This weekend was the kick off for the Grand Prix of Figure Skating, Skate America.
Unfortunately, Americans fell short of their expectations for gold.
Ice Dance, the US had three teams in the competition: Annabelle Morozov & Jeffrey Chen, Leah Neset & Artem Markelov, Madison Chock & Evan Bates. Morozov & Chen ended in 9th (out of 10), and Neset & Markelov were 5th. The surprise was Chock & Bates, looking for a "three-peat" gold medal. However, an uncharacteristic fall in their first program left them in second. While they rallied in their second program, it wasn't enough to pass the leaders, Lilah Fear & Lewis Gibson of Great Britain.
Pairs skating, the US had three teams in the competition: Katie McBeath & Daniil Parkman, Alisa Efimova & Misha Mitrofanov, and Ellie Kam & Danny O'Shea. McBeath & Parkman finished 7th (out of 8 ). Efimova & Mitrofanov finished in 3rd and Kam & O'Shea finished in 2nd. That was the best result of the competition, and the US was not expected to earn a gold, as the team that did win (Riku Miura & Ryuichi Kihara) are the current World Silver Medal winners.
Women skating, the US had three women in the competition: Elyce Lin-Gracey, Bradie Tennell, and Isabeau Levito. Elyce had a rough short program, and couldn't get higher than 6th out of 12. Bradie was second after the short program, but had a rough long program, and dropped to 5th. As for Isabeau, she had a great short program, and was in first. However, errors in the long program dropped her to third overall. Japanese women took the top two spots, Wakaba Higuchi winning gold, and Rinka Watanabe taking silver.
Biggest surprise was men, the US had three men in the competition: Lucas Broussard, Maxim Naumov, and Ilia Malinin. Lucas was appearing in his first senior event, and finished 10th (out of 12). Maxim finished 7th. Ilia Malinin was favored for gold, and he did win gold, the only US competitor to do so. HOWEVER, Kevin Aymoz from France was in 4th after the short program, and he skated beautifully. The two skaters who followed him fell short, and were placed behind him. Ilia had a lead after the short program, but turned in an imperfect skate. A quad loop was turned into a double loop, and a planned combination was aborted when he slipped out of a landing on the first jump. When the scores were tallied, Kevin Aymoz actually scored higher than Ilia in the long program, but Ilia's lead in the short program held up, and he won the gold.
When the long program scores were shown for Ilia, both he and his father (his coach) looked concerned that Ilia may not win. They need to take a lesson from this. He needs to develop his artistic side, because if errors happen with his technical performance, he can be beaten.
