Imagine that: Estonia’s Niina Petrokina, the European champion en titre, only restarted to jump the triple Lutz and the triple Flip two weeks before 2026 Europeans (!)
Two full weeks of intense training followed, with all the big jumps now back in Niina’s arsenal – and you know what the Estonian did in Sheffield: she defended her title and became two-time European champion.
And if you’re tempted to say that’s unbelievable, giving the little time she actually had to prepare (“insane”, as the host Mark Hanretty put it), Niina Petrokina would approve with a smile, crediting her muscle memory for the fast recovery of her jumps and the steady support from her medical team.
We’re adding to the list, to the upper part of the list, Niina’s strong will, her fierce competitiveness.
“Our muscles remember everything. And you don’t have to be scared – you just have to go for it! And I actually think the injury helped me to be strong in this competition: I really wanted to fight, I really wanted to show my programs and my jumps.
But, yeah, I’m shocked about my situation as well”, she would say, laughter and all, in an interview for Inside Skating, to be published in full just before Olympics (so stay tuned).
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Story by Florentina Tone
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NIINA
Having surgery on her right foot Achilles tendon at the beginning of October, Niina Petrokina didn’t know how much time the recovery would take – or if she’d be able to come back for the second part of the season, Olympics included. After all, she had been forced to withdraw from both her Grand Prix assignments in autumn and only made a brief appearance at Tallinn Trophy in November.
Back then, she wasn’t ready at all.
And 2026 Europeans was in fact the first major competition of Niina Petrokina’s season.
And she won it in a decisive manner.
“The first time I won Europeans was a shock. This time, I came here to win and to show that I can do it again. In Estonia, some people told me it’s unreal to win a second time, and I wanted to prove that it’s real.
It was really hard, but I did it and I hope to repeat it again one day”.
The morning after her victory, we talked extensively in the same press conference room she visited again and again, having won both the short program and the free skate in Sheffield. It was a familiar place for Niina, the Europeans altogether are a familiar place for her – and you will discover the “positive, optimistic and unstoppable” Niina Petrokina, her words exactly, in an in-depth interview to be published soon.
But this comeback just in time for Europeans was hardly the exception.
The event in Sheffield was the first major competition of the season for at least two other top skaters: Belgium’s Nina Pinzarrone and Switzerland’s Kimmy Repond.
All three of them – we’re including here the winner – had the chance to finally show their programs, what they had been working for in view of the Olympics, and did it with success, winning big medals, small medals, or just the confidence they needed for the rest of the season.
NINA
Take Nina Pinzarrone, for example, 2024 and 2025 European bronze medalist: she had been bothered by pain and inflammation in her right ankle for almost a year, even before Worlds last season, she then fractured a toe during early off-season, she too had to withdraw from both her Grand Prix events, and only skated internationally this season at Golden Spin of Zagreb in December.
In her comeback on the big stage, at 2026 Europeans in Sheffield, Nina delivered her version of a classic, “Send In the Clowns”, and that particular performance, beautiful, emotional, had her in second place after the short program.
At the end of first day of competition in Sheffield, Nina was happy, was relieved: “I’ve been injured for a long time, and my preparation was really not the best, because I was off the ice for a long time.
I know I can do better, but I’m just grateful to be here. It’s also just a good feeling to know that, even after a long break, I can still be at the top”.
Later on, in the press conference, she would reiterate: “It is a long time since I did such a big competition, and it was really hard to keep being positive and thinking about coming back – but I’m just so proud of every step that we did with the team”.
And you know who else was proud of Nina’s comeback? Her coach, Ans Bocklandt, of course, but also Nina’s choreographer, Benoît Richaud, standing tall on a platform at the back of the press conference room.
And we would ask him about Nina’s season and he would answer in a heartbeat: it wasn’t easy, quite the opposite.
“It was actually very difficult, because, for a long time, we couldn’t find out exactly what was the issue with her foot – until almost the middle of the summer.
Then we understood that she needed to do a surgery, but when she came back, the pain was still there – so it was a very long time, and a lot of questions.
It was very hard also to…, I think, keep her alive in a way, knowing it’s her first season as an Olympian. We finally found a way, we found what was working, and now she’s good.
The other competition she did this season [2025 Golden Spin of Zagreb] was just a try, so it wasn’t very successful.
That’s why tonight I said to her: It’s actually amazing what you did!”
The two-time European medalist Nina Pinzarrone would eventually finish the competition in Sheffield on the 4th place, that place that no one really wants, but she would give herself a pat on the back when talking to the media after the free skate: “I’m disappointed because this morning in training I did everything well – but I don’t think I could expect more, because I’m just coming back from injury”.
And the injury itself made Nina Pinzarrone keep the free skate from previous season (just like Niina Petrokina did with hers): “In April [2025], we made both a new short and a free program, but then I was injured for 6 months.
I really didn’t have the [new free] program in me. Having to come back with the jumps, getting all the technical difficulty back, it was too hard to be ready mentally with the new program, while also do the jumps and spins”.
[For a take on Nina Pinzarrone’s programs this season, old and new, her striking qualities while on the ice, keep following Inside Skating – choreographer Benoît Richaud has very interesting things to say about his pupil.]
…while having two Ni(i)na at Europeans, especially in the press conference room after the short, proved itself difficult, pronunciation-wise, for the journalists in Sheffield, so Niina Petrokina tried to settle the issue with a large smile: “My name is pronounced Niiiiina, while she is Nina”.
