🇬🇧 Zarah Wood / Flavien Giniaux are announced as a new pairs team www.instagram.com/p/DZngXU3ovq...

ISU Comm 2795 - Ice Dance - Junior and Senior Requirements for Technical Specifications 2026/27 isu-d8g8b4b7ece7aphs.a03.azurefd.net/isudamcontai...

New interview with ISU President Jae Youl Kim from Congress! He discussed athlete compensation (and comments by IOC President Kirsty Coventry) plus avoiding misunderstandings with athletes and coaches when changes are introduced. youtu.be/AkXoJj3W984

🇨🇭 Kimmy Repond will now be coached by Luca Demattè www.blick.ch/sport/winter...

🇺🇸 Audrey Shin / Spencer Akira Howe are announced as a new pairs team www.instagram.com/p/DZh6Vlluwm...

Check out Bingying’s review of this year’s Stars On Ice Canada! #SOI26 anythinggoe.com/stars-on-ice...

#ISUCongress26 Technical Committees 🗳️ Singles / Pairs: Leena Laaksonen (FIN) - ran unopposed 🗳️ Ice Dance: Michaela Cesaro (ITA) 🗳️ Synchronized Skating: Nina Bischoff (SUI)

#ISUCongress26 election results: 🗳️ President: Jae Youl Kim (KOR) - ran unopposed 🗳️ VP of figure skating: György Elek (HUN) 🗳️ Figure skating Council members: Tina Lundgren (USA), Tatsuro Matsumura (JPN), Benoit Lavoie (CAN), Susan Lynch (AUS), Fabio Bianchetti (ITA)

🇺🇸 Madison Chock / Evan Bates confirm they will not compete in the 2026/27 season deepedgeplus.kyodonews.jp/news/178633/

🇺🇸 Emily Chan / Spencer Akira Howe announce the end of their partnership www.instagram.com/p/DZaUryIjrz...

Question: It is always more expensive to host events; the federations don't have the economic strength to lose money every year to host events for ISU. #ISUCongress26

Japan wishes to start with an apology, the continued weakening of the Japanese Yen hurts ISU. We believe ISU should continue to diversify commercial strategy and investments. We understand transformation is costly and support it. #ISUCongress26

JYK: Need to build trust in judging; new approach to allow selecting the best judges; statistical modal against median of panel; objective evaluation of judging patterns; FIG uses this method, company Maelstrom. #ISUCongress26

JYK: Goal to simplify rules of figure skating to make it easier to understand; no drastic changes for 2030; anything significant will be for following cycle; but test and work on changes so they are announced by 2028 and give time to prepare. #ISUCongress26

JYK: Fear that speed skating in 2030 won't be hosted in France; bad sign, need to modernize to grow sport. Reviving a 1932 form of mass start. #ISUCongress26

JYK: Goal is not to replace Synchro 16; the plan is to have both. #ISUCongress26

[Noting the use of the world "urban" to describe Syncho9; is this a reference to planned theme of street dance next year? Could write an essay about the racial coding of "urban" and "street" - Anna]

JYK: Synchro9 will also feature head-to-head battles #ISUCongress26

JYK "Synchro9 is not a watered down version of Synchro". Notes simpler judging with two pillars of artistry and technical content. #ISUCongress26

JYK: Synchronized skating one of skating's "best kept secrets"; problem is structural, and synchro 9 allows more members to build competitive teams; fewer skaters mean each athlete covers more ice, more speed, and excitement, easier to follow and watch. #ISUCongress26

JYK: Announcing 2028 ISU Combined World Championships - 4 disciplines, 2 weeks, Beijing. ["Are you not excited?" Asked for applause 😅 - Anna] #ISUCongress26

CS: New commercial strategy with media, sponsorship, broadcast rights with RFPs out now, "a lot of interest in our rights...strike the right balance between revenue -cash- and free-to-broadcast" opportunities to keep visibility #ISUCongress26

CS: In 27-28 introducing new GP schedule, and the GP semi-finals. [First public confirmation of this change - Anna] CS: #ISUCongress26

