2021 U.S. Figure Skating Championships

The 2021 U.S. Figure Skating Championships were held from January 11–21, 2021, at the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. Medals were awarded in men's singles, women's singles, pair skating, and ice dance at the senior and junior levels. The results were part of the U.S. selection criteria for the 2021 World Championships. It would also have been part of the selection criteria for the 2021 World Junior Championships and the 2021 Four Continents Championship, but both events were cancelled.

San Jose, which previously hosted the event in 1996, 2012, and 2018, was announced as the original host in October 2019. On November 9, 2020, U.S. Figure Skating announced that, in light of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, the event would be moved to Las Vegas, Nevada. After the success of 2020 Skate America's bubble environment in the same arena, USFSA implemented the same structure for the 2021 U.S. Championships. Las Vegas had never hosted the event prior to this year. San Jose was awarded the right to host the 2023 U.S. Championships.

No audience was allowed to be present at the event.

Qualifying During the 2020–21 season, the traditional qualification system was replaced with the Championship Series due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The 2021 U.S. Championship Series took place in a virtual format from November 10 through December 6. The top scorers from the series in junior and senior men's singles, women's singles, and pair skating, as well as junior ice dance, advanced to the 2021 U.S. Championships. All senior ice dance teams who registered for the in-person qualifying season also advanced to the championships.

Entries U.S. Figure Skating published a list of entries on December 22, 2020.

Changes to preliminary entries Date Discipline Withdrew Added Notes December 10 Senior pairs rowspan="9" Split Senior ice dance Split January 5 Senior men Andrew Torgashev Injury recovery January 10 Senior pairs COVID-19 exposure Senior ice dance January 12 Senior women Paige Rydberg Positive COVID-19 test January 17Junior ice dance Torn ACL (Chen) January 18 Re-added following further medical consultation

Schedule Due to the bubble environment, the Orleans Arena hosted all practices and competitions. Senior events were held from January 12–17 and junior events from January 19–21. Additionally, due to the bubble environment, there were specific entry and departure dates for each of the senior disciplines, with all junior-level skaters arriving on January 18.

Date Discipline Time Event January 14 Senior pairs 2:58pm Short program Senior women 6:12pm Short program January 15 Senior ice dance 12:58pm Rhythm dance Senior women 6:12pm Free skate January 16 Senior men 12:11pm Short program Senior pairs 4:01pm Free skate (group 1) Senior ice dance 4:58pm Free dance (group 1) Senior pairs 5:55pm Free skate (groups 2 & 3) Senior ice dance 7:28pm Free dance (groups 2 & 3) January 17 Senior men 12:55pm Free skate 5:01pm Skating Spectacular January 20 Junior pairs 12:55pm Short program Junior women 3:00pm Short program Junior ice dance 4:59pm Rhythm dance Junior men 7:00pm Short program January 21 Junior pairs 12:55pm Free skate Junior women 3:00pm Free skate Junior ice dance 4:59pm Free dance Junior men 6:56pm Free skate

Medal summary Senior Discipline Gold Silver Bronze Pewter Men Nathan Chen Vincent Zhou Jason Brown Yaroslav Paniot Women Bradie Tennell Amber Glenn Karen Chen Alysa Liu Pairs Ice dance

Junior Discipline Gold Silver Bronze Pewter Men Eric Prober Joseph Klein Samuel Mindra Jacob Sanchez Women Isabeau Levito Kanon Smith Clare Seo Ava Marie Ziegler Pairs Ice dance

Senior results Men's singles +Men's results Rank Skater Total SP FS Nathan Chen 322.28 1 113.92 1 208.36 Vincent Zhou 291.38 2 107.79 2 183.59 Jason Brown 276.92 3 100.92 4 176.00 4 Yaroslav Paniot 266.97 4 83.74 3 183.23 5 Maxim Naumov 244.20 5 83.53 5 160.67 6 Jimmy Ma 230.78 6 82.30 8 148.48 7 Tomoki Hiwatashi 230.14 9 75.51 6 154.63 8 Camden Pulkinen 220.10 8 80.08 9 140.02 9 Eric Sjoberg 213.39 11 74.01 10 139.38 10 Dinh Tran 210.79 10 74.03 11 136.76 11 Alexei Krasnozhon 206.76 16 54.53 7 152.23 12 Joseph Kang 203.45 7 79.30 14 124.15 13 Joonsoo Kim 197.12 13 69.04 12 128.08 14 Ryan Dunk 192.66 14 65.60 13 127.06 15 Jordan Moeller 191.33 12 71.09 15 120.24 16 Peter Liu 171.18 15 56.92 16 114.26 17 Mitchell Friess 163.07 17 48.88 17 114.19

Women's singles +Women's results Rank Skater Total SP FS Bradie Tennell 232.61 1 79.40 1 153.21 Amber Glenn 215.33 5 70.83 2 144.50 Karen Chen 214.98 4 70.99 3 143.99 4 Alysa Liu 213.39 2 76.36 4 137.03 5 Mariah Bell 199.95 3 72.37 5 127.58 6 Lindsay Thorngren 178.89 6 62.54 7 116.35 7 Audrey Shin 176.82 10 57.74 6 119.08 8 Gabriella Izzo 171.76 7 62.32 9 109.44 9 Rena Ikenishi 169.89 8 60.14 8 109.75 10 Pooja Kalyan 157.46 9 58.29 12 99.17 11 Finley Hawk 152.84 14 52.08 11 100.76 12 Starr Andrews 152.13 17 45.93 10 106.20 13 Gracie Gold 149.05 12 53.88 13 95.17 14 Emilia Murdock 138.80 15 51.25 14 87.55 15 Violeta Ushakova 136.26 16 49.76 15 86.50 16 Heidi Munger 136.05 13 52.11 16 83.94 17 Hanna Harrell 130.72 11 56.93 17 73.79

