After earning three medals at the ISU World Figure Skating Championships 2023 in Saitama, Japan, Team USA is back in Tokyo for the season's final competition: ISU World Team Trophy. The competition will take place April 13-15.
The event will feature the six best figure skating teams of the 2022-23 season, which includes Japan, Canada, Korea, Italy, France and the United States.
Each team consists of two women, two men, one pairs team and one ice dance team. Each skater/team will receive points based on placements in the short program/rhythm dance and free skate/dance. The points will be combined across the four disciplines, with the highest team total winning the competition.
Team USA has medaled at every World Team Trophy since its inception in 2009 and has earned four World Team Trophy titles in 2009, 2013, 2015 and 2019.
Reigning World ice dance champions Madison Chock and Evan Bates will kick things off for Team USA on Thursday with their eyes on clinching their fourth World Team Trophy podium finish. The duo took home their fourth World Championships medal and first World title last month in Saitama, Japan, where they earned international best scores in the rhythm dance (91.94), free dance (134.07) and overall score (226.01).
The women's and men's disciplines will also compete on Thursday. Isabeau Levito and Amber Glenn will represent the U.S. women, and Jason Brown and Ilia Malinin will skate for the men.
After bursting onto the scene with an incredible first senior season, Levito will look to earn a medal after just missing the World podium in fourth. The U.S. champion scored an international best score in her short program in Saitama with a score of 73.03. The 2023 U.S. bronze medalist, Glenn hopes to earn her second international medal of the season after winning the bronze at 2022 Skate America in October. Both women will be competing in their first World Team Trophy event.
Coming off the momentum of earning a World Championships bronze, Malinin will look to add another medal to his collection in Tokyo. In addition to tallying five international medals – three gold and two bronze – this season, he made history by becoming the first to land a quad Axel in competition and at the World Championships. Veteran teammate Jason Brown will join Malinin to help Team USA to make the World Team Trophy podium. Brown, a two-time Olympian, will compete for the fourth time at World Team Trophy. He assisted Team USA to the podium in 2015 (gold), 2017 (bronze) and 2021 (silver). In his first full international competition since the 2022 Olympic Winter Games at the World Championships, Brown set a new international personal best in the free skate and took fifth, his best result at Worlds since 2015.
Rounding out the roster for Team USA in the pairs division are 2023 World Championships silver medalists Alexa Knierim and Brandon Frazier. The duo had a historic season after becoming the first U.S. pairs team to win two Grand Prix events in a season and the first U.S. pairs team on the Grand Prix Final podium since its inception in 1996. This will be their second World Team Trophy event after helping Team USA to silver in 2021.
The event will be streamed live on Peacock April 13-15. For more information, visit the ISU World Team Trophy 2023 Competition Central on usfigureskatingfanzone.com.
