no surprise to any of us. Kaori Sakamoto had the best long program we have seen yet, securing her win and a spot in the Grand Prix final. Our hosts were not a huge fan of the Chicago program when we saw it at the Skate Canada event. We felt it was lacking something. Kaori expressed in her interview that she was extremely nerves for Skate Canada which is what caused some of her mistakes. She talked about feeling excited for this event and that energy helped her connect to the program better. Our hosts agree, Kaori Nakamoto's long program grew on us at this event. We love it more than we did when we first saw it at the Skate Canada event. Join us next week for the Finlandia Trophy! Who do you think will make the podium? Instagram: @lutztalkaboutskating TikTok: @lutztalkaboutskating