Two-time world champions Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara wound up on top of the podium at Skate America on Saturday night, just as the Japanese pairs skaters have so often on the Grand Prix stage throughout their illustrious careers.
Kevin Aymoz topped the men’s podium for the first time after a long, difficult journey of his own.
The six-time French champion has competed in figure skating’s biggest events more than a dozen times, and four times Aymoz had come away with a silver medal at a Grand Prix event. But with a strong free skate in Lake Placid, New York, he was able to edge out Kazakhstan’s Mikhail Shaidorov and Japan’s Kazuki Tomono for gold.
“It’s just beautiful,” Aymoz said through tears in the kiss-and-cry area.
He finished with 253.53 points — a good score, albeit one well off the mark that will win the Olympics when they take place in Milan, Italy, in February. Shaidorov ended up with 251.09 points for silver and Tomono crashed to bronze with 245.57.
Miura and Kihara overcame a mistake on their opening side-by-side jump combination on a day in Lake Placid, New York, in which it seemed every pairs team had some sort of calamity. The silver medalists from last year’s Grand Prix Final ended up with 215.99 points, which allowed them to easily leapfrog short-program winners Anastasiia Metelkina and Luka Berulava.
“We made a major mistake yesterday in the short and that did make it hard for me just mentally for the free program,” Miura said. “We did end up making a small mistake (Saturday) but I’m still very proud of ourselves.”
Rinka Watanabe also delivered for Japan as the women’s event began with their short program earlier Saturday. The silver medalist at Skate America last year scored 74.35 points to give her a slim lead over reigning world champ Alysa Liu of the United States.
In the ice dance competition, Olympic favorites Madison Chock and Evan Bates got the crowd going with a Lenny Kravitz-inspired rhythm dance. The three-time reigning world champions earned 84.77 points, giving the Americans a comfortable cushion over the Canadian team of Marjorie Lajoie and Zachary Lagha heading into Sunday’s free dance.
The women’s competition also will be decided on the final day of Skate America.
Miura and Kihara have long been pairs standard-bearers, and the Japanese team is among the favorites heading toward the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics in February. But they found themselves staring up in the standings at Metelkina and Berulava, the Russian-born pair representing Georgia, who had a brilliant short program Friday night to take the lead.
Their free skate was something of a disaster, though. Metelkina fell on their side-by-side triple salchows, Berulava took a step on their side-by-side triple toe loops, and their axel lift never materialized, leaving them in second with a score of 195.73.
Kelly Ann Laurin and Loucas Ethier of Canada held off Emily Chan and Spencer Howe of the U.S. to take the bronze medal.
Watanabe was the class of the women’s competition with her short program, set to music from “Moulin Rouge!” and “Moana 2.” She opened with a flawless triple axel, added a triple lutz-triple toe loop and finished with a triple loop to finish in first place.
But Liu is right behind after the American scored 73.73 points for her “Promise” program. She opened with a triple flip and double axel before a slight under-rotation on the back half of her triple lutz-triple loop combination cost her near the end of her program.
“I feel really good with that skate. I also feel really good because my friend is out in the audience,” Liu said. “Lutz-loop could have been better — haven’t watched it yet — (but) I’ll hit it one of these times.”
Just over 2 1/2 points separate Lara Naki Gutmann, Anastasiia Gubanova and Chaeyeon Kim in the race for women’s bronze.
Chock and Bates, who are chasing a 22nd Grand Prix medal in a long career that they hope culminates with Olympic gold in February, twizzled their way to another brilliant performance. Their score to open the ice dance competition was almost seven points better than their closest rivals, and puts them in a good position to win their fifth Skate America title.
Lajoie and Lagha are less than a point ahead of Evgeniia Lopareva and Geoffrey Brissaud of France in the silver medal chase.
“It was so fun performing for that crowd,” Chock said. “We heard them cheering on all of the competitors before us and then when we stepped out, it was such a warm reception. It just made me really happy to be out there and to perform with Evan.”
“I feel like we made a lot of improvements since Cup of China,” Chock continued, “and we performed those really well today and so I’m just really proud of how we skated and how we enjoyed the moment together.”
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AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics
By DAVE SKRETTA
AP Sports Writer
