Jacob Sanchez

Jacob Sanchez (born April 23, 2007) is an American figure skater. He is the CS Tallinn Trophy champion.

Jacob Sanchez
Born	(2007-04-23) April 23, 2007 (age 17) Middletown, New York, United States
Height	1.68 m (5 ft 6 in)
Figure skating career
Country	United States
Discipline	Men's singles
Coach	Oleg Makarov Larisa Selezneva
Skating club	Hudson Valley Figure Skating Club
Began skating	2012
Medal record
Winter Youth Olympics 2024 Gangwon Team Junior Grand Prix Final 2024–25 Grenoble Singles

At the junior level, he is the 2024 Youth Olympic silver medalist in the team event, the 2024–25 Junior Grand Prix Final champion, the 2024 JGP Turkey and the 2024 JGP Slovenia gold medalist, the 2023 U.S. Junior silver medalist, and the 2021 U.S. Junior pewter medalist.^[1][2]

Personal life

Sanchez was born on April 23, 2007 in Middletown, New York to parents, Johana, a school teacher, and Jose, a retired police officer. He also has two brothers, Joseph and Jayden.^[3]

Sanchez is Puerto Rican and serves as an ambassador of Diversify Ice, an organization that strives to support competitive figure skaters from minority groups. During the 2024 Winter Olympics, close friend and fellow competitor, Rio Nakata, gifted Sanchez with a necklace which he began regularly wearing to competitions, describing it as a "good luck charm."^[4] In addition to figure skating, he also enjoys playing hockey, football, and soccer.^[3][5]

His figure skating idols are Yuzuru Hanyu, Nathan Chen, and Vincent Zhou.^[6]

Sanchez has expressed interest in becoming a physical therapist after completing his competitive figure skating career.^[3]

Career

Early career

Sanchez began figure skating in 2012 at the age of five. He originally wanted to be a hockey player so his mother enrolled him into "Learn to Skate" lessons. However, he was unable to use hockey skates so he tried using figure skates instead. He ultimately decided that he enjoyed the feeling of balancing and gliding across the ice in those skates. Following this, he began watching figure skaters compete on TV and ultimately decided that he wanted to pursue the sport.^[7][8][9] He then began training under 1984 Olympic pair bronze medalists, Larisa Selezneva and Oleg Makarov at the Hudson Valley Figure Skating Club.^[3][8]

Sanchez won the silver medal at the 2018 U.S. Juvenile Championships before going on to win bronze at the 2019 U.S. Intermediate Championships.^[2]

Moving up to the junior level the following year, Sanchez finished seventeenth at the 2020 U.S. Junior Championships and went on to win the pewter medal at the 2021 U.S. Junior Championships.^[3]

Junior career

2021–22 season: Junior international debut

Sanchez started the season by the bronze medal on the junior level at the 2021 Cranberry Cup International. In addition, he debuted on the Junior Grand Prix circuit, finishing sixth at 2021 JGP Poland.^[2]

In January, Sanchez competed at the 2022 U.S. Junior Championships, coming in ninth.^[2]

2022–23 season: U.S. Junior national silver medal

In August, Sanchez competed on the junior level at the 2022 Cranberry Cup International, Sanchez won the silver medal. Three months later, he competed as a junior at the 2023 U.S. Eastern Sectionals, finishing fourth.^[2]

Qualifying for the 2023 U.S. Junior Championships, Sanchez won the silver medal behind Lucas Broussard. He then ended the season by taking gold on the junior level at the 2023 Coupe du Printemps.^[2]

2023–24 season: Youth Olympics team silver

Selected to compete on the 2023–24 ISU Junior Grand Prix circuit, Sanchez finished fourth at 2023 JGP Thailand and fifth at 2023 JGP Hungary.^[1]

Sanchez was then named to the 2024 Winter Youth Olympic team. In the men's singles individual event, Sanchez won the short program but placed sixth in the free skate, dropping to fourth overall. In the team event, Sanchez helped Team U.S.A. take silver by placing second in his segment.^[2]

