Nina Pinzarrone

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Nina Pinzarrone
Nina Pinzarrone performing her short program at the 2024 Grand Prix de France.jpg
Nina Pinzarrone performing her short program at the 2024 Grand Prix de France
Born (2006-11-24) November 24, 2006 (age 18)
Brussels, Belgium
Figure skating career
CountryFlag of Belgium (civil).svg  Belgium
Discipline Women's singles
CoachAns Bocklandt
Dmitri Ovchinnikov
Skating clubASW Antwerp
Began skating2011
Medal record
European Championships
Bronze medal icon (B initial).svg 2024 Kaunas Singles
Bronze medal icon (B initial).svg 2025 Tallinn Singles
Belgian Championships
Gold medal icon (G initial).svg 2024 Mechelen Singles

Nina Pinzarrone (born November 24, 2006) is a Belgian figure skater. She is a two-time European bronze medalist (2024 and 2025) and a two-time ISU Grand Prix medalist, one of only two Belgian women to have medaled at those events. She placed eleventh at both the 2023 World Championships and the 2022 World Junior Championships.

Contents

At the domestic level, she is the 2024 and 2025 Belgian national champion and a two-time (2020, 2022) national junior champion.

Personal life

Pinzarrone was born on November 24, 2006, in Brussels, Belgium. Her father, Mario Pinzarrone, is of Italian origin, while her mother, Laurence Novalet, is a Belgian from Brussels. [1] [2] She has an older sister, Lily, who is also a figure skater. [3] Pinzarrone's mother tongue is French, but she skates in Flanders and goes to school in Dutch. Because her father is of Italian heritage, she studied the Italian language for a year as a fourth language but does not speak it. [4] She is studying for a degree in nutrition. [5]

Career

Early years

Pinzarrone began learning how to skate in 2010 at the age of three. She followed her sister Lily, who became interested after watching figure skating on television. [6]

2021–22 season: International junior debut

Pinzarrone made her international junior and ISU Junior Grand Prix debuts in August at the 2022 JGP France II, the second of two JGP events hosted in Courchevel, France. She placed fifth in the short program and sixth in the free skate to place sixth overall. At her second JGP assignment, the 2022 JGP Slovenia, Pinzarrone replicated her short program and free skate placements from Courchevel but finished fifth in the overall standings. [7]

Pinzarrone did not compete again until November, when she handily won her second Belgian junior national title. Following her win, between December 2021 and February 2022, she claimed the junior women's titles at the Santa Claus Cup, the Icelab International Cup, and the Dragon Trophy. She finished seventh at the Challenge Cup in March. [7]

In April, Pinzarrone competed at her first World Junior Championship. There, she was seventh in the short program but fell to sixteenth in the free skate after a series of mishaps, ultimately winding up in eleventh overall. [8]

2022–23 season: International senior debut

Pinzarrone was assigned to her first Grand Prix event, the 2022 MK John Wilson Trophy, in July. [9] In August, she received a second assignment, replacing South Korean skater Lim Eun-soo at the 2022 Skate Canada International. She later withdrew from both events due to a hip injury, subsequently revealed to be a double stress fracture. [10] [11]

After recovering, Pinzarrone won the silver medal at the Latvia Trophy. [7] Having acquired senior technical minimums, she was assigned to compete at the European Championships for the first time, alongside longtime Belgian national champion Loena Hendrickx. Her coach stated that her primary objectives for the event were to achieve the minimum scores to take Belgium's second berth at the World Championships later in the season. [12] Pinzarrone underrotated the second part of her jump combination in the short program, but she still finished sixth in the segment. [13] She rose to fifth place after the free skate. [14] She had the second-best technical score in the free skate. [4]

Due to Hendrickx's placement at the previous year's World Championships, Belgium had three berths in the women's event in Saitama. Pinzarrone, Hendrickx and national silver medalist Jade Hovine all had the minimum scores necessary to attend, comprising the largest Belgian women's delegation in the event's history. [15] Pinzarrone finished eleventh. [16]

