Grand Prix Assignments for the upcoming season will usually be released this June, and in the off-season, speculation is rife over which skaters and teams will be getting one or two spots (or maybe left out completely!). So let’s break it down a little…
Grand Prix Events
There are 6 Grand Prix events in the 2024/25 skating season, which conclude with the Grand Prix Final in France. The ISU have confirmed that Rostelecom Cup is canceled once again due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and Finland has been allocated the event.
- 2024 Skate America
- 2024 Skate Canada International
- 2024 Internationaux de France
- 2024 NHK Trophy
- 2024 Grand Prix Helsinki
- 2024 Cup of China
The question is, how is it decided which skaters attend the Grand Prix events in the first place? It’s not an exact formula – because the host federation of a Grand Prix chooses who they want to invite – so always be prepared for some surprises. However, we can make some predictions based on the rules that create the Selection Pool.
Prize Money
The Global Prize Money per individual event of the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating in 2023/24 was US$ 180,000.00.
| Place | Singles (prize money) | Pairs / Ice Dance (prize money) |
|---|---|---|
|
1st Place |
US$ 18,000 |
US$ 18,000 |
|
2nd Place |
US$ 13,000 |
US$ 13,000 |
|
3rd Place |
US$ 9,000 |
US$ 9,000 |
|
4th Place |
US$ 3,000 |
US$ 3,000 |
|
5th Place |
US$ 2,000 |
US$ 2,000 |
Selection Pool
Invited Skaters and Seeded Skaters
- Singles skaters who finish in the top 12 at the World Championships are guaranteed TWO spots, the top 6 skaters are called “Seeded Skaters”
- Dance and Pairs teams who finish in the top 10 at the World Championships are guaranteed TWO spots, the top 6 are called “Seeded Skaters”
- Everyone who is in the top 24 in the World Standings is guaranteed ONE spot
- Everyone who is in the in the top 24 Season’s Best total score list is guaranteed ONE spot
other invited Skaters:
The host countries can invite up to 3 skaters per discipline who do not necessarily meet the strict requirements set out by ISU guidelines.
Rules
Only 3 skaters/teams (per discipline) from one country can participate in a Grand Prix.
To compete in the Grand Prix circuit, skaters have to be 17 years old before July 1, 2024.
Since 2011 there is a minimum score requirement. Skaters who were invited by their own host country do not need to fulfil these requirements.
| Discipline | Total Score |
|---|---|
|
Men |
200.26 |
|
Women |
133.78 |
|
Pairs |
132.94 |
|
Ice Dance |
133.32 |
Medalists from the Junior World Championships and winners of the Junior Grand Prix Final, if moving up to the Senior field, will be included in the selection process, although spots are NOT explicitly guaranteed.
This includes:
Minkyu Seo (Korea)(age ineligible),Rio Nakata (Japan)(age ineligible), Adam Hagara (Slovakia)Mao Shimada (Japan)(age ineligible),Jia Shin (Korea)(age ineligible),Rena Uezono(Japan)(age ineligible)- Metelkina / Berulava (Georgia),
Flores / Wang (USA)(age ineligible), Williams / Lewer (USA) - Neset / Markelov (USA), Tkachenko / Kiliakov (Israel),
Grimm / Savitskiy (Germany)(staying junior)
Other rules include:
- the “Comeback” rule (= skaters, who have previously been seeded #1-6 in a World Championship are guaranteed TWO GP spots, even if they skipped one or more seasons, if it is their first “comeback” and they commit to the ISU to participate in two Grand Prix events)
- the “Split Couple” rule (= if a partnership ended but the couple placed up to 12th at Worlds in the prior two seasons, the skater’s new partnership can be invited based on the previous good results)
- the “Return Skater/Couple” rule (= previously placed up to 12th at Worlds but who have skipped a season due to injury or other reasons)
Successful “Seeded” skaters are allowed to give a preference for the assignments they want to compete. However, skaters/teams who have been seeded from the World Championships spot #1-3 and #4-6 are in the same seeding group and cannot meet each other at the Grand Prix events.
