Nikolaj Memola: Reigniting the Flame

Guest post by Maya Bleszinski. Find them on Substack and Instagram.

Italy’s Nikolaj Memola on missing a home Olympics, the consequences of rushing recovery, & setting his sights on new goals.

As Italian figure skater Nikolaj Memola took to the ice for his short program at stage 2 of the Campionato Italiano, there were no doubts in his mind that in just a couple of months, he would be competing at the 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Olympic Games.

Hailing from Monza, a smaller city just 20 minutes northeast of Milan, the 2025 Vice European champion and 2022 Junior Grand Prix Final champion was confident that he would achieve the highest honor of not just representing his country in the Games, but skating for a hometown crowd. The Campionato was simply a stepping stone on his way there, one last competition to get his feet underneath him before the National Championships—where Italy’s Olympic team would be formally selected—took place.

But as Memola began his short program and skated into his opening quadruple lutz—a jump that he had landed in competition countless times before—he had no way of knowing what was to follow. When he vaulted up into the air, he couldn’t have anticipated the hard fall that he’d take upon landing. And he certainly couldn’t have known that fall would cost him his dream of skating at a home Olympics.

Memola is no stranger to injury, or to skating through it. At his very first senior Grand Prix in 2023, he dislocated his shoulder during the six-minute warmup, and still went on to compete after a quick consultation with his physiotherapist. But this time, it was different. This time, when he got up after the fall and attempted to skate the rest of his program, he knew immediately that something was incredibly wrong. 

After a rough triple axel landing, Memola stopped his program and withdrew from the competition. As he stepped off of the ice, only one thing was going through his mind.
“I was thinking about the Olympics,” he said. “It was my first thought.” 

Memola knew nearly immediately as he and his mother and coach, Olga Romanova, rushed to a nearby emergency room in Torino that the severe pain in his pelvis was very likely signifying a season-ending injury. But he was hesitant to accept the reality. Accepting reality would mean that everything Memola had worked for over the course of the season, all of the countless hours of training and sacrifices he’d made, would be for nothing. 

In hopes that he could make a miraculous recovery in time for the National Championships, Memola traveled to Rome for a couple of weeks to undergo rehabilitation at the Olympic Training Center. 

“I’m a really proud person,” he reflected on the decision. “So I said, ‘I’m gonna try ‘till the end.’” 

A Roaring Start

Back in early September 2025, any figure skating fan would have had a difficult time believing that Nikolaj Memola would miss making the Olympic team. Beginning his season at Lombardia Trophy, Memola landed three quadruple lutzes and a quadruple flip across his short program and free skate to put up a huge personal best score of 265.37. This score was more than enough to secure him the bronze medal, landing him only behind Yuma Kagiyama of Japan and Ilia Malinin of the United States of America, who were thought to be the two decisive contenders for Olympic gold in a few months’ time. By winning the bronze medal in the first major international event of the season amongst an incredibly deep field of men, Memola had shown that he was well-positioned for the season ahead.

This feat was not achieved without an off-season full of relentless work. Memola spent his summer training at Great Park Ice in Irvine, California, with legendary coach Rafael Arutyunyan, who has trained the likes of Michelle Kwan, Nathan Chen, Mao Asada, and Malinin. His goal was to improve the consistency of his quadruple jumps as well as to add some new ones into his arsenal, improving his technical content ahead of the season. 

“I wanted to be ready the quickest and to show readiness from the first competition because I feel like it’s always a good impression,” Memola remarked on his approach. 

Surprisingly, knowing that his end goal for the season was the Olympics didn’t stress him out or add any pressure onto his shoulders—it only added fuel to his fire. 

“It was tough, but at the same time, it was great motivation,” Memola mused. “…You were kind of ready to take the stress and use it as fuel.” And use that stress as fuel, he certainly did. 

Between taking the bronze medal at Lombardia Trophy, his silver medal from the 2025 European Championships, and his top 10 finish at the World Figure Skating Championships just six months prior, which secured two spots for Italian men in the Olympic figure skating event, Memola’s placement on the Olympic team seemed all but guaranteed.

“There was not even a question for me,” Memola said of his confidence that he would be named to the team. “I was extremely ready. I was really, really on top of myself, and if it was not for injury, of course, I knew it… I didn’t have many doubts.”

