We recap the exciting US Nationals 2024 competition from Columbus, OH, featuring a dramatic upset in the women’s event, a stellar fight for the podium in Ice Dance, promising performances from the Men, and an underwhelming Pairs event.

 

The 2024 US National Championships gave us a little bit of everything. We saw a quad axel and second nationals win from a slightly messier than usual Ilia Malinin. We witnessed a Women’s final where Amber Glenn and Isabeau Levito both struggled — with Amber scoring just enough to take her first national title. An awful case of the flu still didn’t stop Chock and Bates from taking the Ice Dance gold. Lastly, we watched a Pairs field filled with promise but, unfortunately, so many errors.

Women’s Competition

The biggest story out of this event is the long-awaited win for fan favorite, Amber Glenn. We were amongst those pulling for her on every jump from home — and while she did have a great short program and landed her triple axel, the second half of her long program suffered from several errors that but the top of the podium in doubt.

However, Isabeau Levito — who led after the short program — had three falls in her free skate and had to settle for the bronze.

In the silver spot, we saw perhaps the highlight of the competition from Josephine Lee. She delivered two fantastic programs, with her free skate being the cleanest of the night. She’s too young to go to Worlds this year, but watch out for her in years to come!

Ice Dance Competition

Madison Chock & Evan Bates stunned with their Queen rhythm dance, which was helpful because their free dance saw some uncharacteristic errors due to them both dealing with a horrible case of the flu. They nearly withdrew from the competition, but had enough in the tank to still take gold.

In second, with what seemed like breakout performances from them, Christina Carreira & Anthony Ponomarenko shined. Their free dance especially won the night, and saw them skate with their full technical and artistic prowess — but also with more emotion and freedom than we’ve seen before.

Taking the bronze, a bit of surprise came with the medal for Emily Bratti & Ian Somerville. This young team has all it takes to have a big career, with Ian especially bringing star-power to the ice. But their podium-step ahead of former silver medalists Caroline Green & Michael Parsons in this competition was unexpected, though well-earned.

Men’s Competition

As expected, Ilia Malinin dominated the competition with quads a-plenty. He even broke out the quad axel in the free skate — along with an unplanned triple lutz / triple axel / triple toeloop combination near the very end to make up for a few errors and secure the top spot.

In silver, the class of the field Jason Brown skated two gorgeous programs, which both saw uncharacteristic falls. He still had him trademark appeal — and, most importantly for Team USA, enough quality and exceptional skill to rely on at Worlds.

In bronze, a wonderful completion for Camden Pulkinen landed him not only on the podium but also won him a trip to Worlds.

In fourth, we saw a stellar showing from Maxim Naumov. Looking forward to more from him at Four Continents.

Pairs Competition

At the end of the short program, favorites Spencer Howe & Emily Chan led the field. However, due to Spencer’s continued recovery from surgery, they withdrew from the competition — though were still selected for the World team.

The pairs that remained mostly struggled with singles elements and delivered a fairly messy competition. In the end, Ellie Kim & Danny O’Shea squeaked out a victory.

Right behind them, the new team of Alisa Efimova & Misha Mitrofanov won the free skate and showed they have a lot of skill — look for them to move up over the next few seasons.

In third, Valentina Plazas & Maximiliano Fernandez took their first National’s bronze with a crowd-pleasing performance in the long program.

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