We examine all the competition at the Four Continents Figure Skating Championships 2024 in Shanghai, China. We discuss the dominant, definitive gold medal wins, dozens of highly memorable performances, and a couple frustrating judge calls.

In the last major international skating competition before the 2024 World Championships, we saw some iconic performances — from many who may be destined for World medals — at the Four Continents Championships in Shanghai, China. 

From a stunning season’s best from Japan’s Yuma Kagiyama to the continued dominance of Piper Gilles & Paul Porrier of Canada, to renewed hope for reigning pairs World Champions, Riku Miura & Ryuchi Kihara, this event felt like a preview for what we’re about to see in Montreal this March.

Men’s Competition

Yuma Kagiyama was in a league of his own here. Not that he didn’t have incredible competition, but Yuma leveled up his already stellar programs this season and took another step towards what may be his first world title. Both programs saw increased difficulty, and while he had a couple of errors in his free skate, its hard to remember them since there was so much to be excited about. Seeing him at Worlds against Ilia Malinin and reigning World Champ, Shoma Uno, gets more exciting by the day.

In silver, the ever-solid (in consistently improving) Shun Sato delivered his quad lutz (twice!) and continued to show why he is always a threat. We want to see him show more emotion and really develop a persona on the ice, but his talent is undeniable. 

With his best showing this year, the bronze landed around the neck of the brilliant Junhwan Cha. After a rough start to his season due to injury, we’ve been seeing consistent improvement and a steady increase in his technical difficulty. Here, both performances brought the drama in the best way, and proved that Junhwan is definitely capable of showing up on the podium at Worlds again this year.

The  most popular performances of the entire championship easily belonged to China’s Boyang Jin — who delivered two incredible performances to wind up fifth, and was showered with stuffies from a grateful and excited home audience. 

Pairs Competition

At the top of the podium, this season’s superstars — Canada’s Deanna Stellato-Dudek & Maxime Deschamps — continued to deliver great performances, with a few unfortunate errors. The quality of so much of their skating is near-unmatched in the discipline right now, though unfortunately they have been plagued by challenges, in the singles elements especially. However, they still handily took the gold and continue to be the favorites going into the World Championships.

In second, we saw the return of World Champions Riku Miura & Ryuchi Kihara from Japan. If you have listened to the podcast, you know we love this team — so it’s no surprise that we are very excited to see them. As they are still getting back in the swing of competition, this was not their best showing — but still enough to take silver and bring a little of their magic to the ice.

The newly crowned US National Champions, Ellie Kim & Danny O’Shea, took the bronze with two flawed but excellent programs that showed off their continuing development as a team. The throws still pose an issue for them, but their excellence in the lifts and improved singles elements have taken them to a new level in their trajectory.

Women’s Competition

This competition saw a huge breakout for Japan’s Mone Chiba. After an excellent showing at Japan Nationals, Mone came here and delivered two outstanding programs that were near-flawless. After a rough Grand Prix series, she has found more consistency and delivered the best programs we’ve seen from her yet.

In silver position, South Korea’s Chaeyeon Kim gave two solid performances that felt far more confident than what we saw in the Grand Prix Final. It solidifies her as South Korea’s top woman competitor going into Worlds.

Japan’s Rinka Wantanabe landed her first triple axel of the season and earned the bronze in fantastic fashion.

In fourth, Ava Marie Ziegler from the United States proved that her decision to skip Nationals for Four Continents may have been a good one since she scored over 200 again. This should solidify her as one the the top U.S. women going into next season — even without her getting a bid for Worlds.

Ice Dance Competition

Piper Gilles & Paul Poirier continued to dominate this season with two stellar programs, and earned their first Four Continents gold. While having a small twizzles issue in the rhythm dance, their free dance to Wuthering Heights was near flawless and completely captivating. 

The silver was won by Laurence Fournier Beaudry & Nickolaj Sorensen, amidst Nik’s continued assault investigation. 

In the bronze medal position, Christina Carreira & Anthony Ponomarenko delivered a fantastic rhythm dance but did see some small errors creep into their free dance.

Another American team, Emilia Zingas & Vadim Kolsnik, gave possibly their best performances of the season and landed solidly in fourth. 

In fifth, with possibly our favorite performances in this discipline, the Canadian team of Marie-Jade Lauriault & Romain le Gac received a questionable deduction for an lift they have been performing all season in the rhythm dance, but moved up in the standings with their stellar and inventive free dance to the music of The Corpse Bride. 

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