U.S. Skaters Win Three Medals On Final Day of World Championships

Competition concluded at the ISU World Figure Skating Championships 2022 in Montpellier, France, on Sunday, and it proved to be a historic showing for the United States.
 
Vincent Zhou won bronze in the men's event, while Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue took silver and Madison Chock and Evan Bates bronze in ice dance.
 
This rounds out a haul of five medals after Alysa Liu won bronze in women's and Alexa Knierim and Brandon Frazier won the pairs World title.
 
This is just the sixth time the U.S. has ever medaled in four disciplines at the World Championships, and the first time since 1967.
 
ICE DANCE
 
As Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue finished their free dance at the World Championships, they wrapped each other in an emotional hug and exchanged the words they've been saying to each other for years.
 
"Thank you. I'm sorry. Please forgive me. I love you."
 
Those words have become their mantra, and while saying them to each other was normal, so much else was not. In wrapping up their World Championship performance, they were wrapping up their career as well, and did so with a silver medal.
 
They were joined on the podium by teammates and training mates Madison Chock and Evan Bates, who earned bronze, and France's Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron, who won gold.
 
Kaitlin Hawayek and Jean-Luc Baker finished eighth.
 
"We knew that we wanted to skate our best for each other for our last moment, and we found peace in that," Hubbell said. "We're just very happy. You see that we have our whole family here, so it's a really special moment that we couldn't have dreamed it better."
 
Hubbell and Donohue's free dance to "Drowning" by Anna Sila earned 132.67 points, giving them a total of 222.39 points – both personal bests.
 
This is the third World silver medal of Hubbell and Donohue's career. They'd previously won silver in 2021 and 2018, and bronze in 2019. The pair is coming off a bronze-medal performance at the 2022 Olympic Winter Games.
 
Knowing that this would be the final competition of their careers made their time in Montpellier uniquely emotional, and Hubbell says she sobbed through the entire morning practice.
 
"Anyone who was with us this morning in practice knew I wasn't handling it super well," she said with a laugh. "I just thought about my whole career and realized that something I really admired about myself was my ability to attack a performance and to be strong, to hold someone's gaze, and be confident in how excellent I can be. And so that's where I sat. I decided I was going to be authentic to myself. I wasn't going to search for the emotion of it being my last time, and instead celebrate what I've been able to become over the last 22 years. So I couldn't be happier with what we did on the ice."
 
As they look ahead to life beyond competitive figure skating, Donohue's one wish is that he'd spent more time appreciating the things he went through while he was going through them.
 
"If I could've changed one thing, it would have been to take in more experiences," he said. "As I'm sitting here looking at all of my friends and teammates, all of you, our coaches, it really sinks in, all the things you're going to miss not being on the competitive aspect. We've forged so many amazing friendships, relationships, connections, that I'm very appreciative of. I'm going to miss some people a lot, and I'm very grateful for all the people in my life that have shaped who I am."
 
Meanwhile, Chock and Bates earned a total of 216.83 points, scoring 129.32 points for their free dance to "Contact," "Within" and "Touch" by Daft Punk.
 
"I feel incredibly emotional," Chock said. "It was a dream to be able to share that podium with our training mates and to be back on the podium after what feels like a very, very long time. Lots of emotions!"
 
It's their first time on a World Championship podium since 2016, when they won bronze. They also won silver in 2015. At the 2022 Olympics, they placed fourth.
 
"I think we would've never have guessed that it would've taken us six years after being on the podium in '15 and '16, and I think it's just sport, like life, is so unpredictable," Bates said. "You can never guess what's to come, and I think that's especially true because we've felt like we were constantly putting 100% into our craft and trying so hard to get back on the podium for so many years. This is a difficult achievement to accomplish, and I think when we were on the World podium before, maybe we didn't appreciate it as much as we do today."
 
Hawayek and Baker's free dance to selections of Frédéric Chopin scored 115.05 points, giving them a total of 191.61.
 