Pairs +Pairs' results Rank Team Total SP FS 228.10 1 77.46 1 150.64 205.29 2 71.30 3 133.99 200.52 4 65.81 2 134.71 4 197.97 3 69.56 4 128.41 5 177.06 5 60.41 5 116.65 6 169.88 6 59.23 6 110.65 7 163.73 7 58.23 7 105.50 8 145.24 9 45.34 8 99.90 9 140.93 8 47.98 9 92.95

Ice dance +Ice dance results Rank Team Total RD FD 224.56 2 89.66 1 134.90 222.93 1 90.10 2 132.83 212.55 3 85.28 3 127.27 4 192.39 4 80.10 4 112.29 5 177.40 5 71.11 5 106.29 6 162.86 6 65.87 6 96.99 7 154.93 7 64.37 7 90.56 8 131.10 8 53.81 8 77.29 9 122.68 9 51.38 9 71.30 10 100.76 10 39.40 10 61.36 11 96.91 11 36.62 11 60.29

Junior results Men's singles +Men's results Rank Skater Total SP FS Eric Prober 192.83 3 65.04 1 127.79 Joseph Klein 187.30 4 63.60 2 123.70 Samuel Mindra 181.49 8 60.37 3 121.12 4 Jacob Sanchez 177.55 1 66.91 6 110.64 5 Daniel Martynov 176.45 6 62.06 5 114.39 6 Lucas Broussard 175.49 12 55.06 4 120.43 7 Matthew Nielsen 172.30 5 62.31 7 109.99 8 Michael Xie 163.84 11 57.89 8 105.95 9 Liam Kapeikis 162.89 9 58.37 9 104.52 10 Robert Yampolsky 160.85 7 61.60 10 99.25 11 Nicholas Hsieh 152.99 10 57.93 11 95.06 12 Maxim Zharkov 141.27 2 65.51 12 75.76

Women's singles +Women's results Rank Skater Total SP FS Isabeau Levito 187.48 1 65.66 2 121.82 Kanon Smith 185.88 2 62.52 1 123.36 Clare Seo 173.51 3 60.27 3 113.24 4 Ava Marie Ziegler 160.77 8 53.73 4 107.04 5 Elsa Cheng 158.85 7 53.75 5 105.10 6 Kate Wang 158.01 4 58.28 6 99.73 7 Adele Zheng 149.89 6 55.83 10 94.06 8 Mia Kalin 149.65 10 51.92 8 97.73 9 Jessica Lin 147.57 11 51.55 9 96.02 10 Abigail Ross 143.89 9 53.35 11 90.54 11 Tamnhi Huynh 140.17 5 57.94 12 82.23 12 Maryn Pierce 138.92 12 41.05 7 97.87

Pairs +Pairs' results Rank Team Total SP FS 169.85 1 59.07 1 110.78 148.02 2 52.14 2 95.88 137.29 4 47.07 3 90.22 4 134.01 5 45.97 4 88.04 5 131.39 3 48.61 5 82.78 6 119.38 6 43.31 6 76.07 7 97.32 8 34.54 7 62.78 8 94.74 7 35.17 8 59.57

Ice dance +Ice dance results Rank Team Total RD FD 167.22 1 68.81 1 98.41 162.91 2 66.20 2 96.71 147.30 3 60.26 3 87.04 4 146.40 4 59.98 4 86.42 5 140.47 5 56.27 5 84.20 6 128.02 6 50.76 6 77.26 7 124.55 7 48.33 7 76.22 8 109.73 9 43.71 8 66.02 9 109.66 8 44.58 9 65.08 10 104.07 10 40.99 10 63.08

Controversy U.S. Figure Skating maintained strict COVID-19 protocols within the bubble, including asking skaters to don a mask immediately after leaving the ice, but appeared to apply inconsistent requirements to skaters who had come into contact with positive cases prior to the event. After three senior pairs teams training under the same coach came into contact with a COVID-positive case, they voluntarily chose to withdraw out of precaution, whereas senior ice dance team Christina Carreira / Anthony Ponomarenko appeared to be asked to withdraw by the federation. However, Carreira/Ponomarenko's rinkmates and coaches were able to attend the competition, despite Carreira/Ponomarenko having come into contact with the positive case at their training rink. In addition, coach Tom Zakrajsek was unable to travel to the event due to contracting COVID-19 in early January and one of his students, Paige Rydberg, also tested positive upon arrival in Las Vegas; despite this, no contact tracing protocols were enacted, with the remaining athletes from Zakrajsek's training group and rink being allowed to compete.

International team selections World Championships The World Championships were held from March 22–28 in Stockholm, Sweden. U.S. Figure Skating announced the women's team on January 16 and the men's, pairs, and ice dance teams on January 17.

Men Women Pairs Ice dance 1 Jason Brown Karen Chen (withdrew) 2 Nathan Chen Bradie Tennell 3 Vincent Zhou colspan="2" Alternates Men Women Pairs Ice dance 1 Tomoki Hiwatashi Amber Glenn (called up) 2 Maxim Naumov Mariah Bell 3 Camden Pulkinen Audrey Shin 4 Jimmy Ma

Four Continents Championships The 2021 Four Continents Championships, originally scheduled to be held from February 9–14 in Sydney, Australia, were cancelled.

World Junior Championships

The 2021 World Junior Championships were scheduled to be held from March 1–7 in Harbin, China, but were cancelled.

References

External links Official website