very special moment.” More waves of recognition soon arrived,
from family, friends and many of the people who helped them along the way.
“Tat first 24 hours was the largest barrage of texts and email I’ve received in my life,” Alex said. “People all over the skating world reached out to us: friends we grew up with, who com- pete for other countries; people we’ve met more recently. Tis is a special community that we’re a part of, and they all sort of witnessed us go through a lot of different things. “It’s a very special feeling,” he added, and then laughed. “I feel like I’m saying special a lot.” Te siblings’ first national medal came in 2005, when they took silver in the juvenile division. Since then, they’ve won gold at every level: intermediate (2006), novice (2007), junior (2010) and now senior. Tus far, their international career has been
a success by any measure, with three appearanc- es at the Grand Prix Final, two medals at the Four Continents Championships and the 2011 World bronze medal. Still, there have been speed bumps: a pair of eighth-place World finishes (2012, 2013); not always getting marks they wanted. “Our career has been a little bit different
from a traditional trajectory of progress,” Alex said. “Tat may have been challenging for us to deal with a few years ago, but we’ve kind of come through that difficult point, that difficult period, and it’s really going to pay off in the next couple of years.” Marina Zoueva, who has coached the sib-
Madison Chock and Evan Bates
lings in Canton, Michigan, since 2007, knows better than anyone the dedication and love of skating that has fueled the Shibutanis’ climb. “Tey won World bronze right after ju- niors, then fell down to eighth place and couldn’t get up close to the third spot,” Zoueva said. “But they still worked, they still believed, they still dug energy from their bodies.
road to touch judges’ hearts (but) they worked to get better, better, better and finally they did it.” In Saint Paul, Maia and Alex’s charming
short dance, set to Delibes’ comic ballet Cop- pélia, gained 74.67 points, just .47 point less than Chock and Bates’ elegant ballroom routine. Tat set the stage for “Fix You,” choreographed by five-time U.S. ice dance champion Peter Tch- ernyshev in a fresh, contemporary style, with emphasis on flowing movements and organic expression. “We are putting more of ourselves into our skating, and that’s something that comes with time and experience,” Maia said. “We have really figured out what our identity is.” Te Shibutanis gained Level 4 for all five elements in their short dance, and all seven ele- ments in their free dance. “Tat was exciting, because notably earlier
this season we had struggled to see some of the levels we were hoping for,” Alex said. “We were confident in our technique, but they just weren’t showing up on the page at the competitions, so it was validating to see those marks.” It took every one of those Level 4s to de-
feat Chock (All Year FSC) and Bates (Ann Ar- bor FSC). After changing their short dance a few weeks before Skate America, and revamping portions of their free dance to Rachmaninoff’s “Piano Concerto No. 2” prior to the Grand Prix Final, the couple arrived in Saint Paul feeling confident and energized. “After the Grand Prix Final, we took a
break, a couple of weeks off, and came back reju- venated,” Bates said. “We knew we pushed really hard to survive our Grand Prix events. We came to nationals relieved, knowing we had our pro- grams set for more than a few weeks, which was not the case for our Grand Prix.” Te Novi, Michigan, team glided through
a waltz and foxtrot medley in their short dance and created new depths of feeling and drama in their free dance. But a small bobble dropped their free dance spin to a Level 2, and their diag- onal steps earned Level 3. Tat was just enough to yield the title to their longtime rivals. “Tis has been our best week so far in terms of putting out two of our best skates,” Bates said. “Tis free dance, in particular, has been the most challenging thing we’ve ever done and it’s taken us up to this point to feel as comfortable as we are with it, and still we have until the end of March to improve it (for the World Championships).” “We’re very proud of how we skated today and this has been the best we’ve competed this season so far,” Chock said after the free dance. “We definitely still have room to improve and we will improve going into Worlds.” Madison Hubbell (Lansing SC) and Zach- ary Donohue (Lansing SC) had put power and
26 MARCH 2016
passion on ice with both their short dance to k.d. lang’s “Hallelujah” and free dance to Daft Punk’s “Adagio for Tron.” Tey won their third bronze medal with 178.81 points. A coaching change from Detroit Skating
It is a difficult
Club, to Marie-France Dubreuil and Patrice Lau- zon in Montreal, Quebec, is paying dividends for the tall, charismatic couple, whose chemistry is shown to great advantage in Dubreuil’s choreog- raphy. “We’re trying to create a moment that’s not
a program, that’s not an element, that’s not any- thing technical or component-based,” Donohue said after the free dance. “It’s just a moment to take everyone in and make them feel something, and I think we got a glimpse of that today.” “I think we feel the most confident we’ve
ever felt in how we can control our performance every time, our consistency, and it’s a great feel- ing,” Hubbell said. “I think we’re in the right place to reach all of our dreams.” Anastasia Cannuscio (University of Dela-
ware FSC) and Colin McManus (SC of Boston) skated career-best programs to place fourth with 160.46 points, their best finish in five trips as seniors to the U.S. Championships. “We feel so validated,” McManus said af-
ter the free dance. “We’ve just been in Delaware kind of trucking along, doing our own thing. I think that ends up working out better for us sometimes, because we just stay so focused on ourselves and making ourselves better every day. Tis weekend is kind of a testament to that work ethic. We couldn’t be happier.”
Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue
PHOTOS BY JAY ADEFF/U.S. FIGURE SKATING
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