It's déjà vu all over again at the 2020 Toyota U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Greensboro, North Carolina.
In 2015, the last time the U.S. Championships were held in Greensboro,
Madison Chock and Evan Bates won the ice dance title, while
Alexa Knierim and Chris Knierim won the pairs event.
In 2020, though so much has changed, the results stayed the same, as Chock and Bates returned to the top of the ice dance podium and the Knierims claimed their third career U.S. title.
ICE DANCE
It took them five years, but Chock and Bates are back at the top of the mountain that is U.S. ice dance.
At the 2020 U.S. Championships, Chock and Bates earned their second career U.S. title.
"It was a good night," Chock said. "We're very happy. Happy to be back in Greensboro, and we had a great skate tonight. It was really fun. We performed, and that was our goal, to have a good performance and really enjoy ourselves. And we were able to do that all week. So we're just so thrilled."
Not only was it Chock and Bates' second U.S. championship, the five-year gap is the longest any U.S. ice dance team in history has gone between national titles.
Chock and Bates have not missed a podium at the U.S. Championships in the interim, winning silver in 2016, 2017 and 2019, and bronze in 2018. But climbing back up to the top step of the podium is an immense accomplishment all unto itself.
"It feels longer than five years," Chock said with a laugh. "It feels like so much has changed, and so much in us as people that has changed as well. It's a great feeling to feel that growth, and to come back to Greensboro with a completely different perspective.
"But we're in a very good place, and we could not be happier with how the season has been going. And we worked so hard to get to this point in our career, and we feel strong and confident and like there's so much more room for more growth. So that's a really exciting thing, and we're just so happy that we can share this moment with some of our best friends and training mates. It's really special."
This season, Chock and Bates won silver at their two Grand Prix assignments, Internationaux de France and Cup of China, and also at the ISU Grand Prix Final.
It's also a rebound season for the pair, as they missed the 2018-19 Grand Prix season as Chock recovered from ankle surgery.
In Greensboro, Chock and Bates earned 134.23 points for their free dance, set to "Yearning" by Raul Ferrando, "Sahara Nights" by DJ Quincy and "Layali Al-Sharq" by Al-Ahram Orchestra, giving them 221.86 points overall.
Their margin of victory, 4.67 points, was the largest in U.S. ice dance since Meryl Davis and Charlie White won their last title in 2014.
The two-time Olympians have been a mainstay on the U.S. podium since then, and are proud to be part of such a strong ice dance field – even if that strength is what made a second U.S. title so hard to come by.
"I think that just goes to show how incredibly strong and deep the ice dance field is in the U.S., and it's a testament to the athletes themselves, and how hard they work, and how much we keep pushing ourselves to be the best athletes we can be," Chock said. "And none of us have hit our peak yet. I think there's still tons of room for all of us to improve and push each other. So I think you can keep looking forward to a very interesting ice dance event."
2018 and 2019 U.S. champions
Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue earned 217.19 points overall, scoring 130.88 for their free dance to music from the
A Star Is Born soundtrack, to take the silver medal.
"I think we're feeling a little bit disappointed," Hubbell said. "We felt like we made a lot of improvements in our skating quality, especially for the free dance, and we were really looking forward to giving it our best performance. And we felt like we did that in practices. It didn't feel like the performance we wanted to give, but that's competition. That's athletics. And we're excited to go to the next competition and finally be able to show it off."
Kaitlin Hawayek and Jean-Luc Baker won the bronze medal, as their free dance to Symphony No. 5 by Ludwig van Beethoven and Caprice No. 24 by Niccolo Paganini, performed by Marcin Patrzalek, earned 118.57 points, giving them 201.16 points overall.
"I think for us tonight, we were happy to put out another clean and executed performance from beginning to end," Hawayek said. "This program is a development, and I think Jean-Luc and I see the potential for it being much higher than what we were able to put out today. And I think that's an incredibly positive thing, because we still have room to grow as the season goes on."
In fourth place,
Christina Carreira and Anthony Ponomarenko scored 116.14 points for their free dance to "Farrucas" performed by Pepe Romero, Chano Lobato, Maria Magdalena and Paco Romero to give them a total of 194.16 points.
"We were super happy with it, but we just looked at the level and our choreography step didn't get counted, so we lost at least five or six points there," Carreira said. "So we're upset about that, but overall it was a good performance."
PAIRS
"Redemption always feels good."
Following the pairs free skate at the 2020 U.S. Championships, Alexa Knierim summed up her and husband Chris Knierim's performances succinctly.
Redemption.
In Greensboro, the duo rebounded from a career-low seventh-place finish in 2019 to win their third U.S. title.
The Knierims scored 139.09 points for their free skate set to "Drop of Fragrance" by Maxime Rodriguez and "Experience" by Ludovico Einaudi, giving them 216.15 points overall.
After a nearly perfect short program, the free skate had some mistakes as Chris fell on the side-by-side triple toe loops, making the fight for the top of the podium a little tighter than they would've liked.
"We were fighting," Alexa said. "We dug deep. It was not as great as the short. There was a bit of fatigue happening, and we were just fighting to make everything solid. I just stayed in the moment.
"You're not always going to feel great when you compete, and it's learning how to push through."
The Knierims last won a U.S. championship in 2018. They won their first title together in 2015, the last time the U.S. Championships were in Greensboro.
"Yeah, Greensboro's great," Chris said with a laugh. "We should come back next year and the year after that."
The pair has had a rough go as of late, and their seventh-place finish on the national stage was just the tip of the iceberg. Following the Olympic Winter Games PyeongChang 2018, they changed coaches twice before settling down with Jenni Meno, Todd Sands and Rafael Arutunian in Irvine, California.
