By Maura Sullivan Hill, Team FSO contributing writer
Photos by Robin Ritoss
Heading into this week’s U.S. Championships in Wichita, Kansas, it was safe to assume that defending champions Ellie Kam and Danny O’Shea would win the gold medal − and that they’d be joined on the podium by Emily Chan and Spencer Howe. Those two pairs made up the World Team last year, and Kam and O’Shea, in particular, had a standout fall season that ended with an appearance at the Grand Prix Final.
But instead, Alisa Efimova and Misha Mitrofanov skated the performance of the night and earned their first U.S. pairs title.
“For us, this is the second Nationals, and I’m very proud of us that we made it to the top of the podium,” Efimova said at the post-event press conference. “And for me, this is the first Nationals overall in any country that I placed first. It was my dream right now to do it for our team, our community. They do so much for us, our coaches, our parents, our skating club and everyone. I’m just really happy that it turned out this way.”
Efimova, who was born in Finland, skated with previous partners representing Russia and Germany before teaming up with Mitrofanov to train in Boston and skate for the U.S.
Last year, Efimova and Mitrofanov finished second at Nationals, just 0.85 points behind Kam and O’Shea, in their first season as a team. Chan and Howe, with more experience on their resume, were named to the World Team over Efimova and Mitrofanov last year. Chan and Howe won the short at Nationals that year, then withdrew from the event as Howe continued his recovery from shoulder surgery. So you can see how Efimova and Mitrofanov came to Wichita as strong podium contenders, but slightly overlooked for that top step of the podium.
But no one could overlook the emotion and passion in their free skate to “Je Suis Malade” by Forestella, which featured two spectacular throw jumps and three level four lifts, plus side-by-side triple toe loops.
They set new personal best scores in the free skate and total score, and broke the 200-point mark for the first time (a benchmark for the top pairs in the world). And the Wichita crowd gave them a standing ovation.
Now Efimova and Mitrofanov will head to the 2025 World Championships in their training town, Boston, as the reigning U.S. Champions.
Katie McBeath and Daniil Parkman earned the silver medal in Wichita, after finishing in fifth place last year in their first season together. Their throw triple lutz was the most difficult throw jump in the event, and their earned level fours on all their pair elements: the twist, three lifts, death spiral, and the pair spin.
“I’ve been coming to Nationals since 2015,” McBeath said. “I did four in senior ladies and this is my fifth in pairs. I’ve been close, just off the podium twice. I was fifth once with Nate [Bartholomay, her first partner] and last year with Daniil, so this will be my first medal and I’m so happy we get to share it.”
The defending champions Kam and O’Shea landed in third place after struggling through their free skate. They had an eight-point lead after the short program, but it was not enough after issues on the side-by-side jumps, falls on both throw jumps and a shocking fall in the final moments on their program as they exited a lift, resulting in zero points for that element.
“Sometimes the ice is slippery, and unfortunately it was for us tonight,” O’Shea said in the post-event press conference. “I think there’s times when you are out there and, despite being fully prepared, being completely trained and ready, things just don’t seem to go your way, no matter how hard you’re trying. And I think we fought really hard tonight, and that last lift ended up being no value at all, so that’s a hard one, losing an entire lift like that, but we’re going to use it as motivation. I know I’m extremely pissed at myself. I know I am far better than what I did today. I will do better next time.”
Despite their rough showing here, Kam and O’Shea will join Efimova and Mitrofanov at Worlds in Boston. McBeath and Parkman will be the first alternates for Worlds, followed by Chan and Howe, who ended up in fourth place with the pewter medal after a second place showing in the short program.
Chan suffered a concussion early in the season, after they had worked to come back from Howe’s shoulder surgery last year, and they told reporters after the short program that they’ve been dealing with minor injuries and health problems.
At the short program press conference, Chan said: “I feel like during the beginning of the season, having to work together and navigate as a team through overcoming those obstacles regarding any health and injury-related issues and staying together and doing everything that we can, really made us stronger as a team…it’s made us stronger as people and as a team. So we’re really happy that, even though you don’t always want the obstacles, in the long run, they do help us as a team and to get to where we want.”
The third alternates for Worlds are Audrey Shin and Balazs Nagy, who came in fifth in Wichita.
Shin, who competed internationally for Team USA as a singles skater from 2020-2024, is in her first season as a pairs skater. Nationals was the team’s third-ever competition, and the first time they included the difficult triple twist in their programs.
“It felt less stressful, and it’s nice having someone else out there on the ice with me, so it’s actually more fun than stressful,” Shin told reporters in the mixed zone after the short program, when asked about her switch from singles to pairs. “I would say I really enjoyed it.”
Shin and Nagy were assigned to the 2025 Four Continents Championships alongside Efimova and Mitrofanov and Kam and O’Shea. The alternates for that event are Chan and Howe; McBeath and Parkman; and Nica Digerness and Mark Sadusky, who finished in eighth place in Wichita.
McBeath and Parkman will also compete at the Road to 26 Trophy in Italy, an Olympics Test Event, from Feb. 19-20.
Sixth-place finishers Naomi Williams and Lachlan Lewer, who won silver at the junior level last season, will go to the World Junior Championships alongside the junior event gold and silver medalists, Reagan Moss and Jakub Galbavy and Olivia Flores and Luke Wang, respectively.
For more photos from the pairs event, check out our 2025 U.S. Championships photos hub.
