Two more champions were crowned on the third day of competition at the 2021 Toyota U.S. Figure Skating Championships at The Orleans Arena in Las Vegas with some familiar faces atop the podiums.
In ice dance,
Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue won their third U.S. title, while
Alexa Knierim and Brandon Frazier topped the pairs field at the first U.S. Championships of their partnership. They join
Bradie Tennell as 2021 U.S. champions after Tennell reclaimed her title on Friday night.
Elsewhere,
Nathan Chen leads the men's competition after the short program.
ICE DANCE
Third time's a charm.
Last year might've been a blip on the radar, but
Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue are back atop the ice dance mountain with their third U.S. title.
"You guys can't tell because we're wearing these masks, but right now we're smiling like a monkey with a new banana," Donohue joked afterwards.
Hubbell and Donohue's free dance to "Hallelujah" by Jeff Buckley and k.d. lang scored 134.90 points, bringing their total to 224.56 points.
"We worked really hard this year, and through all the struggles it's actually been a really productive year for us," Hubbell said. "It was not the easiest performance tonight. We definitely had to just keep calm and skate on, but we couldn't be happier to be here and have accomplished this big goal."
After winning the 2018 and 2019 U.S. titles, Hubbell and Donohue slipped to second place in 2020 behind training mates
Madison Chock and Evan Bates, who reclaimed the crown after first winning it in 2015.
Chock and Bates finished second this time around, earning 132.83 points for their Egyptian-themed free dance and 222.93 overall.
"I think the first time we won was a little bit of disbelief," Hubbell said. "Finally, we had done it. The second year in a row felt good, but not as shocking.
"And last year felt terrible," she continued with a laugh. "So this year feels better! We'll just keep working. We know next year will be just as challenging, if not more, so we'll just go home and get back to work."
With three titles in four years, Hubbell and Donohue are inching towards a dynasty, taking their place among other legendary U.S. ice dance teams. The significance is not lost on them.
"It's an honor to be the U.S. champion. It's such a legacy of ice dance here in this country," Hubbell said. "Three time national champion has a really nice ring to it."
Chock and Bates, meanwhile, knocked off some rust in their first competition in 11 months. They withdrew from 2020 Guaranteed Rate Skate America -- won by Hubbell and Donohue -- and the International Selection Pool (ISP) Points Challenge in October after Chock suffered a concussion.
"I want to say that I think I'm just really proud of Madi and myself for being here, for putting it out there," Bates said. "We really did a lot of great things in both performances, and I think that there's still a lot of positive things that we've shown. So I think we're just going to be optimistic, and stay really positive, and focus on what we did well, which was a lot."
It could have been Chock and Bates winning a third U.S. title if not for Bates stumbling in their twizzle sequence. It was a slip-up that left even him baffled.
"Even reflecting back on it, I didn't feel like I did something to make it go haywire, but it certainly did go haywire," Bates said. "You succeed sometimes and you fail other times, and I wouldn't say that today's a failure by any means, but certainly wish that I had not made the mistake. But I did, and I own that, and I'm going to make sure that we still keep a positive mindset. And it's certainly not the end of the world."
Kaitlin Hawayek and Jean-Luc Baker finished third with 127.27 points overall, earning 212.55 points for their free dance to "Heart of Glass" by Philip Glass and Blondie, and "First Movement" by Philip Glass.
This is their third consecutive U.S. bronze medal.
"Today we're quite proud of our performance," Baker said. "We really take each opportunity to perform, especially this season, as a building block for the two of us. As soon as we finished, we both looked at each other, and we were quite happy, but we used it, like I said, as an opportunity to grow. We trained really hard for this event, as we have this season, working with a lot of adversities and obstacles, but who hasn't? So it's been really exciting to just hunker down and be able to focus at an event like this."
Caroline Green and Michael Parsons took pewter for the first U.S. medal of their partnership. Their free dance to a Prince medley earned 112.29 points, giving them an overall total of 192.39 points.
"We're really happy with it," Parsons said. "This is such a strange season, but we're really happy with how we worked from Skate America onwards, and I think we've made a lot of progress."
PAIRS
Pairs skating might not be easy, but you wouldn't know it looking at
Alexa Knierim and Brandon Frazier.
The two announced their partnership in April 2020, and have proceeded to almost run the table.
After a second-place finish at U.S. Figure Skating's virtually-held ISP Points Challenge in October, Knierim and Frazier won 2020 Guaranteed Rate Skate America later that month, and are now the 2021 U.S. champions.
They took the U.S. title with 228.10 points overall after their free skate to "Fall on Me" by Andrew Bocelli and Matteo Bocelli earned 150.64 points. Their short program, free skate and total scores all set new U.S. Championships records for the discipline.
"We are elated with our performance," Knierim said. "Very, very pleased with it. It was a fight for us out there. We're very proud of what we put out there, we worked very hard, and we're excited for the future."
Though this is their first title together, Knierim won three with previous partner and husband Chris Knierim, while Frazier is the 2017 U.S. champion with previous partner Haven Denney. Chris still works with the duo as part of their coaching team.
Alexa, in fact, is the first skater in a decade to win consecutive pairs titles with two different partners.
"Every time you win a national championship, it means something different to you," Alexa said. "This one was extra special because it wasn't something that we expected when we first teamed up. If I can say anything at all, it feels great to win with Brandon, and to be honest, I felt like Chris was out there in my heart every glide of the way. So I'm just feeling very fortunate to have two great guys that support me."
