Finlandia Trophy becomes an ISU Grand Prix event for the first time ever as the series reaches its penultimate stop in Helsinki this weekend.

When is it on?

Finlandia Trophy begins Friday, 15 November with the men’s short programme and concludes Sunday, 17 November with the free dance.

Who is skating?

It is no exaggeration to say the Finlandia Trophy men’s event is stacked. Yuma Kagiyama (JPN) is fresh off his victory last weekend at NHK Trophy and he is the favourite due to his results so far this season. He will be joined by the NHK Trophy silver medallist Daniel Grassl (ITA) in Helsinki. After a superb performance at Skate America, Kevin Aymoz (FRA) will be eager to book his place at the Grand Prix Final in his hometown next month. Junhwan Cha (KOR) and Sota Yamamoto (JPN) placed third and fourth respectively at Skate Canada and will be chasing podium spots.

The women’s field has been depleted with the withdrawal of 2024 European champion Loena Hendrickx (BEL) and 2024 World silver medallist Isabeau Levito (USA). Their absence will provide opportunities for other skaters chief among them being Rino Matsuike (JPN) who sensationally claimed a silver medal at Skate Canada last month. Her compatriot Hana Yoshida (JPN) stood just one step lower on the rostrum in Halifax and has a great chance to improve on that result. One to look out for as a potential spoiler will be 2024 Ondrej Nepela Memorial winner Ahsun Yun (KOR). This will be the Korean’s sole Grand Prix assignment.

Despite not showing their best in the pairs event at Skate Canada, Deanna Stellato-Dudek and Maxime Deschamps (CAN) still managed to come away with gold and the expectation is that they will do the same in Finland. Rebecca Ghilardi and Filippo Ambrosini (ITA) are the only other pair at Finlandia Trophy to have a Grand Prix medal in their pockets with the bronze they picked up at Grand Prix de France two weeks ago. Maria Pavlova and Alexei Sviatchenko (HUN) came third at the Grand Prix Espoo last year and will try to take home a medal once more.

Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier (CAN) headline the ice dance event and dominated at Skate Canada where they triumphed with almost 15 points to spare over the rest of the field. Their main challengers will be Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson (GBR) who pulled off an upset at Skate America when they finished ahead of World Champions Madison Chock and Evan Bates (USA). There will be a battle royale for the bronze medal. Juulia Turkkila and Matthias Versluis (FIN) will be hoping that home ice will again bring them good luck as it has in their two previous Grand Prix events in Finland. Natalie Taschlerova and Filip Taschler (CZE) came fourth at Skate Canada and could be the ones to spoil the Finnish party.

Everything you need to know (and some things you did not) about the skaters, the competition schedule and results can be viewed here.

When is the skating on?

Morning till lunchtime in North America, afternoon till evening in Europe and evening till early morning in Asia. The times listed for Finlandia Trophy are local and if you want to know what the time difference is between where you are and Helsinki then this link is your friend.

Where can I watch the pretty skaters?

This season’s ISU Grand Prix can be viewed on the Skating ISU YouTube channel. Geographic restrictions may apply.

What are the hashtags?

#FinlandiaTrophy #GPFigure #FigureSkating