For example, Kaori Sakamoto (#1) cannot attend the same Grand Prix events as Chaeyeon Kim (#3)
Predictions 2024/2025
Men
Men guaranteed TWO spots in the 2024/25 season:
- Ilia Malinin (USA)
- Yuma Kagiyama (Japan)
- Adam Siao Him Fa (France)
*Shoma Uno (Japan)[retired]*Jason Brown (USA)[likely won’t take part in the GP]- Lukas Britschgi (Switzerland)
- Deniss Vasiljevs (Latvia)
- Kao Miura (Japan)
- Nikolaj Memola (Italy)
- Junhwan Cha (South Korea)
- Aleksandr Selevko (Estonia)
- Mark Gorodnitsky (Israel)
- Nika Egadze (Georgia)
- Mikhail Shaidorov (Kazakhstan)
Seeded skaters in bold.
Men guaranteed ONE spot in the 2024/25 season:
- Shun Sato (Japan)
- Matteo Rizzo (Italy)
- Sota Yamamoto (Japan)
- Kevin Aymoz (France)
- Gabriele Frangipani (Italy)
- Kazuki Tomono (Japan)
- Adam Hagara (Slovakia)
- Boyang Jin (China)
- Francois Pitot (France)
- Camden Pulkinen (USA)
- Nozomu Yoshioka (Japan)
- Koshiro Shimada (Japan)
- Wesley Chiu (Canada)
- Vladimir Litvintsev (Azerbaijan)
Women
Women guaranteed TWO spots in the 2024/25 season:
Kaori Sakamoto (Japan)
Isabeau Levito (USA)
Chaeyeon Kim (South Korea)
Loena Hendrickx (Belgium)
Kimmy Repond (Switzerland)
Haein Lee (South Korea)
Mone Chiba (Japan)
Hana Yoshida (Japan)
Livia Kaiser (Switzerland)
Amber Glenn (USA)
Ekaterina Kurakova (Poland)
Young You (South Korea)
Seeded skaters in bold.
Women guaranteed ONE spot in the 2024/25 season:
- Anastasiia Gubanova (Georgia)
- Rinka Watanabe (Japan)
- Yelim Kim (South Korea)
- Nina Pinzarrone (Belgium)
- Niina Petrokina (Estonia)
- Mai Mihara (Japan)
- Madeline Schizas (Canada)
- Ava Marie Ziegler (USA)
*Mao Shimada (Japan)[age ineligible – too young to compete Senior]- Lorine Schild (France)
*Jia Shin (South Korea)[age ineligible – too young to compete Senior]- Lindsay Thorngren (USA)
- Lara Naki Gutmann (Italy)
- Sofja Stepcenko (Latvia)
- Rino Matsuike (Japan)
- Rion Sumiyoshi (Japan)
*Rena Uezono (Japan)[age ineligible – too young to compete Senior]*Ami Nakai (Japan)[age ineligible – too young to compete Senior]- Seoyeong Wi (South Korea)
*Yuseong Kim (South Korea)[age ineligible – too young to compete Senior]- Wakaba Higuchi (Japan)
Pairs
Pairs guaranteed TWO spots in the 2024/25 season:
- Stellato-Dudek/Deschamps (Canada)
- Miura/Kihara (Japan)
- Hase/Volodin (Germany)
- Pavlova/Sviatchenko (Hungary)
- Hocke/Kunkel (Germany)
- Conti/Macii (Italy)
- Metelkina/Berulava (Georgia)
- Pereira/Michaud (Canada)
- Beccari/Guarise (Italy)
- Golubeva/Giotopoulos Moore (Australia)
Seeded teams are bolded.
