By Scott Mammoser, Team FSO writer
Photos by Robin Ritoss
Following a successful first season together, U.S. junior pairs team Baylen Taich and Nikolai Apter will debut on the Junior Grand Prix this week in Xi’an, China – the initial event of the series.
“We’re really excited,” 15-year-old Baylen said. “One of our goals was to get a Junior Grand Prix early in the season. It’s a cool place, and we’re excited to go and see everything.”
Their inaugural season together
The young team is only in their second season together. They formed their partnership in February 2025 after skating with previous partners at the novice level.
“We make great memories, and we work so hard,” 19-year-old Apter said of his partnership with Baylen. “I trust her 100 percent, and I know if something happens, we can figure it out together.”
In their first season together, on the junior level, the two placed fourth at the John Nicks Pairs Challenge in New York City in September; fifth at the Tayside Trophy in Scotland in October, and qualified for the U.S. Championships with a third-place finish at the U.S. Pairs Final in November. In January, they were sixth at the U.S. Championships in January. They ended their inaugural season together by winning the Denver Cup International in March.
“I would say we had a good time,” Baylen added. “We skated pretty consistently throughout the season. We didn’t have any bad competitions, and I enjoyed it. We were one of those teams who since it was our first season, we weren’t doing all the big stuff yet, but we were consistent.”
Choosing the Pair Path
Though embarking on a new partnership with Apter, Baylen continues to compete in singles, something that she has been doing since 2020. She recently won the novice division at the Scott Hamilton Invitational, a U.S. Figure Skating National Qualifying Series (NQS) in Nashville, Tenn.
“I might do another NQS,” she added, “but I’m not sure because my focus is towards pairs because that is more my passion.”
Apter also skated as a single skater, but now focuses solely on pairs.
“I competed in singles skating a long time ago,” he said.
Two said they were drawn to the pairs discipline by former coaches.
“When I was younger, my old coach was a pairs’ skater from Poland, and she told me I’m tiny, I can skate fast and I can jump, so I am perfect for pairs. I had my first lesson with our coach Chris (Knierim) and I had so much fun. I love flying and trusting someone and skating with someone,” Baylen explained.
For Apter, the decision to compete in pairs came from his father, Nikolai Apter Sr., who skated pairs in the early 1990s with Elena Nikonova and won a silver medal at Skate America in 1991. The elder Apter served as younger Apter’s coach before he relocated to work with Chris Knierim in Park Ridge, Illinois.
“What drew me into pairs is that my dad said, ‘You can become a good pairs skater, and you can show on big stages what you can do,’” Apter said.
Learning from champions
In addition to Chris Knierim, Baylen and Nikolai are coached by Chris’ wife, Alexa Knierim, and Timothy LeDuc. The Knierims won the bronze medal in the team event at the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics before Alexa won a gold medal in the team event at the 2022 Beijing Olympics and the 2022 World title with partner, Brandon Frazier. LeDuc is a two-time U.S. Champion and 2022 Olympian.
“I love working with Chris and Alexa,” Baylen said. “It’s amazing to skate with them with what they accomplished in the past. It’s a good mixture, and they work well together.”
This season, Alexa choreographed the team’s short program to “What a Wonderful World” by Lexi Walker and the Piano Guys.
“I really like her choreography,” Baylen said of their short program. “It’s very emotional and it has a lot of flow to it.”
Apter added that “It makes you feel like you’re inside the program, it doesn’t make you feel like you are outside.”
For their free skate this season, Baylen and Nikolai worked with choreographers Katherine Hill and Ben Agosto. The program features three songs, “I Got” by Beats Antique, “Sahara Nights” by DJ Quincy and “Kum Kum” by Balkan Beat Box featuring A-WA.
“They created this really cool idea – an Egyptian and cultural program,” Baylen said. “It will be fun for people to watch and go through a lot of stages in the music.”
Away From the Rink
Outside of skating, Baylen is going into her sophomore year of high school. Her favorite subject is biology and is curious about pursuing criminology or cosmetology in the future. She also said her favorite pairs skater is Minerva Fabienne Hase – the 2026 Olympic bronze medalist from Germany – and she would like to take a lesson from her. For Nikolai, he would like to have a lesson from 2014 Olympic champion Maxim Trankov.
Nikolai is entering his freshman year at Oakton Community College in Des Plaines, Ill., close to their training site outside of Chicago. He also enjoys playing soccer, boxing and cooking. Nikolai also participated in Theatre on Ice with the Creative Ice Theatre team in Woodridge, Ill.
“They asked me if wanted to join and have the experience of performing in a group,” he said. “I like to perform in front of people, and I like to put on a show.”
Building Toward the Future
As they continue to develop as a pair, Baylen and Nikolai are focused on adding technical difficulty and greater speed to their performances.
“I would really like to have another triple throw consistently put in the program,” she said about future goals. “Nikolai is working on his triple jumps, and hopefully, we can put that in our program to boost up our values. I also want to skate faster. We skate nicely, but I think we can skate more powerfully.”
“The goal is to have better lifts and more unique lifts and to do a triple jump in the program and skate with more elegance and be smoother on the ice and have more flow,” he added.
With their first Junior Grand Prix event ahead, the two hope their skating will showcase the hard work and growth they have put into their partnership.
“I want us to skate with a lot of power and show that we belong there because we’ve never been to a Junior Grand Prix event, so obviously, the teams are really different there than in an event from the U.S. I want us to show in our skating that we are at a good team and show everything we’ve been working on.”
