PAIRS
A rocky weekend
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Tears streamed down the face of Alexa Scime- ca as she tried to make sense of a mistake-riddled free skate at the 2016 World Figure Skating Cham- pionships in Boston. “I’m embarrassed,” she said as she addressed
reporters. “It’s hard because we are representing our country in our home country, and I just feel like today I really let it go and I’m feeling guilty for my mistakes.”
Scimeca and Chris Knierim, the 2016 U.S.
and Four Continents silver medalists, never ap- peared comfortable in their free skate to music from Elizabeth: Te Golden Age. She experienced two rough landings on the team’s throws and a fall on their combination jump. Moments after the performance, she touched the bottom of her blades, searching to find a possi- ble answer to her troubles on the TD Garden ice. “It just felt like every time I would get on that outside edge, I would slip,” she said. “And it was even happening between elements. I really noticed
2016 World pairs podium (l-r) Wenjing Sui and Cong Han (silver medalists from China), Meagan Du- hamel and Eric Radford (gold medalists from Canada), Aliona Savchenko and Bruno Massot (bronze medalists from Germany)
it on the exit of my jumps and throws. … I don’t know if something was on there or if it was just in my head, but I started to notice it in the first min- ute of the program and I got distracted, I guess.” Te Colorado Springs, Colorado, couple fin- ished 12th in the free skate and ninth overall. U.S. champions Tarah Kayne and Danny O’Shea also experienced a major mistake in both programs, set- tling for a 13th-place finish overall. Te last time the U.S. earned a pairs medal at the World Cham- pionships was in 2002, when Kyoko Ina and John Zimmerman claimed bronze. Canada’s Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford repeated as World champions, while short pro-
Alexa Scimeca and Christopher Knierim perform a unique lift during their free skate.
gram leaders from China, Wenjing Sui and Cong Han, secured the silver medal. Te new team of Aliona Savchenko and Bruno Massot garnered the bronze medal.
Scimeca and Knierim, who will marry on
June 26, got off to a solid start in their short pro- gram to Metallica’s “Nothing Else Matters,” post- ing a season-best score of 71.37, good enough for seventh place in the 22-team field. Despite the high score, the team’s enthusiasm
was tempered because of a fall by Knierim on the team’s side-by-side triple Salchows. “We really wanted to end this program with a bang, because it’s the last time performing Me-
22 MAY 2016
BILLIE WEISS - ISU/ISU VIA GETTY IMAGES
MADDIE MEYER/GETTY IMAGES
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