Pairs guaranteed ONE spot in the 2024/25 season:
- Ghilardi/Ambrosini (Italy)
- Plazas/Fernandez (USA)
- Danilova/Tsiba (Netherlands)
- Kam/O’Shea (USA)
- Chan/Howe (USA)
- Kovalev/Kovalev (France)
- Laurin/Ethier (Canada)
- Vaipan-Law/Digby (Great Britain)
*Knierim/Frazier (USA)[unofficially retired]*Valesi/Piazza (Italy)[split]- Sierova/Khobta (Ukraine) [possibly staying junior]
*McIntosh/Mimar (Canada)[split]*Kemp/Elizarov (Canada)[age ineligible – Kemp too young to compete Senior]*Liu/Nagy (USA)[split]- Caldara/Maglio (Italy)
- Peng/Wang (China)
- Mokhova/Mokhov (USA)
- Vaananen/Clerici (Finland)
*Flores/Wang (USA)[age ineligible – Flores too young to compete Senior]*Proft/Nadeau (Canada)[retired]
Ice Dance
Ice dance teams guaranteed TWO spots in the 2024/25 season:
- Chock/Bates (USA)
- Gilles/Poirier (Canada)
- Guignard/Fabbri (Italy)
- Fear/Gibson (Great Britain)
- Lajoie/Lagha (Canada)
- Reed/Ambrulevicius (Lithuania)
- Carreira/Ponomarenko (USA)
- Lopareva/Brissaud (France)
- Fournier Beaudry/Sorensen (Canada)
- Turkkila/Versluis (Finland)
Seeded teams are bolded.
Ice dance teams guaranteed ONE spot in the 2024/25 season:
- Demougeot/le Mercier (France)
- Green/Parsons (USA)
- Taschlerova/Taschler (Czech Republic)
- Lauriault/le Gac (Canada)
- Lim/Quan (South Korea)
- Mrazkova/Mrazek (Czech Republic)
- Zingas/Kolesnik (USA)
- Pinchuk/Pogorielov (Ukraine)
- Janse van Rensburg/Steffan (Germany)
- Pate/Bye (USA)
- Orihara/Pirinen (Finland)
- Neset/Markelov (USA)
*Kazakova/Revia (Georgia)[split]- Fradji/Fourneaux (France) [suggested staying Junior]
- Harris/Chan (Australia)
- Davis/Smolkin (Georgia)
- Brown/Brown (USA)
- Bratti/Somerville (USA)
*Komatsubara/Koleto (Japan)[Komatsubara retired]- Smart/Dieck (Spain)
There are 12 spots available in Singles at the Grand Prix events, 8 spots available for Pairs and 10 for Ice Dance. This means there are 72 spots available for the women and the men, 48 spots for Pairs teams and 60 for Ice Dance teams. There are many more spots available than skaters and teams mentioned above, but it gets a little harder to predict who will get spots the further down the lists you get. Spots can be assigned from the top 75 season best scores list provided the skater or team has reached the minimum required score. It’s also likely that some skaters and teams who are assigned spots will withdraw from the event as they get closer as teams can split up or skaters can become injured. This then means other skaters or teams will get invited in their place. Going into next season, skaters or teams who win a Challenger event can be added to the list of eligible replacements.
Though being top 24 on the season best score list only guarantees you one initial spot, as the spots are filled predominantly based on that list it’s likely that those skaters/teams will receive two.
Replacements for withdrawn skaters/teams are selected from the top 10 highest scored skaters/teams who don’t yet have two assignments.
