Nick ZaccardiMon, November 24, 2025 at 2:39 PM UTC·6 min readIn Olympic sports this past weekend, the field was finalized for December's Grand Prix Final in figure skating and Mikaela Shiffrin extended her dominance to start the Alpine skiing season.
In the sixth and last Grand Prix figure skating regular season event, Amber Glenn and ice dancers Emilea Zingas and Vadym Kolesnik made the podium in Finland to clinch spots in the Grand Prix Final.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementThe Grand Prix Final (Dec. 4-6 in Nagoya, Japan) will be a mini preview of the Olympic figure skating competition. The Final gathers the top six per discipline from the six-stop Grand Prix Series, where skaters were scattered at different events in October and November. Every 2025 World Championships medalist made the Final across men’s and women’s singles, pairs and ice dance.
Glenn, who last year became the first U.S. woman to win the Final since 2010, followed a win at Grand Prix China with a runner-up last week to Mone Chiba of Japan. The Final also includes 2025 World champion Alysa Liu and three-time world champ Kaori Sakamoto of Japan. Sakamoto, Ami Nakai of Japan and Chiba combine to own the world's top six scores this season.
Image for Amber Glenn heads to the Grand Prix Final after 2nd place finish at Finlandia TrophyAmber Glenn heads to the Grand Prix Final after 2nd place finish at Finlandia Trophy
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementAmber Glenn punched her ticket to the Grand Prix Final with a 2nd place finish at the ISU Grand Prix Finlandia Trophy in Helsinki, Finland.
The men’s Final field is headlined by two-time world champion Ilia Malinin, who won his two early Grand Prix starts. Malinin will face his top challenger, 2022 Olympic silver medalist Yuma Kagiyama of Japan, for the first time this Grand Prix season. Kagiyama also won his two regular season starts – including in Finland last week -- but averaged nearly 50 fewer points than Malinin.
Zingas and Kolesnik, the breakthrough U.S. skaters this season, were second and third in Grand Prix starts to earn the sixth and last dance spot in the Final. After placing fourth at last January’s U.S. Championships, they are now in strong position to claim one of three Olympic team spots.
Zingas formerly skated singles for her dad’s native Cyprus. Kolesnik, born and raised in Ukraine, has lived in the U.S. since 2017. His mom lives with him in Michigan. His dad and brother are still in Ukraine.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementThe Grand Prix Final ice dance event will test the recent dominance of three-time world champions Madison Chock and Evan Bates, who seek their first Olympic dance medals. Chock and Bates have the world's top score this season, but the new couple of Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Guillaume Cizeron of France also won their two Grand Prix starts. The two couples share coaches in Montreal and will go head-to-head for the first time at the Final.
Image for U.S. ice dancers Emilea Zingas and Vadym Kolesnik are 'here to stay'U.S. ice dancers Emilea Zingas and Vadym Kolesnik are ‘here to stay’
“It would be amazing to be on the Olympic team, but we want to remind everyone we are here to stay.”
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementIn Alpine skiing, Shiffrin won her second consecutive World Cup slalom to start the season, each by a dominating margin of more than one second.
Shiffrin took Sunday’s race in Gurgl, Austria, by 1.23 seconds over 19-year-old Lara Colturi of Albania, eight days after prevailing by 1.66 seconds over Colturi in Levi, Finland.
“It’s some of the best slalom skiing I ever did,” she said of Sunday’s performance.
Shiffrin upped her career records to 103 Alpine World Cup victories and 66 in slalom alone. She won 10 of her last 12 World Cup slalom starts, missing five races in that span due to injuries.
Shiffrin competes next weekend in her home state for the first time since 2017: a giant slalom on Saturday and a slalom on Sunday at Copper Mountain. The GS will be a test. Shiffrin placed fourth in the season-opening giant slalom on Oct. 25, her best GS result since a November 2024 GS crash.
Image for Mikaela Shiffrin cruises to second consecutive World Cup victoryMikaela Shiffrin cruises to second consecutive World Cup victory
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementMikaela Shiffrin cruises to victory in Gurgl, Austria for her second World Cup win in seven days. Lara Colturi of Albania finished in second and Camille Rast of Switzerland claimed third.
In speed skating, Jordan Stolz and Erin Jackson met Olympic qualifying criteria with podium finishes at the second speed skating World Cup stop in Calgary. Each will secure their spot on the team for Milan Cortina by skating at the trials in January, regardless of result.
Stolz won three of his four races over the 500m, 1000m and 1500m for a second consecutive week. Stolz, the 2023 and 2024 World champion in those three events, can become the second American to win three golds at a single Winter Games in any sport after fellow Wisconsin speed skater Eric Heiden in 1980.
On Sunday, Stolz added his first World Cup podium (third place) in the mass start, a possible fourth Olympic event for him that comes after the 500m, 1000m and 1500m in Milan.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementJackson, who in 2022 became the first Black woman to win individual Winter Olympic gold, finished third and seventh in her two 500m races in Calgary. She ranks second in the world this season behind world record holder Femke Kok of the Netherlands, whose last 500m defeat was in February 2024.
Casey Dawson is skating like a multi-medal contender, earning his first World Cup 5000m win and becoming the third-fastest man in history. The event is stacked with world record holder Timothy Loubineaud of France, world champion Sander Eitrem of Norway and Olympic host nation star Davide Ghiotto of Italy. Dawson is also part of the U.S. men’s team pursuit squad that won the last four World Cups and the 2025 World Championship, plus owns the world record.
Image for Dawson breaks U.S., track records to open World Cup in CalgaryDawson breaks U.S., track records to open World Cup in Calgary
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementHow Jordan Stolz, Casey Dawson, Femke Kok, and more fared on Day 1 of the second Speed Skating World Cup stop.
Corinne Stoddard again led the U.S. short track speed skaters with second- and third-place finishes at the third of four World Tour stops. Stoddard has finished second or third in six of the nine individual races this season and ranks second in the overall standings behind Courtney Sarault of Canada.
The last World Tour stop this weekend will decide whether the U.S. qualifies for both Olympic women’s and men’s relays for the first time since 2010. The women are in strong position to qualify. The men are in the eighth and last spot going into the final qualifier.
Image for Corinne Stoddard earns second silver of the season at Gdansk World CupCorinne Stoddard earns second silver of the season at Gdansk World Cup
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementHow Kristen Santos-Griswold, Corinne Stoddard, and more fared on the final day of competition at the third World Tour.
Laura Nolte and Johannes Lochner gave bobsled power Germany a sweep of the opening races of the World Cup season in the first competition held at the 2026 Olympic track in Cortina.
Nolte, the reigning Olympic and world champion in the two-woman event, won the two-woman race on Sunday by a massive 77 hundredths of a second, confirming she’s the clear Olympic favorite.
Kaysha Love was second in both races, continuing her climb since switching from push athlete to driver after the 2022 Olympics. She was 15 hundredths behind Nolte in Saturday’s monobob, an event Love won at last March’s World Championships on home ice in Lake Placid.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementLove finished ahead of her more experienced American teammates. Kaillie Humphries was third in the two-woman event (her first podium since June 2024 childbirth) and fourth in the monobob (which she won at the 2022 Olympics).
Five-time Olympic medalist Elana Meyers Taylor was 19th in the monobob, then sixth in the two-woman event.
Image for Love, Humphries make podium in two-woman bobsled, Meyers Taylor in 6thLove, Humphries make podium in two-woman bobsled, Meyers Taylor in 6th
Kaysha Love and Kaillie Humphries both finished on the podium in the first two-woman bobsled race of the World Cup season, while Elana Meyers Taylor finished in sixth.
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