This season, the Knierims finished fourth at Skate Canada International and seventh at NHK Trophy.
Following their free skate in Greensboro, Arutunian – known for being blunt – had only nice things to say.
"Raf was so nice," Alexa said, grinning. "Because he believes. He didn't think we were going to land everything here, he told us. But he did tell us we will get it."
While falling so low in 2019 was difficult – the Knierims got rid of many of their possessions as they made the move to California, got back to the basics in Arutunian's stroking classes and had to fight back to their old form – another U.S. title reaffirms that they very well might be back on the right track.
"We're just fighting for our dreams, like anybody else," Alexa said. "Nobody sees what happens behind the scenes, and that's why we react the way we do. And that's why all the kids out there react to a great performance the way they do, because we put so much into it that is unseen. And you live for these moments, and I'm very excited to reclaim our title. Three's a charm."
In second place,
Jessica Calalang and Brian Johnson won the free skate with 146.01 points in a routine set to "You Are the Reason" by Calum Scott and Leona Lewis, earning an overall total of 213.57. Calalang and Johnson also train in Irvine, California, with the Knierims.
"We were both very excited that we performed our program like that here at the U.S. Championships in our second season together," Calalang said. "I don't think either of us have had that kind of performance at the U.S. Championships."
"The amount of audience support I felt at the very end of that program was overwhelming," Johnson said. "It was the most amazing thing I've felt on the ice. I don't have words to describe it."
Tarah Kayne and Danny O'Shea finished third, earning 133.72 points for their free skate to music from the
Les Miserables soundtrack, giving them 204.07 points overall.
"I don't think it was our strongest skate," Kayne said. "Maybe it wasn't what we were hoping for tonight. Definitely wasn't our worst skate ever. We put out what we could today."
"There were a couple minor mistakes, a little bobble here and there," O'Shea added, "but it was our best for tonight. We'll go back and keep trying to make that better."
2019 U.S. champions
Ashley Cain-Gribble and Timothy LeDuc rounded out the podium in fourth place. With 197.12 points overall, their free skate to "The Middle of the World" by Nicholas Britell and "Experience" by Ludovico Einaudi scored 197.12 points.
"We have a lot of good, valuable lessons to take with us after this competition, and this season," LeDuc said. "We felt a lot of pressure going into this competition, not just defending the title, but also for us as athletes, we always want to be moving forward and pushing ourselves. We really wanted to put out a good product and a special product, and I feel like both of us honestly tried our absolute hardest in that program, and we never gave up on anything. It just wasn't in the cards for us today."
MEN
Nathan Chen leads following the men's short program at the 2020 U.S. Championships, setting a new all-time highest score in the process.
Perhaps none of this is surprising, but even as Chen completed what he says was one of his best short program performances, he was not satisfied.
"I try to focus on things I could've done better," Chen said with a laugh. "But I think that's kind of the mark of an athlete. You always want to try to improve yourself, regardless of how well you think you've done. And ultimately if you start relaxing or getting ahead of yourself in the middle of the program, things start to turn awry and not really go the way you want them to go."
Things did not go awry in Greensboro. Chen earned 114.13 points for his short program to "La Boheme" by Charles Aznavour and holds a 13.14-point lead heading into the free skate.
But according to him, it could've gone better.
"Of course, there's little things in the footwork," Chen said. "There were a couple of edges that I could've done a little more clean. Artistically, (choreographer) Shae-Lynn (Bourne), as soon as I get on the phone with her, will tell me a million things I could've done better. And having people like that is awesome. It really keeps you in a grounded state of mind, knowing the things that they want, they have not seen, and it's good to continue improving."
Continuing to improve is about all Chen has done lately.
Chen is undefeated since the 2018 World Championships. This season, he won his two Grand Prix assignments – Skate America and Internationaux de France – before winning his third consecutive ISU Grand Prix Final.
Chen is going for his fourth consecutive U.S. title, and would become the first man to win four straight since Brian Boitano in 1985-88.
"I've never really thought about that, and I never really want to think about that too much," Chen said. "I still have a whole other job tomorrow that's even more than the short program. I don't want to put myself in the wrong headspace going into the long program."
In second place is
Jason Brown, whose short program to "I Can't Go On Without You" by Kaleo earned 100.99 points. In his last visit to Greensboro in 2015, Brown won his first U.S. title.
"I've actually struggled a lot, unfortunately, with the short program (this season)," Brown said. "And I loved it so much, and I so badly wanted to perform it to the quality and the way that I knew I could. So to be able to come here and lay that out, that in itself was such a victory for me."
Andrew Torgashev sits in third place, earning 97.87 points and a standing ovation for his short program set to "Bloodstream" by Tokio Myers.
"It's one thing to train it. It's another to perform it," Torgashev said. "I just wanted to bask in that moment. I've always dreamt of having a standing ovation, and finally getting one, and looking at each person that was on their feet, and just silently just saying thank you and taking in everything that moment had to offer, I think was just something that I'll remember forever."
Vincent Zhou scored 94.82 points for his short program to "I Will Wait" by Mumford & Sons, good for fourth place. This is Zhou's return to competition after sitting out the fall Grand Prix season to focus on his studies at Brown University and taking more than two months completely off the ice.
"I was nervous," Zhou said. "I definitely felt a little shakier than I would've been if I were more well-trained. But I'm very proud of that first outing, for not skating for a few months and all that. But it was good. I'm proud of myself."
The finale of the championship men's event and 2020 Toyota U.S. Figure Skating Championships will take place on Sunday, Jan. 26. The junior and championship events will be live and on demand on theÂ
Figure Skating Pass on NBC Sports Gold. Tickets are available atÂ
ncskate2020.com.
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