By: Dylan Nazareth

Roman Sadovsky wrapped up his Grand Prix campaign in November at the Finlandia Trophy, posting a new season’s best for a fourth-place finish. It was just the latest strong performance he’s put out this season, starting with a Golden skate at this summer’s Cranberry Cup in Boston.

Speaking at Skate Canada High Performance Camp in late August, Sadovsky spoke about that competition and how good it felt to put his Olympic year programs out on the ice for the first time.

“It was just a joy honestly,” said Sadovsky. “Really fun to skate in Boston. Good crowd and a lot of noise.”

This year, Sadovsky is once again skating to “Cold” by Chris Stapleton for his short program, which dazzled in the 2022-23 season, earning some of the highest scores of his career.

“It’s a program that I scored really high on in the past, so I wanted to bring it back,” he said. “I had a really good feeling for it, I find it really complements the long program. They’re, like, completely different in energy, completely different in style, and I just like the two together.”

His long program, meanwhile, is something brand-new. Skated to “Claire de lune / Photograph” by Claude Debussy and Cody Fry, he teased it back in June as a “very happy program, very pure, nostalgic.” Pairing the new long with one of his classic short programs, he expanded on what he likes in the contrast between the two.

“The short is like a completely opposite feeling to the long,” he said in August. “It’s almost a cool, passive aggressive, I don’t really care about the hate kind of thing. At least that’s how I feel about it. The long is very, like, thankful and accepting. I just love how they both complement each other.”

Guiding Sadovsky through this season is longtime coach Tracey Wainman. From her perspective, these programs work so well for Sadovsky by letting him put his most authentic skating on display.

“I really feel that this year’s program is really pure, natural skating that Roman does so well,” said Wainman. “It might look simple, but it really isn’t, you know? It’s just the quality. I want it to look easy, but to make something that difficult look easy is a whole other level. And he’s very capable of doing that. So I just find that this program is just Roman doing Roman really well.”

Skating these programs to a season’s best score in Helsinki two weeks ago, it’s clear the 26-year-old skater is feeling good in his skating. Now, Sadovsky will have eyes set on two big skates at Canadian Nationals in January, as he looks to book his place on Team Canada at the 2026 Olympics in Milan.