A little more than one month ago, Ashley Cain was staring at the ceiling of a hospital in Croatia.
At the Golden Spin of Zagreb in December, Cain fell on her head and neck while attempting a lift with partner Timothy LeDuc near the end of an otherwise beautiful free skate. Though the pair finished the program, Cain was immediately taken to the hospital after leaving the kiss and cry.
The building was old, and Cain was sent to the basement to get scans done.
"I remember rolling in the basement and staring at the ceiling and I was like, 'I need to remember this moment, because in a month from now I'll be standing on top of the podium,'" Cain said. "You never know what's going to happen in that time or even if you're going to be able to get there, but I think having that thought gave me a little bit of hope, to have courage, to keep fighting and to be okay with the circumstances."
At the 2019 GEICO U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Detroit, her incredible comeback earned itself that fairytale ending. In second place after the short program, Cain and LeDuc had the free skate of their lives to win their first national title together.
Their free skate to music from the W.E. soundtrack by Abel Korzeniowski earned 141.89 points, giving them 212.36 overall. After they hit their final pose, Cain fell to her knees, overwhelmed with emotion.
"I had gone through that moment so many times in my head, because when I was off for the concussion, off for those two weeks initially, I couldn't do anything," Cain said. "So all I envisioned was the program, over and over and over, and what it would be in that moment. And it was that, every time. It was dropping to my knees because finally we had done it."
Cain went through concussion protocol to be cleared to compete in Detroit, and was off the ice for two weeks to heal.
"It was really amazing to watch each day that we came back, adding one little thing at a time," LeDuc said. "It was like building a castle, almost, one brick at a time. And there were some really difficult times that we had to push through, and through all of that we relied on each other and came closer together."
Cain and LeDuc paired up in 2016 and have been on the podium at their three subsequent U.S. Championships – third in 2017 and fourth in 2018.
They earned their first Grand Prix medal in front of a home crowd this season, winning bronze at the 2018 Skate America. They placed sixth at Rostelecom Cup.
That they made it to this point, Cain's injury notwithstanding, could be considered somewhat miraculous. Cain competed as a singles skater at the international level from 2011-2016, as well as in pairs from 2010-2012. Before they paired up, LeDuc had retired from competitive skating in 2014 and was performing on a cruise ship.
"That was one of the things I said in the kiss and cry. I said, 'Aren't you happy you got off the ship?!'" Cain said, laughing. "So it just shows that you can't give up on yourself and you can't give up on the team around you, and I think that's why I'm here, is because of my team. They never gave up on me."
With the win, LeDuc becomes the first openly gay figure skater to win the U.S. pairs title, and one of just a handful of openly queer national champions in any sport.
"I'm very grateful. I stand on the shoulders of many strong athletes that have come before me and allowed me to be open," LeDuc said. "To be standing here today as the first openly queer athlete [to win the U.S. pairs title], I don't say that to keep honor on myself, simply to be a beacon to others, to say, 'You can do this. You can overcome, and you are worth it. You don't have to doubt yourself.'"
Haven Denney and Brandon Frazier earned silver, scoring 133.32 for their free skate to "Two Men in Love" by The Irrepressibles and 201.64 points overall.
"We put so much work in the last five or six weeks of training to just show up and be able to put out stuff that we're proud of, and today was a fight," Frazier said. "There were some things we're really proud of and some things we left on the table and can do better, and that's what we're going to shoot for. "
It's been a long few years for Denney and Frazier as she battled back from a knee injury.
The silver medal is the pair's second at a U.S. Championships, matching their finish in 2015. They won the title in 2017 but struggled to a fifth-place finish in 2018 and withdrew in 2016.
"I'm just so proud of Haven. I'm proud of us," Frazier said. "We've had our ups and our downs in our career and it's been a very difficult process, but I think we're starting to really feel back in a good rhythm that we can trust."
Deanna Stellato and Nathan Bartholomay finished third, earning their third U.S. Championships medal in as many tries competing together. Skating to "Run to You" and "I Have Nothing" by Whitney Houston, the duo earned 131.74 points for their free skate and 199.92 overall.
"We struggled a little bit earlier in the season, and we really feel like we've taken things one step at a time and steadily been improving," Bartholomay said. "Today was definitely a fight. Some things could've been a lot worse than they were, but we're really proud of what we put out."
On an afternoon that saw several of the top pairs struggle with their lifts – including reigning champions Alexa Scimeca-Knierim and Chris Knierim, who finished in seventh place with 171.42 points – Stellato was disappointed by the points left on the table on their reverse lift.
"I'm not only balancing up there, I'm moving freely with my arms. We always win with that lift, and I wasn't able to do it," Stellato said. "So I was furious, because that's straight +5s that we left on the table, and I knew that it was going to matter."
Tarah Kayne and Danny O'Shea rounded out the podium in fourth place. Their program to Swan Lake by Tchaikovsky earned 126.81 points, giving them 198.64 overall.
Leading after the short program, Kayne and O'Shea also fell victim to lift problems when O'Shea was unable to complete the pair's final lift.
"I screwed up pretty bad. Lift didn't go up," O'Shea said post-skate. "It's something that honestly doesn't even happen in practice. There's no reason. Why do you overthrow the ball in football? Why do you miss a pass that goes right through your hands? That's basically what that equates to."
The U.S. Championships conclude with the men's free skate on Sunday, Jan. 27, at Little Caesars Arena.
