“Going into this event, Zach and I had a goal to put 100 percent into our performance and not be afraid of losing some technical levels and that’s what we did in both programs,” Hubbell said. “We lost some technical levels but the performance carried us to achieve our first title. We are incredibly grateful to each other for that commitment.”
The duo earned 205.35 overall points after scoring 124.82 points in Saturday’s free dance.
The title caps an undefeated fall for the reigning U.S. champions. The United States has won a medal in ice dance at the Grand Prix Final in every event since 2006. Hubbell and Donohue’s gold medal is the United States’ sixth ice dance gold medal in the history of the Grand Prix Final.
“It seems like a dream until it happens and then it seems normal,” Hubbell said of their undefeated fall. “We are going to take the evening to let in the excitement before we fold that away and go back to training on Wednesday. We will be pushing ourselves to take it to the next level. This was our goal going into the season to win every competition that we compete at. We are three steps [in that direction] and we just want to keep pushing.”
Kaitlin Hawayek and Jean-Luc Baker finished sixth overall after scoring 184.04 total points. On Friday, the tandem was earned 112.71 points.
“Every time we perform this program, it’s getting stronger and stronger,” Hawayek said. “I think being our first time at the Grand Prix Final, we were just looking to put out a performance that we feel like represented our deservingness of being here. I think we did that tonight. I think that the scores and the levels will come as the season goes on.”
The Grand Prix Final competition is available on-demand with the Figure Skating Pass on NBC Sports Gold. Fans can watch a recap of the competition on NBC on Sunday at 4 p.m. ET.
