Leo de la Iglesia

**Leo de la Iglesia** (Japanese: レオ・デ・ラ・イグレシア, *Reo De Ra Igureshia*) is an American figure skater and choreographer featured in *Yuri!!! on Ice**.*

## Background

Leo is Mexican-American. He has many fans among fellow skaters, and his social media updates are generally largely anticipated and well-received by his fans.

He won gold at Skate America during the current season, but did not place at the Cup of China, due to him messing up a number of key jumps in his free program.

## Appearance

Leo is a tan-skinned young man with medium-length brown hair that he usually parts his hair in the center (he ties it back during competitions), brown eyes and thick eyebrows.

### Short Program

During his short program, Leo wears a gold suit with rolled-up sleeves, orange trim, gloves, and gold accents.

## Personality

Leo treasures his friends greatly and is always thinking of them while performing. He tries to enjoy all of his competitions as much as possible.

Leo is very creative and choreographs most of his programs, which overflow with originality. He is willing to change his programs to adapt to a competition. Leo looks up to Victor as a skater who also does his own choreography.

## Relationships

### Guang Hong Ji

Leo and Guang Hong are very good friends as shown when Leo tracked Guang Hong down in China and expresses concern that the latter had not answered the former's messages. Both of them love SNS, and coincidentally compete together in both Skate America and the Cup of China.

### Phichit Chulanont

Leo and Phichit are good friends, having trained together in America with Guang Hong Ji. Both of them love SNS and compete together in the Cup of China.

### Jean-Jacques Leroy

Not much is known about Leo's relationship with JJ, though they did train together for some time as kids, as revealed in a flash back of JJ's.

### Otabek Altin

In the special Welcome to The Madness manga, it was revealed that Leo followed Otabek's private Instagram, Leo mentioning that they trained together in the US and were good friends for some time, though like JJ, not much is known about their relationship.

## Skills

### Choreography

Leo choreographs his own programs. The programs are popular among skating fans for their originality and how well they showcase his abilities as a skater.

### Jumps

Leo does not have any quads in his short program, but is still able to score highly by strategically placing his triples and maximizing his components.

## Program

### Short - Still Alive

Still Alive is one of Leo's favorite songs, and he states that he just wants to skate the way he sees the music.

The program showcases a hip-hop style. It does not have any quads, but rather hinges on Leo's ability to maximize his compenents score. The jumps are, in order, a Triple Axel with what seems to be a back-counter entrance, a Triple Flip-Triple Toe combination, and a Triple Lutz.

## Quotes

* "*It's a song that I like, so I want to skate to my image of it. That's all.*" (To himself)
* "*I want to fill this world with things I like!*" (To himself)
* "*All I know for sure is that I have no idea how I would've found courage in myself if I hadn't come across music.*" (To himself)

## Etymology

* The name **Leo** translates to "Lion of the Church" from Spanish.

## Trivia

* Leo is a constant updater of his SNS accounts. His social media outreach is vast, and he follows Otabek Altin's private Instagram account.
* Leo used to be rink mates with both JJ and Otabek, also sharing a coach with JJ for a brief time.
* Leo is confirmed to be Mexican-American on the official website.
* US figure skater Jason Brown (2011 Junior Grand Prix Final champion, 2 time World Junior Championship medallist, 2014 Olympic team bronze medallist, 2015 US Champion, multiple US national medallist and Four Continents Championships bronze medallist, just to name a few) recognized the similarities between himself and the character of Leo, mentioning it on his Instagram during the height of the show's popularity.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 *Yuri on Ice!!!*Official Website Character Profiles
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 YURI!!! on Life Official Guidebook
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 *Yuri!!! on Ice* Episode 6
4. ↑ *Yuri!!! on Ice* Blu-ray Vol. 3 Booklet
5. ↑ *Yuri!!! on Ice* Side Story - Welcome to The Madness