Senior figure skating events this year have extra importance and pressure for the competitors. This is especially true for the US men who are fighting to take an Olympic spot with one almost guaranteed to Nathan Chen. With the ISU Challenger Series starting this weekend, figure skating fans will get a look at two of the men vying for an Olympic spot: Tomoki Hiwatashi and Yaroslav Paniot.
Hiwatashi has been a known name in US Figure Skating for several years. He wracked up a plethora of junior titles, including a first-place finish at the World Junior Championships in 2019. Hiwatashi really burst onto the senior scene in that same season, placing fourth at the US Figure Skating Championships. He finished just behind Nathan Chen, Vincent Zhou, and Jason Brown who are the biggest names for US men in the sport.
Hiwatashi has shown flashes of greatness over the past two seasons. He placed third at the US Championships in 2020. However, he has often found himself in the middle of rankings. That is where Hiwatashi found himself after his first competition of the 2021/22 season. He placed seventh at the Cranberry Cup in August, the same ranking he earned at the 2021 US Championships.
Fellow US skater, Paniot, also earned the same rank at the Cranberry Cup he received at the last US Championships. He came in fourth in both competitions. Paniot’s ranking at the 2021 US Championships was unexpected following a tenth place finish at the same event in 2020. Paniot did not have the same name recognition as Hiwatashi going into last season. While he was new to skating for the US, he was a very experienced skater. Paniot competed for Ukraine for many years. During that time, he represented Ukraine in the 2018 Olympics and earned two National Titles.
Paniot has skated well so far during his career in the United States. He just scored his personal best in international competition at the 2021 Cranberry Cup, earning 210.84 points. Paniot finished just over five points ahead of Hiwatashi in that competition. Now, Paniot and Hiwatashi will be competing against each other for the second time this season at the Lombardia Trophy. It is an opportunity for both men to work through any kinks and try to perfect their programs leading up to the US Championships in January, which will be used to decide who is selected for the 2022 Olympic team.
Both men can compete with the best figure skaters in the United States if they are performing at the top of their game, but it is going to take perfection for them to rank as one of the top skaters in the country. The evidence of this can be seen in the scores from the Cranberry Cup where Vincent Zhou, another competitor from the US, finished 78 points ahead of Paniot and 83 points ahead of Hiwatashi. There are 25 men in the field at the Lombardia Trophy, but for Paniot and Hiwatashi, where they finish in the rankings matters less than the scores they earn. They have to build on the scores they earned in the first competition of the season if either man wants to see the ice in Beijing come 2022.