Alexa Knierim and Brandon Frazier made history Thursday at the ISU World Figure Skating Championships 2022 in Montpellier, France, earning the United States’ first World pairs title since 1979.
Knierim and Frazier scored a competition and career-best 221.09 points to claim gold, including a career-best 144.21 points in the free skate. Fresh off a silver medal in the team event in Beijing, the tandem was making their second World Championships appearance.
“I had so many emotions [at the end of the program], I can’t even explain it,” Knierim said. “It was so much gratitude, fulfillment, excitement and disbelief. It was magical.”
“This is very surreal,” Frazier said. “The result shows that Alexa and I have put in the work. We were ready for anything. Our hearts go out to [Ashley and Timothy] – they’re our friends first, competitors second, so we were naturally really concerned to see what was going on with them. We wish them all the best.”
Ashley Cain-Gribble and Timothy LeDuc, who were second after the short program, withdrew midway through the free skate after Cain-Gribble took a hard fall. Cain-Gribble was transported to the hospital for additional evaluation and observation.
In the men’s competition, the United States is just off the podium following the men’s short program. Making his World debut, Ilia Malinin is fourth with a personal-best score of 100.16 points.
“I feel relieved that I was able to put out a clean short program,” Malinin said. “There were a couple of mistakes, but it was my first performance so I’m happy … I was mainly trying to focus on staying on my feet and landing everything.”
Olympic silver medalist Vincent Zhou, who is returning to the ice after having to withdraw from the individual competition at the Olympic Winter Games due to testing positive for COVID-19, is in sixth place after earning 95.84 points in Thursday’s short program.
Camden Pulkinen, who is also making his World debut, scored a personal best 89.50 points and is in 12th place.
The 2022 World Championships will continue on Friday with the women’s free skate and the rhythm dance.
NBC will broadcast coverage of the women's free skate at 8 p.m. ET on Saturday, March 26, followed by a recap show at 3 p.m. ET on Sunday, April 17. There will be an additional 12 hours of competition coverage on USA. Additionally, the full competition can be streamed live on Peacock Premium.
