The 2002 Skate America was the first event of six in the 2002–03 ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating, a senior-level international invitational competition series. It was held at the Spokane Arena in Spokane, Washington on October 23–27. Medals were awarded in the disciplines of men's singles, ladies' singles, pair skating, and ice dancing. Skaters earned points toward qualifying for the 2002–03 Grand Prix Final. The compulsory dance was the Austrian Waltz.
Results Men Reigning Olympic champion Alexei Yagudin withdrew with injury after the short program in what became the final competition of his amateur career. Brian Joubert went on to win the event for his first international title.Injury forces Yagudin out of Skate America, threatens career
Rank Name Nation TFP SP FS 1 Brian Joubert 2.0 2 1 2 Alexander Abt 3.5 3 2 3 Matthew Savoie 6.0 6 3 4 Zhang Min 6.0 4 4 5 Michael Weiss 8.5 5 6 6 Emanuel Sandhu 9.5 9 5 7 Vakhtang Murvanidze 12.0 10 7 8 Derrick Delmore 12.0 8 8 9 Sergei Davydov 12.5 7 9 10 Kensuke Nakaniwa 15.5 11 10 WD Alexei Yagudin 1
Ladies Yukari Nakano and Ludmila Nelidina both landed a triple Axel in their free skating, together becoming the first female skaters to perform the jump in international competition since Midori Ito landed it at the 1992 Winter Olympics. Nakano landed it first and Nelidina, who skated after her, also performed it successfully.
Rank Name Nation TFP SP FS 1 Michelle Kwan 1.5 1 1 2 Ann Patrice McDonough 5.0 6 2 3 Elena Liashenko 5.0 4 3 4 Jennifer Kirk 6.0 2 5 5 Ludmila Nelidina 6.5 5 4 6 Viktoria Volchkova 8.5 3 7 7 Yukari Nakano 10.0 8 6 8 Júlia Sebestyén 12.5 7 9 9 Miriam Manzano 13.0 10 8 10 Annie Bellemare 14.5 9 10 11 Zuzana Babiaková 17.0 12 11 12 Elina Kettunen 17.5 11 12
Pairs Rank Name Nation TFP SP FS 1 Tatiana Totmianina / Maxim Marinin 1.5 1 1 2 Anabelle Langlois / Patrice Archetto 3.5 3 2 3 Pang Qing / Tong Jian 4.0 2 3 4 Zhang Dan / Zhang Hao 6.0 4 4 5 Yuko Kawaguchi / Alexander Markuntsov 7.5 5 5 6 Tiffany Scott / Philip Dulebohn 9.0 6 6 7 Kathryn Orscher / Garrett Lucash 10.5 7 7 8 Tatiana Chuvaeva / Dmitri Palamarchuk 12.0 8 8 9 Kristen Roth / Michael McPherson 13.5 9 9
Ice dancing Rank Name Nation TFP CD OD FD 1 Elena Grushina / Ruslan Goncharov 2.0 1 1 1 2 Tatiana Navka / Roman Kostomarov 4.0 2 2 2 3 Tanith Belbin / Benjamin Agosto 6.0 3 3 3 4 Galit Chait / Sergei Sakhnovski 8.0 4 4 4 5 Melissa Gregory / Denis Petukhov 10.0 5 5 5 6 Kristin Fraser / Igor Lukanin 12.0 6 6 6 7 Emilie Nussear / Mathew Gates 14.0 7 7 7 8 Nozomi Watanabe / Akiyuki Kido 16.0 8 8 8 9 Josée Piché / Pascal Denis 18.0 9 9 9
References
External links 2002 Smart Ones Skate America