World champs Kneirim and Frazier to compete at Skate America

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) — World pairs champions Alex Knierim and Brandon Frazier will begin their figure skating season at Skate America in late October, where 15-year-old world junior champ Isabeau Levito also will be making her highly anticipated Grand Prix debut.

U.S. Figure Skating announced the majority of its Grand Prix assignments Friday.

Levito and 17-year-old Ilia Malinin, who also won this year's junior world title, headline the next generation of U.S. skaters with eyes on the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan, Italy. That group includes 18-year-old Liam Kapeikis, who will join Malinin at Skate America, and 16-year-old Lindsay Thorngren, who will begin her season at Skate Canada.

Knierim and Frazier will join Levito for their second Grand Prix assignment in early November in Sheffield, England, while Malinin and Thorngren will make their second appearance in late November in Espoo, Finland.

Those locations replace the Cup of China, which was moved because of COVID-19 outbreaks there, and the Rostelecom Cup, which was stripped from Russia by the International Skating Union because of its conflict in Ukraine.