By Kristen Henneman
All three teams representing Team USA brought home hardware from 2024 Santa Claus Cup this past weekend in Brno, Czech Republic.
The international season debut for all three teams, the Skyliners clinched bronze in the senior event while Teams Elite and Skyliners junior both stood on the podium in the junior competition with silver and bronze, respectively.
Team USA’s top two junior teams last season, Teams Elite and Skyliners junior proved they are a force internationally once again.
After the short program, Skyliners junior ranked second while Teams Elite took third.
Skyliners junior, who won bronze at the 2024 World Junior Championships and have medaled at every international event they’ve competed at since 2022, claimed 70.74 points for their short program to "Nessun Dorma" by The Tenors.
They recorded the highest program component score of the segment at 31.93 points and produced the highest-scoring element for their Level 4 intersection with a Level 4 point of intersection, which was awarded GOE of 2.44 for 9.94 total points.
Receiving positive grades of execution on all elements and Level 4 marks on their final four elements, Teams Elite’s skate to "Lacrimosa" by Mozart was awarded 67.66 points.
In the free skate, Teams Elite jumped to first in the segment’s standings with 122.85 points. Tallying the highest total element and component score as well as five Level 4 elements during their performance to music from Black Swan, the 2024 U.S. champions’ performance was highlighted by their Level 4 intersection with a Level 4 point of intersection that received nearly 10 points.
Skating to a northern lights theme, Skyliners junior earned 119.30 points for their free skate. While they started out strong with Level 4s on both their intersections, they fell on their synchronized spin and had an error on their move element.
Nevertheless, Skyliners junior held on for a podium spot with a total of 190.04 points. Teams Elite finished less than a half point above at 190.51 points.
In the senior competition, the Skyliners started out their season with a bronze medal, finishing third in both the short program and free skate.
