American figure skating duo honors crash victims after breakthrough performance

New York Times

28-03-2025

BOSTON — Misha Mitrofanov broke his embrace of Alisa Efimova and spun her around. Let her see the crowd's reaction to the moment she was feeling. She covered her mouth with both hands beneath widened, welling eyes as the crowd at TD Garden showered them with an ovation.
Their performance Thursday at the figure skating world championships was stunning, literally, to the performer. It was the kind of execution they'd envisioned, fostering a moment they could only imagine — in front of their home fans.
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Efimova and Mitrofanov, pride of the Skating Club of Boston, earned a 135.59 in Thursday's free skate at the 2025 world championships. It was, at the time, the best of the day. More importantly, it was their best and a clutch bounce back from their ninth-place showing in Wednesday's short program.
And when they finished, as they awaited their results, Efimova and Mitrofanov shared their spotlight with their skate club and its grieving community. They held up photos of people from the Skating Club of Boston who died in the American Airlines plane crash in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 29.
'It feels like a family,' Mitrofanov said. 'We've all come together.'
Their score was topped three times over the remaining eight pairs, and Efimova and Mitrofanov finished with the fourth best score of the day. The duo, ranked No. 9 entering the event, finished sixth overall with 199.29 points in the pairs competition, the highest of any American tandem.
The winners, Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara of Japan, pulled out the gold in the final performance of the night. Initially, Kihara looked stunned when the video board revealed the result. It declared their free skate ranked No. 2. But they were not second place anymore.
Their coach, Bruno Marcotte, implored them in the moment, as disappointment began to settle in, that they'd won.
'You got it. You got it,' he implored as they watched the screen.
He'd done the math. And when the total results came up, their free skate score combined with their best-in-show short program on Wednesday was 219.79 points — enough to take their gold medal back.
After winning gold in 2023, and then silver in 2024, Miura and Kihara were back on top.
What a showdown! 🔥 Miura/Kihara reclaim their 2023 title after a nerve-wracking performance full of passion, precision, and pure determination! 👑⛸️ What. A. Moment. #FigureSkating #WorldFigure pic.twitter.com/xPZ8R207HD
— ISU Figure Skating (@ISU_Figure) March 28, 2025
Minerva Fabienne Hase and Nikita Volodin of Germany took silver (219.08) with the other stellar performance of the evening, drawing a raucous ovation from TD Garden. Italy's Sara Conti and Niccolo Macci took bronze (210.47).
Americans Ellie Kam and Danny O'Shea, fifth-ranked in the competition, finished seventh (195.38).
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But it was Efimova and Mitrofanov who won the affection of the American crowd. They both screamed and pumped their fists in jubilee after nailing their routine. Then the emotions hit Efimova.
The pair's sixth-place finish helped the Americans provisionally qualify three pairs — of the 16 available through the world championships — for the Winter Olympics in Milan. The U.S. hasn't sent three pairs teams to the Olympics since the 1994 Games in Lillehammer, Norway.
(Photo of Alisa Efimova and Misha Mitrofanov: Geoff Robins / AFP via Getty Images)