Nikolaj Memola
Nikolaj Memola is an Italian figure skater. He is the 2025 European silver medalist, the 2023 World University Games bronze medalist, a five-time ISU Challenger Series medalist, and the 2024 Italian national champion.
Memola is also the Grand Prix of Figure Skating Final|2022–23 Junior Grand Prix Final] champion, a two-time ISU Junior Grand Prix medalist, and a top-ten finisher at the 2020 Winter Youth Olympics and the 2022 and 2023 World Junior Figure Skating Championships.
Personal life
Memola was born on November 18, 2003, in Monza, Italy, to an Italian father and a Russian mother. He also has an older sister, Anna.He is currently a student at the University of Milan.
Career
Early years
Memola began learning to skate in 2008. He is coached by his mother, Olga Romanova.He debuted in the ISU Junior Grand Prix series in October 2018, placing nineteenth in Slovenia. Memola competed at the 2020 Winter Youth Olympics in Lausanne, Switzerland, placing eighth.
2021–22 season: Junior national title
Memola finished fourth at the 2021 JGP Austria in October 2021. He made his senior international debut later that month, placing fourth at Trophée Métropole Nice Côte d'Azur. In November, he finished ninth at the 2021 Warsaw Cup, his first appearance in the Challenger series. He stepped onto his first senior international podium in December, taking gold at the Santa Claus Cup in Hungary.Following the withdrawal of Matteo Rizzo, Italy selected Memola to skate at the 2022 European Championships in Tallinn, Estonia. Competing in his first ISU Championship, he qualified for the final segment by placing twelfth in the short program and finished fifteenth overall. He ended the season by making his debut appearance at the World Junior Championships, where he placed seventh.
2022–23 season: Junior Grand Prix Final gold
Planning a second split season between junior and senior, Memola had two assignments on the Junior Grand Prix circuit, winning silver at his first assignment, the 2022 JGP Czech Republic. The following week at the 2022 JGP Latvia in Riga, he won the gold medal. Memola's results qualified him for the 2022–23 Junior Grand Prix Final, which he stated he was particularly "happy" about as the event was being held in Italy that year. He said that he hoped to introduce a quad into the free skate in time. Returning to the Challenger series, Memola won bronze medals at both the Lombardia and Budapest Trophies.Competing at the Junior Grand Prix Final on home ice in Turin, Memola finished second in the short program, saying afterward that it was "very important to me that I did such a good skate at home, in Italy, and on the Olympic ice." He went on to win the free skate and the gold medal, albeit without attempting a quadruple jump as he had earlier hoped. This was the first Junior Grand Prix Final title for an Italian man and the first for Italy in any discipline since the ice dance team Faiella/Milo in the inaugural 1997–98 edition. Memola admitted afterward, "I started the season with the goal in mind coming here to Torino, but the first place was not my goal, and then the medal came, and I'm extremely happy."
Shortly after the Junior Grand Prix Final, Memola attended his first senior national championships and won the silver medal. He finished first in the free skate at the event. He was then assigned to compete at the 2023 Winter World University Games, where he won the bronze medal.
In his final assignment of the season, Memola competed at the 2023 World Junior Championships. After stepping out of his jump combination in the short program, he finished sixth in that segment. He placed fourth in the free skate and rose to fourth overall, 1.35 points back of bronze medalist Nozomu Yoshioka. Memola did not attempt any quadruple jumps during the free program, having found them insufficiently secure in practice that day and not wanting to risk it.
2023–24 season: Senior national title
Over the summer, Memola trained at the Toronto Cricket, Skating and Curling Club in Toronto, Ontario. In his first competition, he finished eighth at the 2023 Autumn Classic International, before finishing sixth at the 2023 Finlandia Trophy. He was invited to make his Grand Prix debut at the 2023 Grand Prix de France, where he came eleventh. He improved to sixth place at the 2023 Grand Prix of Espoo. He expressed his appreciation for competing in such a men's field, saying "they show me what is humanly possible."Memola won the Italian national title for the first time. He went on to place tenth at the 2024 European Championships. He was then assigned to make his senior World Championship debut at the 2024 edition in Montreal, where he came ninth. Memola called it "amazing" to reach the top ten in his first appearance at the championships, and cited the importance of having done so to retain Italy's second entry in the men's event for the following year.
