Make it 10 straight Skate America titles for U.S. ice dance couples. Fittingly, it’s the first for Madison Hubbell and Zach Donohue, the new mantle holders in the nation’s deepest figure skating discipline as the Beijing Olympic cycle begins.
Hubbell and Donohue, the U.S. champions and world silver medalists, distanced a field this weekend lacking anybody else from the top nine at the PyeongChang Olympics (where Hubbell and Donohue were fourth).
They could therefore afford a miscue at the end of Saturday’s short dance, when Hubbell put too much weight sitting on Donohue’s knee.