Olympic team event gold medalists Ellie Kam and Danny O’Shea will miss the World Figure Skating Championships from March 25-28 due to injury.
“The team has been dealing with an injury and after a lot of conversation, we both agreed that prioritizing health and giving the U.S. team the strongest path forward was the right call,” was posted on the U.S. pair team’s social media. “It wasn’t an easy decision, but it was the right one.”
The U.S. silver medalists Kam and O’Shea, who were ninth in the Olympic pairs’ event, are replaced on the U.S. team for worlds in Prague by Emily Chan and Spencer Howe, who were fourth at nationals and seventh in Milan.
Worlds air on NBC Sports and Peacock.
U.S. champions Alisa Efimova and Misha Mitrofanov and U.S. bronze medalists Katie McBeath and Daniil Parkman are the other pairs’ team going to worlds.
Efimova and Mitrofanov and McBeath and Parkman were not eligible to compete at the Olympics since Efimova and Parkman do not have U.S. citizenship, which is not required by the International Skating Union for worlds.
Traditionally, a nation’s top two pairs at worlds’ placements must add up to no more than 13 (sixth and seventh, for example) for it to qualify the maximum three pairs’ spots for the following year’s worlds.
At least three of the top six pairs’ teams from the Olympics will not be at worlds -- gold medalists Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara of Japan, fifth place Sui Wenjing and Han Cong of China and sixth place Sara Conti and Niccolo Macii of Italy.
