Premier U.S. Skaters Turn Up Heat at 3rd
Annual Summer Sizzler
by Liz Leamy
(5 September, 2026) Thursday August 27th, America’s premier skaters convened at the
Skating Club of Boston in Norwood, Massachusetts to kick off the
2026-2027 season with their impressive and memorable collection
of programs at the third annual Summer Sizzler.
Hosted by Ashley Wagner, the 2016 World silver medalist and 2014
Olympic team bronze medalist and Adam Rippon, the 2018 Olympic
team bronze medalist, this event, known to be a stellar showcase
due to its world-class standard, drew thousands of spectators
who filled the state-of-the-art Tenley E. Albright Performance
Center to capacity and who cheered loudly for the performers all
throughout its entirety.
“These athletes have dedicated their lives to this sport and
their love of what they do shows in their skating and that is
inspiration for everyone,” said Nancy Madden Leamy of Cos Cob,
Connecticut, a U.S. Figure Skating National coach who grew up
skating at the original Skating Club of Boston based in
Cambridge where she took from the legendary Maribel Vinson and
Montgomery Wilson. “There is such a rich history of the sport at
this club and all throughout the U.S. and these skaters reflect
that spirit and narrative.”
Notably, this event drew fans from all over the East Coast and
U.S. who had traveled from such states as Maine, New Hampshire,
New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Vermont, Maryland, Florida
and other locales in order to watch America’s top-ranked figure
skaters in the process of kicking off their 2026-2027
competitive season live and in person.
Some of the featured headliners at this show included Alysa Liu,
the 2026 Olympic champion, 2025 World titlist, 2022 World bronze
medalist and two-time U.S. champion, Emilea Zingas and Vadym
Kolesnik, the 2026 World bronze medalists, 2026 Four Continents
victors and two-time U.S. medalists, Isabeau Levito, the 2024
World silver medalist and 2023 U.S. titlist, Alisa Efimova and
Misha Mitrofanov, the two-time U.S. champions, Christina
Carreira and Anthony Ponomarenko, the two-time U.S. silver
medalists and two-time U.S. bronze medalists, Andrew Torgashev,
the three-time U.S. medalist, Rachel Green and Michael Parsons,
the 2023 U.S. silver medalists and 2025 U.S. bronze medalists,
Sarah Everhardt, the 2025 U.S. bronze medalist and Jacob
Sanchez, the 2026 U.S. fourth-place finisher, along with other
uber-accomplished skaters.
Photo courtesy of Janet Liu and Skating Club of Boston
In its standard fashion, this event marked the conclusion of an
intensive week of on and off-ice studying for these athletes,
who, in addition with other International Team members, had
participated in U.S. Figure Skating’s annual Champs Camp that
had been held at the club all week prior.
For the skaters, this event represented a fun forum for them in
that they were able to spend more time together as a group and
also perform their programs in an dynamic live exhibition
format.
“This is a good reunion for us,” said Alysa Liu, who had
announced her decision to refrain from competing this coming
season just days prior to this event (but said she is planning
to come back, much like her historic move several years back).
“I’m excited to watch everybody. This is a fun, fun, fun thing.”
Other athletes agreed.
“It’s a really good thing we have here and I think the Champs
Camp is especially great because it brings all the teams and all
the people together in one place,” said Emilea Zingas, a former
world-level singles skater who represented Cyprus and who wowed
the crowd with her solo performance in which she did a Double
Axel, among other impressive things. “We want to keep looking
and moving forward and continue to work hard and improve
whatever we can.”
Her colleagues expressed similar sentiments.
“We got a lot of constructive feedback [this week] and I think
we’re going to take everything that we’ve gotten here and use it
to make ourselves and our programs better in any way we can,”
said Jacob Sanchez who trains in Newburgh, New York Larisa
Selezneva and Oleg Makarov. “I’m excited to see how both my
programs develop over the year and I’m excited to perform it.”
At this event, most of the skaters debuted their new routines
for the 2026-2027 season with highlights including that of
Sanchez, who did his short program to ‘Moon’ by Sofiane Pamart
and Ludwig von Beethoven, Sarah Everhardt, who skated to “Danse
Macabre in G Minor Op. 40’ by Camille Saint-Saens, Christina
Carriera and Anthony Ponomarenko, who did their Rhythm Dance to
selections from the classic Hollywood film ‘My Fair Lady,’
Isabeau Levito, who did her short to ‘Memoria’ by Rosalia and
Alysa Liu, who did her ‘Stateside’ show program by Pink
Pantheress.
At the same time, some of the international skaters featured in
this show included Deanna Stellato, the three-time Canadian
National champion with Maxime Deschamps, who was making one of
her first debuts with her new partner, Danylo Siianytsia, at
this event and Aleksandr Selevko, the 2024 Estonian European
silver medalist.
All in all, this event was a golden outing on all fronts as so
many people could be seen having a great time throughout the
show watching and cheering on the skaters and chatting, laughing
and visiting with one another during intermission, which made
for quite a festive atmosphere at this expansive Norwood rink
locale.
That, in combination with the remarkable athletic and artistic
performance standard of the skaters, reflected the terrific
strength, standard and heart of the American skating community,
all of which ultimately bodes well for the upcoming season as
well as the new Olympic cycle.
2026 Summer Sizzler Performers
Act One
- Deborah Liu
- Patrick Blackwell
- Aleksandr Selevko
- Caroline Green & Michael Parsons
- Liam Kapeikis
- Audrey Shin & Spencer Akira Howe
- Jacob Sanchez
- Isabeau Levito
- Starr Andrews & Daniil Parkman
Act Two
- Emilea Zingas
- Jimmy Ma
- Deanna Stellato & Danil Siianytsia
- Christina Carreira & Anthony Ponomarkenko
- Sarah Everhardt
- Andrew Torgashev
- Alisa Efimova & Misha Mitrofanov
- Alysa Liu
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