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Trialeti Trophy was an interesting competition in many ways - big scores for Georgian skaters at home, Niina Petrokina battles Adeliia Petrosian in the women's event, and more debuts, including Anastasiia Metelkina / Luka Berulava and Anastasia Mishina / Aleksandr GalliamovPlus, we talk about a ridiculous lineup at Tokyo Regional Championships with Ami Nakai, Yuna Aoki, Mone Chiba, Rion Sumiyoshi, Kao Miura, and Rio Nakata. And Lucas Broussard makes a solid return to competition in the US And somehow, Jackie goes on a tangent about the 2010s phenomenon known as Chanflation

Michelle and Jackie preview this week's Trialeti Trophy and the sixth Junior Grand Prix of the season (Ljubljana). More AIN skaters, including Anastasia Mishina/Aleksandr Galliamov, will be looking for a shot at getting onto the Grand Prix alternates list at Trialeti, while we see season debuts from European champions Nika Egadze, Anastasiia Gubanova, and Anastasiia Metelkina/Luka Berulava.Plus, we have our first impressions of Amber Glenn's week 3 on Dancing with the Stars, where she performed a Foxtrot to Toto's Hold the Line.

The Challenger doubleheader did not disappoint. We saw the season debuts of a lot of skaters this weekend at Nebelhorn Trophy and Nepela Memorial. Christina Carreira / Anthony Ponomarenko, Lia Pereira / Trennt Michaud, Olivia Smart / Tim Dieck, Mikhail Shaidorov, Daniel Grassl, Evgeni Semenenko, Julia Sauter, Haein Lee, and more competed this weekend.Jackie and Michelle also recap the fifth Junior Grand Prix in Batumi this weekend

Season Retrospective 25/26 just came out! (Go to https://store.rockerskating.com) Jackie talks to renowned figure skating photographer Danielle Earl, whose photography is featured in this book, about her origin story as a photographer. And we highlight some of our favorites from Season Retrospective. I hope you'll have a look!

It's a double-Challenger week this week. Jackie and Michelle preview Nebelhorn Trophy and Nepela Memorial, both of which will feature World medalists in multiple disciplines. The fifth Junior Grand Prix event will also be taking place this week - in Batumi, Georgia.Plus, Amber Glenn goes into Week 2 of Dancing with the Stars with a tango to Harrison's All the Things She Said (Heated Rivalry stans, it's time).

Amber Glenn had her debut on Dancing with the Stars last week, and we are so excited! Plus, on regular skating news, Lombardia Trophy, Junior Grand Prix Ankara, and Russian Test Skates happened!

Mark Hanretty has become a fixture on the commentary scene in international figure skating competitions. He and Ted Barton are halfway through another Junior Grand Prix series.Mark joined Jackie to talk about the new season, the new rules, and how he gets to know everything about every skater and their programs. And there's no interview with Jackie and Mark without a lot of nerding out on figure skating.

It was a light(er) weekend of skating, but there was still plenty of it, including John Nicks Pairs International and Tallinn Open, won by Aleksandra Boikova / Dmitrii Kozlovskii, Mihhail Selevko, and Niina Petrokina.Plus, the third Challenger event happens this weekend with Lombardia Trophy and it is yet another superb women's field. And the fourth Junior Grand Prix takes place in Ankara - Michelle and Jackie preview both of those events.

Kinoshita Group Cup was as advertised - the competition field was deep, the Russian and Belarusian skaters were back in senior competition, and there was some great skating, especially in the women's event.Jackie and Michelle recap the weekend of skating in Japan, including Mao Shimada, Vladislav Dikidzhi, Aleksandra Boikova / Dmitrii Kozlovskii, and Diana Davis / Gleb Smolkin winning their respective events. And Alexandra Ignatova (Trusova) lands a quad lutz!

Olympic Champions Riku Miura / Ryuichi Kihara made history for Japan as the first ever Japanese Olympic pair champions, and they made more history in July with THE DESTINY, an unprecedented show featuring the best pairs and ice dance teams in the world .They are joined by the show's choreographers, Kaitlyn Weaver and Mitch Islam. We talked about Miura/Kihara's Olympic triumph, the behind the scenes with THE DESTINY, and what they are up to now that they aren't competingInterpreting and translation: Momo PodolskyCover photo: Danielle Earl Photography

The second Challenger series event of the season is upon us, and it's a big one. Some of the best from Japan and Russia are in Tokyo for this showdown. Michelle and I preview this event, which will feature the first international appearance of Alexandra Trusova (now Ignatova), Mark Kondratiuk, Aleksandra Boikova/Dmitrii Koslovskii since the 2022 Olympics. Japan sends their strongest, including Mao Shimada, Yuna Aoki, Rio Nakata, and Shun Sato. Plus, I got to sit down for a quick chat with Jacob Sanchez about his new programs, a short program with Misha Ge and a free skate with Adam Blake ("it's good!" he says), as he heads to Tokyo this week.In the meantime, the Ukrainian Figure Skating Federation announced today that they wrote a letter to the ISU contesting the application of AIN criteria for eight Russian skaters. We don't know the implications of that officially for Kinoshita Group Cup, but things seem to be quickly moving.

Jackie is back from Champs Camp and Summer Sizzler and Michelle has lots of questions for him! Plus, the second Junior Grand Prix just took place, and France's Masters de Patinage happened this weekend as well.We also talk about the announcements of Alysa Liu skipping the 2026-27 season and the (literal) return of Deanna Stellato to the United States to compete with new partner Danil Siianytsia

Sofiia Dzepka and Lev Lazarev won their respective events at Junior Grand Prix Xi'an as Russia and Belarus athletes compete again in the international figure skating competitions as Individual Neutral Athletes.Michelle and Jackie recap what happened at the first JGP of the season, preview next week's JGP in Latvia, and talk about US Figure Skating's Summer Sizzler event this coming week

A primer for figure skating fans new and experienced - we never actually talk about what the figure skating season is. For most skaters, the start, end, and length of their season is actually much different than for the skaters who are expected to go to Worlds.In this bonus episode of the Rocker Skating podcast, Jackie talks about how the season differs depending on the skater, and why the season has lengthened for top skaters over the past decade.

It may have only been a domestic event, but Kinoshita Kansei Summer Cup was a battle in the women's event, where Mao Shimada and Yuna Aoki had a close battle for the title. Michelle and Jackie also preview the first Junior Grand Prix of the season in China