Olivia Flores and Luke Wang and Naomi Williams and Lachlan Lewer earned silver and bronze, respectively, in the pairs competition at the ISU World Junior Figure Skating Championships 2024 in Taipei City, Taiwan.
This marks the first time that Team USA has won two pairs medals at a World Junior Championships since 2006 when Julia Vasslov and Drew Meekins secured gold and Kendra Moyle and Andy Seitz took silver.
En route to their first medals at the World Junior Championships, both Flores and Wang and Williams and Lewer claimed international personal best total scores.
On day two of competition, Flores and Wang remained firmly in second place after the free skate, finishing with a 10-point lead over Irina Napolitano and Edoardo Comi of Italy in third place.
Their Star Wars-themed performance to "The Force Theme" and "Rey's Theme" by Samuel Kim opened with two of their strongest elements – a triple twist followed by a double Axel-single Axel-double Axel jump sequence. They went on to tally 104.56 points, and overall, the duo earned 166.89 points.
Going into the free skate in fourth place, Williams and Lewer moved up in the overall standings with a free skate score of 90.63, which gave them a two-day total of 146.00.
Their skate to music from the Miss Saigon soundtrack by Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra showed off their lifts as their Level 4 reverse lasso lift collected 8.00 points and their Level 4 Group 3 lift was awarded 6.12 points.
Adele Zheng and Andy Deng finished in 10th with a free skate score of 78.86 and a total score 124.88.
To kick off the day, two men represented Team USA in the men’s short program: Jacob Sanchez and Daniel Martynov.
In his World Junior Championships debut, Sanchez finished 9th, scoring 73.35 points.
Sanchez’s program set to “Singin’ In the Rain” and “Rain Dance” by Matthew Morrison and Whilk & Misky featured a triple flip-triple toe loop combination in the second half, the second-highest scoring element in the entire competition.
Martynov finished two spots behind Sanchez in 11th with a score of 71.69.
Competition continues Friday with the rhythm dance before medals will be awarded following the women’s free skate.
Click here for full results. All events can be livestreamed on the ISU YouTube channel.
