Jenni Saarinen

Jenni Saarinen (born 9 March 1999) is a Finnish retired competitive figure skater. She is a two-time Challenger series bronze medalist, a two-time Nordics champion (2015, 2019), the 2018 Christmas Cup silver medalist, and the 2022 Finnish national champion. Saarinen represented Finland at the 2022 Winter Olympics.

Jenni Saarinen
Saarinen in 2015
Born	(1999-03-09) 9 March 1999 (age 25) Espoo, Finland
Hometown	Tampere, Finland
Height	1.67 m (5 ft 5+1⁄2 in)
Figure skating career
Country	Finland
Skating club	Koovee
Began skating	2004
Retired	26 November 2022

Personal life

Jenni Saarinen was born on 9 March 1999 in Espoo, Finland. She practiced gymnastics for five years as a child.^[1]

Career

Early years

Saarinen started skating when she was about five years old.^[1] She began competing on the junior international level in the autumn of 2012. She was assigned to the 2013 World Junior Championships in Milan, Italy, where she finished 14th.

Saarinen made her ISU Junior Grand Prix (JGP) debut and won the junior title at the 2014 Finnish Championships.^[2] She placed 13th at the 2014 World Junior Championships in Sofia, Bulgaria.

Senior career

Saarinen continued competing on the JGP series before making her senior international debut at the 2014 Finlandia Trophy, a Challenger Series (CS) event. In November 2014, she won a bronze medal at the CS Volvo Open Cup. In the 2015 World Junior Championships in Tallinn, she placed 8th in the short program and 13th overall.

In the 2015–16 season, Saarinen was assigned to the 2015 Tallinn Trophy but withdrew before the short program.^[3] In December, she won the silver medal at the 2016 Finnish Figure Skating Championships, only 0.15 points behind Anni Järvenpää. She was 3rd in the short program and won the free skating.

Saarinen made her senior World Championship debut at the 2021 World Championships in Stockholm, placing twenty-fourth.^[4] This result qualified a place for Finland at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing.^[5] The following season, Saarinen won the senior Finnish national title for the first time and made the free skate at the 2022 European Championships, finishing seventeenth; she originally finished eighteenth overall,^[6] but the retroactive disqualification of Kamila Valieva resulted in all other ladies singles skaters moving up a place. Named to the Finnish Olympic team, Saarinen placed twenty-fifth in the short program of the Olympic women's event. This would normally have had her one ordinal outside qualification to the free skate, but due to the controversial Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) decision allowing Valieva to compete in the event despite suspicion of illegal doping the International Olympic Committee decreed that twenty-five skaters would advance.^[7] Saarinen finished twenty-fourth overall; she originally finished twenty-fifth overall,^[8] but Valieva was disqualified by the CAS in 2024 and all skaters who originally placed fifth or lower moved up a place. She was twenty-fifth as well at the 2022 World Championships.^[6]

Illness delayed the start of Saarinen's 2022–23 season, while she also struggled with motivation and had it affect her everyday life. After finishing twelfth at the 2022 CS Ice Challenge, Saarinen decided that she would retire following the 2022 Grand Prix of Espoo, the second special Grand Prix event held in Finland. She placed ninth at the event and explained afterward that she had "a long, great career with ups and downs. I'm starting to get to the point in life where there are other things in life."^[9]

Programs

Season	Short program	Free skating	Exhibition
2022–2023 ^[10]	I Giorni Dona Nobis Pacem by Ludovico Einaudi performed by Angèle Dubeau & La Pietà choreo. by Adam Solya	I'll Take Care of You by Brook Benton performed by Beth Hart, Joe Bonamassa choreo. by Mark Pillay	Liebesträume No. 3 by Franz Liszt performed by Éva Polgár Scared to Be Lonely by Dua Lipa & Martin Garrix
2021–2022	Clair de lune by Claude Debussy choreo. by Adam Solya	Piano Concerto No. 2 in C Minor by Sergei Rachmaninov choreo. by Adam Solya
2020–2021 ^[11]		Oriental by Raul Ferrando, Fathi Aljarah, Adam Hurst choreo. by Adam Solya
2019–2020 ^[12]	Diferente by Gotan Project choreo. by Mark Pillay	I'll Take Care of You by Brook Benton performed by Beth Hart, Joe Bonamassa choreo. by Mark Pillay
2018–2019	Otoño Porteño (from Estaciones Porteñas) by Astor Piazzolla
2017–2018		Angel by the Wings by Sia
2016–2017		Human by Christina Perri
2015–2016		The Mask of Zorro by James Horner
2014–2015 ^[1]	Flamenco performed by Ikuko Kawai	El tiempo entre costuras by Cesar Benito El Falso Delphos L'Atelier Nas Ruas de Lisboa Una Maquina de Escribir
2013–2014 ^[13]		Solitary Hill Canon in D Wind
2012–2013 ^[14]	To the Fair (from Beauty and the Beast) by Alan Menken The Euphorium (from Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium) by Alexandre Desplat	Pop Quiz and The Time Machine Montage by Danny Elfman Fairytale by Harry Gregson-Williams, John Powell

