(Take 2) GP Seeded Skater Predictions

So if any of you remember, I made this post back in April for us to share our way-too-early predictions for GP Seeded Skaters. Well, it was indeed way too early because the very next day they announced that Skate America swapped places with another event, and then we got a bunch of splits, retirements, hiatuses, etc. 🥲

Now that we've entered June which is typically when they release assignments, let's try this again last-minute! The 2026-27 Grand Prix schedule will now be:

• GP de France (FRA)
• Skate Canada International (CAN)
• Cup of China (CHN)
• Skate America (USA)
• Finlandia Trophy (FIN)
• NHK Trophy (JPN)

Again, the gist of GP seeding is that the top 6 skaters at the most recent Worlds are divided into two groups (1-3 and 4-6), and cannot face anyone else in the same group. Some top skaters such as Alysa Liu, Guignard/Fabbri, and Junhwan Cha won't be on this list, but can still secure GP spots through other means. Also Seeded Skaters are only voicing their preference, which means they are likely but not always guaranteed to get their picks. For more info please see my previous post here, the sub guide here, or last year's ISU announcement.

If there is a vacancy in the top 6 then we simply go further down the Worlds placements. So far we have confirmed news on the following skaters:

• Men #2: Yuma Kagiyama (JPN) - officially on hiatus
• Women #1: Kaori Sakamoto (JPN) - officially retired

And the following skaters are highly speculated to not compete:

• Men #1: Ilia Malinin (USA) - hinting towards hiatus in recent interviews
• Ice Dance #2: Gilles/Poirier (CAN) - not official but very likely to retire based on interviews throughout the season + yesterday's news
• Ice Dance #7: Reed/Ambrulevicius (LTU) - not official but speculated due to their age, reaction at Worlds, and Allison apparently hinting towards it

Feel free to include the above skaters in your predictions if you think they'll continue after all! But if all speculations end up correct, then the groups will be as follows:

Men #1-3: Shun Sato (JPN), Stephen Gogolev (CAN), *Adam Siao Him Fa (FRA)

Men #4-6: Aleksandr Selevko (EST), Kevin Aymoz (FRA), *Daniel Grassl (ITA)

• *If Malinin continues, then he'll be in the first group, Siao Him Fa will move to the second group, and Grassl cannot be seeded

Women #1-3: Mone Chiba (JPN), Nina Pinzarrone (BEL), Isabeau Levito (USA)

Women #4-6: Lara Naki Gutmann (ITA), Amber Glenn (USA), Niina Petrokina (EST)

Pairs #1-3: Hase/Volodin (GER), Metelkina/Berulava (GEO), Pereira/Michaud (CAN)

Pairs #4-6: Nagaoka/Moriguchi (JPN), Pavlova/Sviatchenko (HUN), Efimova/Mitrofanov (USA)

Ice Dance #1-3: Fournier Beaudry/Cizeron (FRA), Zingas/Kolesnik (USA), *Fear/Gibson (GBR)

Ice Dance #4-6: Smart/Dieck (ESP), Lopareva/Brissaud (FRA), *Carreira/Ponomarenko (USA) (next in line is Davis/Smolkin (GEO))

• *If Gilles/Poirier continue, then they'll be in the first group while Fear/Gibson will move to the second group, while both Reed/Ambrulevicius and Carreira/Ponomarenko cannot be seeded
• *If Gilles/Poirier do not continue BUT Reed/Ambrulevicius continue, then the latter will be in the second group, and Carreira/Ponomarenko cannot be seeded