Simon Shnapir and Marissa Castelli Will Repeat As Pairs For Winter Olympics
Marissa Castelli and Simon Shnapir / Photo via AP
Well, it ain’t bad to be a Boston sports fan this weekend—especially for the very local figure-skating duo Marissa Castelli and Simon Shnapir.
Castelli, a Cranston, Rhode Island native, and Shnapir, from Sudbury, continued their winning streak and took home their second straight figure skating pairs title. The two finished first at the U.S. championship that took place in Boston at the TD Garden on Saturday. The local pair will take a spot on the U.S. Olympic team at the upcoming games in Sochi, Russia, announced at a press conference on Sunday.
“Simon and I are speechless; this is one of the happiest days of our lives,” Castelli told The Boston Globe. “We’ve worked so hard for the last eight years together and it really paid off.”
The two came out on top with a total of 205.71 total points, breaking the U.S. Championships record by Caydee Denney and John Coughlin just moments before.
Joining the pair in Russia are the U.S. silver-medalists Felicia Zhang and Nate Bartholoma. The USFSA can choose any of the pairs eligible for the Olympics based on a series of criteria but chose to go with the top two finishers from nationals.
“It comes down to those four minutes, but it actually comes down to the whole last year,” Castelli told Jason Schwartz prior to the competition. “If we hadn’t done our work, then we’d be nervous. Anything can happen, but I think we’re very confident that it will go in our favor.”
Gracie Gold, a solo figure skater who was born in Newton, also joined the USA Sochi roster. She totaled at 211.69 points on Saturday, winning the 2014 U.S. Figure Skating Championship at TD Garden. Joining Gold on the U.S. roster are fellow medalists Ashley Wagner and Polina Edmunds.