Competitive highlights

CS: Challenger Series; GP: Grand Prix; JGP: Junior Grand Prix

International^[6]
Event	12–13	13–14	14–15	15–16	16–17	17–18	18–19	19–20	20–21	21–22	22–23
Olympics										24th
Worlds									24th	25th
Europeans								33rd		17th
GP Finland											9th
CS Asian Open										5th
CS Finlandia Trophy			5th					4th		12th
CS Ice Challenge											12th
CS Lombardia Trophy								9th
CS Nebelhorn Trophy									3rd
CS Tallinn Trophy				WD		17th
CS Volvo Cup			3rd
CS Warsaw Cup								10th		9th
Challenge Cup								8th	12th	10th
Christmas Cup							2nd
Cup of Tyrol				4th
Denkova-Staviski						4th
FBMA Trophy					4th
Nordics			1st	4th	12th	6th	1st	3rd
NRW Trophy									3rd	5th
International: Junior^[6]
Junior Worlds	14th	13th	13th
JGP Czech Rep.		7th
JGP Japan			9th
JGP Poland		10th
JGP Slovenia			9th
EYOF			4th
Bavarian Open		1st
Cup of Nice	3rd
Ice Star	1st
Nordics	1st	1st
National^[6]
Finnish Champ.	3rd J	1st J	2nd	2nd	2nd	3rd	3rd	2nd	C	1st
J = Junior level; WD = Withdrew; C = Event Cancelled

Detailed results

Small medals for short and free programs awarded only at ISU Championships. Personal bests highlighted in bold.

