Olivia Flores and Luke Wang are halfway to a medal at the ISU World Junior Figure Skating Championships 2024 in Taipei City, Taiwan, taking second in the pairs short program.
In their World Junior Championships debut, Flores and Wang secured positive grades of execution on every element to tally a personal best score of 62.33. The 2024 U.S. junior champions opened their short program to "Once Upon a December" by Christy Altomare with their highest scoring element, a triple twist list worth 7.03 points.
Naomi Williams and Lachlan Lewer are also in medal contention, just 0.30 points behind the third-place Canadian team of Martina Ariano Kent and Charly Laliberte Laurent. Skating to "Tiny Dancer" by Florence + The Machine, their program featured a triple twist lift and Level 4 Group 3 lift, earning them an international personal best short program score of 55.37.
Adele Zheng and Andy Deng finished 11th with a personal best score of 46.02. The highlight of their performance was a Level 4 Group 3 lift in the second half of their program that was awarded nearly six points by the judges.
The women’s competition also kicked off at the World Junior Championships.
Leading the United States is Sherry Zhang, who sits in 11th place after the short program. Zhang earned her highest marks for a triple Lutz in the second half of her program to receive a score of 58.57.
Josephine Lee finished 20th with a score of 54.33.
Competition resumes Thursday with the men's short program and pairs free skate.
Click here for full results. All events can be livestreamed on the ISU YouTube channel.