Men's Season Best Scores 2023/24 (up to 75th)
- Andrew Torgashev (USA)
- Juheon Lim (South Korea)
- Nozomu Yoshioka (Japan)
- Stephen Gogolev (Canada)
- Donovan Carrillo (Mexico)
- *
Minkyu Seo (South Korea)[age ineligible – too young to compete senior] - Camden Pulkinen (USA)
- Luc Economides (France)
- Hyungyeom Kim (South Korea)
- Vladimir Samoilov (Poland)
- *
Rio Nakata (Japan)[age ineligible – too young to compete senior] - Georgii Reshtenko (Czech Republic)
- Adam Hagara (Slovakia)
- Mihhail Selevko (Estonia)
- Tomoki Hiwatashi (USA)
- Roman Sadovsky (Canada)
- Liam Kapeikis (USA)
- Daniel Martynov (USA)
- Francois Pitot (France)
- Landry le May (France)
- Yudong Chen (China)
- Hangil Kim (South Korea)
- Tatsuya Tsuboi (Japan)
- Arlet Levandi (Estonia)
- Lucas Broussard (USA)
- Ivan Shmuratko (Ukraine)
- Shunsuke Nakamura (Japan)
- Maxim Naumov (USA)
- Semen Daniliants (Armenia)
*Conrad Orzel (Canada)[retired]- Takeru Amine Kataise (Japan)
*Jaekeun Lee (South Korea)[age ineligible – too young to compete senior]- Nikita Starostin (Germany)
- Aleksa Rakic (Canada)
- Andreas Nordeback (Sweden)
- Younghyun Cha (South Korea)
- Beck Strommer (USA)
*Yanhao Li (New Zealand)[age ineligible – too young to compete senior]- Samy Hammi (France)
- Sihyeong Lee (South Korea)
- Maurizio Zandron (Austria)
*Daiya Ebihara (Japan)[age ineligible – too young to compete senior]- Gabriel Folkesson (Sweden)
- Edward Appleby (Great Britain)
- Tomas-Llorenc Guarino Sabate (Spain)
- Fedir Kulish (Latvia)
- Jimmy Ma (USA)
- Naoki Rossi (Switzerland)
- Kai Jagoda (Germany)
- Michael Xie (USA)
- Jacob Sanchez (USA)
Women's Season Best Scores 2023/24 (up to 75th)
- Madeline Schizas (Canada)
- Amber Glenn (USA)
*Yo Takagi (Japan)[age ineligible – too young to compete senior]- Yelim Kim (South Korea)
*Iida Karhunen (Finland)[age ineligible – too young to compete senior]- Bradie Tennell (USA)
- Yuna Aoki (Japan)
- Mai Mihara (Japan)
- Minchae Kim (South Korea)
- Lorine Schild (France)
*Yujae Kim (South Korea)[age ineligible – too young to compete senior]*Minsol Kwon (South Korea)[age ineligible – too young to compete senior]*Ikura Kushida (Japan)[age ineligible – too young to compete senior]- Sarina Joos (Italy)
- Lea Serna (France)
- Anna Pezzetta (Italy)
- Nella Pelkonen (Finland)
- Elyce Lin-Gracey (USA)
*Yu-Feng Tsai (Chinese Taipei)[age ineligible – too young to compete senior]- Olga Mikutina (Austria)
*Anastasia Brandenburg (Switzerland)[age ineligible – too young to compete senior]- *Audrey Shin (USA) [potentially switching to pairs]
*Ayumi Shibayama (Japan)[age ineligible – too young to compete senior]*Seojin Youn (South Korea)[age ineligible – too young to compete senior]*Yihan Wang (China)[age ineligible – too young to compete senior]- Mariia Seniuk (Israel)
*Sherry Zhang (USA)[age ineligible – too young to compete senior]- Starr Andrews (USA)
*Heesue Han (South Korea)[age ineligible – too young to compete senior]*Stefania Gladki (France)[age ineligible – too young to compete senior]*Lulu Lin (Canada)[age ineligible – too young to compete senior]*Inga Gurgenidze (Georgia)[age ineligible – too young to compete senior]*Elina Goidina (Estonia)[age ineligible – too young to compete senior]- Kaiya Ruiter (Canada)
- Sara-Maude Dupuis (Canada)
*Jeongyul Hwang (South Korea)[age ineligible – too young to compete senior]- Clare Seo (USA)