2023–24 season: Grand Prix medals and European bronze

Pinzarrone during her short program at the 2024 World Championships Nina Pinzarrone 2024 Worlds Short Program 4.jpg
Pinzarrone during her short program at the 2024 World Championships

Beginning the season at the 2023 CS Lombardia Trophy, Pinzarrone finished ninth. [7] Speaking of this event later, she would opine: "At Lombardia I really wasn't myself." [17] She was also invited to attend the Shanghai Trophy, coming fourth of six skaters. [7] She called the latter invitation "an amazing experience." [18]

Pinzarrone performing her signature needle spin during her free skate at the 2024 World Championships Nina Pinzarrone 2024 Worlds Free Skate 7.jpg
Pinzarrone performing her signature needle spin during her free skate at the 2024 World Championships

Making her Grand Prix debut following the previous year's withdrawals, Pinzarrone appeared first at the 2023 Grand Prix de France, where she finished fourth in the short program with a new personal best 65.74 points, only 0.99 points back of second-place Anastasiia Gubanova of Georgia. [19] She set another new personal best in the free skate (133.06) and rose to second overall. Her silver medal made her only the second Belgian woman to medal on the Grand Prix, after Hendrickx. Of the feat, she said: "It doesn’t feel real." [17] The week before her second Grand Prix assignment, she appeared at her first senior Belgian championships. With Loena Hendrickx withdrawing due to illness, Pinzarrone won her first national title by more than forty points. [20] At the 2023 NHK Trophy, Pinzarrone placed second in both segments, but third overall, winning the bronze medal and qualifying to the Grand Prix Final for the first time. She said she had not considered this result a possibility at the start of the season, and she added that it was "so cool" that both she and Hendrickx had qualified, the first time two Belgian women had done so. [21] Pinzarrone went on to finish fourth at the Final. [22]

Pinzarrone entered the 2024 European Championships as a podium favourite after her results in the first half of the season. She finished second in the short program with a personal best 69.70 points, less than a point ahead of third-place Anastasiia Gubanova of Georgia, the defending champion. In the free skate, four of her jumps were deemed a quarter underrotated. She was third in that segment and placed third overall behind Hendrickx and Gubanova. [23] With her bronze medal alongside Hendrickx's gold, Belgium had two women on the European podium for the first time, with Pinzarrone also only the second woman (after Hendrickx) to make the European podium. [24]

In the lead-up to the 2024 World Championships in Montreal, Pinzarrone was plagued with nosebleeds that hindering her training and performance. In advance of the free program, she had her nose cauterized without anesthesia and skated with a cotton ball in her nostril. She finished fifteenth and said afterward: "It is difficult to skate at full speed for 4 minutes anyway and that was even more difficult now. I did my best until the end and I think I did well in my circumstances." [25]

2024–25 season

Pinzarrone during her free skate at the 2024 Grand Prix de France Nina Pinzarrone during her free skate at the 2024 Grand Prix de France.jpg
Pinzarrone during her free skate at the 2024 Grand Prix de France

Pinzarrone started the season by competing on the 2024–25 Grand Prix series. She finished fourth at 2024 Skate America. [7] Shortly following the event, Eric Christian von Fricken, who composed one of the pieces of music that Pinzarrone used for her free program, took to social media accounts to praise her performance. [26] Going on to compete at the 2024 Grand Prix de France, Pinzarrone would finish the event in sixth place. [7]

Pinzarrone performing her exhibition program at the 2024 Grand Prix de France Nina Pinzarrone performing her exhibition program at the 2024 Grand Prix de France.jpg
Pinzarrone performing her exhibition program at the 2024 Grand Prix de France

Pinzarrone then competed on the 2024–25 ISU Challenger Series, winning gold at the 2024 CS Tallinn Trophy and silver at the 2024 CS Golden Spin of Zagreb. [7] She won her second consecutive Belgian national title in January, though unusually, she did not compete at the main event, as it was held only ten days before the 2025 European Championships; the Belgian federation gave its top women's skaters the additional opportunity to compete at the Golden Spin instead and count their scores from that competition. [5] [27]

