The 2021 Skate America was a figure skating competition sanctioned by the International Skating Union (ISU), organized and hosted by U.S. Figure Skating, and the first event of the 2021–22 ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating series. It was held at the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, in the United States, from October 22 to 24, 2021. Medals were awarded in men's singles, women's singles, pair skating, and ice dance. Skaters earned points based on their results, and the top skaters or teams in each discipline at the end of the season were then invited to then compete at the 2021–22 Grand Prix Final in Osaka, Japan. Vincent Zhou of the United States won the men's event, Alexandra Trusova of Russia won the women's event, Evgenia Tarasova and Vladimir Morozov of Russia won the pairs event, and Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue of the United States won the ice dance event.

Background The ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating is a series of seven events sanctioned by the International Skating Union (ISU) and held during the autumn: six qualifying events and the Grand Prix Final. This allows skaters to perfect their programs earlier in the season, as well as compete against the skaters with whom they will later compete at the World Championships. This series also provides the viewing public with additional televised skating, which was in high demand. Skaters earn points based on their results in their respective competitions and the top skaters or teams in each discipline are invited to compete at the Grand Prix Final. The first iteration of Skate America – then called the Norton Skate – was held in 1979 in Lake Placid, New York, and was the test event for the 1980 Winter Olympics. When the ISU launched the Grand Prix series in 1995, Skate America was one of the five qualifying events. It has been a Grand Prix event every year since.

Changes to preliminary assignments The International Skating Union announced the preliminary list of entrants on June 29, 2021. Discipline Withdrew Added Notes Date Skater(s) Date Skater(s) Men colspan=2 rowspan=4 September 2 Host picks Women Pairs Ice dance MenOctober 11 colspan=2 Medical reasons October 11 Ice dance October 13 colspan=2 Hospitalization (Zahorski) Women October 18 October 18 Injury

Required performance elements Single skating Men competing in single skating first performed their short programs on Friday, October 22, while women performed theirs on Saturday, October 23. Lasting no more than 2 minutes 40 seconds, the short program had to include the following elements:

For men: one double or triple Axel; one triple or quadruple jump; one jump combination consisting of a double jump and a triple jump, two triple jumps, or a quadruple jump and a double jump or triple jump; one flying spin; one camel spin or sit spin with a change of foot; one spin combination with a change of foot; and a step sequence using the full ice surface.

For women: one double or triple Axel; one triple jump; one jump combination consisting of a double jump and a triple jump, or two triple jumps; one flying spin; one layback spin, sideways leaning spin, camel spin, or sit spin without a change of foot; one spin combination with a change of foot; and one step sequence using the full ice surface.

Men then performed their free skates on Saturday, October 23, while women performed theirs on Sunday, October 24. The free skate for both men and women could last no more than 4 minutes, and had to include the following: seven jump elements, of which one had to be an Axel-type jump; three spins, of which one had to be a spin combination, one had to be a flying spin, and one had to be a spin with only one position; a step sequence; and a choreographic sequence.

Pair skating Couples competing in pair skating performed their short programs on Friday, October 22. Lasting no more than 2 minutes 40 seconds, it had to include the following elements: one pair lift, one twist lift, one double or triple throw jump, one double or triple solo jump, one solo spin combination with a change of foot, one death spiral, and a step sequence using the full ice surface.

Couples performed their free skates on Saturday, October 23. The free skate could last no more than 4 minutes, and had to include the following: three pair lifts, of which one had to be a twist lift; two different throw jumps; one solo jump; one jump combination or sequence; one pair spin combination; one death spiral; and a choreographic sequence.

Ice dance

Couples competing in ice dance performed their rhythm dances on Saturday, October 23. Lasting no more than 2 minutes 50 seconds, the theme of the rhythm dance this season was "street dance rhythms". Examples of applicable dance styles included, but were not limited, to: hip-hop, disco, swing, krump, popping, funk, jazz, reggae (reggaeton), and blues. The required pattern dance element was the Midnight Blues. The rhythm dance had to include the following elements: the pattern dance, the pattern dance step sequence, one dance lift, one set of sequential twizzles, and one step sequence.

