Archive May 1, 2025

American ice dance brother and sister Alex and Maia Shibutani are set to return to competitive figure skating, ending a seven-year hiatus during which Maia was diagnosed with cancer.

They took a break after winning bronze at the 2018 Winter Olympics, before Maia had surgery to remove a tumour from her kidney.

The pair, known as the Shib Sibs, have written four childrens ‘ books in their time away from the sport, but return with an eye on the 2026 Games in Milan and Cortina.

“These past seven years have challenged and inspired us in ways we never expected”, 30-year-old Maia said.

Aged 20 and 16, the Shibutanis won bronze at the 2011 World Championships, making them the youngest ice dancers in almost 50 years to win a world medal.

They also won silver in 2016 and bronze in 2017 and are two-time US champions.

They won bronze medals in the ice dance and the team event at the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, making history as the first athletes of Asian descent – their parents are Japanese – and only non-white team to earn an Olympic ice dance medal.

“Our experiences and the new skills we’ve developed during our time away from competition have brought us different perspectives and created some exciting new possibilities”, said 34-year-old Alex.

“We don’t take any of this for granted. We’re really enjoying the process and look forward to performing and competing together again”.

Justin Dillion, US figure skating’s senior director of athlete high performance, said it was “incredibly exciting”.

“They are strong ambassadors for the sport, both on and off the ice”, he said.

European Challenge Cup: Edinburgh v Bath

Where: Hive Stadium, Edinburgh When: Saturday, 3 May Time: 15: 00 BST

There’s a smile on the face of Grant Gilchrist when the chat turns to Finn Russell and what Edinburgh might have in store for the Scotland fly-half when Bath come to town on Saturday for the semi-final of the European Challenge Cup.

The veteran lock, close to 14 years an Edinburgh man, knows all about Bath’s status as the runaway leaders in England’s Premiership. He has seen the footage of the landslide wins, the 40, 50 and 60-pointers, all inspired by the marvel in the 10 jersey.

That is why he is smiling. Russell’s homecoming is a very big deal and the bid to stop him wreaking havoc is what is floating Gilchrist’s boat.

“This can be a tough place to play, whoever you are”, he says, on the latest Scotland Rugby Podcast.

“We’ve got so much respect for Finn and for Bath as a team, but they’ve got a proposition on their hands if they think they’re coming up here just to have a walk in the park.

Gilchrist is not just one of Edinburgh’s leaders, he has, too many times, been the man who has had to step forward and explain the non-performances and near-misses that are in the DNA of the club.

They are the great underachievers and they know it. For Gilchrist, who has been an Edinburgh fan since he was a boy, it has been an emotional ride.

The pride he feels in wearing the jersey is absolute, as is the dejection he has shown when things have gone wrong. He wears his heart on his sleeve. The search for a trophy has almost become an obsession at this point.

He has played in a Heineken Cup semi-final and a Pro14 semi-final, both against Ulster and both lost. And here he is again, still fighting and still believing, even when most pundits reckon that Bath will have too much for them.

What do Edinburgh have to get right against Russell’s boys?

A few weeks back, a Sharks squad containing 10 World Cup winners and six double World Cup winners came to Edinburgh and tried to” bully us”, as Gilchrist puts it.

The Sharks won late, late in the day, but it was a battle and Edinburgh went toe-to-toe in the physical stakes.

Finding that consistency has been their issue for years”. We’ve spoken about that being a kind of DNA moment, “he says of recent performances against South African packs.

” That’s got to be every week. That can’t just be when a big South African team comes here to bash you, or when a big English team like this weekend comes to bash you. “

Bath can scrap, but they would rather out-play you with their pace and vision, with Russell pulling all the strings.

In 16 games in three different competitions this season, they’ve hit the 40-point mark. They put more than 50 on Newcastle Falcons and Gloucester – and more than 60 on Gloucester and Saracens.

Gilchrist knows what is coming if Edinburgh allow them to play.

” We’re gonna have to defend unbelievably well, “he said”. We’re gonna have to be as connected as we’ve been. Our first-phase defence is gonna have to stop them on the gainline.

“I’ve seen teams trying to go after Finn, focusing on him and trying to smash him, but he’s too good a player for that. His passing game is too good.

The Edinburgh players decided unanimously that they wanted this game played at the Hive rather than in the main stadium at Murrayfield. They want the place to be full and raucous.

It is also going be” a little bit out of the comfort zone for Finn to come here with a different atmosphere to what he might expect”.

Gilchrist talks about the motivation to win, not just for himself or the current squad but for all the others who have gone before, reams of players who have” given their heart and soul “to Edinburgh without ever having had any title to show for it.

There is a mammoth task staring them in the face on Saturday”. Glasgow, rightly, got all the plaudits last season (when they won the URC), but we’ve got to write our own story – and our own story is this weekend, “Gilchrist added.