While the immediate future is uncertain, with the status of the ISU World Figure Skating Championships 2021 up in the air, Knierim and Frazier are going to return to work with the aim of continuing to grow as a team. But they are well aware of just how far they have already come.
"One year ago I was doing a press conference after my free program trying to fight back tears. Now I'm trying to fight back tears for different reasons," Frazier said. "It's just amazing what a year can do, and for what everyone's going through, the moments are the victory, in my opinion."
Jessica Calalang and Brian Johnson took their second consecutive U.S. silver medal with an overall total of 205.29 points. Their free skate to "Who Wants to Live Forever" by the Tenors featuring Lindsey Stirling scored 133.99 points.
"That performance wasn't exactly what we had been training for," Calalang said. "There were quite a few mistakes in the program, but we tried really hard to put it aside and continue the performance strong all the way through. We do know what we need to work on when we get back home for the upcoming season."
While the performance may not have been what they had been hoping for, Calalang and Johnson are leaving Las Vegas with some positive indications that what they've been doing has been working.
"One good thing we took away from this is all the hard work we put in this year on the expression, the skating skills, the stamina, all that stuff was done really well," Johnson said. "So even though we might not've been the happiest with it, we definitely, in our minds, also showed improvement in many ways. And we're looking forward to adding on to that."
2019 U.S. champions
Ashley Cain-Gribble and Timothy LeDuc won bronze with 200.52 points, earning 134.71 points for their free skate to "Piano Concerto No. 2" by Rachmaninoff.
"I know that we had two mistakes in there, but overall, I haven't felt that way after a performance in a long time," Cain-Gribble said. "I think that for us moving forward, even if this is the end of our season, I think that this is a huge step forward for our building blocks for next season."
Audrey Lu and Misha Mitrofanov rounded out the podium in fourth place. Their free skate to a Charlie Chaplin medley earned 128.41 points, giving them 197.97 overall.
"We're happy with the results overall," Mitrofanov said. "This was definitely a big step up for us from last nationals, so we're definitely happy with that. There's always stuff we can work on."
MEN
In a season full of so much uncertainty, seeing
Nathan Chen up to all his old tricks at a U.S. Championships is an underappreciated comfort.
Awe-inspiring, no doubt, but comforting nonetheless.
Chen scored 113.92 points for his short program to "Asturias" by Frida Lopez and "Cancion del Mariachi" by Los Lobos, good for first place as he pursues his fifth consecutive U.S. title.
"I'm thrilled with the short program today," Chen said. "I may have looked a little disappointed after, but I made a couple little bobbles on the landings and I wish I had skated those a little bit cleaner. But overall, I'm really happy with the program and just thrilled to be here. This whole season has just been crazy, and everything is just so unexpected. So the fact that we're all here, that we're all healthy, that we're able to do this, is just incredible."
The two-time World champion won his fourth consecutive Skate America® title in October after winning U.S. Figure Skating's virtually-held International Selection Pool (ISP) Points Challenge earlier in the month.
"I'm glad that I had the opportunity to come here for Skate America®, that this wasn't my first competition," Chen said. "You learn a lot every single competition, and then going into the next competition you can carry that in. The time between the competitions was unusual, so trying to figure out how to still give myself time to work on basics but then finding time to switch gears into more of competition-oriented work was new."
While Chen is in a familiar spot at the top of the leaderboard, it's a tighter race than he may be used to.
Vincent Zhou sits in second place after his short program to "Vincent (Starry Starry Night)" by Josh Groban earned 107.79 points, just over six points back.
"Vincent is extremely talented," Chen said. "I know that he's going to throw it down every single time he skates, so it's never a question of if he's going to do it. It's just how he's going to do it. But ultimately, I can't control what other skaters do. I can only try to do the very best that I can."
That includes five quads planned for his free skate.
"You know me. I like to always try to challenge myself, and try to one-up myself after every competition," Chen said. "That being said, it's always a game-time decision for me. If things happen to feel right, I'll do it."
Zhou, meanwhile, was thrilled with his performance.
"A score like that didn't seem like an impossibility in my head. I knew that if I got the job done, I was very capable of that," Zhou said. "The whole year was just about not thinking too hard about specifically points, but rather just keeping my head down and working to get myself to the point where if I skated like I did in practice, if I got my job done, then that would be very possible."
After two U.S. silver medals and one bronze, Zhou earned the pewter in 2020 after nearly quitting the sport while he attended Brown University.
"Just this morning I was thinking a year ago at this time, I was fresh out of college, had almost quit skating. I was off of three weeks of training, could barely do a triple Axel in my program," Zhou said. "After Skate America, I just had an eight-week period leading up to now where every single week I was setting goals, and working towards specific things, and improving every single week, making noticeable, tangible progress every single week. And the result of that is what just happened."
In third place is
Jason Brown, who scored 100.92 points for his short program to "Sinnerman" by Nina Simone.
This is the first competition of the season for the 2015 U.S. champion, as Skate Canada International, his one Grand Prix assignment, was canceled.
"It felt great to just skate and compete again," Brown said. "It's been almost a whole year since getting to do that. So just thrilled with the opportunity, happy with the performance. Obviously there were little bobbles here and there, but I'm just trying to keep calm and skate on, so that's what I did."
Yaroslav Paniot is in fourth place, earning 83.74 points for his skate to "Sway" by Michael Buble.
The men's free skate will close out the 2021 Toyota U.S Figure Skating Championships tomorrow at 2:59 p.m. ET on Peacock Premium. Fans can also watch the action live on NBC from 3:30-6 p.m. ET.