At the end of January, Pinzarrone competed at the European championships. She earned a season's best in the short program despite receiving an under-rotation call on her triple Lutz-triple toe loop combination and placed fourth, with two points separating her from the skaters in the top three. Pinzarrone expressed disappointment afterward and said that she was having issues with her boots that were causing inflammation in her foot. She placed third in the free skate after receiving under-rotation and quarter rotation calls on six of her jumps, and she moved up into third place overall to win her second consecutive European bronze medal. Pinzarrone said that she wanted to work on her jump rotation ahead of the 2025 World Championships but that she was "thrilled" to have won bronze. [28]

Programs

Season Short program Free skating Exhibition
2024–2025
[29]
2023–2024
[30]
2022–2023
[31]
2021–2022
[32]

Competitive highlights

Competition placements at senior level [33]
Season 2022–23 2023–24 2024–25
World Championships 11th15thTBD
European Championships 5th3rd3rd
Grand Prix Final 4th
Belgian Championships 1st1st
GP France 2nd6th
GP NHK Trophy 3rd
GP Skate America 4th
CS Golden Spin of Zagreb WD2nd
CS Lombardia Trophy 9th
CS Tallinn Trophy 1st
Challenge Cup 4th
Latvia Trophy2nd
Shanghai Trophy 4th
Competition placements at junior level [33]
Season 2019–20 2020–21 2021–22
World Junior Championships 11th
Belgian Championships 1st1st
JGP France 6th
JGP Slovenia 5th
Challenge Cup 7th
Coupe du Printemps 2nd
Dragon Trophy 1st
Egna Spring Trophy 1st
IceLab Cup 1st
Santa Claus Cup 1st
Skate Helena 1st
Sofia Trophy 1st

Detailed results

ISU personal best scores in the +5/-5 GOE System [33]
SegmentTypeScoreEvent
TotalTSS202.29 2024 European Championships
Short program TSS69.702024 European Championships
TES38.922024 European Championships
PCS31.06 2024 World Championships
Free skating TSS133.06 2023 Grand Prix de France
TES72.692023 Grand Prix de France
PCS64.192024 European Championships
  • Small medals for the short program and free skating are only awarded at ISU Championships.

Senior level

Results in the 2022–23 season [33]
DateEvent SP FS Total
PScorePScorePScore
Dec 7–10, 2022 Flag of Croatia.svg 2022 CS Golden Spin of Zagreb 2044.79WD
Dec 16–18, 2022 Flag of Latvia.svg 2022 Latvia Trophy 358.282111.002169.28
Jan 25–29, 2023 Flag of Finland.svg 2023 European Championships 661.355124.575185.92
Feb 23–26, 2023 Flag of the Netherlands.svg 2023 International Challenge Cup 362.994128.214191.20
Mar 22–26, 2023 Flag of Japan.svg 2023 World Championships 1462.0410129.7411191.78
Results in the 2023–24 season [33]
DateEvent SP FS Total
PScorePScorePScore
Sep 8–10, 2023 Flag of Italy.svg 2023 CS Lombardia Trophy 1247.416108.029155.43
Oct 3–5, 2023 Flag of the People's Republic of China.svg 2023 Shanghai Trophy 459.214121.854181.06
Nov 3–5, 2023 Flag of France.svg 2023 Grand Prix de France 465.742133.062198.80
Nov 17–18, 2023 Flag of Belgium (civil).svg 2024 Belgian Championships 166.651129.981196.63
Nov 24–26, 2023 Flag of Japan.svg 2023 NHK Trophy 263.442131.223194.66
Dec 7–10, 2023 Flag of the People's Republic of China.svg 2023–24 Grand Prix Final 366.725128.194194.91
Jan 10–14, 2024 Flag of Lithuania.svg 2024 European Championships 269.703132.593202.29
Mar 18–24, 2024 Flag of Canada (Pantone).svg 2024 World Championships 1164.0416113.4215177.46
Results in the 2024–25 season [33]
DateEvent SP FS Total
PScorePScorePScore
Oct 18–20, 2024 Flag of the United States.svg 2024 Skate America 562.852130.764193.61
Nov 1–3, 2024 Flag of France.svg 2024 Grand Prix de France 662.726121.956184.67
Nov 11-17, 2024 Flag of Estonia.svg 2024 CS Tallinn Trophy 165.431127.051192.48
Dec 5–7, 2024 Flag of Croatia.svg 2024 CS Golden Spin of Zagreb 365.202128.292193.49
Jan 28 – Feb 2, 2025 Flag of Estonia.svg 2025 European Championships 466.803124.643191.44

