Ultimate prize
U.S. Championships Trophy to be on display in Greensboro by RENEE FELTON Designed in 2004 by Tiffany & Co., the
sterling silver U.S. Figure Skating Champi- onships Trophy includes the name of every U.S. senior champion dating back to the first event in 1914 in ladies, men’s, pairs and ice dance. The trophy has been on-site at every
U.S. Championships since 2005 and is used in photographs by SKATING magazine with each year’s champions. Trophy facts: • Athletes’ names are engraved on the trophy next to the year they won.
• There is adequate room on the trophy to continue engraving through 2033.
• The trophy is nearly 3 feet tall and weighs more than 40 pounds.
• The trophy is valued at more than $50,000.
Madison Chock and Evan Bates
Grand Prix events after Kayne underwent hip surgery in late July. The Florida-based skaters, who are both strong jumpes, re- turned to competition in early December when they earned the bronze medal at Golden Spin in Croatia. California-based Calalang and Sidhu,
together since 2010, showed significant improvement in their second of two Grand Prix Series assignments this fall with a solid third-place free skate at Rostelecom Cup. For added spice, Castelli, Shnapir and
2014 U.S. silver medalist and Olympian Na- than Bartholomay will compete with new partners. Castelli appears for the first time at the
U.S. Championships with Canadian-born Mervin Tran, who won the 2012 World bronze medal while competing for Japan. Shnapir and DeeDee Leng competed at two Grand Prix events and make their U.S. debut in Greensboro. Bartholomay, whose former partner Felicia Zhang retired after the Olympics, will take the ice with Gretch- en Donlan, who won the pewter medal in 2012 with Andrew Speroff.
Changing of the guard in ice dance The long reign of Olympic champions
Meryl Davis and Charlie White has drawn to a close, at least for this season, and new U.S. ice dance champions will be crowned in Greensboro for the first time since 2009. With victories at Skate America and Rostelecom Cup this fall, plus a silver med- al in Barcelona, Madison Chock and Evan Bates are odds-on favorites to gain the crown.
18 JANUARY 2015 Chock and Bates, who teamed up in
2011 and won silver medals behind Da- vis and White the last two seasons, have grown comfortable in their role as one of the world’s leading ice dance teams. “For us, it’s important to stay hungry,
never get complacent,” Bates said. “Our ulti- mate goal is to win Worlds. We feel a huge mo- tivating factor for ourselves on a daily basis.” “After four seasons we’ve really gelled
as a team,” Chock said. Four-time U.S. medalists Maia Shibu-
tani and Alex Shibutani are not willing to concede the title. The siblings had their fin- est fall season ever, winning two Grand Prix silver medals, two ISU Challenger Series ti- tles and qualifying for the Grand Prix Final for the first time since 2011, placing fourth. “We have a lot of confidence in where
we are at right now,” Alex said. “We’ve shown we will make improvements in our programs. We’re not settling for anything right now.” “Competing a lot this season has just
made us stronger,” Maia said. With a talent-rich field and three U.S.
World ice dance spots up for grabes, ex- pect a battle. Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue, winners of two Grand Prix bronze medals, are favored for a top-three finish but will have to fend off challenges from reign- ing World Junior champions Kaitlin Hawayek and Jean-Luc Baker, who won bronze at NHK Trophy. Two-time World Junior bronze med- alists Alexandra Aldridge and Daniel Eaton, the 2014 Four Continents bronze medalists, are also contenders.
• Tiffany & Co. has also designed cham- pionship trophies for Major League Baseball’s World Series, the NBA and WNBA, the Super Bowl and the U.S. Open (tennis).
FANFEST People who attend FanFest at the
Greensboro Coliseum can get an up-close look at the prestigious U.S. Championship Trophy. The trophy will be on display all week and fans can take pictures of the im- pressive hardware.
JAY ADEFF/U.S. FIGURE SKATING
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