Chen, Liu and Levito Make Up First All-Female Podium in Peggy Fleming Trophy History

When Isabeau Levito was selected to compete in the 2021 Peggy Fleming Trophy, she looked up last year's results.
 
"Huh," she thought to herself upon seeing the top five finishers. "It's all guys."
 
In its fourth year, the Peggy Fleming Trophy is open to both ladies and men. All entrants skate a 3:30-minute program focusing on the skater's ability to artistically express and present a complete program while demonstrating superior technical skills. The music, creativity and overall performance are the emphasis for the competition, and all skating elements are assessed from an artistic point of view.
 
"And then I watched the videos they had on the Fan Zone, and I was like, 'I see why,'" Levito said. "It was my goal to be in the top three, so it actually helped me work even harder on my skating skills, because I looked up to that."
 
Levito was part of a female revolution in 2021, as she finished on the podium behind 2017 U.S. champion Karen Chen in first place and 2019-20 U.S. champion Alysa Liu in second. This is the Peggy Fleming Trophy's first all-female podium.
 
"Watch out, boys," Levito said with a laugh. "It's very cool, because I know guys can be so powerful. They can perform so well, too. And so it's definitely a very rewarding feeling to have all these girls up here."
 
Chen took the top spot with 119.71 points for her program to "On Golden Pond" by Dave Grusin, which was a version of the short program from her 2016-17 and 2017-18 seasons.
 
"It's just a program that always has a special place in my heart, and I just felt like this is a great opportunity," Chen said. "I actually skated to that piece at the Olympics in 2018. So this program, I had a lot of history with it, and I love it. So I just had the idea to elongate it a little more and just have some fun with it and see where it goes, because it's such a special program, and I kind of wanted to remember what it was like to skate to it."
 
Chen, a naturally artistic skater, relished the opportunity to focus on creativity and worry less about the jumps, which are a primary focus in a normal competition.
 
However, because the Peggy Fleming Trophy was a virtual competition for the second year in a row, competitors could record their programs as many times as they wanted, and Chen found her perfectionism rearing its head.
 
"The perfectionist in me was like, in the first take, 'Oh, I feel like I could've done that better,'" Chen said. "And then I tried again, and, yes, that was better, but that other thing wasn't as good. And then I tried again, and it was kind of the same thought process. And at the end, I was like, 'You know what? The third one that I did, I'm just going to send it. I know there were some mistakes, but it is what it is. I did my best, and let's just pick that one and just send it off.'
 
"I honestly was pretty shocked that I won, just because I didn't skate as cleanly as I could've," she said with a laugh.
 
In second place, Liu scored 118.61 points for her program to Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto in D major.
 
Liu, of course, is known for her jumping ability, with a triple Axel and quads in her repertoire. Focusing on the artistic elements of her skating, she said, was an enjoyable change of pace.
 
"It was actually a little bit nice, focusing on something different," Liu said. "I've never had a competition quite like this one before, and it was kind of refreshing."
 
Still just 15 years old and on the cusp of her senior ISU Grand Prix debut this fall, Liu is thrilled that her focus on improving her skating skills is being rewarded.
 
"Oh my gosh, it means a lot," she said. "It really makes me feel good because I've put in a lot of work this season towards my skating skills, so I'm just glad it's paying off."
 
In third place, 14-year-old Levito earned 117.30 points for her program to music from Swan Lake. The 2021 U.S. junior champion, who will be making her junior international debut in the fall, found herself on a virtual podium with very decorated compatriots, an honor she does not take lightly.
 
"It's such a great feeling. It's very rewarding to be put up there like that," Levito said. "It's very satisfying, and it's beautiful, because they're such great skaters, and they have a lot of experience and maturity in their skating, and they're definitely very beautiful and graceful when they skate as well. And to be close to them, in the top three after them, it's definitely very rewarding. I'm just happy."
 
The highest-scoring man, Tomoki Hiwatashi, finished fourth with 115.60 points, and earned bonus prize money for creativity.
 
At 21 years old, Chen is by far the most experienced skater on the podium. The 2018 Olympian will look to make her second Olympic Team this winter.
 
"I'm really proud of this journey that I've embarked on and how much I've grown over the past three, four years, and the person and skater I've become," Chen said. "And so I know this season's going to be really crazy, not just for me but for everyone. It's the Olympic year. There's a lot of hype, there's a lot of stress, there's a lot of extra attention. But I think that I have learned so much the past Olympic season, so this year I will be able to use my experience and my knowledge hopefully to my benefit."
 
And being on a virtual podium with two skaters who are still so young, she says, means nothing but good things for the future of the sport in the U.S.
 
"They're both incredible jumpers, and to be on the podium for this competition shows that they also have that artistry, so they have that balance," Chen said. "So with that in mind, I think it's really great, and they are going to be rockstars in the future.
 
"And they already are rockstars. Not just in the future. They already are. So they're just going to keep growing from there."

Watch the full competition on the video corner of the U.S. Figure Skating Fan Zone.