Jacob Sanchez

Jacob Sanchez (born April 23, 2007) is an American figure skater. He is the CS Tallinn Trophy champion and the 2026 U.S. National pewter medalist.

At the junior level, he is the 2024 Youth Olympic silver medalist in the team event, the 2024–25 Junior Grand Prix Final champion, the 2024 JGP Turkey and the 2024 JGP Slovenia gold medalist, the 2023 U.S. Junior silver medalist, and the 2021 U.S. Junior pewter medalist. In addition to figure skating, he also enjoys playing hockey, football, and soccer.

His figure skating idols are Yuzuru Hanyu, Nathan Chen, Vincent Zhou, Jason Brown, and Ilia Malinin.

Sanchez has expressed interest in becoming a physical therapist after completing his competitive figure skating career. At that event, Sanchez placed second in the short program with a score of 79.24, only 0.15 points behind leader, Rio Nakata. In the free skate, Sanchez would deliver a strong performance, less than a point below his personal best and second in the segment behind Seo Min-kyu. However, with an overall score 227.38, Sanchez earned enough to win the gold medal overall. Following the event, Sanchez said, "I have so many emotions right now. If you would have asked me at the beginning of the season that I would go to the JGP final and medal I wouldn’t have believed it. Also the last week and a half was pretty rough. I was quite sick last week and also had some problems with my lower back but I didn’t let that get to me. The skates weren’t perfect but I pushed through." He also credited fellow competitor and close friend, Rio Nakata for helping him through the competition, saying, "It’s been great to be on this whole trip together with Rio, have him by my side and also see him again after quite a long time."

Selected to compete at the 2025 World Junior Championships in Debrecen, Hungary, Sanchez placed third in the short program and fifth in the free skate, finishing in fourth place overall, only 3 points off the podium.

Senior career 2024–25 season: Senior international debut In mid-November, Sanchez made his senior international debut at the 2024 Tallinn Trophy, where he won the gold medal.

At the 2026 World Junior Championships, Sanchez placed fifth in the short program after putting a hand down on the first part of his triple Lutz-triple toe combination. He then placed fifth in the free skate, with a score of 148.07, placing fourth overall. "I think I still got a pretty good score, and I feel like I have seen a lot of progress from last Junior Worlds until now," said Sanchez after the free skate. "During the three-jump combination, I actually thought back to last year’s Worlds and how big that was for me. I am happy that I overcame that because I had been thinking about it a lot. But I was able to pull it off, and I had a couple of good saves out there, which I am really happy with. So I can really see the progress."

A few days before the 2026 World Championships, Jason Brown withdrew from the competition. Sanchez, as the third alternate, was called up to compete. At the World Championships, Sanchez placed tenth in the short program with 85.15 points and twelfth in the free skate with 156.59 points, finishing twelfth overall. He set personal best scores in both the short program and the total score.

Programs Season Short program Free skating Exhibition 2020–21 Moon by Sofiane Pomart and Ludwig Beethovenchoreo. by Misha Ge Demon Slayer Soundtrackby Diego Mitre choreo. by Adam Blake and Jacob Sanchez

Competitive highlights 2026 U.S. Figure Skating Championships (from left to right): Andrew Torgashev, Ilia Malinin, Maxim Naumov, Jacob Sanchez

Detailed results

Senior level

Junior level