Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue wanted to skate without fear this weekend.
The American ice dancers spent the last five weeks completely revamping both their rhythm dance and short program, but they had little time to practice before debuting the work at the Grand Prix Final in Vancouver.
"We knew that to reach to the highest level and reach that world championship title, we had to stop being afraid and just start going for it when it counts," Hubbell said.
The risk paid off — the pair won gold at the competition on Saturday, posting a combined score of 205.35.
Victoria Sinitsina and Nikita Katsalapov of Russia took silver, tallying 201.37 points.
Italians Charlene Guignard and Marco Fabbri came in third with a score of 198.65.
"We achieved what we wanted to, which was really pull up the performance," Hubbell said.
The pair — who train in Montreal — came fourth at February's Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang and took silver at last year's world championships.
This year's Grand Prix Final was missing some of the world's top ice dancing teams, including Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron of France.
Watch the Amerian duo Hubbell and Donahue skate to gold:
Rika Kihira takes women's gold
A teenage Japanese figure skater is attributing her breakout season to learning from past mistakes.
Rika Kihira captured gold at the Grand Prix Final on Saturday, capping a stunning freshman outing on the senior circuit.
"My failures from the past seasons really motivated me to do well," the 16-year-old said through a translator.
"I promised myself that I would remember them and never repeat those mistakes again."
Watch Kihira skate to gold at Grand Prix Final:
Kihira led the field after the short program on Thursday. She stumbled on a triple Axel in her free skate on Saturday, but still managed to post a combined score of 233.12.
The tally beat her personal best of 224.31 points, which won her the NHK Trophy in Japan last month.
Kihira edged out reigning Olympic champion Alina Zagitova of Russia for the win.
Zagitova tallied 226.53 points after under-rotating a triple toe loop on the first combination of her free skate.
The 16-year-old said the error helped her focus on the rest of her program, but she'll spend the rest of the season working on skating cleanly.
Fellow Russian Elizaveta Tuktamysheva took third with a score of 215.32.
Watch a full replay of the women's free skate from Vancouver:
On Friday, American Nathan Chen took gold in the men's event while Canada's Keegan Messing placed fifth.
Thirteen-year-old Stephen Gogolev of Toronto won the junior men's event.
