The U.S. women shined on the final day of NHK Trophy, the last stop on the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating Series, in a renowned 1-2 finish on the podium as
Ava Ziegler and
Lindsay Thorngren took home their first-career Grand Prix medals with gold and silver, respectively.
Seventeen-year-old Ziegler jumped from fifth after yesterday's short program to first with a mesmerizing performance to a medley of Christina Aguilera songs for her free skate. Ziegler's opening triple flip-double Axel-double Axel jump sequence contributed to her international personal best free skate and overall score by earning 13.49 points for a free skate score of 138.46 and an overall score of 200.50.
After winning yesterday's short program, Thorngren was able to put together a solid free skate performance to earn the silver medal with 198.73 overall points, only 1.77 points behind Ziegler. Though she had an early fall, Thorngren was able to bounce back to earn 129.80 points in her skate set to music from the
Twilight series and earn her first career Grand Prix medal with the silver.
With their 1-2 finish, Ziegler and Thorngren are notably the first U.S. women's one-two in a Grand Prix since 2016 Skate America (Ashley Wagner and Mariah Bell) and the first at a Grand Prix other than Skate America since the March 1997 Grand Prix Final (Tara Lipinski and Michelle Kwan).
In addition, combined with
Isabeau Levito's win at Grand Prix de France earlier this season, it's the first time since 2015 that two different U.S. women have won a Grand Prix title in one season.
In the men's discipline,
Camden Pulkinen's skate to music from
Tosca by Giacomo Puccini earned him a fifth-place finish in Japan thanks to an opening quadruple toe loop that contributed 10.99 points to his free skate score of 142.92 and 229.32 points overall.
Chelsea Liu and Balazs Nagy finished sixth in the pairs event with 172.60 total points.
Ice dancers
Emily Bratti and Ian Somerville and
Lorraine McNamara and Anton Spiridonov finished sixth and eighth, respectively, with 183.43 and 167.84 overall points.
For full results, visit the
Grand Prix Series Competition Central.
