MONTREAL (Canada) — Japanese teenage sensation Mao Shimada won the Skate Canada women’s title on her senior Grand Prix debut, living up to sky-high expectations by comfortably topping the free skate.
The four-time Junior Grand Prix Final and World Junior Championships winner, who turned 18 on Friday, has still never lost an international competition.
She is already being spoken about as a favourite for the 2030 Winter Olympics.
Already leading after short programme, Shimada attempted and executed a difficult skate, opening with a triple Axel which she landed perfectly.
Her subsequent quad toe loop was slightly under-rotated, but Shimada still scored 153.33 for a winning total of 235.44.
Estonia’s two-time European champion Niina Petrokina finished second, earning 143.83 with a well-executed free skate for 221.07 overall.
The United States’ Isabeau Levito, second after the short programme, slipped to third, with a major error on a triple lutz.
But the 2024 world silver medallist’s 133.72 was good enough to fend off Japan’s Saki Miyake for the final podium place.
Named after Japanese skating great Mao Asada, Mao Shimada was only denied a place in Japan’s last Olympic team because she was too young to be eligible.
The 2030 Winter Olympics will be held in the French Alps.
