Karen Chen finished fourth in the ladies competition, highlighting a strong day of competition for the United States on Thursday at the ISU World Figure Skating Championships 2021, highlighting the third day of competition at the Ericsson Globe in Stockholm.
With Chen in fourth and teammate Bradie Tennell in ninth for a combined placement of 13, the United States has earned the opportunity to send three ladies to the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022. Since there were not three U.S. ladies in the free skate, Team USA will have to secure the third spot at 2021 Nebelhorn Trophy, set for Oberstdorf, Germany, Sept. 22-25, 2021.
Chen’s free skate earned 134.23 points for 208.63 overall. Both of these scores, as well as her short program score of 74.40, were international bests.
“I’m proud of myself for delivering a solid short program and a solid free program,” Chen said. “I can’t say that my free skate was perfect, but I really went for it and I did everything I could possible do and fought through it. Because of that, I’m really proud of myself.”
Tennell, who has finished in the top 10 in three straight World Championships, skated a 127.94-point free program to earn 197.81 points overall and a ninth-place finish.
Athletes of the Figure Skating Federation of Russia (FSR) swept the podium. Anna Shcherbakova took gold, followed by Elizaveta Tuktamysheva and Alexandra Trusova.
In the rhythm dance, the American tandems of Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue, and Madison Chock and Evan Bates are both in podium position heading into Saturday’s free dance.
Hubbell and Donohue, who have medaled at two straight World Championships (2019, bronze; 2018, silver), earned 86.05 points and sit in second place.
“We’re really proud of ourselves,” Hubbell said. “Entering this atmosphere, there’s a different energy and the nerves were pretty present. We just kept focusing on each other and kept coming back to the performance. We’re happy to give that strong of a skate during the World Championships.”
Chock and Bates, who are also two-time World medalists, are in third place after earning 85.15 points on Friday afternoon.
“We’re really grateful to be here,” Chock said. “It was such a pleasure to skate today. We really enjoyed ourselves and had a ton of fun.”
The American tandem of Kaitlin Hawayek and Jean-Luc Baker are in 11th place after scoring 75.08 points in their rhythm dance.
“We are happy with our performance today,” Hawayek said, “We were locked in, but we both felt that we were really engaged, and not only executing everything, but performing everything the entire program. We felt like we did everything we could and we’re proud of the job that we did.”
Victoria Sinitsina and Nikita Katsalapov (FSR) are in first place with 88.15 points.
The 2021 World Championships will conclude tomorrow with the men’s free skate and free dance. Saturday’s competition will be air on NBCSN with the men's free skate live from 8-10 a.m. ET and a delayed broadcast of the free dance from 4-6 p.m. ET. The events will also be streamed live on Peacock Premium.
Taking place in a bubble environment with no spectators, athletes are returning to the world stage for the first time since the 2019 World Championships after the 2020 event was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
NBC and NBCSN will provide extensive broadcast coverage of the competition. A full schedule is available here. Additionally, the full competition can be streamed live at Peacock Premium.
Full results