- Tzu-Han Ting (Chinese Taipei)
- Dabin Choi (South Korea)
*Maria Eliise Kaljuvere (Estonia)[age ineligible – too young to compete senior]*Anthea Gradinaru (Switzerland)[age ineligible – too young to compete senior]*Hana Bath (Australia)[age ineligible – too young to compete senior]- Justine Miclette (Canada)
- Mana Kawabe (Japan)
- Alexia Paganini (Switzerland)
- Sarah Everhardt (USA)
- Hongyi Chen (China)
*Shiqi Gao (China)[age ineligible – too young to compete senior]- Julia Sauter (Romania)
Pairs Season Best Scores 2023/24 (up to 75th)
- Holichenko/Darenskyi (Ukraine)
- Zhang/Yang (China)
*Valesi/Piazza (Italy)[split]- Vaipan-Law/Digby (Great Britain)
- Chtchetinina/Wozniak (Poland)
- *Ariano Kent/Laliberte Laurent (Canada) [likely staying junior]
- *Desrochers/Thrasher (Canada) [likely staying junior]
- Martins/Bedard (USA)
- Piegad/Strekalin (France)
- *Sierova/Khobta (Ukraine) [possibly staying junior]
- Schaller/Mayr (Austria)
- Derenisky/Eberl (Canada)
- Williams/Lewer (USA)
- Kucianova/Bidar (Czech Republic)
*Napolitano/Comi (Italy)[age ineligible – Napolitano too young to compete senior]- Gamez/Korovin (Philippines)
*Vouillamoz/Giniaux (France)[split]- Smart/Mattick (Great Britain)
- Wang/Zhu (China)
- Crafoord/Crafoord (Sweden)
- Caldara/Maglio (Italy)
- Roscher/Schuster (Germany)
- Nagaoka/Moriguchi (Japan)
- Mokhova/Mokhov (USA)
Ice Dance Season Best Scores 2023/24 (up to 75th)
- Flores/Desyatov (USA)
- Orihara/Pirinen (Finland)
- Janse van Rensburg/Steffan (Germany)
- Dupayage/Nabais (France)
- Neset/Markelov (USA)
- Harris/Chan (Australia)
- Fabbri/Ayer (Canada)
- Wolfkostin/Tsarevski (USA)
- Soucisse/Firus (Ireland)
- Tkachenko/Kiliakov (Israel)
- Bekker/Hernandez (Great Britain)
*Lanaghan/Razgulajevs (Canada)[split]- Val/Kazimov (Spain)
- Manni/Roethlisberger (Italy)
- Bashynska/Beaumont (Canada)
*McNamara/Spiridonov (USA)[split]*Holubtsova/Bielobrov (Ukraine)[split]- Pinchuk/Pogorielov (Ukraine)
- Yoshida/Morita (Japan)
- Lagouge/Caffa (France)
- Nosovitskaya/Nosovitskiy (Israel)
- Mazingue/Gaidajenko (Estonia)
*Grimm/Savitskiy (Germany)[implied staying junior]- Reitan/Majorov (Sweden)
- Wang/Liu (China)
*Chen/Xing (China)[split]- Tanaka/Nishiyama (Japan)
- Simova/Aksenov (Slovakia)
- Hensen/Lickers (Canada)
- Ramanauskaite/Kizala (Lithuania)
- *Fradji/Fourneaux (France) [may be staying junior]
- Terreaux/Perron (France)
- *Peal/Peal (USA) [likely staying junior]
- *Perrier Gianesini/Blanc Klaperman (France) [likely staying junior]
- Gauthier/Thieren (Canada)
- Larson/Kapran (Ukraine)
- Dozzi/Papetti (Italy)
- Matthaei/Liebers (Germany)
- Ignateva/Szemko (Hungary)
- Nguyen/Giang (Canada)
*Kishimoto/Tamura (Japan)[age ineligible – Kishimoto is too young to compete senior]*Bronsard/Richmond (Canada)[split]*Carhart/Kolosovskyi (Azerbaijan)[Carhart retired]- Karnes/Carr (Great Britain)
*Pidgaina/Koval (Ukraine)[age ineligible – Pidgaina is too young to compete senior]- Ichilov/Kravchenko (Israel)
- Tali/Lafornara (Italy)
- Zehnder/Sieber (Switzerland)
- Dovhal/Kulesza (Poland)
- *Veillon/Brandys (Canada) [likely staying junior]
*Shi/Wu (China)[split]
Grand Prix Final
The Grand Prix Final 2024/2025 will take place from December 5 – 8, 2024 in Grenoble, France. You need to qualify during the Grand Prix circuit for the Final.