Back Down to Earth

However, not everything was as it seemed. Behind the scenes, Memola was dealing with a minor muscular injury that had caused him problems in Irvine… and after Lombardia Trophy, it flared up again.

Regardless, Memola was not too concerned. He was on top of the world, and eager to do even better at his next competition: Nepela Memorial, which would take place at the end of September. He’d left a few points out on the table at Lombardia Trophy, and was looking forward to improving his score. His medal served as great motivation as he dived right back into training—perhaps too great.

“I should’ve had some rest after [Lombardia Trophy]… it was a really tough recovery from that competition because I was really excited,” Memola reflected on his approach to skating in the following weeks. “… I should have just stopped there and taken maybe a couple weeks, just to let everything heal and recover. 
But from the excitement and adrenaline that Lombardia gave me, I kind of had to keep [skating], and then I realized that was the main problem.” 

His momentum crashed and burned. While initially one of the favorites to win the event, Memola fell on his quadruple lutz in the short program and had an error-ridden free skate, causing him to finish the event in eighth place. Meanwhile, the other two Italian men who competed in the event alongside Memola, Matteo Rizzo and Daniel Grassl, finished on the podium in second and third, respectively. With only two spots for Italy on the line and three strong contenders, many other competitors in his shoes would have worried after these results. 

But Memola never wavered in his faith, despite his rapidly declining physical health. “My mindset never changed,” he said. “I was really working hard, so I knew that if everything went well, I would have been on that team. I never really changed my approach [to competition], to be honest. 
It was kind of just starting to realize maybe that I should have taken care of my body a bit more in time.”

Unfortunately for Memola, this lesson was learned far too late. He continued on with his season, competing in the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating Series at Skate Canada and Skate America. At Skate Canada, he became the first Italian man to land both a quadruple flip and lutz in the short program – but finished in sixth place overall due to a low components score, as well as technical errors made on his spins and step sequences. At Skate America, he struggled through both his short program and his free skate, finishing in seventh place overall.

 “I was training well, but my physical state kind of started to get worse and worse every [competition],” he admitted. 

Through it all, he still remained levelheaded and confident. Though Grassl qualifying to the Grand Prix Final all but solidified his place on the Olympic team, Memola still narrowly held the advantage for the second spot ahead of Rizzo, his training mate. At Nationals, Memola planned to water down his technical content and instead focus on a clean skate. The Campionato was meant to be the test run.

Then the fall happened.

On its own, one singular bad fall might have been fine. If it had been a one-time occurrence, a fluke mistake, Memola might have been able to get up and continue on through the rest of his program. But by this point, when he had been dealing with multiple minor injuries for months and attempting to skate through them on painkillers? The fall became catastrophic, an ugly culmination of the pain that Memola had attempted to endure up until now. The fall ended up changing everything.

Denial

Memola traveled down to Rome for rehabilitation knowing that he was already off of the Olympic team, but still determined to fight. He had roughly three weeks to be ready for Nationals, and now that he was dealing with a major injury, the stress and anxiety that he had managed to evade came rushing out as the reality of the situation set in.

“When I went down, I was sleeping really badly and having nightmares about [the Olympics],” Memola remembered of the fear that overcame him.

Even worse, Memola’s arrival to Rome almost perfectly lined up with that of the Olympic Torch, which was being passed around Italy as the Milano Cortina Games approached. Everywhere Memola looked, whether in the training center or on his excursions around the city, he was trapped by reminders of what was nearing. 

Memola recalled a conversation that he had with his physiotherapist as the torch was being carried through the city.

“I literally said, ‘I can’t escape,’” he remembered.

He had friends and family alike telling him it was a good omen to go and see the torch, but Memola declined to go, instead choosing to enjoy the day alone. It isn’t a decision he regrets. And as he settled into life at the Olympic Center, he found that his anxiety slowly began to ease up.

He realized fairly quickly that he was not alone. 

“Many [other] athletes were there, getting recovery, ” Memola said. “So I learned from them. I was surrounded by people that were very wise, so that’s why it was pretty easy for me, because everyone was kind of… reassuring me. But if I was alone, it would’ve been a hard time.”

