Stars shine at American Gold Live
Ilia Malinin, Alysa Liu and Isabeau Levito were among the highlights at a show that not nearly as many people saw as expected.
Back in March, the figure skating world came together for Legacy On Ice, a sold-out show at Capital One Arena in Washington D.C. in which more than three dozen skaters performed in a tribute show to honor the lives lost in the Flight 5342 tragedy.
A couple months later, another Legacy On Ice show was announced, this one to take place in Philadelphia on Labor Day. In fact, there were going to be two shows that day, one at 1 p.m. and one at 6 p.m. Then quietly a few weeks before the show, the organizers announced that it was being postponed until December. Then later in the fall, the show was renamed to American Gold Live, with net proceeds still being donated to the U.S. Figure Skating National Development Team Legacy Fund.
Up until showtime yesterday (and in fact even now, a day after the show has taken place) the show’s website featured the phrase “Additional Stars will be announced soon!” under the headliners of Ilia Malinin, Alysa Liu and Isabeau Levito. I can’t help but wonder if the lack of an announcement of a full lineup contributed to what appeared to be sluggish ticket sales. The high prices — $100 at the lowest, unless you were a UPenn student — certainly didn’t help.
Still, despite the delays, the lack of an announced lineup, and the logistical issues (they’re still in the process of printing the programs because the lineup wasn’t set until so late, and they’re mailing them to the attendees), the show delighted the audience, myself included.
Opening - I Lived
This was our first look at the cast beyond the three announced headliners and host Brian Boitano, who the organizers had unveiled a few days ago on social media. The first skater on the ice was Jacob Sanchez, the 2024-25 Junior Grand Prix gold medalist. He was quickly joined by reigning U.S. silver medalists Katie McBeath and Daniil Parkman, 2025-26 Grand Prix Finalists Emilea Zingas and Vadym Kolesnik, novice ice dance team Anna Waugh and Matthew Jacoby, junior skater Meghan Huffman, and headliners Liu and Levito, all skating a group number to OneRepublic’s “I Lived.” At the end of the number, the group revealed Boitano, who did a wonderful job hosting the show.
Hilariously, Parkman (who coincidentally is sitting a few rows back from me on the plane as I write this) forgot to take off his blade guards before taking the ice — and he was a good sport about it, jokingly adding “Guards King” to his signature at the post-show meet and greet.
The highlight for me, however, was Liu and Levito doing a two-handed spin together late in the program. They both genuinely seem to be having so much fun doing it. And, hey, ISU, no one spontaneously combusted because two women dared to skate together on the ice. So maybe it’s time to reconsider those gender restrictions for pairs and ice dance? Just sayin…
Ilia Malinin - Running
Malinin was the first solo skater on the ice, performing a lighter version of his popular 2024-25 world championship winning short program, set to NF’s “Running.”
It’s no “seven-quad” layout, but this program is always enjoyable to watch in person.
Team Spectacle - Christmas Medley
Skating out of IceWorks in Aston, Pa., Team Spectacle won the gold medal in the Open Division at the 2025 U.S. Theatre On Ice national championships (an event I very much want to attend this season if my schedule allows it). They skated to a medley of Christmas songs, a perfect choice for the season.
Adam Nadas - LED Light Show
In a complete shift of tone, Adam Nadas took the ice to show off his unique brand of skating in an LED light suit. This piece was a visual spectacular and incredibly cool to see in person. As much as I’ve come to enjoy the competitive aspect of skating, I also like seeing how various people are pushing the art form forward in different ways.
Isabeau Levito - Believe
Performing in the city where she was born, Levito looked like a Christmas Princess skating to Jackie Evancho’s cover of Josh Groban’s “Believe”, to the delight of the hometown crowd. With less than a month until nationals, Levito feels like a lock to make the Olympic team this season, so it’s a treat to see her skate every time (and there was more from her in this show!).
Katie McBeath and Daniil Parkman - Vale
With his blade guards properly removed this time, Parkman returned to the ice with McBeath and the duo skated their “Vale” short program for this season. I thoroughly enjoyed how much the crowd was impressed by the twists and throws, which are accentuated by the height difference between the 6-foot-4 Parkman and the 5-foot-1 McBeath.
Meghan Huffman - One
Huffman, who skates out of the Philadelphia Skating Club in nearby Ardmore, Pa. performed a tribute to Eddie Zhou, one of the skaters who died in the Flight 5342 tragedy. She opened her program with a voiceover message about her friendship with Eddie.
She then skated a beautiful program to Cinematic Pop and McKenna Breinholt’s cover of U2’s “One,” a touching tribute and a fitting homage to the original concept for this show.
Anna Waugh and Matthew Jacoby - The Nutcracker
Waugh and Jacoby are in their first season skating together, as Jacoby’s previous partner, Alydia Livingston, was also one of the Flight 5342 victims. “Every single competition, I skate with the memory of Alydia and the Livingstons and all of my friends on that flight,” Jacoby told the Philadelphia Inquirer a few months ago.
