Alysa Liu<\/a> finished third in the free skate but it was good enough to allow the American to win the gold medal with an overall score of 222.49 points, a result that gives her confidence heading to the Olympics.<\/p>\n\u201cIt does give me confidence in my stamina and consistency,\u201d Liu said. \u201cBut a lot of things can happen between now and the Olympics, I still have nationals but I\u2019ll keep training, working on my stamina.\u201d<\/p>\n
Teenager Ami Nakai of Japan, who landed a clean triple axel, was second with 220.89 points while three-time world champion Kaori Sakamoto was third with 218.80.<\/p>\n
Sakamoto, who will retire after the Olympics, won the free skate despite singling a double axel.<\/p>\n
Liu landed seven triple jumps and a double axel for 146.70 points in the free skate.<\/p>\n
Alysa Liu of the United States competes in the Grand Prix Final. Photograph: Xinhua\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n
Mone Chiba, who led after the short program, fell on a triple loop and a triple salchow to drop to fifth place. Defending GP Final champion Amber Glenn of the United States landed a clean triple axel and moved up to fourth from sixth.<\/p>\n
The women\u2019s result further underscores the fact there is no clear favorite for the Olympics.<\/p>\n
The International Skating Union has decided to allow Russian skaters to compete in next year\u2019s Olympics as neutrals but only in the men\u2019s and women\u2019s competitions.<\/p>\n
Adeliia Petrosian will compete on the women\u2019s side while Petr Gumennik will take part in the men\u2019s event.<\/p>\n
In ice dance, Olympic gold medal favorites Madison Chock and Evan Bates of the United States won their third straight Grand Prix Final title with a season\u2019s-best score of 131.68 in the free skate for a total of 220.42.<\/p>\n
Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Guillaume Cizeron of France won the silver medal with 214.25 points while Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson of Britain took the bronze with 208.81 points.<\/p>\n
Chock and Bates, the three-time reigning world champions, won a record-tying sixth ice dance title at Skate America in November. They also won the Cup of China in the Grand Prix series.<\/p>\n
Chock and Bates will be the gold medal favorites at the Olympics.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are so many positives that we can bring forward into the second half of the season,\u201d Chock said. \u201cIt\u2019s always a treat to compete among the best skaters in the world and we really look forward to progressing in the second half of the season.\u201d<\/p>\n
They won the Grand Prix Final in 2023 and 2024.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ilia Malinin of the United States lived up to his reputation as the \u201cThe Quad God\u201d on Saturday,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":616365,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5311],"tags":[49,978,659],"class_list":{"0":"post-616364","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-united-states","9":"tag-us","10":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115673837256611972","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/616364","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=616364"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/616364\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/616365"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=616364"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=616364"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=616364"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}