Lu and Mitrofanov Look Forward to Developing as Senior Skaters

It is only Audrey Lu and Misha Mitrofanov's second year competing on the Grand Prix of Figure Skating circuit, so they still find themselves in awe of the veteran skaters they've been looking up to for years. It's kind of like a pinch-me moment to realize they are now amongst some of their idols.
 
"This is where all the top dogs are," said Mitrofanov. "It's really awesome to honestly just to be on the same ice and skate with such high-level Olympians at certain competitions. It's so cool. It's definitely more difficult as a senior, it's supposed to be, but at the same time it's very inspiring and it helps us to continue because maybe one day we will be one of those top teams. That's our dream. That's our goal."
 
The international team they admire the most is French pair of Vanessa James and Morgan Cipres, who happen to train stateside in Florida. Lu and Mitrofanov felt privileged to compete against them last year in Grenoble, France.
 
"Their skating skills and their edge quality, especially the lines that they're able to show," Mitrofanov pointed out as his favorite parts of their style. "It's absolutely amazing. The lifts that they have are just beautiful. It's just so cool, especially when he's in spread eagle. That last lift is just so cool to watch when he goes down into a lunge at the very end of the program when you're exhausted. To be able to do that is just awesome to watch."
 
The U.S. team has a special choreographic moment of their own following the Salchow in their short program, set to "Skyfall" by Adele. Lu is in a spread eagle and Mitrofanov is holding her from behind. During the 2013-2014 season, Marissa Castelli and Simon Shnapir skated to this same song from the James Bond soundtrack. The free skate earned them a U.S. Championship title and a spot on the Olympic team.
 
Lu and Mitrofanov didn't study their predecessors take on "Skyfall," but selected the piece at the encouragement of their coach, Olga Ganicheva. "[It] will match us very well because I think we're good with the slow music [and] the lines," said Mitrofanov. "That's what we'll hopefully be able to show well and then the long program too is to kind of push ourselves into a different environment."
 
Their long program is to selections from Notre Dame De Paris. On April 15, a massive fire caused major damage to Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, but it is a mere coincidence that the team chose this music for their routine. Although they are not trying to use figure skating as a platform to create awareness, they do acknowledge the timeliness of their routine and hope to commemorate and pay tribute to the historic structure. After competing at 2018 Internationaux de France last season, Lu extended her stay for a week to visit the City of Lights. One of her tourist stops was the Notre Dame.
 
As if their recent transition from juniors to seniors isn't enough, another huge change is on the horizon for the 2018 U.S. junior champions. Lu is a senior at a private high school for athletes and is applying to colleges nationwide. The college she selects will be determined by where their coaching team of Aleksey Letov and Olga Ganicheva wind up. The skaters and coaches are currently based in Plano, Texas, but may be on the move in the relatively near future.
 
"If they move, we move with them," said Mitrofanov. "We love Aleksey and Olga."
 
Lu said that there are rinks in Boston and California that are interested in recruiting their coaches, so she is applying to college in both of those places, as well as Dallas. Mitrofanov is currently a student at University of Texas at Dallas.
 
After a successful career in singles skating that earned her a trip to the 2017 U.S. Championships, Lu teamed up with Mitrofanov to give pairs a try. He too began as a singles skater, but switched to pairs when he was 16 or 17-years-old.
 
"With Aleksey's theory as my coach, and that's how they were in Russia, they don't really start pairs at a young age because they want the kids to develop their skating skills [and] their jumps," he explained. "I understood for singles that if I wanted to continue further, I wasn't at the level where I needed to be and so I gave pairs a shot and it was a very rough transition, but my coach kept on telling me that he sees that I have potential and to just keep on working at it and so over time it progressed."
 
Lu and Mitrofanov both agree their background in singles has helped them with their jumping quality. This season, they are adding a difficult combination back into their routine that they competed with two seasons ago but left out last year. It's a triple Salchow-euler-triple Salchow. They believe they are the only or one of only a few teams on the senior level who are able to execute this combo.
 
In the lead up to Rostelecom Cup, taking place in Moscow from Nov. 15-16, the team has been simulating the competition setting at each of their practice sessions. "We do a six-minute warmup and then it depends on the line in the music," he described. "Today, for example, we were fourth in line, so [we] put on our guards, get off the ice, and keep warm and basically simulate it like a competition, so our bodies get used to it."
 
Stay up to date with all results on competition central and watch Lu and Mitrofanov live at Rostelecom Cup this weekend on the Figure Skating Pass on NBC Sports Gold.