This duo, which skated to another seasonally appropriate song, is headed to St. Louis to compete in the national championships next month. I’m sure that will be an emotional trip for them.
Jacob Sanchez - Your Idol
Sanchez returned to the ice for a solo performance to a song from the immensely popular Netflix movie “Kpop Demon Hunters” (which, sadly, I still have not watched). I love the energy he brings to the ice with this program, which was choreographed by friend of the site Adam Blake.
Emilea Zingas and Vadym Kolesnik - Christmas Eve/Sarajevo
Because multiple of the competitions I attended this year didn’t have an ice dance component, that’s the one discipline where I haven’t seen a lot of the competitors at nationals. This was my first time ever seeing Zingas and Kolesnik skate in person, and coming off a pair of medals during the Grand Prix season, they did not disappoint.
This was the second time this month I got to see a program skated to this song. It’s also what Courtney Hicks performed to at The Gateway’s Holiday Spectacular on Ice. Sadly they won’t be skating to it at nationals (and to be fair, given that it’s the second week of January, it’d be weird to do a Christmas song for a competition).
Isabeau Levito - Sophia Loren Medley
This was my third time seeing Levito perform her short program this season, the first coming at Cranberry Cup and the second coming at Summer Sizzler. But this was my first time seeing it with the actual competition dress, which is just stunning in person (as was her dress from her earlier program in this event).
Adam Nadas and Team Spectacle - LED Medley
Nadas was joined by the theatre on ice troupe in LED suits of their own (I cannot imagine how expensive each of those is) to perform to a medley of songs. I think my favorite bit of this was hearing the Black Panther soundtrack, though the ending visual was certainly a highlight as well.
Alysa Liu - Slow Dancing in the Dark
I’m not going to lie, when I saw photos from the early show and caught a glimpse of Liu in a black dress, I thought maybe we’d be getting her revamped Lady Gaga free skate for this season. Sadly that wasn’t the case, but this exhibition program is such a delight that I didn’t mind at all (I’ve now seen it in person four times).
Ilia Malinin - Cage of Bones
Another program I’ve seen multiple times, but will never tire of seeing. Everyone raves about Malinin’s technical skills, and for good reason, but his artistry is leaps and bounds ahead of where it was even a couple years ago, and that shows in a program like this. And his backflip continues to delight crowds.
Finale - A Million Dreams
The hour-long show closed out with the principal performers retaking the ice for another group number, which this time was started solo by Liu, before she was joined by the rest of the cast. Just like with Kpop Demon Hunters, I’ve still never seen The Greatest Showman, but this song was unavoidable, and it truly is such an amazing song to skate to.
It’d be easy to criticize American Gold Live for what it was not — a second Legacy on Ice show (though it maintained some connection to that) — or for the surprising lack of attendance, but the show that was put on was entertaining from start to finish. It’s also still wild to me as a relatively novice figure skating fan that exhibitions like this happen in the middle of a competitive season. Malinin, Liu, Zingas and Kolesnik were literally a week removed from the Grand Prix Final (where Malinin and Liu won gold) and are headed to the national championship to attempt to earn Olympic spots (okay, they’re pretty secure for Ilia and Alysa at this point) in just three weeks.
Sadly, this also shines a spotlight on one of the problems facing figure skating today. This show wasn’t televised and wasn’t even recorded for later broadcast, despite multiple reigning world champions participating. To put both of these points in basketball terms (since that is my actual world), could you imagine Stephen Curry playing in an exhibition game in March, a month before the playoffs start? And could you imagine that game not being on TV?
At minimum, Malinin and Liu should be household names, and yet they’re not. Not yet. Maybe that will change after February’s Olympics, but I’d love for figure skating to become more than a once-every-four-years type of sport. It’s gorgeous, it’s exhilarating to watch, and the athletes competing at the highest levels deserve more support. I’m only one person, but I’m doing what I can by going to events, sharing video, and supporting the skaters on social media (and they’ve taken notice; Jacob Sanchez told me at Saturday’s event that he loves my Instagram account and follows me for updates when I’m at competitions).
If you have ideas for more things I could do to raise the profile of the sport (aside from getting my bosses to show it more on our network, because I’ve had those conversations and as long as NBC has the rights to most major international events, that’s not going to happen), I’d love to hear them. Until then I’ll keep supporting skating in person when I can and sharing as much video as possible for the people who can’t.
Thanks for your recap! Your basketball analogy is a good one. I can't imagine Steph Curry not being televised. And here we have the best figure skater in the world and no TV. Sigh.
You are doing a great job. I am always happy to see your videos. It's not easy or impossible to get to see videos of these events without you.
Maybe if you get a chance to talk to the skaters ask them to post their schedule on social media. I would have tried to go to more events here in Europe if I would have known earlier who is taking part. Entrylists 2 weeks before the event is not enough time to plan if you need days off from work, flights, hotel, tickets...