Isabeau Levito likely to become youngest American to make Grand Prix Final in 15 years – Home of the Olympic Channel

Isabeau Levito, 15, finished runner-up at Grand Prix England and will very likely become the youngest American to qualify for figure skating’s Grand Prix Final since 2007.
Levito, the world junior champion, finished second in both of her starts on the six-event Grand Prix Series to all but clinch a spot in December’s six-skater Final. It would take very unexpected results in the last two Grand Prix events the next two weeks to knock her out.
“That was my goal,” Levito said of qualifying for the Final, according to the International Skating Union. “[My free skate] was pretty good, but it was definitely short of perfection. I was slightly disappointed in my triple Lutz-triple loop combination. I know I can do it better, and I was a little upset when it wasn’t absolutely perfect.”
Japan’s Mai Mihara won Grand Prix England, totaling 217.43 points to edge Levito by 1.69. Two-time U.S. champion Bradie Tennell was 12th in the 12-woman field in her first competition in 18 months. Tennell missed all of last season with a foot injury and missed training time over the last two months with an ankle injury.
Levito, whose 10 triple jumps between two programs were all positively graded (aka clean), was bidding to become the youngest American to win a Grand Prix since Tara Lipinski in 1997. She ranks fourth in the world this season by best total score among senior women.
Levito was third at last season’s U.S. Championships but was too young for the Olympics. She went to junior worlds instead and became the first U.S. woman to win a junior or senior world title since 2008.
With Levito all but in, it’s now likely that the U.S. will qualify skaters in all four disciplines into the Final, which takes the top six per discipline over the six-event Grand Prix Series. The U.S. last had skaters in every event at the Final in 2007, including 14-year-old Caroline Zhang.
GRAND PRIX ENGLAND: Results
The Americans have risen in the absence of powerhouse Russia, whose skaters are banned due to the invasion of Ukraine. China, which has strong pairs’ teams, hasn’t had any skaters compete through four Grand Prix events.
Later Sunday, Italians Charlène Guignard and Marco Fabbri became the first ice dancers to qualify for the Grand Prix Final with their second win this season. Guignard and Fabbri, fifth at the Olympics, totaled 213.74 points and beat Brits Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson by 8.18. They rank second in the world this season by best total score behind Canadians Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier.
Grand Prix England highlights air Sunday at 4 p.m. ET on NBC, NBCSports.com/live and the NBC Sports app.
The Grand Prix Series moves this week to Japan for NHK Trophy, live on Peacock. The field includes world champions Shoma Uno and Kaori Sakamoto from Japan. The U.S. contingent is led by three-time world medalist ice dancers Madison Chock and Evan Bates.
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Olympic all-around champion Suni Lee said her upcoming sophomore season at Auburn will be her last and that she will return to elite gymnastics after this winter in a bid for the 2024 Paris Games.
“I don’t want it [the Olympics] to just be once in a lifetime,” she said in a video posted Tuesday. “I have my sights set on Paris in 2024, and I know what I have to do to get there. I’m looking forward to rolling up my sleeves and putting in the work.”
Lee, 19, hasn’t competed in elite international gymnastics since the Tokyo Games. She competed last winter and spring for Auburn in the NCAA, which has a different scoring system than the Olympics and usually requires different routines.
She took runner-up in April’s NCAA Championships all-around behind Trinity Thomas of Florida. She also won the balance beam title and helped Auburn to a fourth-place team finish, the best in program in history.
Lee then signaled a return to elite in July by participating in her first U.S. national team camp since the Tokyo Games.
Without Lee (and without Rio Olympic all-around champ Simone Biles), the U.S. women’s gymnastics team won the world title two weeks ago. Shilese Jones took all-around silver at worlds, where Lee’s Tokyo Olympic teammates Jade Carey and Jordan Chiles each won three medals.
The upcoming NCAA season runs from January into April. Lee has not said whether she plans to return to elite competition for the summer 2023 season, or if it will be in 2024 before the Paris Games.
Most Olympic medalist gymnasts who took breaks from elite came back before the Olympic year. Biles returned from a two-year competition break in 2018. Gabby Douglas and Aly Raisman took time off after the 2012 London Games and returned to competition in March 2015.
Biles has not competed since Tokyo and also not ruled out a return ahead of Paris 2024.
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thank you to my @AuburnU family, you’ll forever have a special place in my heart. let’s make this season the best one yet. WAR EAGLE! pic.twitter.com/8ezp9WdM04
— Sunisa lee (@sunisalee_) November 15, 2022

Ben Provisor, a two-time U.S. Olympic Greco-Roman wrestler, was banned 16 months, retroactive to July 11, after testing positive for amphetamine.
A U.S. Anti-Doping Agency review determined Provisor’s positive test was caused by medication prescribed by a physician that he was using in a therapeutic dose. Provisor did not have a current prescription nor did he have a valid therapeutic use exemption (TUE) at the time of his test that would have allowed him to take the medication legally.
Provisor has since obtained a prospective TUE.
The 32-year-old Provisor’s test was done at a competition where he qualified for the world championships. Provisor was given a provisional suspension in July and later replaced on the world team by the man he beat at the qualifier, Spencer Woods, in the week leading up to September’s worlds.
Provisor lost in the round of 16 at the Olympics in 2012 and 2016. He was eliminated before the final of last year’s Olympic Trials.
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