Ami Nakai took the lead at Saatva Skate America on Saturday with a short program that looked far calmer than it felt. The 18-year-old from Japan scored 82.20 points in Everett, Washington, landing a triple Axel and moving 7.96 points ahead of Alexandra Ignatova after the women’s short program.
The score was the world’s top short program mark this season, and it left Nakai in control of her path to December’s six-skater Grand Prix Final. If she finishes first or second at Skate America, she will qualify automatically, though she could still get in even if she places lower. That is the prize hanging over Sunday’s free skate at 4 p.m. ET on NBC and Peacock.
Nakai needed the kind of start that can shape a whole weekend, and she got it. She opened the Grand Prix season last month by repeating as Grand Prix France champion, so this lead gives her a chance to finish the first part of the season with two wins. If that happens, she would keep Japanese women in position to run the first four of six Grand Prix regular season events.
What made the performance stand out was not just the score but how she described getting through it. Nakai said she “couldn’t feel my legs” and that she was “so nervous, but I was able to trust myself.” That is the contradiction inside the result: a clean, high-value short program from a skater who did not feel in control while she was doing it.
Elsewhere at Skate America, the early rhythm dance went to Emilea Zingas and Vadym Kolesnik, who scored 82.52 points in their season debut, four hundredths shy of the top score this Grand Prix season. Alexa Gasparotto also made history in her senior Grand Prix debut, becoming the first Black woman to land a triple Axel on the Grand Prix Series, though she finished 12th.
For Nakai, the next step is simpler than the pressure around it: hold her place in the free skate and make the math work. She already has the lead, the top score of the season, and a route to December. Sunday will decide whether she leaves Skate America merely winning the short program or moving one step closer to the Final.