2022–23 season
Date	Event	SP	FS	Total
November 25–27, 2022	2022 Grand Prix of Espoo	8 59.69	11 95.95	9 155.64
November 9–13, 2022	2022 CS Ice Challenge	11 51.60	10 101.68	12 153.28
2021–22 season
Date	Event	SP	FS	Total
March 21–27, 2022	2022 World Championships	25 55.30	-	25 55.30
February 24–27, 2022	2022 Challenge Cup	3 57.48	13 84.22	10 141.70
February 15–17, 2022	2022 Winter Olympics	24 56.97	24 96.07	24 153.04
January 10–16, 2022	2022 European Championships	15 58.93	18 101.39	17 160.32
November 17–20, 2021	2021 CS Warsaw Cup	2 68.71	16 96.14	9 164.85
November 4–7, 2021	2021 NRW Trophy	3 57.26	6 91.04	5 148.30
October 13–17, 2021	2021 Asian Open Trophy	3 62.25	8 92.20	5 154.45
October 7–10, 2021	2021 CS Finlandia Trophy	7 67.05	17 101.67	12 168.72
2020–21 season
Date	Event	SP	FS	Total
March 22–28, 2021	2021 World Championships	14 63.54	24 83.00	24 146.54
February 25–28, 2021	2021 International Challenge Cup	11 52.23	13 88.93	12 141.16
November 26–29, 2020	2020 NRW Trophy	6 51.92	3 96.03	3 147.95
September 23–26, 2020	2020 Nebelhorn Trophy	4 57.25	2 106.62	3 163.87
2019–20 season
Date	Event	SP	FS	Total
February 20–23, 2020	2020 Challenge Cup	4 61.03	13 93.82	8 154.85
February 5–9, 2020	2019 Nordic Championships	4 54.76	1 116.47	3 171.23
January 20–26, 2020	2020 European Championships	33 42.61	—	33 42.61
November 14–17, 2019	2019 CS Warsaw Cup	8 55.37	12 105.27	10 160.64
October 11–13, 2019	2019 CS Finlandia Trophy	4 60.06	4 121.14	4 181.20
September 13–15, 2019	2019 CS Lombardia Trophy	6 57.66	9 103.98	9 161.64
2018–19 season
Date	Event	SP	FS	Total
February 7–10, 2019	2019 Nordic Championships	1 56.07	1 106.56	1 162.63
December 14–16, 2018	2019 Finnish Championships	3 54.51	2 105.28	3 159.79
2017–18 season
Date	Event	SP	FS	Total
February 4–8, 2018	2018 Nordic Championships	4 50.31	6 84.70	6 135.01
November 21–26, 2017	2017 CS Tallinn Trophy	9 53.87	19 84.88	17 138.75
31 October – 4 November 2017	2017 Denkova-Staviski Cup	2 55.93	8 79.58	4 135.51
2016–17 season
Date	Event	SP	FS	Total
March 2–5, 2017	2017 Nordic Championships	6 48.63	14 58.65	12 107.28
January 5–7, 2017	2017 FBMA Trophy	7 39.57	2 86.82	4 126.39
December 15–18, 2016	2017 Finnish Championships	3 52.25	2 87.24	2 139.49
2015–16 season
Date	Event	SP	FS	Total
March 9–13, 2016	2016 Cup of Tyrol	5 51.45	5 82.03	4 133.48
February 24–28, 2016	2016 Nordic Championships	4 54.37	4 94.32	4 148.69
December 18–20, 2015	2016 Finnish Championships	3 51.62	1 103.14	2 154.76
2014–15 season
Date	Event	SP	FS	Total@
March 2–8, 2015	2015 World Junior Championships	8 55.43	15 84.07	13 139.50
February 11–15, 2015	2015 Nordic Championships	2 50.09	2 95.98	1 146.07
January 26–28, 2015	2015 European Youth Olympic Winter Festival	8 43.69	3 85.24	4 128.93
November 18–22, 2014	2015 Finnish Championships	2 52.81	2 104.19	2 157.00
November 5–9, 2014	2014 CS Volvo Open Cup	1 50.05	4 91.25	3 141.30
October 9–12, 2014	2014 CS Finlandia Trophy	6 48.55	4 95.61	5 144.16
2013–14 season
Date	Event	SP	FS	Total
March 10–16, 2014	2014 World Junior Championships	8 53.76	13 87.26	13 141.02

References

1. . International Skating Union. Archived from the original on 21 May 2015.
2. Paasonen, Elina (15 December 2013). "Tapparan Saarinen juhli Suomen mestarina" [Saarinen wins Finnish junior title] (in Finnish). Aamulehti.
3. "Jenni Saarinen, taitoluistelu - Frontpage". Jennisaarinen.com. 2014-06-07. Retrieved 2016-01-26.
4. "ISU World Figure Skating Championships 2021 Results – Ladies". International Skating Union.
5. "Communication No. 2388". International Skating Union. April 1, 2021.
6. "Competition Results: Jenni SAARINEN". International Skating Union.
7. Penny, Brandon (February 15, 2022). "As it happened: ROC, U.S. skaters star in women's short program". NBC Sports.
8. Penny, Brandon (17 February 2022). "Re-live every moment of the historic Olympic women's free skate". NBC Sports.
9. "Jenni Saarinen, 23, lopetti uransa – "En enää nauttinut"" [Jenni Saarinen, 23, ended her career - "I no longer enjoyed it"]. Ilta-Sanomat (in Finnish). 26 November 2022.
10. "Jenni Saarinen : 2022/2023". ISU Results. ISU. Retrieved 11 November 2022.
11. . International Skating Union. Archived from the original on 6 October 2020.
12. . International Skating Union. Archived from the original on 18 September 2019.
13. . International Skating Union. Archived from the original on 24 March 2014.
14. . International Skating Union. Archived from the original on 5 June 2013.

External links

 

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Jenni Saarinen.

• Jenni Saarinen at the International Skating Union  
• Jenni Saarinen at Olympedia  
• Jenni Saarinen at Olympics.com