Competing at the 2024 World Junior Championships in Taipei, Taiwan, Sanchez placed ninth in the short program and fifteenth in the free skate, finishing tenth overall.^[2][1]

2024–25 season: Junior Grand Prix Final gold

Sanchez started the season by on the junior level at the 2022 Cranberry Cup International, where finished second behind New Zealand skater, Yanhao Li.^[2]

Competing on the 2024–25 ISU Junior Grand Prix series, Sanchez won gold at 2024 JGP Turkey. Prior to his victory he had no second assignment on the series, but was assigned to 2024 JGP Slovenia following his gold medal win.^[10] In Slovenia, Sanchez managed to win a second gold medal. With these results, he qualified for the 2024–25 Junior Grand Prix Final as the highest ranking junior man.^[1][2][11] At that event, Sanchez placed second in the short program with a score of 79.24, only 0.15 points behind leader, Rio Nakata. In the free skate, Sanchez would deliver a strong performance, less than a point below his personal best and second in the segment behind Seo Min-kyu. However, with an overall score 227.38, Sanchez earned enough to win the gold medal overall.^[12][13][14] Following the event, Sanchez said, "I have so many emotions right now. If you would have asked me at the beginning of the season that I would go to the JGP final and medal I wouldn’t have believed it. Also the last week and a half was pretty rough. I was quite sick last week and also had some problems with my lower back but I didn’t let that get to me. The skates weren’t perfect but I pushed through." He also credited fellow competitor and close friend, Rio Nakata for helping him through the competition, saying, "It’s been great to be on this whole trip together with Rio, have him by my side and also see him again after quite a long time."^[15]

Selected to compete at the 2025 World Junior Championships in Debrecen, Hungary, Sanchez placed third in the short program and fifth in the free skate, finishing in fourth place overall, only 3 points off the podium.^[2][16] In an interview following the event, he said, "Yeah, it’s a bit unfortunate. I was so close. I actually felt very confident today. I think I did the two triple Axels at the beginning the best I’ve ever done in competition... But I still think I had a really good season, and I’m happy with it."^[17]

Senior career

2024–25 season: Senior international debut

In mid-November, Sanchez made his senior international debut at the 2024 Tallinn Trophy, where he won the gold medal.^[1] Debuting on the national senior level at the 2025 U.S. Championships in Wichita, Kansas, Sanchez finished the event in seventh place after placing sixth in both the short and free program segments.^[2]

Programs

Season	Short program	Free skating	Exhibition
2020–21 [3]	Footloose (from Footloose) by Kenny Loggins choreo. by Larisa Selezneva	Newsies Seize the Day King of New York by Alan Menken choreo. by Larisa Selezneva
2021–22 [18]		Who Wants to Live Forever by Queen performed by The Tenors choreo. by Larisa Selezneva
2022–23 [19]	Singin' in the Rain (from Glee) performed by Matthew Morrison Rain Dance by Whilk & Misky choreo. by Larisa Selezneva
2023–24 [20]		Sarabande Suite by Globus choreo. by Sebastian Arrango, Adam Blake
2024–25 [9]	Music by John Miles choreo. by Adam Blake, Larisa Selezneva	lo Ci Saro by Andrea Bocelli & Lang Lang choreo. by Adam Blake, Larisa Selezneva	Run by Joji

Competitive highlights

• CS – Event of the ISU Challenger Series
• JGP – Event of the ISU Junior Grand Prix Series

Competition placements at senior level ^[2]

Season	2024–25
U.S. Championships	7th
CS Tallinn Trophy	1st

Competition placements at junior level ^[2]

