Sarah Everhardt goes from scene stealer to spotlight at U.S. Figure Skating Champs

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Sarah Everhardt goes from scene stealer to spotlight at U.S. Figure Skating Champs

Sarah Everhardt’s expected role at last year’s Prevagen U.S. Figure Skating Championships seemed to be like that of an extra on a movie set, there to fill out a scene … or, in this case, the field for a competition.

After all, it was Everhardt’s national debut at the senior level, and she had finished 13th and 11th at the junior level the previous seasons, and her results leading up to the 2024 event were unremarkable.

So who could have foreseen Everhardt turning into a bit of a scene stealer as she finished fourth overall and third in the free skate? She did it with two clean programs (no negative grades of execution) for the first time in her career, according to skatingscores.com.

“I know I have it in me,” Everhardt said via Zoom. “When I go to a competition, I know that I’m capable of skating clean, doing my best. So I always just try to use that confidence going in.”

After a solid international season this fall, with a first and second in two Challenger Series events, Everhardt goes into this week’s nationals in Wichita, Kansas as one of a half-dozen medal contenders in a competition that became even more wide open when reigning world silver medalist Isabeau Levito withdrew last week with a foot injury.

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Audrey Shin, Balazs Nagy forge unique pairs’ figure skating partnership

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Audrey Shin, Balazs Nagy forge unique pairs’ figure skating partnership

Over the three seasons after what seemed like a breakthrough bronze medal performance at Skate America in 2020, Audrey Shin had slowly lost both her confidence in the skills needed to be successful in singles and her motivation to keep doing it.

At the end of last season, his first in what seemed a promising partnership with Chelsea Liu, veteran pairs’ skater Balázs Nagy lost Liu when she announced on Instagram in late March she had ended the partnership to prioritize her mental health.

Because of those losses, Shin and Nagy found each other and a new career path in the sport.

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How Alysa Liu rediscovered figure skating and came out of retirement

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How Alysa Liu rediscovered figure skating and came out of retirement

How did Alysa Liu get to this point, to where she is skating in this weekend’s Budapest Trophy in Hungary, her first real competition in two and a half years?

How and why did she return to the spotlight after purposefully retreating to the shadows, her break from being ALYSA LIU (drum roll) so complete that she also broke from social media, then began posting photos in which alysa liu (whisper) often turned her face from the camera or made it indistinct.

At age 13, Liu had stood the figure skating world on its head. At 16, soon after skating at the 2022 Winter Olympics and winning a bronze medal at the 2022 World Championships, Liu retired from the sport.

She did some post-Olympic shows and did not skate at all for nearly a year and a half. At 19, a sophomore at UCLA, she is competing again.

Talk about things turning upside down.

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Madison Chock, Evan Bates win repeat ice dance gold with a nod to U.S. trailblazers

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Madison Chock, Evan Bates win repeat ice dance gold with a nod to U.S. trailblazers

MONTREAL — When Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto finished second at the 2005 World Championships in Moscow, it was the first time in 20 years a U.S. ice dance team had won a world medal.

Who could have guessed that would be the beginning of a beautiful friendship between U.S. ice dancers and the awards podium at global figure skating championships?

Madison Chock and Evan Bates added a new line to that story Saturday, becoming the first U.S. dance couple to win consecutive world titles and giving their country medals in 17 of the last 19 worlds, including at nine in a row.

“I absolutely remember vividly when they (Belbin and Agosto) won that silver medal in 2005,” said Bates, 16 at the time. “It seems like that really was the catalyst for what has become a great two decades of U.S. ice dance. ... They really blazed the trail.”

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Madison Chock, Evan Bates lead ice dance at worlds with brilliance years in the making

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Madison Chock, Evan Bates lead ice dance at worlds with brilliance years in the making

MONTREAL – There is a moment late in their rhythm dance when a moving Madison Chock leaps into Evan Bates’ arms, and he immediately spins her up into a rotational lift at his shoulder level.

It happens so smoothly and in less time than it will take you to read this paragraph, so you go back and watch over and over again to see how they can look so effortless and secure in a potentially dicey few seconds.

“Evan is very good with his coordination,” Chock said. “He’s good at catching things, throwing things. I’m in good hands. But for sure, if you’re just going to launch yourself into someone’s arms, it takes a lot of trust.”

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