Thursday night’s Miami Heat-Chicago Bulls game has been postponed ‘due to moisture on the floor rendering the court unplayable,’ the NBA said in a statement.

The announcement that the game at Chicago’s United Center was off came nearly two hours after the contest was supposed to tip off.

Per the NBA, ‘the date for the rescheduled game will be announced at a later time.’

The Jan. 8 game was scheduled to start a little after 8 p.m. ET (7 p.m. local). CHSN’s K.C. Johnson had reported at 8:49 p.m. ET that players had returned to the locker room and at 9:46 p.m. ET, Johnson reported that players had come back out to ‘mingle/talk and now are headed back to locker room.’

The Bulls said tickets for Thursday’s game ‘will be valid for the rescheduled game.’

‘We apologize for any inconvenience,’ the Bulls said.

Johnson reported the decision to postpone ‘was reached by the NBA in consultation with the officiating crew and both head coaches.’

‘We always want to try to go. But players were complaining about it on both sides,’ Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said, per Johnson. ‘Staff went out there and pretty much immediately we felt that it wasn’t playable.’

This story has been updated with new information.

Figure skater Maxim Naumov honored his late parents with his short program at the U.S. championships.
Naumov’s parents, both former Olympic skaters, were killed in a plane crash in January 2025.
He held a photo of his parents while awaiting his score, which temporarily put him in first place.
Naumov finished the short program in fourth place and is a contender for a spot on the 2026 U.S. Olympic team.

ST. LOUIS — Maxim Naumov wasn’t going to find out his score alone.

As the 24-year-old figure skater awaited the results of his short program at the U.S. championships on Thursday, he pulled out a photo. It was a picture of him, about 3 years old, holding hands with his mom and dad. It was the first time on the ice with white skates.

Naumov’s parents, Russian Olympic pair skaters Vadim Naumov and Evgenia Shishkova, were two of the 67 people killed in the January 2025 plane crash near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Arlington, Virginia, that devastated the figure skating community. Vadim and Evgenia were two of the 28 coaches, young skaters and parents who were returning from a development camp in Wichita, Kansas, held in conjunction with last year’s 2025 U.S. nationals.

Naumov gave the photo a kiss. All he could think about were their smiles and what they would say to him.

The score was revealed. An 85.72. It put Naumov in first place for the moment. He burst into tears, holding that photo to his face as the crowd erupted in ovation.

It was his parents who got him on the ice, and in one of the biggest moments of his career, they were there to hold him one more time. 

“This program is very meaningful to me, and I spent so much time in practice connecting with it and evolving it and developing it to be as good as I can possibly make it,” Naumov told USA TODAY Sports. “To go out there and really share that emotion with everybody has been unreal.”

It’s been an emotional 12 months for Naumov. He didn’t know if he was going to continue competing after he lost his parents. But he decided to return to the ice, and it led to the beautiful moment inside Enterprise Center.

Anticipation had been building. The crowd gave him one of the loudest cheers of the night when he was announced for the warmups, and it only got louder when it was his time to take the ice. He told the NBC broadcast his family has a mantra: We have to fight. He was repeating it in his head as he walked the hallway before his performance.

He admitted it wasn’t a perfect skate, adding his dad probably would’ve told him to be “a little bit more confident.” However, he landed his jumps and avoided any major tumbles. He conveyed the emotions of the skate, the crowd taking the journey alongside him.

“I felt like I learned something new about myself every single competition that I did. Something new to work on after each one, something to focus on, something to drill in training, all leading up to this exact thing right here,” Naumov said. “It wasn’t perfect, but we still did so many of the things that we worked on, and I continue to do so.”

When he finished and he sat on the ice, the audience gave him a standing ovation. He soaked up all of it as he looked around the arena to see all the people applauding him.

“Sharing the vulnerability with the audience and me feeling their energy back has been something I remember for the rest of my life,” he said.

By the end of everyone’s short program, Naumov was in fourth place, less than three points behind third-place Jason Brown. He finished fourth at each of the last three nationals, but there is a chance for him to finish this year on the podium – and possibly achieve more by the end of the weekend.

Naumov is in the conversation to claim one of the three men’s spots the U.S. has for the 2026 Winter Olympics. Ilia Malinin is a shoe-in and Jason Brown will likely get the second selection, but the third spot is completely up for grabs. It could go to Naumov, Tomoki Hiwatashi, Andrew Torgashev or another skater.

Naumov has his eyes set on achieving “the ultimate goal” of his first Winter Olympics. He said one of the last conversations he had with his parents was about making it to Milano Cortina.

If he does get the nod, it won’t just be a major accomplishment, but also one of the biggest stories at the Games. But if he doesn’t, he has shown he is one of the most resilient skaters in the world, becoming someone you can’t help but root for.

“Even at a time like this, having the opportunity to be here again was just another example of how capable I am in really difficult times,” Naumov said. 

And he’s done it with mom and dad by his side.

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Corey LaJoie will take Brad Keselowski’s place in the No. 6 RFK Racing Ford for the Feb. 1 NASCAR Clash event that unofficially kicks off the 2026 Cup Series season.

The move comes as Keselowski continues his recovery from a broken leg suffered on a family ski trip in December.

‘I’m happy for Corey to get this opportunity. I’m laser focused on being ready for Daytona,’ Keselowski said in a statement announcing the move.

Keselowski, 41, spoke at length with Fox Sports about the decision to have LaJoie run the Cook Out Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium and his recovery from a broken femur that also caused some nerve damage.

‘I didn’t want to rush back,’ Keselowski told Fox Sports. ‘The team and I made the decision together that if all the rehab went absolutely perfect, we’d be ready like, literally, the day of the Clash.

‘And that seemed super foolish and didn’t give us any time to do any testing on myself or anything like that.’

Keselowski is determined to return for the Dayton 500, which is slated to run this year on Feb. 15.

The 2012 Cup Series champion called it ‘kind of a freak accident’ − he slipped and fell on ice getting out of his car.

‘I just fell perfectly on a spot that broke my leg,’ Keselowski told Fox Sports. ‘I wish it was some cooler story than that, like jumping or doing something on the slopes.

‘I think everybody thinks I did it on the slopes, which sounds a lot cooler than the actual story I have, but it just was a freak accident.’

The WNBA and its players association will not agree to a new collective bargaining agreement by Friday’s deadline.

That’s according to New York Liberty All-Star Breanna Stewart, the two-time league MVP and vice president of the players association.

‘We are not coming to an agreement by tomorrow, I can tell you that,’ Stewart told reporters in Miami following an Unrivaled practice on Thursday, according to multiple reports. ‘We’re just going to continue to negotiate in good faith.’

Stewart, who is a co-founder of Unrivaled, added that calling for a labor strike is ‘not something that we’re going to do right this second, but we have that in our back pocket.’ In December, players voted to give WNBPA President Nneka Ogwumike and the executive committee the power to launch a strike.

The WNBA has no plans to lock out players, a person with direct knowledge of the situation told USA TODAY Sports.

The key issues currently separating the WNBA and its players are increased salaries and revenue sharing, and whether the revenue that is shared is from the league’s gross or net. The two sides have pushed their deadline twice, as it was originally supposed to be resolved by Oct. 30.

However, WNPBA executive director Terri Jackson told USA Today Sports in a statement that no one should believe the latest offer by the league is a “good deal.”

The WNBPA announced this week that it has created what it’s calling “player hubs” across the globe so that players can continue to train and keep their fitness levels high in the event of a work stoppage. Universities like Stanford, