Olympic ice dancers Emilea Zingas and Vadym Kolesnik led an American sweep of the rhythm portion of the ice dance competition on the opening day of the Four Continents Figure Skating Championships on Thursday in Beijing.
The recently-crowned U.S. silver medalists, Zingas and Kolesnik scored 79.97 points for their rhythm dance to edge Caroline Parsons and Michael Brown, who scored 78.66 points. Oona Brown and Gage Brown were third with 74.24 points.
Typically, very few figure skaters heading to the Winter Games will compete at Four Continents in an Olympic year. But Zingas and Kolesnik are trying to take advantage of one last opportunity on an international stage to sort out the details of their two programs before the Milan Cortina Games begin in just under two weeks.
Green and Parsons are first alternates and the Brown siblings the third alternates for the U.S. Figure Skating team for Italy.
Two-time reigning U.S. pairs champions Alisa Efimova and Misha Mitrofanov were third after the short program at the National Indoor Stadium, the site of ice hockey games at the Beijing Olympics four years ago. Efimova and Mitrofanov were hoping that she would gain American citizenship in time to compete in Milan, but the Finnish skater's passport did not come through in time.
Olympic rules state that athletes must be citizens of the nations they represent in order to compete.
The Chinese team of Sui Wenjing and Han Cong, who are favored to defend their Olympic pairs gold medal in Milan, led after their short program at Four Continents with 76.02 points. Yuna Nagaoka and Sumitada Moriguchi of Japan were second with 71.95 points, and Efimova and Mitrofanov were right behind with 71.85.
Ami Nakai, Yuna Aoki and Mone Chiba, all of whom will be representing Japan at the Milan Cortina Games, swept the top three spots after the women's short program. Nakai scored 73.83 points, Aoki had 71.41 and Chiba had 68.07.
