Team USA Collects Five Medals at Nebelhorn, JGP Events

Team USA collected five medals across international events this weekend at the 2021 Nebelhorn Trophy and the Junior Grand Prix Slovenia. Team USA's Vincent Zhou and Alysa Liu confirmed the U.S. a third entry in the men's and women's events at the upcoming Olympic Winter Games. 

Both won their competition on the men's and women's sides respectively at the CS Nebelhorn Trophy in Oberstdorf, Germany.

Liu bolted ahead of every competitor in sight. She topped the short program (70.86) and free skate (136.54) and finished 14 points ahead of the second-place finisher, Ekaterina Kurakova (193.58), of Poland, with 207.40 total points. Victoria Safonova of Belarus clinched the bronze medal with 190.29 points. 

In the men's event, Zhou finished first in the short program (97.35) and free skate (186.88) and ended over 40 points in front of Adam Siao Him Fa (243.78) of France with 284.23 total points. He executed four quadruple jumps in his free skate, which featured music from the film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.

Russia's Mark Kondratiuk secured the bronze medal with 241.06 points.

Nebelhorn was the final qualifying event for the Olympics, which begin in less than four and a half months.

In addition to the Nebelhorn Trophy, the Junior Grand Prix made another stop this weekend, this time in Ljubljana, Slovenia. Team USA took home three medals. 

Team USA's best finish came in the ice dance where Katarina Wolfkostin and Jeffrey Chen earned silver with a score of 163.25. After finished third in the rhythm dance with 62.99 points, Wolfkostin and Chen stormed back finish second in free dance (100.26). The duo finished ahead of bronze medalists Canadians Natalie D'Alessandro and Bruce Waddell (161.79). Russians Vasilisa Kaganovskaia and Valeriy Angelopol emerged victorious for gold with 167.22 points.

On the men's side, top four finishes from Matthew Nielsen pocked a bronze medal with 192.38 total points. This is Nielsen's first medal in a JGP event. Russia's Ilya Yablokov (231.99) and Estonia's Arlet Levandi (194.35) gained gold and silver, respectively.

Montclair, New Jersey's, own Lindsay Thorngren won gold at the JGP France on Aug. 20 and added another medal to her collection this weekend when she secured bronze with a personal best 193.77 points. Russia topped the leaderboard with Adeliia Petrosian (210.57) and Sofia Samodelkina (205.67) earning gold and silver. Team USA's Ava Ziegler finished seventh with 174.87 points.

Next weekend, the JGP series heads north to Gdansk, Poland, for the Junior Grand Prix Poland. The competition begins Wednesday and runs until Saturday. Fans can watch live on YouTube and follow along at Competition Central on the U.S. Figure Skating Fan Zone.