U.S. Figure Skating Championships 2024: Madison Chock and Evan Bates battle illness to win third straight national ice dance title
Ellie Kam and Danny O'Shea pulled out a win in a tight competition for pairs figure skating
Figure Skating
Madison Chock and Evan Bates claimed their third straight U.S. Figure Skating National Championships on Saturday (27 January), winning the ice dance overall crown at Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio, but the scoreline only told half the story. In the pairs competition, Ellie Kam and Danny O'Shea captured the championship.
The defending world champions and Beijing 2022 Olympic silver medallists missed practice on Friday to try and find the strength to skate in Saturday's free skate, with NBC reporting that both Chock and Bates were suffering from the flu.
“Evan and I had a lot of determination and will power. We thought, 'would we regret not going for it, and trying our best today?' And when the answer to that question was yes, we said, 'OK. Let's make it happen, step out there and just give it all we've got,'” Chock said in a press conference after the competition.
The judges awarded Chock and Bates a score of 123.75 for the free skate, much lower than their best, the world record score of 138.41. They finished in second place in the free, behind Christina Carreira and Anthony Ponomarenko (126.85), but the nine-point lead Chock / Bates build in the short program meant they were crowned national champions for a fifth time.
Good enough for gold
The last team to compete, Bates’ face as they skated to the center of the ice looked red and tired.
Still, they were able to get in their gravity-defying opening position, with Bates laid back on the ice, his knees bent in front of him, and Chock balanced above.
The skate was far from the clean program they delivered at the ISU Grand Prix Final in December. Bates fell out of his first twizzle sequence, and their score took a hit because of it.
But he found his composure again and was able to complete the fluid and difficult lifts they are known for. When they finished their skate, the look on Bates’ face was as much relief as it was joy at claiming the title.
Christina Carreira and Anthony Ponomarenko shine in free dance
Coming into the free dance in second place, Christina Carreira and Anthony Ponomarenko skated to their personal best free program score of 126.85. Their gorgeous twizzle sequence brought a loud cheer from the crowd in Ohio.
When their score was announced, the arena was filled with cheers, and the skaters looked on in disbelief at their second place finish. They had finished in third place in 2023, and showed they can compete with the best in free dance. Ponomarenko is the son of Marina Klimova and Sergei Ponomarenko, ice dance Olympic champions from 1992.
Emily Bratti and Ian Somerville took third place by skating to a new season’s best, and both were happily shocked when their scores were announced. Previously, they had not made it to the podium at the U.S. Championships.
The skating calendar doesn’t let up for Chock and Bates. From Columbus, they will head to Shanghai, China, to represent the USA in the Four Continents Championships, which starts Tuesday (30 January). Then in March, they will aim to defend their world championship title in Montreal, the city where they live and train.
The United States has a total of three spots at the world championships for dance, and the rest of the team will be announced on Sunday.
Ellie Kam and Danny O'Shea grab first national title
Ellie Kam and Danny O’Shea won the pairs title in a tight competition at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships on Saturday (27 January) night at Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio.
Kam and O’Shea scored 187.76 for the competition, beating out Alisha Efimova and Misha Mitrofanov, who scored 186.91, by less than one point. The pair scored big with high-flying lifts and with their artistry. It was the first title for Kam, and O’Shea’s second. He previously won in 2016 with Tarah Kayne.
O’Shea said the tight competition is part of what pushes the entire field of United States pairs teams.
“I think that the openness of the field is just shows that the constant pushing the field is doing is right now that everybody is trying to push their boundaries. I think that that makes all of us better as a group," O’Shea said in a press conference after the competition.
Efimova and Mitrofanov took second with a program that stood out for how clean it was. The two just paired up in the summer of 2023, but showed a connection on the ice as they nailed side by side triple Salchow jumps.
Skating in a “Top Gun” themed program, Valentina Plazas and Maximiliano Fernandez took third. Though they had trouble with two-footed landings on jumps and throws, their lifts helped get them onto the podium.
The top two teams from the 2023 U.S. championships weren’t competing on Saturday. Champions Alexa Knierim and Brandan Frazier took the season off. Emily Chan and Spencer Howe, who took second in 2023, withdrew from the free program after winning the short so Howe could continue to recover from a torn labrum in his shoulder.
The next step for the Kam and O’Shea and Plazas and Fernandez is the Four Continents Championships, starting Tuesday (30 January) in Shanghai, China. After that, the figure skating world will turn its focus to Montreal, Canada, for the World Championships in March. Chan and Howe could be chosen for the U.S. team based on their previous strong finishes in international competition.