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<\/a>But instead, Alisa Efimova and Misha Mitrofanov skated the performance of the night and earned their first U.S. pairs title.<\/p>\n\u201cFor us, this is the second Nationals, and I\u2019m very proud of us that we made it to the top of the podium,\u201d Efimova said at the post-event press conference. \u201cAnd 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\u2019m just really happy that it turned out this way.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Last year, Efimova and Mitrofanov finished second at Nationals, just 0.85 points behind Kam and O\u2019Shea, 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.<\/p>\n
But no one could overlook the emotion and passion in their free skate to “Je Suis Malade\u201d by Forestella, which featured two spectacular throw jumps and three level four lifts, plus side-by-side triple toe loops.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Now Efimova and Mitrofanov will head to the 2025 World Championships in their training town, Boston, as the reigning U.S. Champions.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been coming to Nationals since 2015,\u201d McBeath said. \u201cI did four in senior ladies and this is my fifth in pairs. I\u2019ve 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\u2019m so happy we get to share it.\u201d<\/p>\n The defending champions Kam and O\u2019Shea 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.<\/p>\n \u201cSometimes the ice is slippery, and unfortunately it was for us tonight,\u201d O\u2019Shea said in the post-event press conference. \u201cI think there\u2019s times when you are out there and, despite being fully prepared, being completely trained and ready, things just don\u2019t seem to go your way, no matter how hard you\u2019re trying. And I think we fought really hard tonight, and that last lift ended up being no value at all, so that\u2019s a hard one, losing an entire lift like that, but we\u2019re going to use it as motivation. I know I\u2019m extremely pissed at myself. I know I am far better than what I did today. I will do better next time.\u201d<\/p>\n Despite their rough showing here, Kam and O\u2019Shea 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.<\/p>\n Chan suffered a concussion early in the season, after they had worked to come back from Howe\u2019s shoulder surgery last year, and they told reporters after the short program that they\u2019ve been dealing with minor injuries and health problems.<\/p>\n The third alternates for Worlds are Audrey Shin and Balazs Nagy, who came in fifth in Wichita.<\/p>\n<\/a>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.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>At the short program press conference, Chan said: \u201cI 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\u2026it\u2019s made us stronger as people and as a team. So we\u2019re really happy that, even though you don\u2019t always want the obstacles, in the long run, they do help us as a team and to get to where we want.\u201d<\/p>\n