{"id":9439,"date":"2026-02-26T12:21:49","date_gmt":"2026-02-26T12:21:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/grow24.us\/?p=9439"},"modified":"2026-02-26T12:21:49","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T12:21:49","slug":"it-was-supposed-to-be-just-an-exhibition-then-ilia-malinin-and-isabeau-levito-touched-the-ice-and-the-arena-forgot-how-to-breathe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/grow24.us\/?p=9439","title":{"rendered":"It was supposed to be just an exhibition \u2014 then Ilia Malinin and Isabeau Levito touched the ice, and the arena forgot how to breathe"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating \u2013 the sport\u2019s premier series traversing the globe \u2013 continues this weekend with Skate Canada, the third of six regular season events leading up to December\u2019s Grand Prix Final.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i.pinimg.com\/736x\/6c\/3d\/fe\/6c3dfefea494ee50bd3d94d7855c5503.jpg\" alt=\"isabeau levito, ilia malinin\" \/><\/p>\n<div class=\"code-block code-block-2\"><\/div>\n<p>Two-time reigning world champion Ilia Malinin looks to win a 12th consecutive individual competition, a streak that began in December 2023. Malinin won the Grand Prix Series opener in France two weeks ago by a sizable 40.05 points.<\/p>\n<p>He will qualify for the Grand Prix Final with a win in Canada and would also likely get in with a top-three result this weekend. Malinin\u2019s top rivals, including 2022 Olympic silver medalist Yuma Kagiyama of Japan, aren\u2019t entered in Skate Canada. Malinin will likely face them at the Grand Prix Final in an Olympic preview.<\/p>\n<div class=\"code-block code-block-3\"><\/div>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.shutterstock.com\/editorial\/image-editorial\/M9T0Q7yfNbz5Ifx5NTE1NTI=\/l-r-jason-brown-mariah-bell-isabeau-levito-440nw-14140877di.jpg\" alt=\"L-r Mariah Bell Isabeau Levito Ilia Editorial Stock Photo - Stock Image | Shutterstock Editorial\" \/><\/p>\n<p>In the women\u2019s event, 2024 World silver medalist Isabeau Levito also competes for the second time on the Grand Prix this fall.<\/p>\n<div class=\"code-block code-block-4\"><\/div>\n<p>Levito finished fourth at a deep event in France two weeks ago with her best total score in more than two years. Levito must make the podium this week \u2014 and likely must finish first or second \u2014 for a realistic chance to qualify for the Grand Prix Final.<\/p>\n<blockquote id=\"v89842277322977920\" class=\"tiktok-embed\" cite=\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/@teamusa\/video\/7594257960180698381\" data-video-id=\"7594257960180698381\"><p><iframe src=\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/embed\/v2\/7594257960180698381?lang=en-US&amp;referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fnewsanchor360.com%2Fanhtuyetbtv%2Fit-was-supposed-to-be-just-an-exhibition-then-ilia-malinin-and-isabeau-levito-touched-the-ice-and-the-arena-forgot-how-to-breathe%2F%3Ffbclid%3DIwY2xjawQNGghleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETJDMExpSkIwOWZEOTJPeW1jc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQQMjIyMDM5MTc4ODIwMDg5MgABHrHWMzcDii8AbB9QheaDRpbIzTkRsiZJR4GKh_-gGwphOysrucEJIGPGI1_L_aem_EEch4XXyYAVBy73UxD42xw\" name=\"__tt_embed__v89842277322977920\" sandbox=\"allow-popups allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox allow-scripts allow-top-navigation allow-same-origin\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><\/iframe><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>This week\u2019s headliner is 17-year-old Ami Nakai, who won her senior Grand Prix debut in France with the world\u2019s best score this season. The Skate Canada field also includes two more Americans bidding to make the three-woman Olympic team: 2018 Olympian Bradie Tennell and 2025 U.S. bronze medalist Sarah Everhardt.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/pbs.twimg.com\/media\/GnbaxX-bUAAH6Tj.jpg\" alt=\"More of Ilia with Isabeau Levito and Amber Glenn at the 2025 ISU Skating  Awards and World Championships banquet yesterday \ud83d\udcf8 online_on_ice\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Canada\u2019s biggest stars lead the fields in pairs (2024 World champions Deanna Stellato-Dudek and Maxime Deschamps) and ice dance (four-time world medalists Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier).<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Ilia Malinin and Isabeau Levito Play 90s Trivia\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/YRD-J3NuFr8\" width=\"350\" height=\"235\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\" data-origwidth=\"350\" data-origheight=\"235\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating \u2013 the sport\u2019s premier series traversing the globe \u2013 continues this weekend with Skate Canada, the third of six regular&#8230; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9440,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9439","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/grow24.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9439","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/grow24.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/grow24.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grow24.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grow24.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9439"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/grow24.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9439\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9441,"href":"https:\/\/grow24.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9439\/revisions\/9441"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grow24.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9440"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/grow24.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9439"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grow24.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9439"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grow24.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9439"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}