This is the best finish at a World Championships in their career, having placed ninth twice (2019, 2021) and 10th (2018).
 
"I felt a lot of gratitude for the way this season had panned out," Hawayek said. "We had a very bumpy season, to say the least, starting much later than anticipated and coming back from injury. And it was a lot of resilience that it took for us to be able to get to the place where we were, competing at our first Olympics and at our fourth World Championships. We just finished feeling really proud of what we've put out this season."

MEN
 
In the blink of an eye, Vincent Zhou has rewritten the story of his season from one of devastation to one of redemption.
 
After having to withdraw from the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022 when he tested positive for COVID-19, Zhou ended his season with a bronze medal at the World Championships.
 
Zhou earned 277.38 points overall to earn the second World bronze medal of his career. Japan's Shoma Uno won the World title with 312.48 points, while Yuma Kagiyama, also of Japan, captured silver with 297.60 points.
 
Camden Pulkinen finished fifth overall, and Ilia Malinin placed ninth.
 
"I feel very, very proud of myself," Zhou said. "A week ago, I wouldn't have thought any of this was possible. I couldn't do anything in training leading up to this. I don't want to sound like a broken record, but I've said a lot of times, I was mentally in a very bad place. I couldn't do anything. But I got myself on the plane, I got myself together, I took it one practice at a time, and now I put out two strong performances, and I'm so proud of myself."
 
Zhou's free skate to music from Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon by Tan Dun; "Rising Sun" by Kiyoshi Yoshida earned 181.54 points.
 
At the end of his skate, he bent down and patted the ice before taking his bows.
 
"That's just me being grateful to be out there and taking in the moment, and I guess it's a bit of a thank you to the ice and to France for allowing me to be here and skate," he said.
 
The last few years have been quite the rollercoaster for Zhou. He took almost a year off and nearly quit skating in 2019-20. At the 2021 World Championships, he finished a dismal 25th in the short program and missed qualifying for the free skate. He qualified for the 2021 Grand Prix Final, which was canceled due to the pandemic, and then had to withdraw from the Olympics.
 
But at the end of it all, he's still standing and has a World bronze medal to show for it.
 
"My most important takeaway is just to keep taking one step at a time," Zhou said. "Life will push me back along the way, but if I can't take one step, I take half a step. And if I can't take any step, I just keep striving and try to keep my head up. I've had so many obstacles I've fought through, injuries and personal struggles. I had the Grand Prix Final taken away from me. I had my chance at the Olympics taken away from me. I've lost so much, and yet here I am, still fighting and still refusing to give up. I think a lot can be learned from that."
 
Pulkinen finished with 271.69 points overall, setting a new personal best by nearly 30 points. His free skate to "Besame Mucho" by II Divo and "Malaguena" by Liona Boyd scored 182.19, also a huge personal best.
 
This is his World Championship debut and comes a day after his birthday.
 
"It feels still surreal," Pulkinen said. "I think I'm still processing the fact that I'm actually at Worlds, honestly. But when I skated that program, I knew I was well-trained for it. I'm just very thankful that it happened and I was happy that I could give myself a nice 22nd birthday gift."
 
Pulkinen finished 12th in the short program and improved to fifth overall by placing third in the free skate.
 
"I think it just reinforces the fact that I can do it, and I can contend," Pulkinen said. "It's a big confidence-booster, and I really hope to carry this energy into the next two years."
 
After finishing fourth in the short program, Malinin finished ninth with 263.79 points overall. His free skate to "Nobody Knows" by Autograf and "Golden Age" by Woodkid earned 163.63 points.
 
"I think it was pressure more on myself, just wanting to skate good so badly, and it didn't work out," Malinin said. "There's some good and some bad things, so it's kind of a whole pile of stuff happened. I'm mostly proud for the short program."

Fans can relive the competition with an event recap on Sunday, April 17 from 3-6 p.m. ET on NBC, as well as every second of the action live and on-demand on Peacock Premium.