So much time has passed since Alexa Knierim and Brandon Frazier first performed their short program in Olympic competition that their music to "House of the Rising Sun" could have been "House of the Setting Sun."
Eleven days after they represented Team USA in the figure skating team event at the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022 and a full two weeks since their short program, the 2021 U.S. champions were back.
"The team event felt like so long ago, so this was like a fresh start," Frazier said.
For Ashley Cain-Gribble and Timothy LeDuc, it was simply a start.
Although they departed the United States on Jan. 29, Friday marked their first official appearance at the Olympic Games.
They were so happy after finishing their program that Cain-Gribble was jumping up and down on the right ankle she sprained Wednesday before hugging an ecstatic LeDuc.
"It was such a joyous moment for us out there today," LeDuc said.
"It was honestly a little bit of an out-of-body experience as well," Cain-Gribble said. "Because we are so trained, we just allowed that to take over. So when the music ended, it was when we finally felt everything."
Going into Saturday's free skate at Capital Indoor Stadium, the two USA teams are only one tenth of a point apart.
Knierim and Frazier, who skated second among the 19 pairs, are in sixth place with 74.23 points while Cain-Gribble and LeDuc, who skated 13th, are in seventh place with 74.13 points, which is an international season best for the couple.
This marks the first time since 1998 that the U.S. has two pairs in the top 10 after an Olympic short program.
"I think it's so cool," Cain-Gribble said. "It just shows how strong we are."
Cain-Gribble and LeDuc are the reigning U.S. champions. Knierim and Frazier, who won the title at their first U.S. Championships as a team together in 2021, did not have the opportunity to defend their gold medal and had to sit out the event this year when Frazier came down with COVID-19.
"We've been able to share the ice with Alexa and Brandon every day, and honestly it's just felt like a training camp," Cain-Gribble said. "We've pushed each other in practices every single day."
Wenjing Sui and Cong Han of China smashed their own world record with 84.41 points to lead two teams from the Russian Olympic Committee: Evgenia Tarasova and Vladimir Morozov (84.25) and reigning world champions Anastasia Mishina and Aleksandr Gallliamov (82.76).
The figure skating pair event is usually first in the Olympic program after the team event, but the strength of the Chinese couple prompted Beijing organizers to save their best for last.
However, Knierim said for the athletes competing in the team and individual events, it was a "mental marathon."
The score for Knierim and Frazier was just shy of the season-best of 75.00 they scored in the Olympic team event. In both performances, they achieved their goal of "attacking everything in that program," Frazier said.
They opened with a Level 4 triple twist, landed their side-by-side triple toe loops and had an impressive throw triple flip.
"The first three elements are higher risk compared to the last few elements," Knierim said.
She said they found the right pace and energy to do those elements well while competing in Grand Prix events.
"Once we finish the throw, I feel like that's a moment where we can let the second half come to life and really be present and throw it all out there," Knierim said.
Knierim competed in the 2018 Olympics with her husband Chris Knierim, finishing 15th. When Chris retired, she teamed up with Frazier and they quickly became a formidable duo.
Frazier said their short program music suits their identity as a team.
"It's very explosive, very fast, very outgoing," he said.
Added Knierim, "I like feisty."
Cain-Gribble and LeDuc's Olympic experience so far has mirrored their career — facing challenges and conquering them.
They were skating their final practice when she sprained her ankle on her right leg — her landing leg — on their first two elements.
"It was crazy that we had gone this far, been here for over two weeks, and for it to happen right before the short, those things happen, but you just have to keep moving forward," Cain-Gribble said.
She said her ankle has been treated by the team doctor with manual therapy.
Performing to "The White Crow," they started with a Level 4 triple twist, landed their side-by-side triple loops and then Cain-Gribble hung on to the landing of their throw triple Lutz.
"We were saying to each other that last year we had to dig ourselves out of a little bit of a hole and we've come so far from that moment," Cain-Gribble said. "And to be standing on Olympic ice looking around seeing our coach there, my dad, our teammates in the crowd, it just made everything come full circle. And we just had that release of emotions of 'We've worked every single day for this.'"
In taking Olympic ice, LeDuc became the first non-binary athlete to compete in the Winter Olympic Games.
"Both Ashley and I have had to overcome so many different things – so many times when people have told us 'no,' that we don't belong. So we had something to prove today.
"And hopefully people watching us feel like maybe there is space for them to come into figure skating and for them to be able to celebrate what makes them unique or different."
