U.S. wins first figure skating worlds pairs’ title since 1979; Ashley Cain-Gribble hurt in fall

Alexa Knierim and Brandon Frazier became the first U.S. pair to win a world figure skating title since 1979, competing after fellow American Ashley Cain-Gribble fell three times and withdrew with partner Timothy LeDuc.

Knierim and Frazier, teammates for two years, posted the highest scores in the short program and free skate to win by 21.54 points over Japanese Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara. Canadians Vanessa James and Eric Radford took bronze in Montpellier, France.

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The top five teams from the Olympics — all Russians and Chinese — were not entered at worlds, making both American teams medal favorites in the country’s weakest discipline over the last two decades. The U.S. last won a pairs’ medal in 2002. Russia was banned. China sent zero skaters overall.

Knierim and Frazier, sixth at the Olympics, totaled personal bests in both programs and won by the largest pairs’ margin in either the Olympics or world championships since the points-based scoring system was introduced in 2006.

Their total score — 221.09 — would have placed fourth at the Olympics.

“I’ve dreamed about this moment for so many times, but this was even better,” said Frazier, a junior world champion in 2013 with previous partner Haven Denney who made his Olympic debut with Knierim last month. Knierim won three U.S. titles with husband Chris, and went to the 2018 Olympics, before he retired in 2020.

The last American pair to win worlds was Tai Babilonia and Randy Gardner in 1979.

Cain-Gribble and LeDuc were in second after the short, looking to give the U.S. its first one-two in any worlds event since Tara Lipinski and Michelle Kwan in 1997.

Cain-Gribble fell on a pair of side-by-side jumps in the free