Being surrounded by others who understood what he was going through helped him to accept his own situation, and to ultimately realize that missing out on the 2026 Olympic team wouldn’t be the end of the world.

Memola also cited his mother, Romanova, as his biggest cheerleader and supporter during this time, recalling that she always knew the right words and was always reassuring him.

“She was always saying, ‘It doesn’t matter if you don’t qualify to the Olympics. That’s not going to define you as an athlete.’”

He took that advice to heart.

Memola came back to Milan with a much better mindset, even if his physical condition wasn’t much improved. Though he wanted to compete at Nationals, he still couldn’t jump or do more than glide on the ice. At the advice of the Italian federation, he withdrew from Nationals—only for it to be announced a week later that Rizzo and Memola would be competing against each other for the second spot at the European Championships, and whoever placed higher out of the two would go to the Olympics. Once again, Memola found himself having roughly three weeks to recover and prepare.

Acceptance

In 2025, Memola went into the European Championships with his eyes on a medal. He walked away from the event a vice European champion, and used the momentum to propel himself forward to a top 10 finish at World Championships the following month. This past January, however, he went into Europeans with a much different goal.

“I was hoping to make the free,” Memola said. “That was my only goal. I was not ready at all.”

By that point, he had only been jumping again since the day before New Year’s Eve, and had not completed a full run-through in practices. He would not be attempting a quadruple lutz in the short program, and he’d only restored his triple axel a week prior. At European Championships, only the top 24 skaters after the short program advance to the free skate. Memola was not even sure he’d be able to do enough to place in the top 24.

Not to mention the fact that he was still skating in pain. Memola was not fully recovered from his pelvic injury, and taking painkillers every day in hopes that they would lessen the pain caused by the impact of jumping.

He went into Europeans nervous, to say the least. And the period leading up to the competition—where he was training alongside Matteo Rizzo, the man whom he’d be competing against for the Olympic spot, every day—didn’t help either. 

“I was really grateful [the federation] gave me that opportunity, but the rules were kind of changed for me,” Memola explained. 

The Federazione Italiana Sport del Ghiaccio—the governing body for figure skating in Italy—has a complicated criteria for Olympic selection. The federation is supposed to consider the top two scores achieved by each of their athletes in the season, and results from Nationals are factored in. Given that Memola did not compete at Nationals, Rizzo narrowly beat him in the criteria. A skate-off for the second men’s spot at Europeans was unprecedented for FISG, and completely bends the established rules. Skaters and fans alike were outraged by the announcement, feeling that Rizzo had earned the spot. 

“The public opinion was not amazing, and of course, everyone was kind of bitter in that situation. But I 100% understand because everyone is running after the same goal,” Memola said. “But it was not the best time… Matteo and I were not vibing as we usually did.”

At the same time, his lowered expectations helped to alleviate some of the stress that other Europeans-bound athletes at his training facility were feeling.

“I was just trying to get back to my triples,” Memola explained. “[Last year] at that time I had to do run-throughs with multiple quads, and now I was just doing short programs with doubles… for me, it was like enjoying my life. I was just waltzing around the rink and trying to connect stuff together.”

For Memola, the pressure was off. He had no illusions of making the Olympic team and no expectation that he would medal again, and perhaps it is for that reason that he raised both of his fists triumphantly in the air after finishing a clean short program at Europeans.

“I was just happy to be alive,” he recalled of that moment. “I knew that what I was doing was not in any case competitive… and Matteo had a good skate, so I was like, ‘You know what? Let’s enjoy it.’”

And enjoy the moment, Memola did. With a clean short program and decent free skate, both comprised of all triple jumps, he collapsed to the ice grinning after wrapping up his free. Memola finished the competition in 11th place, which just one year prior might have been a source of extreme frustration and disappointment. But for a skater who was still reliant on painkillers and wasn’t even sure that he would qualify for the free, just being out there on the ice meant the world to him.

“It doesn’t make sense for me to be upset about it. It doesn’t make sense for me to dwell on it,” Memola said.

Rizzo, on the other hand, finished the competition in second place and decisively won the spot. Memola had accepted that he would not make the team the moment his free skate had finished, so it wasn’t difficult for him to congratulate his teammate after the event had ended. Another skater might have been bitter over the entire situation. Memola felt nothing but happiness for his competitor.

