Gracie Gold won the women's short program at the World Team Trophy on Thursday to give the United States a five-point lead over Japan and Russia on the first day of competition. Gold landed a triple lutz-triple toe, triple loop and double axel to post a season's best score of 71.26 points. World champion Elizaveta Tuktamysheva of Russia fell on the landing of a triple axel and finished second with 70.93 points, while Elena Radionova of Russia was third with 68.77 points.
"Today was a really great day for Team USA," team captain Evan Bates said. "It was a group effort. I thought everyone skated really well and we're really happy. But at the same time we know that the competition is far from over." Olympic champion Yuzuru Hanyu of Japan topped the men's short program with 96.27 points to place comfortably ahead of Han Yan of China, who had 87.13 points. American champion Jason Brown was third with 86.48 points.
The event, which runs through Sunday, features the six best national teams among International Skating Union member nations. Each team is composed of eight skaters. In ice dance, world bronze medalists Kaitlyn Weaver and Andrew Poje of Canada won the short program with 73.14 points. Bates and partner Madison Chock, who took the silver medal at the world championships, were second with 72.17 points, followed by world champions Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron of France with 70.86.
Calvin Harris is a big hit in Taylor Swift's household. The "Blank Space" singer is totally smitten with the Scottish hunk, and now, the singer's cats are putting two paws up in approval, too. "[Taylor's] over the moon," Olympic figure skater Gracie Gold, one of Swift's BFFs, told Us Weekly at the July 16 Kids' Choice Sports awards in Los Angeles."“Even her cats are happy! And if her cats are happy, she's happy."
As Gold told Us, Harris, 31, is no doubt hip to the fact that doting on Olivia and Meredith will help him earn more points from girlfriend Swift, 25. "They're not too high maintenance but they're spoiled. They are adorable," Gold said of the felines Swift named in honor of her favorite TV heroines Olivia Benson (Law & Order: SVU's Mariska Hargitay), and Meredith Grey (Grey's Anatomy's Ellen Pompeo).
On Friday, July 17, Harris himself shared just what it is that makes him click with Swift. "It's boxes I didn't even know existed, she ticks," Harris told the UK's HITS Radio of Swift's impressive range of talents. "It's really ridiculous... She's generally an incredible cook and human being."
Named Forbes' highest-paid 2015 couple, Harris and Swift realize that they're fortunate to do what many other young couples can't. "The luxury is we can both travel very easily," he mused to KISS FM UK. "I think that's a reason that it works so well... It's really not hard to see each other on a regular basis." "It's going absolutely fantastic," he summed up, nothing that the attention doesn't necessarily bother him. "For me, it could be a lot worse, and I'd still be like insanely happy with her. So, I'm good with it."
Gracie Gold became a household name in 2014 when her breathtaking performance at the national championship where she set scoring records for her short and free skate programs. Winning that title launched her to the Olympic team where expectations to achieve the same kind of medal as her namesake followed her everywhere.
Her mother called the experience "surreal" as Gold went from solid performer and rising star to an overnight sensation, securing Cover Girl, VISA and other national brands as sponsors. But after the dust settled, she finished without a medal in individual competition, but helped Team USA earn bronze in the first-ever team competition.
With another competition year approaching, her training brought her to the Coachella Valley and Desert Ice Castle where her coach Frank Carroll, a Palm Springs resident, brings his Olympic athletes when the ice in LA is unavailable.
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Gracie Gold burst onto the scene during the 2011-2012 season as a junior standout. With her charisma, talent, name and athletic ability, Gold seemed destined for greatness and expectations mounted. In her career, Gold has managed to win gold at the United States Figure Skating Championships and the NHK Trophy, and a bronze medal with the United States team at the 2014 Olympic Games. Gold has also managed to fall short of individual success on the world stage. This is our conversation with the Olympian as it happened on September 25, 2015.