Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Nikolaj Sorensen of Montreal, Quebec won the bronze medal on Saturday in ice dancing at the 2019 Skate America event in Las Vegas, Nevada. Fournier Beaudry and Sorensen earned Canada’s only medal in the weekend competition from the Orleans Arena.
This was also Fournier Beaudry and Sorensen’s first grand prix event, and the fact they landed on the podium was impressive. They had 197.53 points and reached the podium by 6.52 points over fourth place finishers Olivia Smart and Adrian Diaz of Spain. Smart and Diaz had 191.01 points.
Favourites Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue of the United States won the gold medal with 209.55 points. Alexandra Stepanova and Ivan Bukin of Russia won the silver medal with 206.57 points.
Fournier Beaudry and Sorensen finished in third place in the rhythm dance and free dance. What might come as a surprise however is that Stepanova and Bukin won the free dance portion of the competition.
This is the first of seven grand prix figure skating events during the 2019-20 figure skating season. The second event will happen on Canadian ice from October 25-27 with Kelowna, British Columbia being the host city. A total of 18 Canadian figure skaters will be competing with the short programs on Friday and long programs on Saturday.
