Vincent Zhou leads the men’s field after the first day of 2021 Guaranteed Rate Skate America. His short program scored 97.43 points to boost him to the top of the field. He opened with a quad Lutz-triple toe loop combination and earned Level 4 on four elements.
“I think that I did a good job tonight performing the program and showing some of the great things that we’ve been doing in training,” Zhou said. “I’ve been skating pretty consistently this season, and this was just another building block moving forward.”
Jimmy Ma also sits in podium position following the men’s short program. He is currently third after scoring a season’s best 84.52 points in his program. Opening with a quad toe loop-triple toe loop combination, he earned positive grades of execution on all elements.
Nathan Chen is in fourth place following the short program with 82.89 points. His program featured four Level 4 elements.
Japan’s Shoma Uno is in second place with 89.07 points.
In the pairs competition, Jessica Calalang and Brian Johnson hold the highest position for Team USA. They scored 68.87 points in their short program to earn fourth place. The pair opened with clean side-by-side triple Salchows and earned Level 4 on three elements.
“We felt like we really performed the heck out of it, which is what we were trying to do,” Johnson said. “All the elements were done really well, which we’re really happy with.”
Alexa Knierim and Brandon Frazier are in fifth place following the short program. They earned 66.37 points in their program, which featured a Level 4 lift.
Chelsea Liu and Danny O’Shea scored 60.16 points in their Grand Prix debut. They currently sit in seventh place. The duo earned Level 4 on three elements, including their opening triple twist.
Russia’s Evgenia Tarasova and Vladimir Morozov lead the pairs field with 80.36 points. Aleksandra Boikova and Dimitrii Kozlovskii, also from Russia, are in second with 75.43 points. Japan’s Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara are in third with 72.63 points.
The competition at Skate America® continues Saturday with the rhythm dance, women’s short, pairs free and men’s free. Competition will be live and on-demand on Peacock Premium. Saturday's events will also be live on NBCSN with the rhythm dance and women's short program airing 5:30-8 p.m. ET, and the pairs and men's free skate airing from 10 p.m. – 1 a.m. ET.
