The United States earned four medals — going 1-2 in both the women's and ice dance events — on the final day of 2025 Cup of China in Chongqing, China.
2024 Grand Prix Final women's champion Amber Glenn secured her second consecutive Cup of China title while reigning World champion Alysa Liu captured her first Grand Prix medal, a silver. In the ice dance competition, three-time and reigning World Madison Chock and Evan Bates claimed the top step of the podium, their 21st Grand Prix medal as a team. Right behind them in the standings with the silver medal were Emilea Zingas and Vadym Kolesnik, who also took home their first Grand Prix podium finish.
This marks the first time that the United States has had two podium finishes in both the women's and ice dance events at the same Grand Prix since 2022 Skate America.
In their season debut, Chock and Bates scored 208.25 in total.
The Olympic gold medalists' free dance for this season set to "Paint It Black" by Ramin Djawadi is inspired by the flamenco with Chock portraying a matador and Bates playing the part of a bull.
Chock and Bates' skate featured a Level 4 combination lift that was awarded 14.60 points – the highest of any element in the competition and a Level 4 dance spin for a free dance score of 123.81.
"We had a great time skating today," Chock said. "The crowd was amazing, and it felt really good to perform our free dance for the first time here at Chongqing. We feel like this was a great start to our season, and we're excited to get back home and put in some more work before Skate America."
Claiming the second step of the podium were Zingas and Kolesnik. Following an international personal best in the short program Friday, Zingas and Kolesnik gave another strong performance Saturday, setting new international personal bests for their free skate and total score with marks of 121.84 and 202.27, respectively. This is the first time they have broke the 200-point mark internationally.
In their free dance to music from the ballet "Romeo and Juliet" by Sergei Prokofiev, Zingas and Kolesnik scored Level 4s on their two lifts as well as their synchronized twizzles and dance spin. The two-time U.S. pewter medalists claimed the highest element score of the event at 68.86 points, including 14.47 points for their combination lift.
"I feel like I won the Olympics right now, but I'm just second at a Grand Prix," Kolesnik said with excitement. "But that's how I feel. I feel so much happiness and joy inside of me right now. I can't even describe it with words. I'm just so happy that we went out there with all this pressure that we never had before. Leading to this free, we're in second place after Madison and Evan, and it's just an honor to skate with such strong competitors in the same warmup group. … I'm just so happy this is still the beginning of the season. There's so much more to come, and we're very excited to lead into our next Grand Prix in Finland."
With two medals in ice dance, this a marks the second straight year that two U.S. ice dance teams have shared the podium at a Grand Prix. Last season, Chock and Bates captured gold and Christina Carreira and Anthony Ponomarenko secured silver at 2024 NHK Trophy.
Caroline Green and Michael Parsons withdrew from the competition due to injury.
In the women's event, Glenn jumped from third after the short program to first in the free skate, successfully defending her Cup of China title and clinching her third consecutive Grand Prix gold medal. She was awarded a free skate score of 141.74 for 214.78 overall.
The shining moment of Glenn's skate to "I Will Find You" by Audiomachine and "The Return" by CLANN was also the highest-scoring element of the event: a triple loop-double Axel-double Axel sequence in the second half of the program that scored 13.77 points. Her opening triple Axel was also well-executed with grade of execution of 1.83 for 9.83 points.
"I'm really proud of the way I was able to stay in the moment and get my job done out there today," Glenn said of her free skate performance. "It wasn't a perfect skate by any means, but I was able to stay focused and get my job done. I'm just really happy with the overall results and showing the consistency that I've been working on with my team in practice every day."
Liu finished in second with a total score of 212.07. Skating to "MacArthur Park" by Donna Summer, Liu tallied 11.20 points for her triple Lutz-triple toe loop combination. Her program component score of 68.17 was the highest of the competition, contributing to a free skate score of 137.46.
Though she is the 2025 World champion and a two-time U.S. champion, standing on the podium at a Grand Prix is uncharted territory for Liu.
"It's very strange because I've done four Grand Prix before — didn't get a medal — and that's kind of the norm for me," Liu said. "So now I've stepped into new territory. I feel like I've just unlocked a whole new area, a whole map in a video game. It's weird. Being in a position where I could potentially go to the Finals is new territory — very weird, because I never had to think about it before. I would love to go to Japan again."
This marks the first time two women have stood on the podium together at a Grand Prix since Ava Ziegler and Lindsay Thorngren clinched gold and silver, respectively, at 2023 NHK Trophy.
In the men's event, Tomoki Hiwatashi tied his best result at a Grand Prix by finishing fourth place with 245.71 total points, a new international personal best.
Skating to "Creep" by Vincent Cannady, Hiwatashi scored more than 10 points on four elements, starting the performance with a quadruple toe-triple toe combination, which was his highest-scoring element at 15.06 points. He also collected Level 4 distinctions for his three spins and his step sequence. His segment score of 166.64 was also a new international personal best.
"It's my season's best, but it's also my personal best right now," Hiwatashi said of his free skate score. "It's a lot higher than what I had originally anticipated, so I'm very happy to end this competition this way. I talked about it a little bit yesterday, but I came in as a substitute for Camden (Pulkinen) — he was supposed to compete here. I felt like the moment it was true, he texted me. He was like, 'good luck at China,' I really felt the energy in me from Camden, and I really think I owe it to him on this competition."
Jacob Sanchez concluded his Grand Prix debut with a fifth-place finish in the free skate. He placed seventh overall with a score of 221.21.
In the second half of his performance to "Mercy Duet," "Mercy Voiceless" and "Refuge" by Max Richter and Ros Stephen, Sanchez scored 14.26 points for his triple Lutz-double Axel-double Axel sequence. His free skate score of 148.81 was just 0.16 points off his international personal best score.
"I'm really happy with how things went today," Sanchez said. "I was really, really nervous this whole week. Just preparing for this competition was pretty hard. So, just being able to come here was an opportunity that I'm so grateful for. I have to start from somewhere, so I'm happy that I did that here and now this is something that I can just build off of the rest of the season as my career progresses."
As the lone entry in the pairs event for the stars and stripes, Katie McBeath and Daniil Parkman finished in seventh place with a free skate score of 112.52 and a two-day total of 181.70.
"Generally, we are really happy about our short program," Parkman said. "We're not happy about our freed skate. Unfortunately, it was not even close to our best we can do, but bad days happen. Good days happen. I don't want to try to find excuses for us. We've just got to keep working and hope we will show way better performance in the free skate in Warsaw in two weeks."
For full results from 2025 Cup of China, visit the Grand Prix Central Competition Series on the U.S. Figure Skating Fan Zone.
In addition, tune in to Rinkside Olympic Season Monday for an in-depth analysis of Cup of China and the Grand Prix Series. Host Nick McCarvel will break down highlights from the event, preview next week's Grand Prix stop, interview athletes and more. Watch on the U.S. Figure Skating YouTube channel or listen wherever you get your podcasts Mondays at 12 p.m. ET following each Grand Prix event of the season.
