United States: The Four Continents figure skating championships were held in Colorado Springs, and Lee Hae-in won the women’s crown after moving up from sixth place and completing a nearly faultless free skate.
17-year-old Lee, is the first South Korean woman to win a tournament for non-European nations since Kim Yu-na in 2009. She finished ahead of Kim Ye-lim, a fellow countryman, who had been leading after the short program but had placed third in the free skate.
Isabeau Levito, the 15-year-old national champion from America, withdrew shortly before the free skate due to sickness after placing second in the short program. With a score of 210.84 points, Lee stormed to the top of the standings after earning a personal-best 141.71 points for her free skate.
With a final score of 209.29, Kim took second place, while Japanese adolescent Mone Chiba, who finished seventh after the short programme, won bronze with a score of 204.98. Lee claimed that this time around she “tried to not think about the final result, to focus on my training process” after winning silver at the Four Continents last year.
Even though he won silver medals at Skate Canada and Skate America, Miura struggled to maintain the momentum in Grand Prix competition and botched his opening quadruple Salchow. However, he managed to complete a triple Axel and quad toe-triple toe combination in his short program. Miura said his goal is to do the same in the free skate.
After the short program, Japan’s Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara, the defending world silver medalists, were in first place in the pairs rankings, ahead of Canada’s Deanna Stellato-Dudek and Maxime Deschamps. The two-time Four Continents champion Americans Madison Chock and Evan Bates had a slim lead in the ice dance after the rhythm dance. The second-place finishers were fellow Canadians Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Nikolaj Sorensen, ahead of Marjorie Lajoie and Zachary Lagha.