A New Season Starts in Central China
The 2026-27 ISU Junior Grand Prix series opens on 19 August in Xi'an, Shaanxi Province, with competition concluding on 22 August. Xi'an hosts the first of seven JGP events this season; the series ends with the Junior Grand Prix Final in Chongqing, China in December. It is the first significant international figure skating competition of the new season, giving athletes their earliest look at the field they will compete against for the next four months.
The Xi'an event features four disciplines: men's singles, women's singles, pair skating and ice dance. Entries span Asia, Europe and North America. As host nation, China will compete across multiple disciplines and will count on home-ice conditions and crowd support to motivate its contingent at an event held in one of the country's major inland cities.
Japan Sends Six Athletes Across Three Disciplines
Japan's figure skating federation has assembled a six-strong delegation for Xi'an. In men's singles, Daiya Ebihara (蛯原大弥) and Hayato Okazaki (岡崎隼士) carry the national flag. The women's singles sees Karin Miyazaki (宮﨑花凜) and Kaoruko Wada (和田薫子) as Japan's representatives — both targeting strong performances in their opening assignment to build momentum heading into the later stops of the series. In ice dance, the partnership of Ayumi Shibayama and Tomoki Kimura (柴山歩・木村智貴) completes Japan's contingent.
The JGP qualification system awards points at each of a skater's two assigned events; the cumulative total determines who qualifies for the December final. A podium or near-podium result in Xi'an therefore carries significant weight beyond the result itself.
Why Xi'an and Why Now
The Junior Grand Prix is the ISU's flagship competition for skaters aged roughly 13 to 19, functioning as the primary pipeline from national-level development programs to the senior Grand Prix circuit. Several active Olympic and World Championship medallists — including skaters now competing on the senior Grand Prix series — earned their first international recognition at JGP events. The series is the benchmark against which junior programmes around the world measure their talent.
Xi'an's hosting of the opener also underlines China's elevated role on the figure skating calendar this season. With the JGP Final in Chongqing following in December, two of the series' most consequential events take place on Chinese ice in 2026-27 — a logistical and strategic advantage for the host federation's junior entries.
The Rest of the Series
Six more JGP events follow in quick succession through September and October: Riga (Latvia, 26-29 August), Bangkok (Thailand, 2-5 September), Ankara (Turkey, 16-19 September), Batumi (Georgia, 23-26 September), Ljubljana (Slovenia, 30 September–3 October) and Gdańsk (Poland, 7-10 October). Japan has assigned additional skaters beyond Xi'an across the series, meaning the picture of which athletes are on course for Chongqing will become clearer by early October.
The senior Grand Prix series entries for 2026-27 — which the ISU has already released — are headlined by Olympic champions across all disciplines. Xi'an's junior results on 19-22 August will offer the first indication of who among this generation is ready to challenge them.