Qualification
Qualification is pretty simple and depends on your performance in your one or two Grand Prix events. Because it is a points system, where each place gets awarded a certain amount of points, it is almost impossible to qualify with just one event. The six skaters or teams with the highest total points in each discipline can compete at Grand Prix Final.
| Place | Singles (points) | Pairs / Ice Dance (points) |
|---|---|---|
|
1st Place |
15 |
15 |
|
2nd Place |
13 |
13 |
|
3rd Place |
11 |
11 |
|
4th Place |
9 |
9 |
|
5th Place |
7 |
7 |
|
6th Place |
5 |
5 |
|
7th Place |
4 |
|
|
8th Place |
3 |
This system does not take into account the actual Total Score a skater achieved at an event. As a result, skaters at a weaker event could get into the Final over skaters who had a higher score at a more competitive event.
Tiebreaker
Because of the nature of the points system, very often the results will end up in a tie. There are several rules on how to decide in these situations:
- Highest place at a Grand Prix Event (a skater placing 1st and 3rd beats a skater placing 2nd at both of their events)
- Highest added up Total Score from both events (the total score of both events will be combined and compared)
- Skaters who participated in 2 events over just 1 event will win the tie
- Highest combined score in the Free Skate/Dance in both events
- Highest individual score in the Free Skate/Dance from one event
- Highest combined score in the Short Skate/Dance from both events
- Highest individual score in the Short Skate/Dance at one event
Prize Money
The prize money you can win at the Grand Prix Final is higher compared to the individual events. In 2023/24 the Global Prize Money for the Grand Prix Final was U.S. $272,000.00
| Place | Singles (prize money) | Pairs / Ice Dance (prize money) |
|---|---|---|
|
1st Place |
US$ 25,000 |
US$ 25,000 |
|
2nd Place |
US$ 18,000 |
US$ 18,000 |
|
3rd Place |
US$ 12,000 |
US$ 12,000 |
|
4th Place |
US$ 6000 |
US$ 6000 |
|
5th Place |
US$ 4000 |
US$ 4000 |
|
6th Place |
US$ 3000 |
US$ 3000 |
6 Replies to “A Guide to Grand Prix Assignments 2024/25 [updated 1st June]”
What resource did you use to see the Top 24 World Standings? In the ISU’s link for the ice dance WS, Davis/Smolkin (26), Orihara/Pirinen (28) are not in the Top 24.
https://results.isu.org/ws/ws/wsdance.htm
The ISU tend to use the World Standings when the table has flipped over to next season, and I do the math in advance to figure out what that’ll be. Orihara/Pirinen will be 21st on the World Standings. Davis/Smolkin are included in that list as they are 12th on the Season Best Score list, not because of World Standing placement.
how is age ineligible determined.
it is age 17 now had birthday June 22 2008 would be age eligible because the skaters turned 17 by July 1st in the 2024/2025 season.
does the skaters have to turn 17 by July 1st 2023 to be eligible to compete. 2025-2008=17
They must be 17 by July 1st 2024, someone born June 22nd 2008 would be 16 years old at the start of the 24/25 season.
When will the grand prix assignments be released?
The date isn’t known, usually in the second half of June.