MPIONSHIPS FOUR CONTINENTS CHAMPIONSHIPS FOUR CONTINENTS CHAMPIONSHIPS FOUR CO Koki Nagahama/Getty Images
program score she earned at the 2016 Autumn Classic International, Nagasu has posted the highest segment scores earned by a U.S. lady to date during the 2016–17 international season. Japan’s Mai Mihara won the gold medal (200.85), while Canadian Gabrielle Daleman fi nished with the silver medal (196.91). “When these moments happen, it’s so exciting and so gratifying,”
Mirai Nagasu
Nagasu said. “It just validates my reason for training hard every day, doing programs even when I don’t feel like it and getting up when I fall. It’s just like the U.S. Figure Skating campaign. We get up. T at’s why I keep skating and that’s why today has been an amazing feeling.” U.S. bronze medalist Mariah Bell made her ISU championship debut with a sixth-place fi nish and 177.10 points. Bell fought through a pair of rough performances on the heels of a breakout season that included her fi rst, second and third international medals, and her fi rst time on the senior ladies podium at the 2017 Prudential U.S. Figure Skating Championships. “So not exactly how I wanted it to go,” Bell said. “T ere were a few pretty big mistakes, but overall this was the most pressure I think I’ve had in an event, so it was good to be able to go out and manage that. It’s something I’m going to take away from this and learn from for the next competition.” U.S. champion Karen Chen also struggled, settling for 12th place and
166.82 points. PAIRS
2015 U.S. champions Alexa Scimeca Knierim and Chris Knierim made
a triumphant return to competition after missing the Grand Prix season and U.S. Championships due to an illness requiring stomach surgery for Scimeca Knierim. T e duo, who married in June, petitioned for a spot on the Four Continents and World Teams, and proved they had resumed training and were ready to represent Team USA. T ey fi nished sixth in Gangneung with 193.91 points — the highest American pairs score of the event. “It was diff erent than I’ve ever felt competing together,” Knierim said.
(l-r) Ladies medalists Gabrielle Daleman, Mai Mihara, Mirai Nagasu
“T ere wasn’t so much stress on anything; we were just trying to relate to each other and feel the movements. We were making the movements real.” “It wasn’t our biggest score, but it’s the best we’ve ever felt skating,” Scimeca Knierim added. “It’s just us out there. Everyone has a journey and this is our own. We can’t try to change our circumstances; we can just go with them. I felt like for the fi rst time we were living when we were skating instead of working.” Haven Denney and Brandon Frazier fi n- ished eighth with 179.45 points. T e U.S. pairs champions had errors in both performances, but used the opportunity to soak in the Olympic environment heading into next season. “It’s been quite an experience,” Frazier said.
Alexa Scimeca Knierim and Chris Knierim 12 APRIL 2017
“Even though we didn’t put out the two best pro- grams that we wanted to do this week, this is just quite an atmosphere to be a part of. It’s defi nitely inspired us to get home and get working to try and get back here next season. I think Haven and I are pleased with the work that we’ve put out so far. We just need some time to get some better rhythm going for some of our elements, but we’ll be back after this stronger than ever.” China’s Wenjing Sui and Cong Han of China won the title (225.03), besting two-time World champions Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford of Canada by 12.80 points (212.23). Liubov Ilyushechkina and Dylan Moscovitch of Canada won bronze (205.31). U.S. bronze med- alists Ashley Cain and Timothy LeDuc rounded out Team USA’s eff orts in ninth place (168.87).
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