Katz, Lynch withdraw from nats

Chloe Katz and Joseph Lynch have withdrawn from the 2010 U.S. Championships, Jan. 14-24, in Spokane, Wash., due to injury. Katz broke her ankle in training in Canton, Mich., on Friday, while the pair was practicing a new skill, the triple twist.

“As you can imagine, we are both extremely disappointed that our season has had to end in such an unfortunate manner,” said Lynch, who has been skating with Katz for 10 seasons. “We trained so hard this year and had been skating so well which just adds to the immediate disappointment.”

Katz and Lynch recently won the silver medal at the Ice Challenge in Graz, Austria, behind Caitlin Yankowskas and John Coughlin. The team also won a silver medal at last year’s Coupe de Nice, marking their first international medal.

Nationally, the pair finished sixth at the 2009 U.S. Championships, their highest placement to date on the senior level. They were eighth in 2008 following consecutive 10th place showings in both 2006 and 2007. Katz and Lynch were bronze medalists on the junior level in 2005.

“Chloe flew to New York to see an ankle specialist a the Hospital for Special Surgery, Dr. Andrew Elliot on Monday,” Lynch said. “After reviewing her x-rays he was 80 percent sure that surgery would be required to fuse the bone together with a plate and screws.  However, further tests revealed that surgery would not be necessary.  That was very exciting news in what was otherwise a very somber day.”

Katz, who is currently wearing a hard cast, is expected to make a full recovery.

“As for our future plans, we fully intend to compete next season,” Lynch said. “We both feel that we have worked so hard over the years and we do not want our careers to end this way.  Chloe and I are confident that we will be back and stronger than before.  After all, what truly counts is how many times you get back up, not how many you fall down.”