Moments after winning the U.S. pairs championship, Timothy LeDuc started talking about last month, when partner Ashley Cain fell on her head at an event in Croatia and had to be hospitalized.
Then Cain took over the story.
"I was laying on a stretcher in the same costume I wore tonight, staring at the ceiling," she said.
Even then, Cain said, she was hoping to be back on top of the podium in short order, and she fulfilled that wish Saturday when she and LeDuc won the title at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships. Earlier Saturday, Nathan Chen took the lead in the men's competition with a dazzling short program, moving into great position to win a third straight national title.
Tarah Kayne and Danny O'Shea, who led the pairs event after the short program, fell to fourth after a disappointing free skate. They had a problem with an early combination and then failed to perform a lift near the end of their program.
"Sometimes, you mess up when it counts most," O'Shea said.
Cain and LeDuc, skating last, took advantage, and by the time their program ended, they appeared well aware that they were about to become champions. They finished with a score of 212.36. Haven Denney and Brandon Frazier (201.64) finished second, followed by Deanna Stellato-Dudek and Nathan Bartholomay (199.92).
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Defending champions Alexa Scimeca-Knierim and Chris Knierim finished seventh.
Chen, the reigning world champion, received a score of 113.42 for a short program that included a quad flip and a quad toe loop-triple toe loop combination. Jason Brown (100.52) and Vincent Zhou (100.25) were second and third. All three were sharp, but Chen is the clear favorite heading into Sunday's free skate.
"Everything that I've done, good and bad, in the past stays in the past," Chen said. "Every nationals is a challenge, so I'm glad I skated the way I did."
Chen earned 15.4 points just for his quad flip, which looked effortless.
"Overall, I thought the performance has been developing comparatively to the past couple of competitions, so I'm pretty satisfied," he said.
