Lombardia Trophy → Skate to Milano 2026

September 19, 2025
By Reut Golinsky
Photo © Reut Golinsky, International Skating Union (ISU)

"Skate to Milano 2026" (also known as the Chinese Nebelhorn) kicked off today and will run through September 21. It marks the final opportunity for skaters from 49 countries, along with four neutral AIN athletes, to secure the last remaining quota places for the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026. The heat is on at the Beijing National Indoor Stadium, where 111 figure skaters and couples will chase their Olympic dreams.

Facts and figures

A total of 31 countries earned quota places during the ISU World Figure Skating Championships 2025 in Boston. The spots filled across the different disciplines are: 24 men, 24 women, 16 pairs, and 19 ice dance couples.

Countries that didn't secure spots at Worlds - or have the chance to earn additional spots based on their placement points (for example, Spain in ice dance or the USA in pairs) - have one last opportunity to qualify at a designated event. Since 2009, the Olympic qualifier has traditionally been the Nebelhorn Trophy in Oberstdorf. However, this year the decision was made to separate the Nebelhorn Trophy as an ISU Challenger Series event from the Olympic qualifying competition, which is now held in Beijing (hence skating fans referring to it as the "Chinese Nebelhorn" before the official name was announced).

A total of 17 remaining Olympic spots will be earned at the ISU Skate to Milano Figure Skating Qualifier: 5 spots for women, 5 for men, 3 for pairs, and 4 for ice dance.

Of course, there is a big difference between preparing for Worlds and being ready to peak at the start of the season. Earlier Challenger Series events gave skaters the chance to try the ice before the big battle. At the Lombardia Trophy, we caught up with a few skaters competing this weekend in Beijing to ask about their summer preparations, programs, and more.

Anna Valesi & Martin Bidar

Anna Valesi and Martin Bidar made their debut as a pair at the 2025 Merano Ice Trophy in mid-February, where they won the silver medal. They followed this with a strong performance to claim bronze at the Lombardia Trophy, also achieving the Worlds technical minimum score. This week, they will attempt to qualify the Czech Republic for an Olympic pairs spot.

Anna: Our main goal for this competition was to prepare for Olympic qualification. This is our home rink, and it's always nice to compete here. Since we train here regularly, we really treated this competition as a training opportunity. We're very happy with how our season has started, but we know we can do more. This is just the beginning for us, as we started skating together not long ago. We're focusing on learning from every experience and making the most of each day.

Martin: [The Beijing event] will definitely be a huge experience for us, and we want to really enjoy it. We'll do our best and see what happens. Skating with Anna has made me feel like a different person. I'm genuinely enjoying every moment we spend on the ice.

Anna: That's true for both of us. Before every competition, we look at each other and say, 'Enjoy!' But it's not just something we do at competitions, we try to keep that mindset during every practice. Even when practice doesn't go well, we focus on enjoying skating because we truly love this sport. That's what it's all about.

With at least six pairs competing for three Olympic spots, the challenge will be tough. "If we succeed, we succeed. But if we don't, it's just the start of a long project," they say.

Maria Kazakova and Vladislav Kasinskij

Another new couple testing the waters in Bergamo and looking ahead to this weekend's challenge in Beijing is the newly formed ice dance team representing Georgia, Maria Kazakova and Vladislav Kasinskij. (Maria previously competed for Georgia alongside Georgy Reviya, with whom she won silver at the 2020 Junior Worlds and gold at the 2019 Junior Grand Prix Final.)

We spoke with them after their free dance, choreographed to the soundtrack of "Life Is Beautiful."

Vladislav: We had many options for our free dance music, but this soundtrack has everything we were searching for - a beautiful melody and a storytelling. That's exactly what we want to focus on: not just skating, but telling a story.

Maria: We wanted to work on our unity, our togetherness, and show how much we love skating. The story behind this movie is really amazing, it touched so many people. So we're going to explore that kind of emotion. It's mature music and a powerful story, and we plan to develop it further.

Vladislav: Since this is our first competition and our debut presentation as a team, of course, there are thousands of things to improve, and that's what we'll focus on. But for now, I think we're satisfied. This was just the start, the first step on a long journey. We have nothing to lose. We want to explore. Making mistakes is part of that exploration. But above all, we want to focus on our performance and enjoy it.

Maria: We want to show our energy and emotions, to give our best to everyone watching. This competition, the Lombardia Trophy, was just a first step, an opportunity to 'touch' the ice and introduce ourselves to the judges, the audience, and everyone else. Next week, we want to show our energy, without fear. Like Vlad said, we have nothing to lose.

Although the team already has "guaranteed" spots at Europeans and Worlds, thanks to top-ten finishes by Diana Davis and Gleb Smolkin, Maria and Vlad prefer to focus on the present.

Maria: In our minds, we're not thinking about the future, we're here and now. It's the present moment where we can learn. If we focus too much on what's coming, we can't focus on ourselves in the present. Now is the time to start, to make mistakes and learn from them, now is the time to show our energy and do our best.

Vladislav: One last thing I want to add, skating with Masha is a great joy. I'm proud of my partner, and in many ways, I try to be like her. She helps me believe in myself and in our future.

Maria: I also want to thank everyone - especially our team and our federation, who believe in us. When I ended my partnership with Gosha (Georgy Reviya) due to his health issues, I called Maka (Mariam Giorgobiani), the president of our federation, and told her I wanted to continue my career. She said, "I believe in you. I will help you in any way I can." I'm really grateful for the opportunity to be here now with my team and my amazing partner.

