Adam Rippon, Jeremy Abbott, Ross Miner, Armin Mahbanoozadeh
Jeremy Abbott broke the U.S. men’s record with his entertaining swing dance short program. He generated a score of 90.23 points.
MEDALISTS
GOLD — JEREMY ABBOTT —273.58 SILVER — ADAM RIPPON — 240.87 BRONZE — ROSS MINER — 230.32
FOURTH — ARMIN MAHBANOOZADEH — 224.63
273.58 points sent the audience into a frenzy. Abbott stood at center ice and took in the crowd’s love. “I skate to give a performance like that and so I felt really good,”
Abbott said seconds after stepping off the ice. “I was really nervous when I started. I was shaking a little bit, but from the second I set for the quad, I was like, I’m going to do this. I just really took it into my hands and made sure that I did what I needed to do. “When I finished, I could feel the energy of the arena and it kind
of overwhelmed me. I was getting emotional but I kept it in, kept it together but I felt it. It was real nice.” Rippon, who moved his training base from Toronto to De-
troit prior to the season to skate under coaches Yuka Sato and Jason Dungjen, felt the weight of the world lifted off his back after three years of coming up short at the U.S. Championships. Tis time, the 22-year-old Pennsylvania native came through with a sensational short program and a hard-fought free skate to land on the podium and secure his second World Team berth (2010). His free skate to “Air” and “Toccata and Fugue” by Bach,
though, didn’t start well. He intended to open with a quad Salchow but doubled the attempt. He turned out of his first triple Axel and fought for the landing of a triple Lutz-triple Salchow sequence. Still, he executed six triple jumps, including a triple Axel, a triple flip-triple toe and his signature “Rippon” triple Lutz, done with both arms overhead. His final score of 240.87 cemented him as the event’s silver medalist. “I’ve had a busy few months,” Rippon said. “I moved to Detroit
over the summer and Jeremy and I train together. I think it’s really affected my whole skating in a positive way. After the Grand Prix season, I just put myself in their (Sato and Dungjen’s) hands and to be able to train with Jeremy is an honor. It’s a great experience. I feel like we’re coming in here as a team and I’m really happy for him today and I’m sure he’s really happy for me.” In his recent experiences at the U.S. Championships, Rippon
has struggled with his short program at nationals, much like his friend Ashley Wagner has. After watching her exorcize her short pro- gram demons the night before, he felt he could do the same. “It really gave me a lot of confidence to know that if she could
overcome it, I could overcome it,” he said. “It’s definitely a huge step forward for me.” Miner, who works with coaches Mark Mitchell and Peter Jo- hansson at the Skating Club of Boston, placed fourth in the short
Abbott embraces coaches Jason Dungjen and Yuka Sato in the kiss and cry.
SKATING 17
U.S. FIGURE SKATING PHOTO PHOTO BY EZRA SHAW/GETTY IMAGES
PHOTO BY JAY ADEFF
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