“Tis is uncharted territory for us and it’s
harder than it looks,” Bates said. “To manage the stress and go out and deliver a great performance, I don’t even know what to say.” “Our goal this season was to medal at
Worlds and we’ve accomplished that,” Chock said. “Now we will up our goals for next year and come back fighting.” Weaver and Poje, last season’s World silver medalists, won bronze. 2014 World champions Anna Cappellini and Luca Lanotte were fourth. Maia Shibutani and Alex Shibutani, com- peting in their seventh international event of the season, ended what they called “a season of growth” with two technically superb programs that were big hits with the Shanghai crowd. Teir elegant yet powerful free dance, set to
Madison Chock and Evan Bates brought
home a silver medal, marking the 10th time a U.S. ice dance couple has medaled at the World Championships since 2005. Maia Shibutani and Alex Shibutani were fifth, while Madison Hub- bell and Zachary Donohue placed 10th, for three top-10 finishes in the discipline. For the U.S. ladies, Shanghai was bitter-
sweet: Gracie Gold and Ashley Wagner won ISU small medals for their free skates, but they placed fourth and fifth overall, respectively. Polina Ed- munds joined them in the top 10, placing eighth. Te U.S. has not won a World ladies medal since 2006, when Kimmie Meissner took gold and Sa- sha Cohen won bronze. Jason Brown skated two virtuo-
so performances to place fourth in his Worlds debut. He was joined in the top 10 by Adam Rippon, who finished eighth. Joshua Farris placed 11th in his Worlds debut. Alexa Scimeca and Chris Knierim skated two solid pro- grams and hit a quadruple twist in their free skate to take seventh place in pairs, while Brandon Frazier and Hav- en Denney were 11th in their Worlds debut.
Te solid overall results gave Team USA a near-full complement of competitors for the 2016 World Figure Skating Championships in Boston: three ice dance teams, three ladies, three men and two pairs.
CHOCK, BATES CARRY U.S. ICE DANCE TORCH
It took a while this season for Madison
Chock and Evan Bates to get comfortable with their new role as leaders of U.S. ice dance. “We’re so used to having Meryl (Davis) and
Charlie (White) there,” Chock said. “Tey set such a great example [at] every competition they were in, going out and being so prepared and el- egant. It was almost like, ‘Where are they? Where are they?’” Davis and White won four consecutive
World medals (2010–2013) and two Olympic medals (2010, 2014). Chock and Bates, fifth in the world last season, had a tough act to follow. Determined to make their mark, they turned down post-Olympic touring opportunities last spring and summer to buckle down in Novi, Michigan, where they train under Igor Shpil- band.
“We worked on our lifts and our speed,”
Bates said. “We got our programs done early. We improved a lot.”
Te couple won their first Grand Prix titles last fall and qualified for their first Grand Prix Final, winning silver behind Canada’s Kaitlyn Weaver and Andrew Poje. A few weeks after win- ning the U.S. title in January, they again placed second to the Canadians, at the 2015 Four Con- tinents Figure Skating Championships. In Shanghai, Chock and Bates won the paso
doble short dance, earning the segment’s highest technical element score and taking a 1.79-point lead into the free dance. But Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron of France, just 13th in the world last season, capped their remark- able season-long surge by climbing from fourth after the short dance to win the title with a mesmerizing free dance, edg- ing the U.S. champions by about three points.
Chock and Bates delivered intricate steps and spectacular lifts in their free dance to George Gershwin’s An American in Paris. Chock’s small wobble on the twizzles cost them a few points, but they won the silver medal with a season’s best 181.34 points.
GOH CHAI HIN/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
a medley of Johann Strauss waltzes, earned a sea- son’s best 102.71 points and helped them climb from sixth after the short dance to fifth overall with 172.03 points. “Tat our programs continued to devel-
op throughout the season proved that we have so much to continue to give,” Maia said. “Our growth as performers is coming across, and the responses we got from audiences all season were so special.”
Te siblings vowed to challenge not only for the U.S. title next season, but a World medal. “Our goal is to be the best team in the
world, and we will work really hard to make that goal a reality,” Alex said. For Madison Hubbell and Zachary Dono-
hue, Shanghai was a chance to compete freely and without fear, perhaps for the first time since Hub- bell underwent hip surgery in March 2014. Te injury cost them a chance to compete at the 2014 World Championships and limited their training last summer and fall. “It’s been a challenge and we pushed
through a lot of hardship to be on the other side of it,” Hubbell said. “To train our hardest, with no doubts, means the world to us.” In an otherwise fine short dance, Donohue stumbled slightly on the twizzles, putting the team in 11th place. A strong free dance to Te Great Gatsby soundtrack lifted them to 10th overall, equaling their finish at their Worlds de- but in 2012. “It hasn’t been the best circumstances for us
in the last few years, but we ended on a strong note,” Hubbell said. “We’re excited to keep going for the next three years.” “We’re going to spend some time figuring out exactly what our strengths are and the best and smartest ways to highlight them,” Donohue said. “Tat’s part of the journey.”
— Lynn Rutherford
GOLD LEADS U.S. LADIES CHARGE
For a change, Gracie Gold was showing off
a much-deserved grin as she skated off the ice. By her own admission, Gold had struggled to find her rhythm this season, battling a stress fracture to her left foot in December, and trying to navigate the skating world following a pres- sure-packed Olympic campaign last season. Yet at the biggest competition of the season
in Shanghai, Gold performed a season’s-best long program to finish second in the free skate and
SKATING 23
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