Skaters who reached the age of 14 by July 1, 2012 were eligible to compete on the senior Grand Prix circuit.
Prior to competing in a Grand Prix event, skaters were required to have earned the following scores (3/5 of the top scores at the 2012 World Championships):[2]
Italy's Carolina Kostner withdrew from the ladies' event due to insufficient fitness,[4] the United States' Johnny Weir withdrew due to a right hip injury,[5] and Germany's Aliona Savchenko / Robin Szolkowy withdrew as a result of Savchenko's severe sinus infection.[6]
Overview
Jeremy Abbott of the United States was first in the men's short program, followed by Japan's Takahito Mura and France's Brian Joubert.[7][8][9] Mura was also second in the free skating but finished first overall and took his first Grand Prix title, while Abbott took silver, and France's Florent Amodio – 7th in the short – won the segment and rose to third overall.[10][11][12]Jorik Hendrickx withdrew before the free skating due to a twisted ankle in an off-ice warm up.[10]
Despite spraining her right ankle before the start of the competition, Russia's Yulia Lipnitskaya placed first in the ladies' short program ahead of the United States' Ashley Wagner and Russia's Elizaveta Tuktamysheva.[9][13][14][15] Wagner won the free skating and her second Grand Prix title, Tuktamysheva rose to take the silver, and Lipnitskaia finished with the bronze.[12][16][17]
Russia's Yuko Kavaguti / Alexander Smirnov won the pairs' short program by over four points ahead of Canada's Meagan Duhamel / Eric Radford, with China's Peng Cheng / Zhang Hao in third.[9][18][19] Kavaguti / Smirnov were second in the free skating but their lead from the short program took them to the gold medal, Duhamel / Radford were first in the free skating and finished second overall, and Italy's Stefania Berton / Ondrej Hotarek rose to take the bronze medal despite placing 5th in the segment.[12][20][21]
