U.S. Figure Skating Championships 2024: Ilia Malinin and Isabeau Levito eye back-to-back titles
Columbus, Ohio, is set to host the domestic championships for a first time, with reigning world ice dance champions Madison Chock and Evan Bates chasing a fifth national title.
Figure Skating
For the first time in history, two teenaged singles skaters have the chance to win parallel back-to-back national titles at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships.
Ilia Malinin, 19, and Isabeau Levito, 16, look to repeat as American singles champions this weekend (25-28 January) in Columbus, Ohio, with the two reigning gold medallists favoured in their respective fields.
Veteran Jason Brown returns to the national stage after foregoing the Grand Prix Series for a second consecutive year, while Amber Glenn and Lindsay Thorngren could press Levito, each of the duo having claimed a Grand Prix medal. Ava Marie Ziegler, who stunned for the NHK Trophy in November, withdrew from U.S. Nationals on Saturday (20 January) to focus on the coming Four Continents Championships (30 Jan.-4 Feb.).
The American championships date back to 1914, but never have two teens won the singles in back-to-back years in both the men's and women's singles events.
Reigning world ice dance champions Madison Chock and Evan Bates are strong favourites for a fifth national title and third in a row, while the pairs discipline could be wide open, with only Chelsea Liu and Balazs Nagy winning a medal on the Grand Prix.
See a full preview of the event below, the competition, and find out where - and when - to watch it live.
U.S. Figure Skating Nationals 2024: Malinin, Levito, Chock/Bates hope for back-to-back titles
A lot has changed in 12 months for both Malinin and Levito, who have simultaneously become forces on the international stage. It's Malinin who landed on the world podium last March (where Levito was fourth), and last month Ilia won Grand Prix Final gold, beating out two-time and reigning world champion Uno Shoma.
He tried his quadruple Axel there for the first time in competition this season, landing it in the short but missing it in the free program.
Brown, who is now 29, has one international competition this season, which is one more than he had last year coming into U.S. nationals, when he won silver. He and Malinin could go first-second again, with no other U.S. man able to find consistently strong skating in the first half of the year.
One interesting ripple is the entry of Daniel Samohin, the 2016 World junior champion, who has switched to competing for the U.S. from Israel and qualified for the Championships via regional events.
Levito said the U.S. Championships were giving her stress in the recent past, but she's changed her mindset coming in, taking the focus away from eyeing a gold medal: "It has nothing to do with the fact that I won last year," she said of her new approach.
It won't be clear cut: Each of Glenn and Thorngren showed some sparkling skating the first half of the year, with Thorngren's 198.73 (both from NHK Trophy) within 10 points of Levito's 208.15 at Skate America in October.
Glenn should look to attack her triple Axel. The 24-year-old is still aiming to put together two strong back-to-back programs when it matters the most.
Chock/Bates are clear favourites in dance after sweeping the Grand Prix and winning their first Final title after four previous silvers.
Four-time U.S. runners-up Kaitlin Hawayek and Jean-Luc Baker are out for the remainder of the season, but both Christina Carreira and Anthony Ponomarenko as well as Caroline Green and Michael Parsons will look to nab podium spots in ice dance.
In pairs, 2023 silver medallists Emily Chan and Spencer Howe come in as an unknown quantity having missed much of the first half of the season.
U.S. Figure Skating Championships 2024: Complete schedule
All times listed are local Columbus times, which is in the Eastern time zone in the U.S. (EST; GMT -5).
Thursday, 25 January
14:00 - Pairs short program
16:40 - Ice dance rhythm dance
19:15 - Women's short program
Friday, 26 January
15:15 - Men's short program
19:45 - Women's free skate
Saturday, 27 January
13:50 - Ice dance free dance
19:35 - Pairs free skate
Sunday, 28 January
14:45 - Men's free skate
19:30 - Exhibition gala
U.S. Figure Skating Championships 2024 - How to watch live
NBC and its family of networks will air the skating, with Thursday's action on USA Network. The men's short on Friday and pairs free skate on Saturday night are also on USA.
The women's free (Thursday eve), ice dance (Saturday afternoon) and men's free (Sunday afternoon) can all be found on NBC.
NBC's streaming service Peacock will offer livestreaming of all the events throughout the weekend.
Practice sessions can also be found on Peacock. A schedule for those can be found here.
NBC is also providing a World Feed broadcast for the following territories: Mexico; the Caribbean region; and Japan. All territories are subject to possible geo-blocking restrictions.