Also shining on the big stage, Samuel Min- dra claimed the silver medal with 54.41 points in his first trip to the U.S. Championships. Like the champion, Mindra has come by his double Axel in the last year. His coach, Kehaunani Malama, explained that in addition to conquering his Axel, Mindra (Portland ISC) has moved up four levels in the U.S. Figure Skating qualifying structure. “He started competing last year, so his first competition was in pre-preliminary,” she said. “In one year he moved up to juvenile and landed his double Axel. He’s very talented.” Talented, and humble.
Coming off the ice, he noted things to
work on (flying spin and facial expressions) and couldn’t quite believe he was as strong as his fel- low competitors. “It’s fun competing against people who might be better than me so I want to see if I can do better,” he said. “I thought everyone was as good as me and I figured everyone improved like that but then my coach told me they didn’t.” Added Malama of the “Dark Eyes” perfor- mance, “I thought he was great. He is expressive and he’s good at showing how he feels when he skates.” Maxim Zharkov was a medalist twice over
on the first weekend of the U.S. Championships. In addition to securing the juvenile boys bronze medal with 51.92 points, Zharkov (Dallas FSC) earned the juvenile dance pewter med- al with partner Shin Lei Case. “My free skate was easy and good; I landed
Ilia Malinin
everything and did all choreography right,” he said. “My goal was to win a medal. In ice dance, it was to get between first and fourth.” Zharkov is relaxed about his skating and training in two disciplines, but his parent-coach, Andrei, quickly set the record straight on the challenges of competing as a two-discipline ath- lete.
“It’s hard to split the time because he’s skat-
ing about three hours,” Andrei said. “Most morn- ings he’s doing ice dance and in the afternoons I train him in freestyle. He goes to private school and at 2 p.m. they let me take him from school. Tis way, we can have about an hour to train.” Philip Baker (Te SC of Boston) finished
fourth with 50.99 points.
PAIRS By Troy Schwindt Rockne Brubaker and his bride of seven
months, Stefania (Berton), accomplished a lot during their competitive careers, including win- ning national and international pairs titles. As first-year coaches at the U.S. Champion- ships, they got to experience victory on the other side of the boards when Isabelle Martins (Chicago FSC) and Ryan Bedard (Northern Ice SC) skated to victory at the Bloomington Ice Garden on the opening day of competition. “I thought the performance was better than
sectionals,” Bedard said. “Te performance, the smiling, the elements were all better.” “And we had fun,” Martins added. Having fun is exactly what Martins and Be-
dard did in their racing-themed performance to music from the soundtrack to Te Cutting Edge, which earned 42.37 points. Te Chicago-area skaters opened with a strong throw Axel, followed by an attractive lift and solid double Salchow-Axel sequences. Martins and Bedard came together in June
after the skaters’ mothers, who both coach at an area rink, decided that their children, ages 9 and 15, should give a pairs partnership a try. “Tey’ve known each other for a long time,”
Brubaker said. “We were working with Ryan on his singles and the subject kind of came up in conver- sation. We said, ‘Let’s try it and if it works we’ll
Isabelle Martins and Ryan Bedard
52 MARCH 2016
PHOTOS BY JAY ADEFF/U.S. FIGURE SKATING
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