By Victoria Burdman of Celebrate the Weekend
Photos by Robin Ritoss and Victoria Burdman
New U.S. pairs team Audrey Shin and Spencer Akira Howe have been skating together for barely three months, but won a silver medal recently at the John Nicks Pairs Challenge, an International Skating Union (ISU)'s Challenge Series event, hosted at the Skating Club of Boston.
The two have had success with previous partners. Shin finished fifth at the 2026 U.S. Championships with former partner, Balazs Nagy, while Howe competed at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan, Italy, with his former partner, Emily Chan. The new team trains at the Skating Club of Boston with Alexei Letov and Olga Ganicheva. Spencer's Company Commander from the U.S. Army's World Class Athlete Program was the Skating Club of Boston to cheer him on during the John Nicks Pairs Challenge.
Correspondent Victoria Burdman of Celebrate the Weekend caught up with Audrey and Spencer briefly after the short program.
VB: So how and when did you know that this could work out as a partnership? What made you think that?
Shin: I was searching for a new partner. I had different try outs, but when I came to try out with Spencer, I was very excited because Spencer has been around doing pairs for a long time. He just went to Olympics! I just took the opportunity. I felt it right away, just doing the stroking on the ice together. I felt it in my gut, 'this is it, I have to do this.' It just felt really easy skating with him. For me, it was almost immediate just after a couple of minutes of skating with him on the ice.
Howe: We had very different [last] season trajectories. I had a really successful season. I have been skating with Emily for so many years[…] In the off season when we had a try-out with Audrey, it was easy to tell from the very first session that it was good, that there was a lot of potential here. After that, it has become a transition period into making this partnership work and we’ve made a really good progress.
VB: How long does it take before you could say- or maybe you already feel that – before you feel like an established pairs team?
Shin: It takes a long time, years, really. For us in particular, what has been really unique is that we have been able to develop our elements to a pretty good standard already in a short amount of time. Also, we are able to recognize that there is a lot of improvement and potential for even better elements, so I think it is our goal to tackle each day of training knowing that it lands more opportunities for us to get better.
VB: What are you working on as a short and long term goals?
Shin: [We are working on] a lot of levels on the elements. There are certain standards to be able to compete against high level skaters and countries, especially skaters who have been together for a very long time, so when we say the “elements,” we mean the levels 4 and more difficult elements, like triple twist. We want to get our levels on those. Long term – it’s the next Olympics. We want to be there and be a really strong team for America. When we made this commitment in this partnership, we knew that was a big goal of ours. We will continue to move from season to season but we are really fortunate already. This is our first competition together, we did really well [in the short program] and we want to continue this momentum into the free skate and we will be on our way [both smile].
VB: How do you spend time off-ice recovering?
Both: Pickleball!
VB: Be careful with that!
Shin: I tell him that all the time!
Howe: You are playing with me!
Shin: We play together, but Spencer also just loves it even more that I do so he will often play open play with strangers, so I tell him don’t get hurt. I personally also love to read and journal, and we love to watch movies and shows together.
Howe: and we go to church together!
Shin: We do a lot of stuff together.
VB: Do you have other off-ice commitments?
Shin: I am in school, we are both in school at Purdue University, taking online classes. I am in my third year.
Howe: I also continue with my U.S. Army's World Class Athlete Program commitments.
VB: How do you want the fans to remember your pair?
Shin: We want to have a really strong connection and we want people to see that. In pairs, you want to see chemistry on the ice; but we are also really trying to focus on little details, being in sync, being powerful on the ice, having lots of speed. Overall, [we want to be known as] a very clean pair.
VB: I enjoy how you move together in your short program. Do you feel that you have started developing your own style as a pairs skating team? [Both of their programs are lyrical style and choreographed by their coach Olga Ganicheva. The short is to "Clair de Lune" by Cody Fry and the free skate is to the Romeo and Juliet 1996 movie soundtrack.]
Shin: There is a lot more work to do but I think so.
Howe: It’s tricky because we are also developing the [technical] elements at the same time. And in the years to come, it will be becoming a goal of ours to lean more into the choreography and to be able to tell a story.
VB: Audrey, what was the most difficult aspect of moving to pairs from singles?
Shin: It was having to learn how to communicate with the partner off and on the ice; being out there on the ice alone is very very different... also learning the stroking. The twist was really hard to learn. It took a lot of time and effort.
Howe: The girl has to rotate sideways! I don’t even know, I can only imagine! [he laughs]
VB: What was the biggest adjustment as a new pair?
Shin: We both had different partners. When you skate with someone else you get used to certain timing with that person so having to adjust and learn together our timing now - has been something, not really the challenge, but we had to work on.
VB: Who is calmer before the competitions?
Shin: Spencer!
VB: And who is more likely to say “let’s try this one more time”?
Shin: Me!