Junior level

Results in the 2019–20 season [33]
DateEvent SP FS Total
PScorePScorePScore
Nov 22–23, 2019 Flag of Belgium (civil).svg 2020 Belgian Championships (Junior) 154.30197.211151.51
Results in the 2020–21 season [33]
DateEvent SP FS Total
PScorePScorePScore
Feb 26 – Mar 3, 2021 Flag of Bulgaria.svg 2021 Sofia Trophy 163.821123.081186.90
Apr 14–18, 2021 Flag of Serbia.svg 2021 Skate Helena 161.891106.401168.29
Apr 29 – May 2, 2021 Flag of Italy.svg 2021 Egna Spring Trophy 254.58197.591152.17
Results in the 2021–22 season [33]
DateEvent SP FS Total
PScorePScorePScore
Aug 25–28, 2021 Flag of France.svg 2021 JGP France II 558.406104.686163.08
Sep 22–25, 2021 Flag of Slovenia.svg 2021 JGP Slovenia 564.586121.525186.10
Nov 19–20, 2021 Flag of Belgium (civil).svg 2022 Belgian Championships (Junior) 159.771116.111175.88
Dec 6–12, 2021 Flag of Hungary.svg 2021 Santa Claus Cup 163.672108.131171.80
Jan 13–14, 2022 Flag of Norway.svg 2022 IceLab International Cup 158.541108.091166.63
Feb 11–13, 2022 Flag of Slovenia.svg 2022 Dragon Trophy 162.851100.431163.28
Feb 24–27, 2022 Flag of the Netherlands.svg 2022 International Challenge Cup 451.91789.757141.66
Mar 18–20, 2022 Flag of Luxembourg.svg 2022 Coupe du Printemps 156.642105.772162.41
Apr 13–17, 2022 Flag of Estonia.svg 2022 World Junior Championships 763.671698.2511161.92

References

  1. Claeys, Jan (January 30, 2023). "Nina Pinzarrone (16) verovert met vijfde plek de harten op het EK kunstschaatsen: "Hier werkt ze al sinds haar derde voor"". Gazet van Antwerpen. Archived from the original on March 12, 2023.
  2. Schoonjans, Tim (December 7, 2016). "Zusjes Pinzarrone blijven de schaatswereld verbazen". BRUZZ. Archived from the original on March 12, 2023.
  3. 1 2
  4. 1 2 ""Artistieke progressie" geeft Nina Pinzarrone vertrouwen richting EK: "Ik moet laten zien dat ik er nog steeds ben"" ["Artistic progression" gives Nina Pinzarrone confidence for European Championships: "I have to show that I'm still here"]. sporza.be (in Dutch). January 20, 2025.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
  6. 1 2
  7. Christian von Fricken, Eric. "How incredible to see my Nocturne performed by @pinzarrone_nina at this years Skate America. So inspiring 👏 brava Nina! @benoitrichaud @a.bocklandt". Instagram. Instagram. Retrieved October 30, 2024.
  8. "Elle est championne de Belgique... sans avoir participé: le titre surréaliste d'une patineuse belge" [She is the Belgian champion... without having participated: the surreal title of a Belgian skater]. RTL Info (in French). January 19, 2025. Retrieved January 20, 2025.
  9. Slater, Paula (January 31, 2025). "Niina Petrokina captures first European title on home ice". Golden Skate. Retrieved January 31, 2025.
  10. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9