Ellie Kam and Danny O’Shea dazzle in pairs competition to open the US Figure Skating Championships

Ellie Kam and Danny O’Shea made a fairly emphatic statement on Thursday night that they belong on the American team for next year’s Winter Olympics, putting together a near-flawless short program at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships.

The defending national champions scored 77.19 points for their skate, set to “Rain, in Your Black Eyes” by the Italian composer Ezio Bosso. It was more than four points better than their best in international competition, and it put Kam and O’Shea more than eight points ahead of second-place Emily Chan and Spencer Howe heading into Saturday night’s free skate.

“Very proud to go out there and put together a strong performance like we train at home,” O’Shea said. “Lot of pressure coming back after we won last year and I was pretty happy with how we handled that as a team today.”

The women’s short program was later Thursday night with Amber Glenn returning as the defending champion.

This year’s nationals, which comes just over a year before the Milano-Cortina Games, should help identify the front-runners for the team that the U.S. will send to Italy. It also should go a long way toward deciding the U.S. team for the world championships, which are returning to American soil for the first time in nine years this March in Boston.

Kam and O’Shea, who were fifth at the Grand Prix Final last month, opened with a clean triple twist before landing their side-by-side triple salchow. But it was their throw triple loop that highlighted the program, and Kam and O’Shea both knew it when their music came to an end — she punched both of her fists and he punched one of his own.

And their moms, who had clenched hands while watching from the stands, finally exhaled and celebrated themselves.

“My mom and I share some high anxiety in pressure moments. I think she knows what I feel,” Kam said, “but being able to see them on the big screen, it’s just really special for them to come to these events with us.”

Chan and Howe, the 2023 silver medalists at nationals, scored 69.10 points for their program set to a cover of “Je Suis Malade,” their score dragged down by a noticeable wobble going into their lift midway through.

Alisa Efimova and Misha Mitrofanov, the reigning silver medalists, were right behind Chan and Howe with 69.03 points.

“We were both really happy with how we felt out there,” said Chan, who dealt with a concussion earlier this season. “We put our heads together and really made a lot of improvement and felt we were really happy with our training, and we wanted to put it out here tonight.”

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AP Winter Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/winter-olympicsAP