Max Aaron performs his free skate to music from West Side Story. Aaron finished seventh overall and solidified himself as one of the world’s top skaters.
2013 WOR LD F IGU RE S K AT I N G CHA MPION S H IPS Perhaps the biggest achieve-
ment Aaron had was being at the World Championships at all. A lit- tle more than a year ago, following a disappointing eighth-place perfor- mance at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in San Jose, Calif., Aaron said he seriously considered quitting skating. Instead of flying back to Colorado Springs, Colo., where he has trained, he rerouted his ticket to go home to Scottsdale, Ariz. He didn’t skate for nearly two months, spending more time pool- side with friends than in a cold rink. But he realized he had unfin- ished business in skating and de- cided to return to Colorado. He said he went back with an “all-in” attitude, and the usually dedicated worker ramped up his focus to an even-higher level. Te effort was not lost on Zakrajsek nor on train- ing mates. Chan, who had been in Colorado Springs until moving to Detroit just weeks before Worlds, marveled at the number of run- throughs Aaron would do in prac- tice.
“Nobody really took him se-
riously,” Chan said of Aaron. “No one knew how strong he was, but I can tell you firsthand that he is one of the hardest-working kids I know.”
Aaron held his own, landing two of his three planned quads at these championships and even scored highly in areas that had been considered his weakness, earning Level 4s in footwork, for example. Ross Miner, who was repre-
senting the United States at his sec- ond World Championships, placed 14th.
“I’m a little disappointed,”
Ross Miner, com- peting at his second World Champion- ships in three years, finished 14th overall.
skate, after landing a triple Axel, but again he rebounded. He left Lon- don with a seventh-place finish, the best of the American men. While at times his rookie status showed — Aaron finished more than 30 points behind champion Patrick Chan of
26 MAY 2013
Canada — he also proved he be- longed among the world’s best. In fact, Aaron placed higher than sev- eral veterans including 2007 World champion Brian Joubert (ninth), Michal Brezina (10th) and Tomas Verner (21st).
Miner said. “Based on NHK and nationals, I think I had the capabil- ity to be competitive with the upper end of the top 10. I think top six would have been a reasonable goal for me. I got a little wrapped up in that and tried a little too hard in- stead of focusing on doing my job. I’m going to go home and try to find my mojo again, which is what got me here in the first place — that was focusing on what I can con- trol.”
With the placements of Aaron
and Miner, the U.S. will have two spots at the 2014 Olympic Winter Games in Sochi.
Chan, meanwhile, who collect-
ed his third consecutive World title and did so this time in his home
country, set the bar high with a re- markable short program to a piece by Rachmaninov. His short pro- gram score of 98.37 was eye-pop- ping even by his standards. Chan was followed by a relative unknown named Denis Ten of Kazakhstan. Although Ten was competing in his fifth World Championships, he had never placed higher than seventh and said he was as surprised as ev- eryone else when he was in second place after the short. Chan began his free skate
performing to La Boheme with the same confidence and ease as he skated his short program, opening with two huge quadruple jumps. Soon after, however, he began to crumble, falling on a triple Lutz and a triple Axel, stepping out after a triple Salchow and dou- bling another planned triple Lutz. Chan was second in the free
skate behind Ten who delighted the crowd with his second performance of the week to music from the Acad- emy Award-winning film Te Artist. Chan finished in first overall, net- ting 267.78 points, followed by Ten at 266.48. Javier Fernandez, seventh after the short program, performed his charming Charlie Chaplin pro- gram and moved up to third with 249.06 points. Ten’s silver, and Fer- nandez’s bronze, marked the first World Figure Skating medals for Kazakhstan and Spain.
Clearly disappointed in his
performance in front of a sold-out crowd in Canada, Chan slapped his head after his free skate. He lat- er apologized to the audience in a post-skate interview that was broad- cast in the arena saying he was “so sorry” because he had wanted to perform a strong program there. “I’m thankful for that beauti-
ful short program,” said Chan, who became the first man to win three consecutive World titles since Alexei Yagudin (1998‒2000). “Maybe I’m just saving it for the Olympics.”
U.S. pairs make strong showing in Worlds debuts By Lynn Rutherford
Alexa Scimeca made a bold
promise in London. “We’re in it forever, and you can quote me on that,” she told re- porters in the mixed zone. Te 21-year-old Scimeca and her partner, Chris Knierim, 25, won
PHOTOS COURTESY OF MICHAEL KASS
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