CS: plan for new calendar of competitions - "create heroes from athletes" by having them compete more, and top athletes more against each other. #ISUCongress26

CS: The plan is to create a new single platform; "we heard you loud and clear that we need to communicate with you, our members, better" - planning new unified stakeholder portal with a two-way communication and workflow. Asking members to verify federation roles and contact people. #ISUCongress26

CS: Partnership with Deloitte is to make all the pieces of data talk to each other, "digital landscape" needs to empower communication with athletes and members, and have a single source of data - "a single source of truth" across orgs. #ISUCongress26

Next up: Secretary General Colin Smith (CS from here on) discussing modernization of ISU staff capabilities. #ISUCongress26

JYK: Goal is to return skating to TV Prime Time. Why do we care about TV? It funds 88% of sport outside Olympics money. Modernizing event structure and product to meet challenge. #ISUCongress26

JYK: News for next two years: Double prize money for athletes; increase travel contributions for members #ISUCongress26

JYK: Investment income of 27M ready to be invested in sport per year #ISUCongress26

JYK: Investment portfolio with Cambridge Associates - $348M - grown $60M in 2 years. #ISUCongress26

JYK: "Have strengthened ISU's commercial offering for next olympic cycle" #ISUCongress26

JYK: During Olympics 37x increase on socia media views on ISU social media. First docu-series on Netflix (Glitter and Gold) "received positive feedback; was our first but certainly won't be our last docu-series". #ISUCongress26

JYK: Fan survey had 27,000 responses in 7 languages, still processing data. 55% respondents under 35 years old. Wanted more athlete-centered storytelling. #ISUCongress26

JYK: "our duty of care does not end when athletes leave the ice and arena". Talks about AI-supported social media monitoring available to athletes (to be discussed at tomorrow's athlete roundtable). #ISUCongress26

JYK: Importance of mental health. Calm Zone at comps 50% of athletes stop by. Video showing Piper, Phoebe Baker doing crafts, and Allison and Saulius with dogs 😊 #ISUCongress26

JYK: "Our athletes must know they are judged fairly...and fans... must have confidence in the fairness of sport." Promises more on judging integrity later. #ISUCongress26

JYK: Safeguarding: "Athletes are the heart and soul of our sport, we must protect them".

JYK: Working with Swiss Timing on AI, longterm vision to assist officials with AI; noting metrics about height and speed shown at Milano. #ISUCongress26

JYK: 88% of members receive development funding; noting new ISU competition hosts Azerbaijan, Georgia, and UAE. 15,000+ athletes participated in development projects. #ISUCongress26

JYK: Allowing skaters access to their photos from Getty images: this was a request from athletes commission #ISUCongress26

JYK: Because FS doesn't have world records like speed/short track, introduced "trailblazer on ice" award (given to Ilia Malinin). #ISUCongress26

[Notable that no comments from President JYK on transparency in judging in FS - Anna] #ISUCongress26

JYK: In short track, same camera is now used for viewers and technical panel reviews; also same videos used for technical reviews of possible infringements [Interesting - will this head toward figure skating? - Anna] #ISUCongress26

JYK: TV Contracts are the biggest source of revenue; highlights on ice and drone cameras, commentary on streams #ISUCongress26

Jae Youl Kim: For growth: highlighting stronger storytelling and focus on athletes; introduced LEDs at Milano at ISU's own expense, to show off skating "at its very best" - NBC, IOC and others spoke highly of initiatives. #ISUCongress26

JYK: Biggest achievement is the reform of the "bloated" constitution. Adopted with 92% approval. More "transparent" and "agile" Constitution, with Integrity Unit. #ISUCongress26

Report from President Jae Youl Kim - says it will be long because people have asked for a lot of details. #ISUCongress26

Another procedural proposal from Council: moving honorary appointments until after the elections section finishes. No comments, passes. Agenda is approved. Minutes also approved. #ISUCongress26

Proposal from Council to amend constitution and make election rules for Tech committee chair and members match the Council election rules. #ISUCongress26 LUX objects, proposal is dead.