Team USA Earns Three Bronze Medals Across International Competitions this Weekend

The United States earned three bronze medals this weekend at Challenger Series and Junior Grand Prix (JGP) Series events. At the 2021 Autumn Classic International in Pierrefonds, Quebec, Canada, Caroline Green and Michael Parsons, as well as Ashley Cain-Gribble and Timothy LeDuc captured bronze medals in ice dance and pairs, respectively. Meanwhile Angela Ling and Caleb Wein grabbed ice dance bronze at the Junior Grand Prix event in Krasnoyarsk, Russia.
 
Green and Parsons earned bronze after finishing third in both the rhythm dance and free dance, collecting a total score of 188.43. Their final score marks their new international best. The 2021 U.S. pewter medalists have finished on the podium in two consecutive events, winning gold at the 2021 Lake Placid Ice Dance International in August. 
 
Canadians Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier won gold (208.97), while Spain's Olivia Smart and Adrian Diaz earned silver (191.31).
 
Cain-Gribble and LeDuc also took home a bronze medal for the U.S. in the pairs competition. The 2019 U.S. champions finished with a score of 170.64 after a third-place finish in the short program and a fifth-place showing in the free skate.
 
Katie McBeath and Nathan Bartholomay finished fifth in the competition. They placed fifth in the short program and fourth in the free skate to earn a total of 168.61 points, just 2.03 points off the podium.
 
Japan's Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara won gold with a final score of 204.06. Canada's Vanessa James and Eric Radford notched 184.01 points to secure silver.
 
Karen Chen and Starr Andrews placed fourth and fifth, respectively, in the women's competition. Chen's 173.00 total points narrowly missed the podium. Andrews was originally fourth after the short program, and placed seventh during the free skate with a final score of 155.25.
 
Marilena Kitromilis of Cyprus took the gold in the women's competition with a score of 180.72, followed by Young You with 180.25 points and Seoyeon Ji with 173.69 points, both representing the Republic of Korea. 
 
The U.S. did not have any entries in the men's event.
 
The Challenger Series will continue next weekend at 2021 Nebelhorn Trophy in Oberstdorf, Germany. Alysa Liu and Vincent Zhou will compete in the final qualifying event for the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022.
 
On the other side of the world in Krasnoyarsk, Team USA brought home more hardware and multiple athletes achieved personal best scores.
 
Ling and Wein led the way for the red, white and blue, taking home the bronze medal in ice dance during their JGP debut. They received the highest technical score in the rhythm dance (37.31) and then capitalized with a fifth-place performance during free dance leaving them with a total score of 160.23. Their total skyrocketed past their previous international best, 139.90 points at the 2021 Lake Placid Ice Dance International.
 
Leah Neset and Artem Markelov also made their JGP debut and finishing eighth in the ice dance competitoin with 140.54 points.
 
Russia's Irina Khavronina and Dario Cirisano won the gold (167.31), while their country mates Sofia Leonteva and Daniil Gorelkin earned silver (165.14).
 
Two Americans also earned new international bests during the women's competition. Kate Wang's short program score of 59.26 and free skate score of 111.67 set new personal records. She finished sixth overall with 170.93 points, which marks her highest total score to date.
 
In her JGP debut, Maryn Pierce also collected a new personal best, topping her previous record with 99.04 points during her free skate. She also notched a personal best 150.67 total points, placing her eighth in the competition.
 
Russians Sofia Akateva (233.08), Anastasia Zinina (206.20), and Sofia Samodelkina (202.39) swept the podium, earning gold, silver, and bronze, respectively.
 
15-year-old Lucas Broussard placed eighth in the men's event with a final score of 198.77. The Seattle-native achieved a new international best for his short program (64.00), free skate (134.77) and final scores (198.77). His previous personal bests were obtained during this year's Junior Grand Prix opener in France.
 
Eric Prober was also scheduled to compete in the men's event, however he withdrew a day before the competition began.
 
Russians Gleb Lutfullin (230.42) and Egor Rukin (223.29) received the gold and silver medal, with Canadian Wesley Chiu receiving the bronze (217.59).
 
The United States did not have any entries in the pairs event.
 
The ISU Junior Grand Prix Series will continue next weekend as it travels to Ljubljana, Slovenia.