By Liz Leamy
Maia and Alex Shibutani, the 2018 two-time Olympic bronze medalists, three-time World medalists and two-time U.S. champions who originally hail from Greenwich, were, much to the delight of many, on hand at the 2025 World Championships at the TD Garden in Boston last week where they spent time catching up with friends and others to designate this as yet another golden moment for them since the last time they were at this venue in 2016, it was where they clinched a World silver medal.
Maia, who attended Greenwich Academy, and Alex, who went to Brunswick School, appeared as buoyant as they connected with so many of their friends and others from the figure skating community at this event.
During their visit, they were also joined by Marina Zoueva, their longtime coach who had also worked with Meryl Davis and Charlie White, the 2014 Olympic champions.
“It’s great to be here and be with everyone,” said Alex, who, along with his sister, are official sponsored athletes for the Ralph Lauren Corporation as well as brand ambassadors for Tumi, Inc.
Alex and Maia, meanwhile, have also worked with such other worldwide brands as Intel, Coca-Cola Corporation’s Minute Maid, the Hershey Company’s Ice Breakers and Smucker’s Milk Bones.
In 2020, Maia and Alex wrote the popular book ‘Kudo Kids: The Mystery of the Masked Medalist,’ a fun middle-grade mystery that takes place at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo. (Michelle Schusterman also joined them as a fellow author of the book, while Yaoyao Ma did its illustrations.)
During their time at the TD Garden, Maia and Alex beamed when asked about Greenwich by the media.
“We love Greenwich,” said Maia and Alex. “That’s where we started skating.”
Growing up, Maia and Alex had spent time training at the Hamill Rink in town where, on particularly cold days, they would go to the warming hut and sit under the heat lamps to get warm.
During that period, the two trained with Slavka Button, the U.S. Olympic and World coach from Greenwich who taught the 1972 U.S. Olympic bronze medalist, Janet Lynn, and who had sadly passed away in March 2024.
Asked about the prospect of visiting Greenwich in the future, Maia and Alex said they are looking to visiting and spending time there in the future.
“We definitely want to come back,” said Alex.
