2025 NHK Trophy: Women

Japan’s Kaori Sakamoto dominated the Women’s discipline at 2025 NHK Trophy, taking her fourth gold medal at this event by over a 27-point margin. Kazakhstan’s Sofia Samodelkina captured the silver, making history by becoming the first woman from her country to win a Grand Prix medal. Belgium’s Loena Hendrickx pocketed the bronze after being sidelined last year due to an ankle injury.

Kaori Sakamoto

The 2022 Olympic bronze medalist scored a new season’s best of 77.05 for first place with her heartfelt short program to “Time to Say Goodbye.” While she received an edge call on a triple Lutz, the double Axel and triple flip-triple toe were solid and earned high grades of execution (GOE). Two spins were graded a level four, as did the footwork which was awarded mostly +4 GOEs.

Sakamoto was satisfied with her performance, but admitted to being “very nervous” during the official practice as well as the practice the day before.

“But at the end, during the performance, I was able to keep calm,” she said. “I think I was too nervous, and I got tired of being nervous, so I just stopped. I also talked to a lot of people and that helped me.”

The 25-year-old relayed that choreographer Benoît Richaud had chosen the music.

“This might be the last season for me as a skater and athlete, but he thought that this would be the first step for my next career, so I wanted to put the emotion into this program,” she said.

The three-time World champion placed first in the free skate with a new season’s best of 150.13. Her stylish routine to a Édith Piaf medley featured seven triple jumps, but the back end of a triple flip-triple toe was landed on the quarter. All other jumps were solid, and the level-four footwork and spins were awarded a level four. She received many positive GOEs throughout, and with a total score of 227.18, easily placed first overall.

“To be honest, I’m really very relieved,” said the 2025 Grand Prix de France silver medalist. “I’m in a pretty good condition, but still, if I make a mistake, I find that I tend to lose my concentration. I was still worried about what (mistakes) happened this morning in the official practice, and I was actually quite nervous about whether that would happen again. But I was able to really kind of change my mindset and then able to maintain my focus for four minutes during the actual competition.”

With two individual Grand Prix wins, the five-time and current Japanese champion has qualified for the Grand Prix Final next month.

Sofia Samodelkina

The three-time Challenger Series medalist gave a bold, but playful, short program to “Czardas.” She opened with a double Axel and triple Lutz, as well as a triple flip-triple toe in the second half. The flying camel spin received a level four, and she scored a new personal best of 67.75 points for second place.

“I feel great and confident,” said the 18-year-old. “My coach Rafael (Arutyunyan) and my doctor from Kazakhstan are here with me, and that is a great support for me. I saw how the people in the stands give a lot of applause for everyone and they started to clap along when the music changed. That was great. I’m so excited that I did a good job today.”

“I was a little nervous as this is my first Grand Prix, but it’ great to be here,” Samodelkina added. “My preparation was difficult. I twisted my knee and I couldn’t skate for two months. I only went to Rafael to train 12 days ago, but I practiced my jumps a lot.”

Samodelkina’s cinematic free skate to selections from Sunset Boulevard, featured five triple jumps, but she put a foot down on the back end of a triple Lutz-Euler-triple Salchow and stepped out of a triple flip. The triple loop-triple toe was clean, as well as a solo triple flip and triple Lutz. Two spins and the footwork received a level three, and she placed third with 132.25 points. With a total score of 200.00, she was able to maintain second place overall.

“I feel so tired and I feel excited because I didn’t expect this because I had mistakes in my program,” said the skater who trains in California. “For me, it’s something really, really good. When I saw I had the silver medal, I was so excited! It’s a good motivation to keep going. I got just one Grand Prix. My coach Rafael told me maybe after my NHK Trophy I maybe will get an opportunity to go to Skate America or Finland. If I get it, I will be happy. My next competition is going to be a Challenger, maybe Tallinn or Zagreb.”

Loena Hendrickx

The two-time World medalist placed fourth in the short program with 62.45 points. The skater was sidelined by an ankle injury last season. She had surgery in February before she took bronze at Skate to Milano in September. The skater produced a triple Lutz-double toe, but landed a double Axel on the quarter and later fell on a triple flip. Nevertheless, she earned high GOEs for her two level-four spins and footwork.

The two-time World medalist admitted to being nervous after a rough night.

