Madison Chock and Evan Bates fought through illnesses to secure their fifth ice dance title at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships on Saturday in Columbus, Ohio.
The duo finished first in the rhythm dance with a score of 92.17, and second in the free dance by tallying a 123.75.
Despite being hampered by what seemed to be a 24-hour flu, both Chock and Bates were eager to get out on the ice with the potential of Saturday marking their last national championship.
Chock is 31 years old and Bates is 34, and neither has revealed whether or not they will be headed to the 2026 Olympics.
“When we were contemplating whether or not we should skate, it went through my mind, `What if this is it? What if at the end of the year we feel complete, but we didn’t get to skate the whole U.S. championship?’ ” Chock said. “Would we regret that decision?
“I think that would have been a yes. So we thought if this is our last (national) championship, then we would go out knowing that we skated and we did our best and we fought through it.”
Christina Carreira and Anthony Ponomarenko’s 126.85 was enough to win the free dance, but they ended up finishing in second overall due to an 83.19 in the rhythm dance.
Caroline Green and Michael Parsons rounded out the top three with a combined score of 193.83.
In free skate action, Ellie Kam and Danny O’Shea took the gold with a 64.57 in the short program and a 123.19 in the free skate for a combined score of 187.76.
Alisa Efimova and Misha Mitrofanov came in second (combined score of 186.91), and Valentina Plazas and Maximiliano Fernandez (181.03) locked down third.
–Field Level Media
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