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Even with an error at the beginning of his free skate, Nathan Chen was unbeatable on Sunday, winning his fifth straight US figure skating championship. Not since Dick Button won each title from 1946 through 1952 has an American man had such a streak of success. Throw in two world championships and being unbeaten since a fifth-place finish at the 2018 Olympics, and Chen already has a resume for the ages. At age 21.
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Bradie Tennell returned to the top of the American heap on Friday night with a rock-solid free skate to clinch her second US title. The 22-year-old from Illinois hit all seven of her triple jumps to finish with 232.61 points, well clear of her closest rivals Amber Glenn and Karen Chen. Tennell also finished first in 2018.
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Madison Hubbell and Zach Donohue won their third national championship in the ice dance with a mesmerizingly intricate routine set to the Jeff Buckley and kd lang renditions of Hallelujah. They edged defending champions Madison Chock and Evan Bates, who had barely beaten them in the rhythm dance.
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Alexa Knierim and her new partner, Brandon Frazier, won the pairs competition in their first nationals as a team.
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‘This is so special,’ Knierim said. ‘Of course every time you win a national championship it means something different to you. This one was extra special because it wasn’t something we expected when we first teamed up. I am kind of speechless. I’m still soaking it in.’
Photograph: Tim Nwachukwu/Getty Images
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Amber Glenn, who had never been on the podium at senior nationals, threw down the score to beat when she finished a sterling program to music from Italian composer Ezio Bosso with a solid triple lutz-double toe-double loop combination backed up by a triple loop-triple toe. Her stunning score put the 21-year-old from Plano, Texas, briefly into first place.
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Karen Chen, the 2017 champion, came in third but was picked for the US’s world championships team over Glenn. The United States has only two spots; the maximum for a country is three.
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Alysa Liu, the 2019 and 2020 champion who was second to Tennell after the short program, left her triple axel and and quadruple lutz out of her program as she continues to adjust to a growth spurt and coaching change. And while Liu was sharp on her first jumping passes she shaky on her last three, and the 15-year-old’s score of 213.39 points left her in fourth place.
Photograph: John Locher/AP
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The only skater that could catch Tennell was Mariah Bell, last year’s crowd favorite whose chances of winning her first US title were dashed when she fell on her opening jump pass. Bell also stepped out on a triple loop and wound up finishing fifth.
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‘I don’t even know where to start. I’m just so happy,’ said Tennell, who has battled injuries and inconsistency since helping the US win team bronze at the 2018 Winter Olympics. ‘That skate was everything I wanted to put out there. I was so happy and so grateful for everybody that helped me get here.’
Photograph: Tim Nwachukwu/Getty Images
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‘I was a little timid today. Honestly that’s on me,’ Chen said of Sunday’s title-clinching free skate. ‘I feel like I didn’t really tackle my elements. I was focusing on conserving energy.’
Photograph: Tim Nwachukwu/Getty Images
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Vincent Zhou came in second in the men’s event, an overall 30.9 points adrift of Chen.
Photograph: John Locher/AP
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US Figure Skating Nationals 2021: Nathan Chen and Bradie Tennell light up Las Vegas
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