Olympic silver medalist Yuma Kagiyama of Japan will miss figure skating’s Grand Prix Series, including a showdown with American Ilia Malinin at next week’s Skate America, due to injury.
Kagiyama, 19, is sidelined by left leg and ankle bone injuries, including a stress fracture to his fibula sustained in late August, according to Japan’s figure skating federation.
He will miss Grand Prix de France in three weeks in addition to Skate America, where the 17-year-old Malinin may be the favorite. Last month, the world junior champion Malinin became the first skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition.
Kagiyama took silver at the last three global championships -- the 2021 World Championships, the Olympics in February and the world championships in March.
He and countryman Shoma Uno are the top returning men’s skaters following the retirement of 2014 and 2018 Olympic champion Yuzuru Hanyu of Japan and 2022 Olympic champion Nathan Chen‘s indefinite, perhaps permanent, break from competition.
Uno, the reigning world champion, is entered in Skate Canada in two weeks and NHK Trophy in Japan the week before Thanksgiving on the six-event Grand Prix Series. Top skaters enter two events on the six-event circuit, hoping to qualify for December’s Grand Prix Final.
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