Maia and Alex Shibutani led off the scoring, finishing second in the short dance to earn nine team points. They scored 75.46 points in their first program of these Olympic Games.
"We felt that the skate was actually really good,” Maia Shibutani said. “We've been training so hard, and to be out on Olympic ice for the first time, we are really happy with it."
In the ladies competition, Bradie Tennell tallied a fifth-place, 68.94 point performance in her Olympic debut to capture six team points.
“It felt like I was doing another program on a practice session,” Tennell said. “‘You’ve done this program a million times, this is just a million and one.’ I get butterflies before the music starts, but then when the music starts I go on auto-pilot and lose myself. I couldn’t have asked for a better first program at the Olympics.”
She was just one-hundreth of a point behind Japan’s Satoko Miyahara.
After the short program, the top five teams (Canada, Olympic Athletes from Russia, United States, Japan, Italy) took the ice in the pairs free skate.
Alexa Scimeca-Knierim and Chris Knierim scored 126.56 points in their free skate to finish fourth in the segment. They earned seven team points.
“It wasn’t a brilliant skate by any means, but we are just so happy to be here," Scimeca-Knierim said. "We’ve already won by being able to step on the ice; this is great.”
Canada still leads the competition and Olympics Athletes from Russia are second.
On Monday, men’s and ladies free skate, as well as the free dance will wrap up competition for the team event. U.S. Figure Skating also announced that Maia and Alex Shibutani will compete in the free dance, while Adam Rippon and Mirai Nagasu will skate in the men’s and ladies free skates, respectively.