Season	2019–20	2020–21	2021–22	2022–23	2023–24	2024–25
Winter Youth Olympics					4th
Winter Youth Olympics (Team event)					2nd
World Junior Championships					10th	4th
Junior Grand Prix Final						1st
U.S. Championships	17th	4th	9th	2nd
JGP Hungary					5th
JGP Poland			6th
JGP Slovenia						1st
JGP Thailand					4th
JGP Turkey						1st
Coupe du Printemps				1st
Cranberry Cup			3rd	2nd		2nd

Detailed results

ISU personal best scores in the +5/-5 GOE System ^[2]

Segment	Type	Score	Event
Total	TSS	229.46	2024 JGP Slovenia
Short program	TSS	85.09	2024 JGP Slovenia
	TES	47.03	2024 JGP Slovenia
	PCS	38.06	2024 JGP Slovenia
Free skating	TSS	148.97	2024 CS Tallinn Trophy
	TES	76.87	2024 CS Tallinn Trophy
	PCS	74.10	2024 JGP Slovenia

• At national events in the United States, pewter medals are awarded for fourth place.

Senior level

Results in the 2024–25 season ^[2]

Date	Event	SP		FS		Total
		P	Score	P	Score	P	Score
Nov 11–17, 2024	2024 CS Tallinn Trophy	2	76.63	1	148.97	1	225.60
Jan 20–26, 2025	2025 U.S. Championships	6	82.64	6	146.89	7	229.53

Junior level

Results in the 2019–20 season ^[2]

Date	Event	SP		FS		Total
		P	Score	P	Score	P	Score
Jan 20–26, 2020	2020 U.S. Championships (Junior)	17	49.21	15	92.98	17	142.19

Results in the 2020–21 season ^[2]

Date	Event	SP		FS		Total
		P	Score	P	Score	P	Score
Jan 11–21, 2021	2021 U.S. Championships (Junior)	1	66.91	6	110.64	4	177.55

Results in the 2021–22 season ^[2]

Date	Event	SP		FS		Total
		P	Score	P	Score	P	Score
Aug 11–15, 2021	2021 Cranberry Cup International	3	67.08	3	113.24	3	180.32
Sep 29 – Oct 2, 2021	2021 JGP Poland	3	70.92	7	123.11	6	194.03
Jan 3–9, 2022	2022 U.S. Championships (Junior)	13	48.41	8	106.62	9	155.03

Results in the 2022–23 season ^[2]

Date	Event	SP		FS		Total
		P	Score	P	Score	P	Score
Aug 10–14, 2022	2022 Cranberry Cup International	2	64.43	3	108.50	2	172.93
Jan 23–29, 2023	2023 U.S. Championships (Junior)	4	69.85	2	143.72	2	213.57
Mar 17–19, 2023	2023 Coupe du Printemps	1	70.29	1	142.34	1	212.63

Results in the 2023–24 season ^[2]

Date	Event	SP		FS		Total
		P	Score	P	Score	P	Score
Aug 23–26, 2023	2023 JGP Thailand	1	77.69	5	123.80	4	201.49
Sep 20–23, 2023	2023 JGP Hungary	5	65.15	4	133.52	5	198.67
Jan 28–30, 2024	2024 Winter Youth Olympics	1	76.38	6	123.90	4	200.28
Feb 1, 2024	2024 Winter Youth Olympics (Team event)	—	—	2	129.77	2	129.77
Feb 26 – Mar 3, 2024	2024 World Junior Championships	9	73.35	15	125.85	10	199.17

Results in the 2024–25 season ^[2]

Date	Event	SP		FS		Total
		P	Score	P	Score	P	Score
Aug 8–11, 2024	2024 Cranberry Cup International	2	75.12	2	143.09	2	218.21
Sep 18–21, 2024	2024 JGP Turkey	1	81.14	1	139.11	1	220.25
Oct 2–5, 2024	2024 JGP Slovenia	1	85.09	1	144.37	1	229.46
Dec 5–8, 2024	2024–25 Junior Grand Prix Final	2	79.24	2	148.14	1	227.38
Feb 25 – Mar 2, 2025	2025 World Junior Championships	3	82.88	5	147.53	4	230.41