By Lois Elfman

When the U.S. Figure Skating Championships kick off next week in Columbus, Ohio, there will be a Northern Virginia presence. Obviously, the best known is defending Senior Men’s Champion Ilia Malinin of Reston, but there will also be junior ice dancer Matthew Sperry, who was born and raised in Falls Church. He and partner Kristina Bland are aiming for a spot on the medal podium in their event.

Sperry currently lives and trains in Michigan, but he did spend a few days in Falls Church at Christmas time, which energized him. “I love Falls Church,” he said. “I only get to go home two or three times a year because we train year-round. Every time I go home, Falls Church keeps evolving…which is really interesting to see.”

Among the senior disciplines, ice dance has had the most sustained success over the past two decades. To give insight into the top teams vying for medals in the senior ranks, we’ve turned to veteran coach Keith Lichtman, who previously coached numerous ice dance teams at the U.S. Championships. The undisputed frontrunners are defending U.S. and World Champions Madison Chock, 31, and Evan Bates, 34. “As long as Chock and Bates skate even reasonably well, the title is theirs,” said Lichtman.

The U.S. has three ice dance berths for the World Championships. “The compelling part of this event at Nationals will actually be the battle for the next two spots,” said Lichtman. “Each of these couples have had very respectable world rankings in past years without a huge distinction in their placements.”

First up, Caroline Green, 20, and Michael Parsons, 28, both of whom grew up in the Washington, DC area. After training in Virginia for several years, the duo is now based in Michigan. Not far behind them are Christina Carreira and Anthony Ponomarenko, both 23. These teams finished in the top 10 at the 2023 World Championships. Also, to be considered are 2022 Olympians and four-time World competitors Kaitlin Hawayek, 27, and Jean-Luc Baker, 30, who did not compete in 2023 as they recovered from injuries.

“That’s going to be a bit of a nail-biter,” said Lichtman. “The spoiler team could be [Emilea] Zingas (21) and [Vadym] Kolesnik (22). They’re very dynamic. They’re nipping at the heels of those other three couples.”

To assess the senior women’s and men’s events, we enlisted Naomi Nari Nam, who as a competitor earned podium finishes in both senior women and pairs and is now a prominent coach in Southern California.

Defending champion Isabeau Levito, 16, is the obvious favorite among the senior women. Levito won silver and gold at Grand Prix events last fall. “I think Isabeau has done a wonderful job in being so consistent,” said Nam. “She’s dealt with obstacles with such grace and beauty. I do believe she can defend her title.”

Unfortunately, the U.S. only has two women’s spots for the 2024 World Championships, so the battle for silver will be ferocious. The competition will be between Amber Glenn, 24, Lindsay Thorngren, 18, Starr Andrews, 22, and Ava Ziegler, 17.

“The U.S. Championship is such a hard competition because there is such high pressure,” said Nam. “When you’re trying to get on the World team, the pressure obviously rises. I do love Amber Glenn’s strength (last fall Glenn became the sixth U.S. woman to land the triple Axel) and her consistency has gotten so much better. However, she hasn’t been able to pull herself together for two programs (short and free skate) in a high pressure situation. I’m hoping that the training she has been doing both physically and mentally will help her get that spot at Nationals.”

Malinin, 19, comes into Nationals after a stellar fall season, during which he won the Grand Prix Final. The quadruple Axel remains in his repertoire, he’s added the quad loop and his artistry has improved. Nam said he’s on a trajectory to be the next Olympic Champion. Lichtman praises Malinin’s musical choices this season.

The U.S. has three men’s berths for the World Championships. Two-time Olympian Jason Brown, 29, an artiste extraordinaire, will likely take the silver, but it’s wide open for bronze.

“Jason is one of those forever skaters,” said Nam. “He will be remembered for the grace and beauty of his skating. I don’t think anyone can beat him in the second mark (program components/artistry).”

Nam said the battle for bronze is wide open. Contenders include Liam Kapeikas, 19, Maxim Naumov (like Malinin, the child of Olympic skaters), 22, Camden Pulkinen, 23, and Andrew Torgashev, 22. A wildcard is Daniel Samohin, 25, 2016 World Junior Champion, who competed in the U.S. as an intermediate and novice skater, but in recent years has represented Israel, the country of his birth.

The pairs field is not strong. Two-time World medalists Alexa Knierim and Brandon Frazier are not currently competing. Emily Chan and Spencer Howe, last year’s silver medalists who finished fifth at the World Championships, have not yet competed this season due to injury. It’s not clear whether they will compete in Columbus and if they do how they will skate. There is no clear favorite.

For the ice dance team with the Falls Church connection, Bland, 19, and Sperry, 21, are both students at the University of Michigan, and they are bringing their enthusiasm of the Wolverines national championship in football to the upcoming Nationals. This is likely their final competition at the junior level, as they are both aging out in terms of eligibility to compete at international junior events.

They’ve made some choreographic revisions to their programs since their autumn competitions. For their 1980s themed rhythm dance, they’re skating to Paula Abdul music. They appreciate the variety of musical choices that dance teams have made.

“It’s really nice to see the diversity of different song choices and different choreography moves too. There’s whacking, hip hop, r&b and jazz. It’s been a lot of variety,” said Bland. “80s music has some very danceable songs, and you can take them in many different directions with choreography. You see that at the junior and senior levels,” said Sperry.

After receiving the highest technical score in the junior free dance at the Ice Dance Final (qualifier for Nationals), they’re now working to improving their components (artistry) score.

“We’re focusing, still preparing and improving,” said Bland. “We’re doing that last push to make sure that we are at our best at Nationals. … I’m looking forward to putting out two clean programs…that show how well we’ve developed the programs this season.”