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SENIOR PAIRS


NO SPIN ZONE C


by TROY SCHWINDT


oach Bobby Martin remembers the day he gave an ultimatum of sorts to his disgrun- tled pairs team of Marissa Castelli and Si-


mon Shnapir. Together since 2007, the Boston-based duo


had hit the wall in their professional relationship after back-to-back fifth-place finishes at the U.S. Championships. Teir partnership was collaps- ing, and everyone at Te Skating Club of Boston figured something big was about to happen. As Martin and his family boarded a plane


PAIRS GOLD


Marissa Castelli/ Simon Shnapir


180.61 SILVER


Alexa Scimeca/


Christopher Knierim 172.75


BRONZE Felicia Zhang/


to Lake Tahoe in February 2012 for their annual vacation, he left his pupils with simple, but stern instructions: “Tis isn’t working. I’ll see you in 10 days and you can tell me what you’ve decided. Call anyone you want, do whatever you need to do. Tis is your destiny.” Martin, who coaches the team with Carrie Wall, said


Nathan Bartholomay 172.02


PEWTER


Lindsay Davis/ Mark Ladwig 165.08


that the friction between Castelli, 22, and Shnapir, 25, had reached a boiling point and that enough was enough. “We [the club] have core values that we adhere to and


they definitely stepped outside of those boundaries on occa- sion and we let them know,” Martin said. With Martin on vacation, Castelli and Shnapir agreed


to get together for a heart-to-heart talk about their skating future. “I think they hit the low of the low, and they had to try


and figure out how this thing was going to work,” Martin said.


Deciding to move forward and not look back, Castelli and Shnapir embarked on the 2012-13 season with a com-


mitment to each other and the motiva- tion to become medal contenders. After a successful Grand Prix season in


which they won their first medal (a bronze at NHK Trophy), Castelli and Shnapir fi- nally realized their potential by winning the U.S. pairs title in Omaha. “It’s been forever,” Castelli said of wait-


ing for their moment in the sun. “We had dreams of a novice gold medal and then we had dreams of a junior gold medal, and we just missed them by that much. We were always in third place and last year was a real disappoint- ment.”


In answering questions following their


long-awaited triumph, Castelli and Shnapir were more than forthcoming about their past partner-


ship issues. “I guess Simon and I have good patience with each oth-


er, because there were multiple times in which we didn’t like each other before and it was very apparent. But you know, we finally matured as people and we grew up. We looked at each other at the beginning of the season and decided what we really wanted to do. We really worked together and now we get along.” “We definitely did butt heads in the past,” Shnapir


added. “We have had so many ups and downs. We finally sat down and we had to move forward and put the past in the past.” Castelli and Shnapir arrived in Omaha as the heavy favorites, with defending champions Caydee


PERSEVERANCE PAYS OFF FOR CASTELLI AND SHNAPIR


(l-r) Alexa Scimeca/ Christopher Knierim,


Marissa Castelli/Simon Shnapir, Felicia Zhang/ Nathan Bartholomay,


Lindsay Davis/Mark Ladwig


20 MARCH 2013


PHOTO BY JONATHAN DANIEL/GETTY IMAGES


PHOTOS BY JAY ADEFF


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