Canadians earn two bronze at Skate America

Skate America is the first event of the 2015 worldwide Skating Union (ISU) Grand Prix of Figure Skating Series.

Performing his “Black Swan” program, Aaron moved from element to element without any problems until he hit a snag with the landing of his final jump, a double Axel. “That was my goal and what I came here to do”. “At the end of the day, I could go back to getting sixth or seventh place and being a mediocre skater, or I could be a champion. I want to do whatever it takes to be the best”.

A home hope was in control in the men’s competition after 2013 USA champion Max Aaron-who just missed out on a 2014 Sochi Olympics berth-landed all of his jumps, including a quadruple toe loop in combination, to lead after the short programme.

U.S. champion Jason Brown will square off against Japan’s world junior champion Shoma Uno, 17, who defeated Spain’s world champion Javier Fernandez to win the Japan Open. “I am happy with my program today”. My coaches and I, we are discussing this in case something doesn’t work. “This happens many times, and then you have to change your program so I know what to do, and I do it”. Skating to Stravinski’s “The Firebird”, she popped a triple Salchow late in her program but otherwise was clean.

Skate America 2015 continues October 24 with free skate action in the ladies’, men’s, and ice dancing events.

“I just lost a little bit of my attack”, Gold said. “It felt like the double flip yesterday (when she couldn’t complete a triple flip in the short program)”.

The Chinese teams of Sui Wenjing and Han Cong Han (68.28) and Wang Xuehan and Wang Lei (64.95) followed. The Grand Prix Series, now in its 21st season, consists of six worldwide events in a cumulative point-scoring format.

“The audiences in the Midwest are always very knowledgeable and very enthusiastic and great support for our US skaters in particular”, says U.S. Figure Skating president Sam Auxier.

They also won the Four Continents Championships in 2012 in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Scimeca and Knierim stepped up the choreography and intensity of the program after receiving feedback from officials earlier in the season. Our jumping passes have become a lot more consistent. “We did really well and we are very pleased”. “It was kind of a learning experience to skate last in the long because we really haven’t done that yet”. The Michigan-based team performed their Rachmaninoff concerto No. 2 program with passion and emotion, finishing with a score of 173.22.

Russians Victoria Sinitsina and Nikita Katsalapov are second on 62.76 while Canadians Piper Gilles and Paul Poirer are third on 61.33.

“It wasn’t that we were off”, Bates added.