2024–25 season: European silver
During the summer off-season, Memola sustained series injuries including two broken ligaments and a broken ankle. As a result, he was only able to begin jumping again in September.Memola began the season by competing at the 2024 Shanghai Trophy in early October, finishing fourth. He then competed on the 2024–25 ISU Challenger Series, winning silver at the 2024 Nepela Memorial. Going on to compete on the 2024–25 Grand Prix circuit, Memola finished tenth in the short program at the 2024 Grand Prix de France, but second in the free skate, climbing up to sixth place overall. Three weeks later, he finished tenth at the 2024 Cup of China.
In January, Memola competed at the 2025 European Championships. He was fifth after the short program; in the free skate, he landed two quadruple Lutz jumps and rose to second place to win the silver medal. “I felt so much joy today out there on the ice,” he said after the free skate. “This was the best skate of my life—the first time I managed to land two quad Lutzes. Winning a medal at the European Championship, it’s a great achievement! I’m feeling so grateful to my mom, who found the right words for me today. It’s been a really difficult week, but right now, I feel incredible!”
In March, at the 2025 World Championships in Boston, he finished 10th after a free skate that was clean except for an error on his second quadruple Lutz. His placement helped Italy win two quotas for the men's event at the upcoming 2026 Winter Olympics.
Selected to compete for Team Italy at the 2025 World Team Trophy, Memola placed tenth in the men's singles event and Team Italy won the bronze medal overall.
2025–26 season: Struggles with injury and theft
Memola opened the season by competing on the 2025–26 Challenger Series, winning bronze at the 2025 CS Lombardia Trophy and finishing eighth at the 2025 CS Nepela Memorial. He then went on to compete on the 2025–26 Grand Prix circuit, finishing sixth at 2025 Skate Canada International and seventh at 2025 Skate America.In late November, at an Italian domestic event, Memola took a hard fall on a quadruple Lutz attempt during his short program and stopped the performance due to feeling pain in his pelvis. As a result, he withdrew from the event and drove to an emergency room to have an X-ray performed on him. While awaiting his results, somebody broke into Memola's car and stole his luggage, which included his skates and short program costume. "I got nothing of it back," he later shared. "But honestly, it happened. Overall, I lost like 7,000–8,000 euros worth of stuff because, sadly, I love to travel with everything I have — clothes, designer shoes — because I love fashion and I keep everything with me. Everything is gone, but you know, it’s material stuff. You can get it back."
Ultimately, due to the severity of Memola's pelvic injury, he was required to step away from training for a whole month and as a result, had to withdraw from the 2026 Italian Championships. Despite this, he was named to the 2026 European Championship team.
Memola returned to training in late December, only a couple weeks before the European Championships. Going into the event, he started taking painkillers due to the ongoing pain from his injury. "I am super grateful just to be there and if I don’t make it to the Olympics, I will still get up in the morning and enjoy skating," he shared. "There was a lot of great skaters, like Liza Tuktamysheva, like Mai Mihara, for example. She’s one of my favorite skaters and one of the best seasons she had was right after the one where she didn’t make the Olympics. It was in 2022. That was my first very good season. She was there and she was winning everything." He placed tenth in the short program and ninth in the free skate, finishing in eleventh place overall. Following his free skate, he said, "The Nikolai from September would have probably kicked the ice, dropped everything, and started crying and screaming at my mom. But right now, I’m just super, super, super, super happy. I couldn’t do more. I learned a lot of new stuff. I learned to take care of myself. I learned how to take every situation. So right now, I’m just extremely happy. This is what I could have done, because I was super focused, I was calm, and now I am craving to go train. I can’t wait to be healthy again to push myself maybe to a higher position for next season." The second Olympic men's singles spot for Team Italy was ultimately awarded to Matteo Rizzo, who won the silver medal at the event.