Hubbell, Donohue sizzle to the upset
The Associated Press
SAN JOSE, CALIF.» With an entertaining and seductive performance that could practically have melted the ice, Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue pulled off an ice dancing upset to close the U.S. Figure Skating Championships on Sunday.
The team beat out the twotime defending champion sibling tandem of Maia and Alex Shibutani with a score of 197.12, edging the Shibutanis’ 196.93.
Hubbell and Donohue, each 26, are headed to their first Olympics. A federation committee put both duos and the team of Madison Chock and Evan Bates on the roster for South Korea.
Hubbell and Donohue skated to “Across the Sky” — in which their lifts were both lovely and sultry for a 118.02 score. They came into the free dance in second place after the short program Friday.
The Shibutanis floated across the ice so light on their feet, they appeared to not touch it at all, but didn’t receive marks from the judges high enough to make it three straight U.S. titles. Still, the brother-sister team locked up a trip to a second consecutive Olympic Games next month in PyeongChang.
Chock and Bates were in third place at 196.60, skating to “Imagine,” and performed well enough to make the Olympic team.
• Sticking with the standings at the national championships, U.S. Figure Skating selected husband-and-wife team Alexa Scimeca Knierim and Chris Knierim for the Olympic team.
The Knierims won their first U.S. title in 2015, repeated on Saturday and are the only U.S. pair to complete a quadruple twist. Pairs competition has been a problem area for the United States for years, and the country has only one spot in the PyeongChang field next month. The Knierims were selected Sunday.
In 2015, they were the first U.S. pair to qualify for the Grand Prix Final since 2007. Although they missed the 2016-17 season because of her illness, they have earned the highest U.S. finish at each of their international assignments since their return at the 2017 Four Continents Championships.
Alternates for the Olympic team are Tarah Kayne and Danny O’Shea (first alternate), Deanna Stellato and Nathan Bartholomay (second alternate), and Ashley Cain and Timothy LeDuc (third alternate).