Four weeks later, Italy won a historic bronze medal on home ice in the figure skating team event. Rizzo was a big part of this effort, placing third in the men’s free skate and securing the team made up of Memola’s friends and competitors their first-ever team event medal. Memola watched from his home, just minutes away from the Milano Ice Skating Arena

“Of course, it’s kind of hard because you’re like, ‘I could have had the medal.’ But at the same time, I was like, you know what? Whatever, good for them… I’m not someone that rains on other’s parades,” Memola said. “I was happy for them because honestly, they really deserved it.”

Looking Ahead

Now the Olympics are over. World Championships have concluded, and the 2025/26 figure skating season has ended. Which leaves the question of what Memola, who has not competed since the conclusion of Europeans, will do next.

Many figure skaters see the Olympics as an end goal, as the culmination of everything that they’ve worked toward in their career. To work tirelessly towards that goal only to end up not making it is heartbreaking. Either way, the number of retirements in figure skating in a post-Olympic season skyrocket, whether due to heartbreak or contentment. 

For Memola, however, Milano was never the end. 

“I never expected it to be my last competition. It was just a rite of passage,” he said. “Of course, it’s the Olympics in your home country, so you always wanted to be ready, to be a part of it. But at the end of the day, it was never my main goal.”

He added that he doesn’t plan on retiring any time soon, hoping to compete even after the 2030 Olympic Winter Games in the French Alps.

While it’s been a long season for Memola, it hasn’t been entirely awful. When he was recovering from injury back in November, he did not skate for a month. Elite figure skaters train anywhere from four to eight hours a day, six to seven days a week, so not being able to be on the ice was agonizing. When he finally was able to skate again, a switch seemed to flip.

“It was hard to love [skating] while I was training for the Grand Prix,” Memola recalled, undoubtedly feeling the stress of having to make an Olympic team.

But stepping back onto the ice again with that burden off of his shoulders changed everything.

“I was like, ‘oh, I love to do this.’ …And when I was competing [at Europeans], I was like, ‘I love to do this again. And I’m really upset that I can’t do it at my full capabilities.’
But apart from that, I loved it. When I came back, I was super, super happy,” he said.

Not one to dwell on what could have been, Memola now looks ahead to next season—and he’s dying to get back out on the ice again. He hasn’t skated at all since European Championships, as his injury worsened after attempting to compete on it. He isn’t in a hurry to get back on the ice before he’s fully healed, as one lesson he’s taken away from this season is to take the time to recover when need be, and to listen to his body.

“I just need to be patient and try to make everything work. And not rush things, because that was the problem for the whole season,” he admitted. Though he’s restless and bored being unable to skate, the forced break has also given him time to reconnect with family and friends. And it’s also served as a well-needed reminder as to why he does love to skate in the first place.

“[Being injured] kind of made me rediscover passion in skating, because I’m here sitting on my bed, I’m listening to new music to do programs to… and I can’t wait to be back,” he said.

Memola has high aspirations for next season, and will not let injury hinder him. He plans to spend the off-season training in Irvine again, where he’s found a good environment that both nurtures and pushes him. He seeks to restore and to improve upon his jumps, and to get a good new set of programs.

His primary goal above all else, however? Finally capturing that elusive Grand Prix medal.

“I’m so over it,” he said bluntly, having never finished higher than fifth on the Grand Prix series. “My main goal is to get a Grand Prix medal. I just want it.”

Beyond that, he seeks to improve upon his placement at the World Championships, having finished ninth in 2024 and 10th in 2025. He also has his eye on the Europeans podium again, and looks forward to being able to properly compete again.

And beyond this season, he already has his sights set on the French Alps in 2030.

“I would be lying if I said I wasn’t thinking about it… my mind is already set on that,” Memola admitted. “It’s four years, but four years is very, very quick… I just want to take it slowly, but at the same time, I want to keep that in mind so I’m gonna be able to get to that season at the best of my abilities… that’s going to be the main goal.”

With his newfound motivation being four years away, Memola is going to train just as hard as he always has, so that he’ll be ready when the years inevitably fly by. This time, though? He’s going to take things just a little more slowly.