Men's Free Skate
Yale freshman Nathan Chen can review his report card for this week's trip to Everett, Washington, with pride.
Win a second straight Skate America title? Check. Improve on his lackluster free skate at the Japan Open early this month? You bet. Mesmerize the crowd with his brooding, sensitive free skate to Woodkid's "Land for All," while landing near-perfect jumps? Done and done.
"I definitely think I achieved my goal here," Chen, 19, said. "It was definitely a step in the right direction, especially coming out of the Japan Open."
"Of course, I didn't attempt all of the quads that I think I'm capable of doing," he quickly added. "I'm getting good training in now, but having the extra stress of school, I think it's the right move for me to take a little step back in terms of technical elements."
If Chen's free skate in Everett lacked some of the firepower of his five- and six-quad programs of last season, it still packed a pretty potent technical and artistic punch. It included a quadruple Lutz and two quad toe loop combinations, as well as a strong triple Axel.
The choreography – done by Marie-France Dubreuil, with input from her colleague Samuel Chouinard – was delivered with passion and precision, and although Chen failed to gain top levels on steps and closing spin, his positions fit the program's haunting vibe.Â
"(The program) is something I knew I was very confidently capable of doing, versus adding more quads," Chen said. "Yes, I can do it, but it takes away from my confidence a little. It takes away from my performance, which is really an important focus this year. That was really my thought process in doing what I did today and I'm glad it worked out the way it did."
The free skate earned 189.99 points, and Chen ended with 280.57 points, some 40 points above the field.Â
Rafael Arutunian, who has been coaching Chen long-distance since the skater moved to Yale University's New Haven, Connecticut campus late this summer, pronounced himself more than pleased.
"He did his job, what he was planning," Arutunyun, who trains his skaters in Lakewood, California, said. "That's what this competition was about. He is step-by-step getting to the point where he is ready for the second half of the season. We planned it a long time ago."
Chen's next Grand Prix event is in France, Nov. 17-19. The event again coincides with a break in Yale's academic calendar, so he will not miss classes when he competes. A medal in France will likely qualify Chen for the Grand Prix Final, held in Vancouver, British Columbia, Dec. 6-9.
Silver and bronze medals went to two veterans, with 28-year-old Michal Brezina of Czech Republic taking second place with 239.51 points and Russia's Sergei Voronov, 31, placing third with 226.44 points.
He didn't win a medal, but Vincent Zhou takes home a large measure of satisfaction from Everett. Hampered by persistent back pain, Zhou's training was limited this summer, and he was disappointed in her performances at the U.S. International Figure Skating Classic in Salt Lake City, Utah last month.
Here, Zhou made strides with his free skate, choreographed by Jeffrey Buttle to a medley including music from the
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon soundtrack. He opened with his most impressive element, a quad Lutz-triple toe loop combination, and landed another quad Lutz and quad toe, as well as a triple Axel, although these three jumps were judged under rotated. A quad flip attempt was doubled. He placed third in the free skate and fifth overall with 225.75 points.
"It felt like lots of fun and great performing like that," Zhou, who turns 18 on Oct. 25, said. "I think it was a pretty good performance. I gave it all I had. I did pretty much what I trained. I gave away some free points, but ice is slippery."
After Friday's short program, Zhou's coaches, Tammy Gambill and Tom Zakrajsek, said the technical panel's underrotation calls on their pupil's quads were a bit harsh. Zhou, though, declined to express an opinion after the free skate.
"About the calling, I'm not going to say too much about that, it is what it is," he said. "Like I said yesterday, I've done lots of work on making my jumps clean. So, hopefully, that work will start to be rewarded."
Zhou's next event is NHK Trophy in Japan Nov. 9-11.
Jimmy Ma, seventh after the short program, had a disappointing free skate to Rachmaninoff's "Piano Concerto No. 2," falling on his opening quad toe as well as his first triple Axel. Although he fought back to land a solid triple loop and triple Lutz combination, he missed a few other jumps, and ended in 12
th place with 185.06 points.
"I tried to stay super focused, super in my zone, but I think I tried a little bit too hard," the 23-year-old Ma, who trains in Euless, Texas under Darlene and Peter Cain, said. "I'm trying to prove myself, trying to prove I belong in this kind of event."
"(When I) go home, it's a lot of going back to the drawing board," he added. "Skater-wise, I know what I want to be, but as a person I need to take a step back and mentally refocus myself."
Pairs Free Skate
Ashley Cain and Timothy LeDuc welcomed the quick turnaround from the pairs short program on Friday night to Saturday afternoon's free skate at Skate America in Everett, Washington.
A disappointing performance had them eager to show everyone that they are indeed one of the country's top teams.
And they did just that.
The Texas-based duo delivered a season best free skate (117.34) to music from the
W.E. soundtrack en route to the second best segment score of the event and the bronze medal.
Their overall score of 175.06 earned them a spot on the podium alongside two Russian teams. It was their first Grand Prix medal.
"Today we were a little bit more zoned in to our performance," Cain said. "We didn't want to think about anything else other than skating at that point; we were also angry at ourselves. Today brought out a fighting spirit in us. I think that's what everyone saw. Things weren't perfect, but we got job done."
Fourth after the short program, Cain and LeDuc set the tone of their program by completing their first lift despite some adversity.
"There were problems with that first lift, but we were like, 'No, do it, get the job done.'" LeDuc said. "We had to remember who we are after the short program. We had to reset, refocus and remember who we are as athletes and competitors."
Cain and LeDuc, who will compete next month at Rostelcom Cup in Russia, received underrotation marks on a couple of jumps – Cain's Salchow and LeDuc's loop.
"I think that came from us being uptight a little bit, because we don't' miss our jumps really," Cain said.
U.S. champions and Olympians Alexa Scimeca-Knierim and Chris Knierim also rebounded nicely from a tough short program to finish fifth overall with a score of 171.56.
"I was really proud of myself today, because I finally felt like I let go and trusted myself," Alexa said. "Although I made some errors, I felt like a little bit of me from the past has come back; today was really a mental game for me. We've been through a lot behind the scenes and to be here without somebody in the kiss and cry is a lot more stress and just an emotional toll that most people wouldn't assume. I think that shows how brave we are, and to me, that's a bigger deal than skating a perfect program."
The Knierims moved to Germany last summer and have trained in Oberstdorf under coach Aljona Savchenko. Savchenko did not accompany the team to Skate America, and the Knierims announced in Everett that they would be looking for a new coach and be based for now in Chicago.
"We gained a bunch of experience being in Germany and we have written down and engraved in our minds the things that we want to take moving forward," Alexa said. "We are very strong people and we are ready for whatever is next."
"We are going back to Chicago and see what happens from there," Chris said.
"We have our tickets to Japan and still plan on going to NHK. We'll figure out the next two weeks as we go," Alexa added.
Nica Digerness and Danny Neudecker finished sixth with a score of 151.21. They performed a soft, flowing program to "Flight of the Birds" and "Let it Go"by James Bay.
"I think we got all of our levels and I'm happy with how committed we were and how good it felt," Digerness said.
"I felt really connected, the elements felt solid," Neudecker said. "The in-betweens, we stumbled a little bit."
Neudecker grew up in nearby Newcastle, Washington, and had a cheering section in one corner, which also included Digerness' family.
Russia's Evgenia Tarasova and Vladimir Morozov won the event with 204.85 points, with country mates Alisa Efimova and Alexander Korovin in second with a score of 178.98.
