NATHAN CHEN WINS THIRD ISU WORLD FIGURE SKATING CHAMPIONSHIP TITLE
Three other skaters representing THE RINKS and Great Park Ice also took part in the 2021 World Championship event
IRVINE, Calif. – The Irvine Ice Foundation today announced that Nathan Chen won his third straight ISU World Figure Skating Championship with three other skaters representing THE RINKS and Great Park Ice taking part in the 2021 World Championship event. THE RINKS and Great Park Ice had two skaters, Nathan Chen and Michal Brezina, take part in the Men’s event and one pairs team, Alexa Knierim and Brandon Frazier, at the World Championships. Additionally, Great Park Ice pairs team, Jessica Calalang and Brian Johnson (two-time U.S. National Pairs Silver Medalists), also qualified for this year’s World Championships, but unfortunately had to withdraw.
Nathan Chen of Great Park Ice captured his third World Championship title. After placing third in the first segment (the Short Program), Nathan handily won the Free Skate and overall competition with a perfect Free Skate performance - flawlessly executing five quadruple jumps and five triple jumps, including the triple axel. Scoring an impressive 222.03 points in the Free Skate and an overall 320.88, Nathan won the Mens’ event with a 29.11 point lead over second place, Yuma Kagiyama, and 31.7 point lead over third place and two-time Olympic Champion, Yuzuru Hanyu.
Chen still holds the highest Free Skate score of all time at 224.92, holds the highest Combined score of all time at 335.30, and is the second man to win three straight World Titles the last 20 years, joining Patrick Chan. He remains undefeated since he placed fifth at the 2018 Olympic Winter Games.
Michal Brezina, Chen’s training mate at Great Park Ice, qualified to the finals and finished 19th overall. Both Brezina and Chen are coached by Rafael Arutyunyan and team and both are choreographed by Shae-Lynn Bourne.
In their very first season together, newly formed team of Alexa Knierim and Brandon Frazier of Great Park Ice led the American pairs by earning seventh place, the highest placement for a U.S. pairs team since 2015 (where Alexa and husband/former partner Chris Knierim placed seventh). Alexa and Brandon won this year’s Skate America championship last fall and the 2021 U.S. National Championships in January. Kneirim and Frazier are coached by Todd Sand, Jenni Meno-Sand, Christine Fowler-Binder, Chris Knierim, and Rafael Arutyunyan and choreographed by Renee Roca. The Texas based team of Ashley Cain-Gribble and Timothy Leduc placed ninth, making it the first time since 2009 that the U.S. had two teams in the top 10.
Launched in February 2009, THE RINKS Development Program now consists of eight local skating facilities operated by the Anaheim Ducks: six ice rinks (Great Park Ice, THE RINKS – Anaheim ICE, THE RINKS - Lakewood ICE, THE RINKS - Poway ICE, THE RINKS – Westminster ICE and THE RINKS –Yorba Linda ICE), as well as two inline facilities (THE RINKS – Irvine Inline and THE RINKS – Corona Inline). For information on THE RINKS program, visit www.TheRinks.com.
--ducks--