Jan. 16, 2010

Two-time U.S. champions Rena Inoue and John Baldwin collected their second-consecutive U.S. bronze medal Saturday in Spokane, WA, after coming in second in the controversial free skate with a 115.41 segment score that gave them 173.18 points overall.

Rena and John were a little surprised about their finish after delivering a strong free skate to selections from Tchaikovsky that brought the crowd to its feet and tears to Inoue's eyes.

"I was shocked," John said. "It's not like we got any downgrades or anything, but the judges do what they want to do. We have never been more comfortable than we are right now in our skating. To put out a program like that and not get rewarded for it, it's a little discouraging."

The nine-time U.S. pairs medalists and 2006 Olympians' landed the elusive thrown tripel Axel in their free skate which brought a thundenerous ovation from the crowd. The pair also landed a clean side-by-side double Axel combination, a strong throw triple loop and received level fours on all of their lifts and spins, as well as their backward outside death spiral, which earned the second-highest GOE mark of 0.60 in the routine.

But they aren't on the Olympic Team. After the judges marks, Rena and John were third by a mere .6 points, despite, in the opinion of many, they outskated the second-place finishers. Rena and John are first alternates. The team is selected by the U.S. Figure Skating Association's international committee.

"I can't count how many texts and e-mails I got, John told the San Diego Union in an interview. "Everybody knows what happened. Everybody knows. That feels good, I can't lie.

"They said nothing to us, John said. "They're embarrassed. And if they're not embarrassed, they should be."

The panel of judges downgraded Rena and John's throw triplel Axel to 7.82 points, below the base value of 8.25. The second place team, meanwhile, received a free program score of 16 points higher than their previous career best despite falling on an easier throw and missing a side-by-side jump combination.

"I know it's a subjective sport," John said in the Union interview, "but when it's that blatant, all you're doing is hurting the sport. I wasn't really upset. I knew what they had planned. I just couldn't believe they actually went through with it."

Rena, who was in tears at the end of their free skate because of how well they had skated and because it might have been their final performance, said "the decision of who to name to U.S. Olympic Team is not up to us, but my performance, obviously, I took it as my last competition program. I skated exactly how I wanted it to be."

Whether Saturday's free skate will be their last competitive performance remains to be seen, but it would give the two time to focus upon their impending marriage said John.

John did endorse U.S. Figure Skating's choices for the Olympic Games.

"You pick the teams at this event," he said. "First and second, they should go."

U.S. Figure Skating has yet to name a team for the 2010 World Figure Skating Championships, held in Torino, Italy, in March or the upcoming 2010 ISU Four Continents Championships in Korea.

Rena and John made it plain they would not consider Four Continents.

"We're not interested in going to that," John said. "We've done so much for U.S. Figure Skating. We've been the top-ranked team internationally for seven years. We're not looking for Four Continents as a consolation prize."

Rena and John 4th after short program

Jan. 15, 2010

Two-time U.S. National Champions Rena Inoue and John Baldwin are in 4th place after the short program at the 2010 Championships being held in Spokane, WA. This is John's 24th appearance at the national championships.

For the first time in two seasons, they put their throw triple Axel in the short program, but Rena slipped off her edge as she landed. They scored 57.77 points for the program.

The pairs free skate is Saturday.