The International Skating Union Figure Skating Grand Prix season is still a couple of weeks away, but this week marked the halfway point in the Challenger Series. Many fan-favorite Japanese skaters competed at the Tokyo Regionals. But the Trialeti Trophy in Batumi, Georgia showcased many Olympians’ season debuts, as well as some controversial scoring decisions, to set the tone for the 2026-27 season.
Georgian ice dance champions Diana Davis and Gleb Smolkin took the title. The pair also won gold at the Kinoshita Cup in early September, and continued their success with this 30-point victory. The men’s champion, Nika Egadze, was also a member of the Georgian team. Egadze made his season debut at the Trialeti Trophy, with his short program to the Pulp Fiction soundtrack and his free skate to the Spider-Man soundtrack.
The pairs champions were Georgian skaters and Olympic silver medalists Anastasiia Metelkina and Luka Berulava, also making their season debut. They beat Anastasia Mishina and Aleksandr Galliamov, individual neutral athletes and 2022 Olympic bronze medalists, by nearly 10 points. This was Mishina and Galliamov’s first international competition since Russian athletes were banned from international competition following the 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
Despite the large margin, fans have questioned Metelkina and Berulava’s win, arguing that the pair’s unsteady lifts and throw-jump landings during their free program should have earned them a lower score. Some accused the event of ‘homecooking,’ a term used for perceived scoring favoritism toward home-country skaters.
The women’s event was the only one in which a Georgian skater did not win gold, with Estonian skater Niina Petrõkina coming out on top. The Trialeti Trophy marks Petrõkina’s third gold medal of the season, after she previously won the Lombardia Trophy in Italy and the Tallinn Open in her home country of Estonia.
Petrõkina has made quite a splash this season by attempting a quadruple Salchow jump in her free skate. In the past four years of figure skating, very few women have attempted quadruple jumps, colloquially known as quads, in competition. Even when quads were more common in women’s figure skating, no skater older than 17 has landed them successfully in competition. Petrõkina is 22 and has not yet landed a clean quadruple Salchow in competition, but the season is only just beginning.
In second place was individual neutral athlete Adeliia Petrosian. Petrosian has also been highly discussed this season because of her coaching switch from Eteri Tutberidze to Inna Goncharenko. Tutberidze is infamous in the figure skating world due to the unusually consistent success of her skaters, as well as her allegedly abusive training methods. Many of her skaters have been forced to retire abnormally young due to severe injuries or mental burnout.
Petrosian has been recovering from a hip injury but still performed two clean skates at this competition. Despite coming in second place, Petrosian won the free skate in a “Game of Thrones” battle between Petrõkina and Petrosian.
