[photo credit: Pasadena Ice Skating Center]
The competition, sanctioned by the Ice Sports Industry, operates on a model that sets it apart from the Olympic-track events run by U.S. Figure Skating. ISI competitions have no qualifying rounds and no elimination. Skaters can compete even without a head-to-head opponent, measured instead against a scoring standard the organization calls “against the book.” The event is free for spectators.
The ISI, founded in 1959 as a nonprofit trade association for ice rink owners and operators, created the country’s original learn-to-skate program and has introduced more than 10 million people to skating, according to the organization’s website. Its competitions are judged almost exclusively by professional skating coaches.
The Pasadena Ice Skating Center has been a fixture on the Convention Center campus since 1976, when a rink was built inside the complex’s historic exhibition hall — the former Civic Auditorium ballroom. A new, stand-alone facility with an NHL regulation-size rink opened in September 2011. The rink is managed by the Pasadena Center Operating Company, the nonprofit formed by the City of Pasadena in 1973 to operate the Convention Center, the Civic Auditorium, Visit Pasadena, and the ice center.
The rink is home to the Pasadena Figure Skating Club, the Pasadena Maple Leafs youth hockey association, and the Rose City Crystals synchronized skating teams. More than 30 adult hockey teams also play in-house leagues there.
The 40th annual competition takes on added context this year. The Pasadena Convention Center — on the same campus where the rink sits — served as an evacuation shelter for 42 days after the Eaton Fire struck on January 7, 2025, housing nearly 1,500 displaced residents at its peak, according to a Pasadena Center Operating Company report.
In the months that followed, the skating community at the rink organized fundraisers for fire victims. Kelsey Lee of South Pasadena and her family, members of the Pasadena Figure Skating Club, held a “Skate for L.A.” fundraiser at the rink in March 2025 that raised $7,000 for the Pasadena Educational Foundation’s Eaton Fire Response Fund and the Pasadena Community Foundation. Lee joined with Pasadena twins Ailis and Carys Hong to hold a second fundraiser in March 2026, according to Pasadena Weekly.
The rink draws about 150,000 visitors annually, according to Michael Ross, CEO of the Pasadena Center Operating Company.
The competition runs Friday, April 24, through Sunday, April 26, at the Pasadena Ice Skating Center, 300 E. Green Street, Pasadena. Admission is free for spectators. The event schedule will be posted by April 13 at skatepasadena.com. Validated parking is available for $3 for two hours at the southeast corner of Euclid Avenue and Green Street. For information, contact competition@skatepasadena.com or call (626) 578-0800.
The competition is open to current ISI members who registered by the March 26 late-entry deadline. The Pasadena ISI Open is separate from the Pasadena Open Championships, a U.S. Figure Skating-sanctioned event hosted by the Pasadena Figure Skating Club, typically held in September.