Mariia Ignateva and Danijil Szemko

Among the teams fighting for one of the four remaining Olympic ice dance spots, this Hungarian ice dance couple has a pretty decent shot. Though they were somewhat disappointed by the harsh judging at the Lombardia Trophy, they remained ready to analyze all the notes and criticism, and their spirits were high.

From the very beginning, their coach, Barbara Fusar-Poli, suggested that if they don't qualify in Boston, they should hold onto their engaging and fun free dance, "The Joker and the Queen," which has become their trademark program.

"This dance got great feedback, so we just wanted to cement the success," Danijil said half-jokingly.

"We knew it wouldn't be easy to find something equally bright and colorful," Mariia added. "Although our coach has something interesting in mind for us, it's still a secret - even we don't know yet!"

They also plan to work more on their rhythm dance costumes. Mariia actually had a different outfit all ready to go, but, unfortunately, some last-minute issues forced them to get a new one, which their seamstress made in just three days.

They realistically assess their chances in Beijing but hope the judging will be more favorable than it was in Bergamo. "The judges were really strict here, not just with us," they admitted. "It's been a while since we received such low marks for our rhythm dance. But after all the hard work we put in over the off season, we hope it will pay off," Mariia said. "We wanted to compete here to test our programs, even though there's a slight chance we might arrive at the next competition tired. We just wanted to get into the competitive mindset a bit in advance."

Kyrylo Marsak

Coming off one of his best competitions last weekend (he achieved both season and personal best scores in both programs), Kyrylo Marsak has clearly become a realistic contender for that last Olympic berth in men's singles. With at least eight or nine men evenly matched, it will all come down to mental strength. Having such a major confidence boost from the Lombardia Trophy definitely won't hurt.

"Absolute personal best and ISU personal best, 80 points for technical score, it's really good. I'm so happy," he said, exhilarated, as he came into the mixed zone after his free skate. "The end of the program was tough, but it's just the beginning of the season, so I'm very, very happy with this result. It's absolutely amazing that I've been able to achieve this. Let's hope I can keep this streak of skating well. Technically, I can do something much harder, like adding a quad Lutz. But we're taking it step by step. We need to be smart, to keep improving but not lose consistency. So the first jump was intentionally a triple Lutz here. I did quads in practice; I had a couple of really good ones just yesterday, but I'm practicing them for future competitions. For now, I want to keep this layout, it just makes more sense."

While his short program, choreographed to "Fall on Me" by Andrea and Matteo Bocelli, reflects Kyrylo's relationship with his father, his free skate focuses more on his own inner world: "This program is more about expressing myself, my feelings, and everything that's happened in my life over the last couple of years. It hasn't been easy. Sometimes, I feel really tired of all the never-ending bad news (the first part is to the song 'I'm Tired'). But I'm fighting through it all while showing everything I feel through this program. Towards the end, it felt like I was almost 'walking' on the ice, but when it's ready, the feeling should be like I'm flying, because skating is my biggest passion. So yes, I'm telling my personal story through this music by Labrinth and Zendaya."

As for Ilia Malinin using this music for his free skate in 2022/23, actually there is no connection. "Well, I was inspired by the music itself," he clarified. "My choice wasn't influenced by the fact that Ilia skated to it, it just happened that he did. My program is different and tells my own personal story, so there's no reference to Ilia. But I did ask him, and he was completely okay with it."

The state of mind going into the Olympic qualifier: "If we want to go for a quote, let's keep it simple: I'm just really excited. The plan is to focus on myself and do my stuff."

Júlía Sylvía Gunnarsdóttir and Manuel Piazza

Júlía and Manuel started their season much earlier than last year, and the Lombardia Trophy has been great preparation towards "Skate To Milano."

Júlía: Compared to last season, it's much earlier, and preparing for the season this time was very different for me. Instead of watching everyone else start and thinking I still had time, we were all starting together, which was actually more fun. So I had to approach things a little differently, but coming into the second season, I also had more knowledge about what to expect.
The first competition is always quite stressful and more difficult for me. It's the start of the season, you want to do well, but at the same time, you have to get back into it. So doing this first competition, and now heading into the second in Beijing, makes me feel a bit more confident. I feel more at ease.

They worked really hard during the off-season and feel they've improved significantly. "We've focused on making sure all the elements gain stability, speed, and confidence. I think we've improved pretty much in every aspect," Manuel said.

They have a new short program to the cover of "Imagine" by Audiomachine and they kept their "West Side Story" free skate.

Manuel: Our coach found this version of "Imagine", and we loved it from the very beginning. We felt a good connection to it and could imagine ourselves skating to it. We kept looking, but nothing spoke to us like that one. So, we ended up choosing it - and we love this program! We think it turned out great. It's a good step forward from last season. It fits us well and pushes us to skate bigger.

We felt like our free skate from last season suited us well, and we could build on it. Also, we only competed twice with it, so we have room to show the program better, with new elements and more maturity. The music is the same, but not much remains from last season's choreography; about 90% is new. It's nice music that helps us tell a story together, and we aim to show the connection between us in that program. We feel like we can perform it better than we did last year.

The team approaches the qualifier in Beijing like any other competition, they say.

Manuel: I like to approach every competition the same way. I try to bring the competition mindset into training and then do the training in competition. That means during the competition, I just try to trust what we've worked on and what we've learned, and focus on showing the skating and the story we're telling.

Júlía: I want to trust our work, trust myself and us together, and add a little more enjoyment, to really enjoy what's happening and have some fun.

Manuel: I think a lot of people see athletes - not just in our sport, but in general - and assume there's a strict difference between having fun and focusing. But that's not the case. Of course, you have to stay focused and keep things in check, but it's very important to also have fun. And, of course, it's important not to have so much fun that you lose focus. But I think having both is essential.