Couples performed their free dances on Sunday, October 24. The free dance performance could last no longer than 4 minutes, and had to include the following: three dance lifts, one dance spin, one set of synchronized twizzles, one step sequence in hold, one step sequence while on one skate and not touching, and three choreographic elements, of which one had to be a choreographic character step sequence.

Judging

For the 2021–2022 season, all of the technical elements in any figure skating performancesuch as jumps, spins, and liftswere assigned a predetermined base point value and were then scored by a panel of nine judges on a scale from -5 to 5 based on their quality of execution. The judging panel's Grade of Execution (GOE) was determined by calculating the trimmed mean (that is, an average after deleting the highest and lowest scores), and this GOE was added to the base value to come up with the final score for each element. The panel's scores for all elements were added together to generate a total element score. At the same time, judges evaluated each performance based on five program componentsskating skills, transitions, performance, composition, and interpretation of the musicand assigned a score from .25 to 10 in .25 point increments. The judging panel's final score for each program component was also determined by calculating the trimmed mean. Those scores were then multiplied by the factor shown on the following chart; the results were added together to generate a total program component score.

+Program component factoring Discipline Short program Rhythm dance Free skate Free dance Men 1.00 2.00 Women 0.80 1.60 Pairs 0.80 1.60 Ice dance 0.80 1.20 Deductions were applied for certain violations like time infractions, stops and restarts, or falls. The total element score and total program component score were added together, minus any deductions, to generate a final performance score for each skater or team.

Medal summary

+MedalistsDiscipline Gold Silver BronzeMen Vincent Zhou Shoma Uno Nathan ChenWomen Alexandra Trusova Daria Usacheva You YoungPairs Ice dance

Results Men's singles +Men's results Rank Skater Nation Total points SP FS Vincent Zhou 295.56 1 97.43 1 198.13 Shoma Uno 270.68 2 89.07 3 181.61 Nathan Chen 269.37 4 82.89 2 186.48 4 Shun Sato 247.05 5 80.52 4 166.53 5 Jimmy Ma 228.12 3 84.52 10 143.60 6 Michal Březina 227.47 6 75.43 5 152.04 7 Daniel Grassl 221.43 8 70.88 6 150.55 8 Nam Nguyen 219.60 7 74.32 9 145.28 9 Adam Siao Him Fa 217.52 10 67.60 7 149.92 10 Artur Danielian 214.93 9 68.74 8 146.19 Kévin Aymoz Withdrew 11 58.14 Withdrew from competition

Women's singles +Women's results Rank Skater Nation Total points SP FS Alexandra Trusova 232.37 1 77.69 1 154.68 Daria Usacheva 217.31 2 76.71 4 140.60 You Young 216.97 5 70.73 2 146.24 4 Kaori Sakamoto 215.93 4 71.16 3 144.77 5 Kseniia Sinitsyna 205.76 3 71.51 5 134.25 6 Amber Glenn 201.02 7 67.57 7 133.45 7 Satoko Miyahara 200.51 8 66.36 6 134.15 8 Kim Ye-lim 199.34 6 70.56 8 128.78 9 Ekaterina Kurakova 188.60 11 61.36 9 127.24 10 Starr Andrews 177.63 10 61.94 11 115.69 11 Yuhana Yokoi 174.07 12 54.77 10 119.30 12 Audrey Shin 160.78 9 62.82 12 97.96

Pairs +Pairs results Rank Team Nation Total points SP FS 222.50 1 80.36 1 142.14 208.20 3 72.63 3 135.57 205.53 2 75.43 4 130.10 4 202.97 5 66.37 2 136.60 5 197.42 4 68.87 5 128.55 6 183.12 6 64.15 6 118.97 7 175.40 7 60.16 7 115.24 8 147.61 8 54.03 8 93.58

Ice dance +Ice dance results Rank Team Nation Total points RD FD 209.54 1 83.58 1 125.96 208.23 2 82.55 2 125.68 190.13 3 75.33 4 114.80 4 189.69 4 74.06 3 115.63 5 175.32 5 68.79 5 106.53 6 164.32 7 63.56 6 100.76 7 162.02 8 63.08 7 98.94 8 160.32 6 65.30 9 95.02 9 156.97 9 61.07 8 95.90

References

Works cited

External links 2021 Skate America at the International Skating Union