He's back: Daniel Grassl shows

Last weekend, the Meran native celebrated his long-awaited comeback and was already in impressive form. At the ISU Challenger competition Denis Ten Memorial, the 22-year-old won the freestyle and took 4th place overall.

A lack of attention in the tracking system for doping controls resulted in Daniel Grassl being banned from training and competition for a good year during his training stays abroad. Since June 2024, the Meran native has been officially allowed to start training again and has been preparing for the new season in Turin with Edoardo de Bernardis.

This makes you want more The 2022 European vice-champion is not yet in top form, but the result of his first outing in Astana, Kazakhstan, whets his appetite for more.

In the short program, which Grassl performed to the music of Frederic Chopin, he still showed some insecurities and fell during two compulsory elements - the quadruple Lutz and the triple Axel. Despite finishing sixth after the first day of competition, the four-time Italian champion did not let that get him down and showed his usual fighting spirit in the freestyle. Grassl landed two quadruples right at the beginning and then jumped five triple jumps and two triple Axels as the program progressed. With this performance, he achieved the best freestyle in the men's competition, which allowed him to gain two places. A total of 2 points brought the Meraner to fourth place. The victory went to host Mikhail Schaidorow (6 points) ahead of Vladimir Litwintsoff from Azerbaijan (5) and Nika Edagze (2, Georgia).

Daniel Grassl gave a lively performance. © APA/afp / ANTTI HAMALAINEN

There was also a strong result for Italy in the women's competition. Lara Naki Gutmann from Trento, like Grassl, showed the strongest free program after finishing 4th in the short program and managed to jump to 3rd place overall with 188,86 points. Gutmann has South Tyrolean roots, but lives and trains in Trento with Gabriele Minchio.

The next highlights are waiting After this first showdown in Kazakhstan, Daniel Grassl only has a few weeks left to prepare for the next big events in the first part of the season. In just one month he will be competing in his first Grand Prix competition after the forced break. At the traditional NHK Trophy competition in Japan, he will meet international superstars such as Juma Kagijama and Jason Brown as well as his two compatriots Matteo Rizzo from Milan and Gabriele Frangipani from Bolzano. He trained with the latter for many years in Neumarkt.

Just one week after the event in Japan, Grassl will start at another Grand Prix competition in Finland, where he will again meet the Japanese Kagijama and other top figure skaters.

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He's back: Daniel Grassl shows

For over a year, Daniel Grassl disappeared from the ice and from the scene.

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