Mone Chiba edged out Alexandra Ignatova to claim victory at the Cup of China, with Ignatova becoming the first mother to reach a Grand Prix singles podium. Chiba delivered a near-flawless free skate to “Clair de Lune,” featuring a triple flip-triple toe loop combination and just one barely negative jump grade. Her total of 224.48 points put her 3.21 ahead of Ignatova, who had the highest-scoring free skate thanks to a quadruple Lutz.
Chiba, a two-time World Championships medalist, entered the free skate with a 3.71-point lead after Friday’s short program. This win marks her third consecutive Grand Prix regular season title since 2025. Last season, she finished fourth at the Olympics, narrowly missing the bronze by 1.28 points to Ami Nakai, and took silver at the World Championships in March after earning bronze the previous year.
“I was really a little bit nervous,” Chiba said through a translator after her victory. “But I mentioned my feelings of how much I love figure skating, and that makes me a big emotion to make forward to win again.”
Ignatova, who competed under her maiden name Trusova before becoming a mother, returned to Grand Prix competition for the first time since 2021. The 2022 Olympic silver medalist gave birth to her son Mikhail in August 2025 and is among the few mothers competing at this level in singles skating. The International Skating Union recently allowed skaters from Russia and Belarus to return to the Grand Prix circuit in a neutral capacity if they have not supported the war in Ukraine, enabling Ignatova’s comeback.
Sophie Joline von Felten made history for U.S. figure skating in her senior Grand Prix debut by landing a clean, positively graded triple Axel in the free skate. She became only the second American woman to do so on the senior Grand Prix Series since Amber Glenn in 2004, according to Skatingscores.com. Von Felten, the 2025 U.S. junior champion, placed seventh overall. She had landed a negatively graded triple Axel in Friday’s short program, showing progress over the weekend.
Outside the singles events, British ice dancers Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson completed a sweep at Cup of China by winning both the rhythm dance and free dance. Their victory follows their title at Skate Canada last week. Fear and Gibson edged Diana Davis and Gleb Smolkin of Georgia by 1.39 points and secured qualification for their fifth consecutive Grand Prix Final, set for December 10-13 in Chongqing, China. The pair has consistently placed third or fourth at the last four World Championships and Grand Prix Finals.
The Cup of China concludes on Sunday with the men’s free skate, scheduled for 12 a.m. ET and streaming live on Peacock. The event is the third of six Grand Prix regular season competitions, with the Saatva Skate America following next week. The Grand Prix Final will bring together the top six skaters in each discipline from the series.
The return of Russian and Belarusian skaters in a neutral status and the ongoing adjustments to figure skating regulations add complexity to this season’s competitions. The sport continues to evolve as athletes like Ignatova balance motherhood and elite performance, while newcomers such as von Felten push technical boundaries.
According to Yahoo Sports.
