Back in October, I traveled up to the Chicago area to attend Skate America. This was my fourth time at Skate America — I previously attended the competition in 2006 (Hartford, CT), 2009 (Lake Placid, NY), and 2012 (Kent, WA). Before the new year begins, I wanted to share some of my favorite memories of the competition as well as a few pictures. (If you would like to see more of my pictures, visit my Flickr album.)
What I want to remember...
- The American dance teams finishing one-two in the ice dance competition. Even with Meryl Davis and Charlie White out, Madison Chock and Evan Bates (above) and Alex and Maia Shibutani skated well. I also enjoyed Stepanova and Bukin, the Russian team that finished third.
- Jeremy Abbott's short program to Sam Smith's "Lay Me Down." Just beautiful.
- Both of Tatsuki Machida's performances in the men's competition.
- Waking up early to attend the practice sessions on Saturday.
- Elena Radionova's joyful skating in both the short and long programs. She was too young to compete in Sochi, but she's making up for lost time now.
- American pair Haven Denney and Brandon Frazier winning the silver medal in the pairs competition after skating an exciting long program to music from The Lion King. It was the highest finish for an American pair in the Grand Prix since 2008.
- Meeting Meryl Davis and Charlie White during the first night of competition. It was the highlight of my trip, if not the year.
- Seeing Gracie Gold, Jason Brown, Elena Radionova, Elizaveta Tuktamysheva, Chock and Bates, and many others skate live for the first time.
And some of my favorite pictures...
Maia and Alex Shibutani
Jeremy Abbott
Jason Brown
Gracie Gold
Alexandra Stepanova and Ivan Bukin
Madeline Aaron and Max Settlage
Samantha Cesario
Elena Radionova
Elizaveta Tuktamysheva
P.S. I wrote about my trip into Chicago here.
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