Spectacular Alexandra Trusova strikes gold at Skate America

Russia’s Alexandra Trusova struck gold in what was a high-level competition at the ISU Grand Prix Guaranteed Rate Skate America in Las Vegas Sunday. Daria Usacheva, also from Russia, claimed the silver in her debut at the senior-level Grand Prix while Young You of the Republic of Korea moved up from fifth to capture bronze.

Trusova, who is battling a foot injury, opened her dynamic program to “Cruella” with a quad Lutz and reeled off a triple loop, double Axel-triple toeloop, triple Lutz-triple toe, triple flip-Euler-triple Salchow and another triple Lutz. The 2021 World bronze medalist scored 154.68 points and racked up 232.37 points overall to win with 15 points to spare.

“I skated my program with a very easy content, I did only one quad,” the 17-year-old said. “I am happy that I was able to skate clean but in the future I want to do more quads. I was a bit more nervous, because my preparation wasn’t as good because of the injury and I did not do many run-throughs of my programs.”

Usacheva’s program to “Nessun Dorma” was highlighted by five clean triple jumps and level-four spins. Her only error came when she stepped out of a triple flip. The 2020 World Junior silver medalist ranked fourth in the Free Skating with 140.60 points but remained in second place at 217.31 points overall.

“I am a bit upset with the mistakes that I made in the Free Skating but I am happy with my result,” the 15-year-old told the post-event press conference. “For me, this competition was a bit harder (than events in Russia) because it was my first senior international.”

Performing to “Les Miserables”, You landed a slightly underrotated (q) triple Axel and followed up with five clean triples to earn a season’s best of 146.24 points. She accumulated 216.97 points to move up from fifth to pick up the second Grand Prix medal of her career after a bronze at Skate Canada in 2019.

“My triple Axel and other triples were a little q (underrotated) today but I am still happy that I did not do a big mistake,” You said. “Yesterday (after the Short Program) I was not so motivated but today I remembered the past couple of seasons when I skated pretty well and I was very motivated,” she added.

Kaori Sakamoto (JPN) delivered a strong performance and was just edged out of a medal at 215.93 points in fourth place. Ksenia Sinitsyna (RUS) produced another strong skate but slipped from third to fifth at 205.76 points. Amber Glenn (USA) finished sixth (201.02 points).