South Jersey figure skater Isabeau Levito is the only American to qualify for the women’s event of the Grand Prix Final

When the Grand Prix Final of figure skating takes place this weekend in Torino, Italy, there will only be one American in the women’s event: Isabeau Levito of Mount Holly, Burlington County.

At 15, she also is the youngest of the field of six skaters.

“I’m so excited to go,” said Levito, 15. “It’s my first senior year. It’s my first everything as a senior and — ahhh! — ‘excited’ doesn’t even begin to describe it.”

She is also excited because Torino is approximately 90 miles from her mother’s hometown of Milan — the location of the next Winter Olympics in 2026, which Levito has her eyes on.

Her Italian relatives will be coming to see her skate this weekend for the first time in person.

“They’re very happy to see her live,” said her mother, Chiara Garberi Levito. “They only saw her on TV or YouTube and obviously going to be seeing her live.”

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Levito expects to visit with family after she skates but won’t be staying in Italy for an extended visit. She will be returning to New Jersey to skate in a Christmas show at her rink (The Igloo at Mount Laurel), get new skates, and finish 10th grade via her online school. She also will take a short break before gearing back up to train for the U.S. Championships, which is from Jan. 23-29 in San Jose, Calif.

Levito qualified for the Grand Prix Final by winning silver at both of the Grand Prix competitions United States Figure Skating sent her to: Skate America in Norwood, Mass., and the MK John Wilson Trophy in Sheffield, England.

This is her first year on the senior international circuit, and most of the other competitors are veterans. But it didn’t come out of nowhere: She is the 2022 World Junior champion.

Going into this season, coach Yulia Kuznetsova knew Levito had a chance to do well on the Grand Prix. But moving up to the highest level also came with a lot of unknowns.

For example, “how we will be judged,” Kuznetsova said, “because, yeah, she’s junior world champion, but junior and senior are different levels, have different expectations. We didn’t we didn’t know how we would be judged.

“Now she feels more confident about herself. So she understands she’s moving in the right way. We’re working in the right way. So we would say hard work was appreciated by the judges. She’s growing from competition to competition.”

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This will be Levito’s biggest competition to date. The Grand Prix Final is second in importance only to the World Championships in a non-Olympic year. But she’s treating it as she would any event.

“I’m still going with the same goal of just skating my best, trying to soak up the experience as much as I can,” she said.

She managed to do just that at Skate America and MK John Wilson, where she not only skated well but was excited to meet some of her idols. She placed second to World champion Kaori Sakamoto from Japan at Skate America, and Levito was eager to take a selfie.

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“It was so fun, just to see all these skaters that I’ve seen on TV for so long and see them in real life,” Levito said. “It’s kind of weird, like they don’t seem real. And then when I see them, it’s like seeing some mythological creature and I’m like, ‘Oh my goodness, like, they’re real, human.’ It’s funny, but it was so cool for me.”

Younger skaters could say the same about her in the not-too-distant future.

“Oh, that’s funny,” Levito said drily.

Levito’s look on the ice is light and balletic, with especially beautiful footwork, spins, and artistry many skaters work for years to develop. Kuznetsova said they are continuing to work on her speed, power, and the height of her jumps — and bring her presentation level even higher.

“We are trying to learn right now how to hold the attention, hold interest on the program moments from each person in the crowd,” Kuznetsova said.

Because she is 15, it was touch-and-go whether Levito would be allowed to compete as a senior this season. The International Skating Union raised the minimum age following the Winter Olympics, when officials learned that Russian skater Kamila Valieva, then 15, had tested positive for banned substances. (That case has been moved to the International Court for Arbitration of Sport and is ongoing.) In June, the ISU decided to gradually raise the age for seniors from 15 to 17, so Levito qualified under the wire.

Because of that and because it’s her first year, the pressure is off. But she still has dreams.

“My original goal was making it to the Final. So I’m really glad that I got to that,” she said. “A very prestigious goal for me would probably be like, let’s see, maybe can I podium? But mainly, I just want to skate clean and really enjoy the experience.”

Women’s short program: 3 p.m. Friday on Peacock.

Women’s free skate: 3 p.m. Saturday on Peacock.

Women’s short program: 8:30 a.m., Saturday on E!

Women’s free skate, etc.: 4 p.m. Sunday on NBC.