And Niiiina and Nina thanked their teams, their families, their supporters, and especially their medical teams, their doctors and rehabilitation professionals that made it possible for them to actually attend this edition of the Europeans.
KIMMY
It was the case with Kimmy Repond too, who had been properly training for only a month prior to 2026 Europeans, after not skating for 8 months.
She too had been assigned to two Grand Prix events this season, but needed to withdraw because of a foot injury she had been carrying ever since January last year.
She then skipped two other competitions, 2025 Warsaw Cup and 2025 Tallinn Trophy, and that made Europeans in Sheffield Kimmy’s first competition since Worlds last season, maybe the longest competitive break she’s ever experienced.
“It felt very good”, the 19-year old Swiss said about her comeback, right after skating her new short program in Sheffield.
“I did mostly everything I was working on in the past month. I wasn’t skating a lot for 8 months, so it’s been quite challenging to come back from injury. Of course, on the combo, there was no triple toe where it was supposed to be, but, other than that, I was very happy and I’m excited and grateful to be back at doing big competitions”.
And how much we liked Kimmy’s programs for the Olympic season, both choreographed by David Wilson – and we almost took it as a personal offence, and blamed the injury, all injuries, for not letting these amazing women show off their new programs, Olympic programs, up until so late in the season.
Bronze medalist in 2023, Kimmy Repond finished this year’s edition on the Europeans on the 7th place – but was able to extract the positives of the experience.
“A month ago I wasn’t sure if I was going to go to Europeans, or the Olympics, or anything.
I was constantly in a lot of pain and it was very hard, but the Olympics kept helping me fight through it. It was a big motivation. The selection for the Olympics will be after Europeans, but if I can go, I will be very excited and I’m looking forward to it”.
A week after Europeans it was clear for every skater mentioned above: they would go and make the Olympic Team(s), so their efforts were not in vain, and we will get to see more of them this season.
LOENA
For Belgium’s Loena Hendrickx, it was a different kind of comeback: the comeback at the Europeans, after missing last year’s edition altogether.
Remember: she couldn’t come to Tallinn last season after having sprained her ankle earlier – and thus she was not able to defend the crown she had won in 2024.
She then underwent surgery in February 2025 to repair the damaged ligaments of the ankle, and she took a full speed road to recovery, in order to win a second Olympic spot for Belgium at 2025 ISU Skate to Milano, in September, which she did.
With her third Olympics in sight, Loena won bronze at 2025 NHK Trophy, but in Helsinki, in her second Grand Prix assignment, she withdrew after the short program citing illness and the lack of a proper nutrition leading up to competition.
And although she started her short program at 2026 Europeans in Sheffield with a missed triple Flip, an error that left her puzzled, disappointed – “I was very well prepared and I think I never worked as hard as I worked this season” – she also realized that “every season it gets harder and harder”.
But also: “I’ve been at this level for so many years and I just have to be proud of myself, and trust myself a little bit more, and have more confidence”.
Talking to the media in the mixed zone, she credited her longevity and success in the sport to having been so well supported over the years.
“I’ve got super supportive fans and friends and family. And my boyfriend is always there for me if I have a hard time, he’s always listening. I think I can be very happy. I’m just a very loved girl. Everybody cares about me. And that’s just heartwarming to feel”.
And the audience, the friends and family were really there for Loena Hendrickx on the free skate day as well, and the most successful Belgian women’s skater in history finished in silver medal position in Sheffield (and went to also hug her boyfriend in the audience at the end of the medal ceremony).
“I was relieved to know there was still a chance to come back to my level. From past injuries, I knew I could return. My love for skating is strong – that’s what kept me going. Today wasn’t easy, I was very nervous. My coach took my hands, looked me in the eyes, and told me he’s proud of my achievements after being injured for so long. We worked super hard, and he said I deserve this”.
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The bronze medal in Sheffield was an Italian affair.
Anna Pezzeta was holding the small bronze one after the short – “It’s a bit unexpected but I’m supper happy” –, but it turned out that Lara Naki Gutmann, and her impressive set of programs, got the big medal after all.
And Lara’s emotional reaction while realizing she had won the medal – the first European medal for an Italian woman at the Europeans after 8 years – was just one of those images that would stay with us for a very long time.
“It’s an honor to be the next medal after Carolina Kostner. I knew I had an opportunity here and wanted to take it”. The lesson she learned? “Fighting until the end brought me this medal – that’s the best part”.
EYES ON JULIA SAUTER
But something else happened at this year’s edition of the Europeans: Romania’s Julia Sauter had the 6th free program of the night, a performance that had her on her knees, crying, at the end.
The calmness, the serenity of that free skate? The lightness of everything she did? The wings she had while skating to “That Home”, “Rain, In Your Black Eyes” and “To Build a Home”, her favorite music, her husband’s favorite music?
We felt it all. More than this: we felt elated.
That’s what she’s made of, that’s her true potential right there: Julia got a personal best for her free skate in Sheffield, a personal best total score – and, at 28 years old, she goes flying to her first Olympics.
She will be Romania’s flag bearer at the Opening Ceremony in Milano, the Romanian Olympic Committee made the official announcement on January 22th.
And we couldn’t be more proud of Julia, and we invite you to read it all in a feature soon to be published on Inside Skating – The Golden Hour: Julia Sauter and the journey to her dreamed Olympics.
[Story by Florentina Tone
All photos by Alberto Ponti / Sheffield]