Ice, Grand Prix finals figure in Turin: Memola wins among the juniors, three blue podiums

The Italy of figure skating which is already looking at the Milan-Cortina 2026 Olympics can be optimistic. This was confirmed by the three days of the 2022 Grand Prix finals hosted by the Palavela in Turin. Unprecedented results have arrived for the Italian movement.

What a talent

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The prestigious success among the juniors of Nikolaj Memola stands out. The 19-year-old Lombard of Russian origins led by his mother Olga Romanova and registered for IceLab Bergamo, on whose slopes he trains, after a second and a first place in the qualifying stages, between Ostrava and Riga, overcomes himself and achieves a victory that for skates Azzurri, in 23 editions of the youth review, is unprecedented. Nikolaj, second after the short program, overtakes the American Lucas Broussard and arrives where, in the Italian artistic field, not even Carolina Kostner, second in the final of The Hague 2002, had ever arrived. With plenty of room for improvement, starting with those quadruple jumps avoided for now. What catches the eye most is his height, close to two meters, decidedly unusual for a skater. The boy, on the ice, is elegant, expressive and very smooth. If he continues to be well managed, he will go far. Perhaps to the point of annoying the two Azzurri leaders: Daniel Grassl, sixth in Turin in the race won by a wild Shoma Uno and Matteo Rizzo.

Third places

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At the senior level, two third places arrive for Italy. The first, the one in the artistic pairs – first time for the blue on the podium in the specialty – bears the signature of the emerging Sara Conti-Niccolò Macii who, good at making the most of the absence of Russians and Chinese, recover from fourth place in the first part of competition. In front of the tandem trained by Barbara Luoni, also this designer IceLab (she is 22 years old from Bergamo, he is 27 years old from Milan), only the Japanese Riku Miura-Ryuichi Kihara and the Americans Alexa Knierim-Brandon Frazier, representatives of two other countries that had never placed between the first three. To complete the made in Italy work, the fifth place of Rebacca Ghilardi-Filippo Ambrosini. Not bad considering that exactly that, with Nicole Della Monica-Matteo Guarise, in Vancouver 2018, was the previous best blue result. The second third place, more predictable, comes in dance, thanks to the experts Charlene Guignard-Marco Fabbri, who equal the result obtained in Canada four years ago. Barbara Fusar Poli’s students are preceded by the Canadians Piper Gilles-Paul Poirier and the Americans Madison Chock-Evan Bates, confirming their leadership. The female title, to close, is by the Japanese Mai Mihara.