“I didn’t sleep a lot, and I think that’s why the nerves were higher than usual,” said Hendrickx. “Of course, I still have to perform, and I know I still can even though I’m tired, so no excuses for that. I just think it was not my day, and I know I can do better. Hopefully the next competition will be a good short again. I already did a good free (at Skate to Milano), so that pressure is a little less.”

Hendricks said she originally wanted to skate to “It’s All Coming Back to Me Now” by Celine Dion, but that the last Olympics were too soon.

“Then I said to my brother and my team I want to keep it for the next Olympics,” the 26-year-old revealed. “Now I changed it and I really feel the vibe; rising from ‘ashes’ and coming back after surgery. It’s just a nice storytelling program.”

Skating to “La Alegria” by Yasmin Levy, the three-time European medalist landed a total of six triple jumps, however she received an edge call on both triple Lutz jumps and landed the triple flip on the quarter. All other jumps were clean, and she displayed very good level-four footwork and spins throughout her evocative routine. She placed second in this segment with 136.52 points, and with a total score of 198.97, rose to third place overall.

Hendrickx admitted to being “very disappointed” with her short program but said that it was the support of the fans got her through the competition.

“Japan is just an amazing country to skate in and I was so happy that I could be here again for another competition,” she said. “That’s what I kept in mind going into the free. I had a pretty good free, so thanks to all for the support and the fans and the love for skating.”

Her next event will be in two weeks at Finlandia Trophy.

“I really want to work on my short program so that I have less stress and less fear,” said Hendrickx. “I really hope I can perform a good short there and that’s the main goal. I had a lot of confidence for the free right now because I did two good competitions, so now everything is on the short.”

Young You

Skating to “Mosaic” by Billy Esteba for the short program, South Korea’s Young You landed a triple Lutz-triple toe, double Axel and triple flip. The 2020 Four Continents silver medalist went on to earn a level four on all three spins and earned a new season’s best of 67.66 for third place.

The 21-year-old from Seoul said she had trained hard since her Grand Prix in France where she placed ninth.

“I changed a little bit the steps and the spins because I didn’t get a lot of points on the last Grand Prix for them,” You shared. “I tried to focus more on the spins and steps and the program. I think it got better than before.”

The skater admitted she wasn’t expecting to head into the free skate in third place.

“It doesn’t really change my mindset for tomorrow,” said You. “I don’t really care about the medal or the podium. I just care about how I skate. I just hope that I can skate as well as today for tomorrow. That’s my only goal.”

The four-time Grand Prix bronze medalist scored a new season’s best for her free skate, placing fourth (131.16) in this segment. Her nostalgic routine to the “Titanic Suite” featured five clean triple jumps. The only minor errors were an underrotated triple flip (in combination with a double toe) and a slightly underrotated triple Lutz in a double Axel-double toe sequence. All three spins were awarded a level four with positive GOEs, while the footwork garnered a level two. However, with a total score of 198.82, she slipped to fourth place overall.

Sarah Everhardt

USA’s Sarah Everhardt took a fall on an underrotated triple loop, but was otherwise clean in her short program to “Reel Around the Sun.” The 2025 Four Continents bronze medalist otherwise produced a triple Lutz-triple toe and double Axel while earning a level four on two spins.

The three-time Challenger Series medalist opened her free skate to Poor Things with a solid triple Lutz-triple toe and double Axel, but had several costly underrotations thereafter. Two spins were graded a level four, and she placed sixth in the free skate and fifth overall (125.28/186.69).

The 18-year-old, who was seventh at Skate Canada last week, said her performance was ‘ok’ and relayed that she can do better.

“It’s been a long two weeks, but I can’t complain,” Everhardt summed up. “It’s my job to go out there and perform no matter what. I know I have a lot of things to work on. Last week was kind of like a wake-up call for me. I just need to put in a lot more hard work. I think I kind of relaxed a little bit. Last year was a really good season, and I kind of thought that it was all just going to stay there. But I need to keep putting in the work and working much more than I have been to get to the level I want to be in. I want to win. So, I need to work to get there.”

Ahsun Yun

Japan’s Yuna Aoki placed sixth overall (183.31), followed by Ahsun Yun of South Korea (180.23), Anna Pezzetta of Italy (173.75) and Japan’s Wakaba Higuchi (168.27).

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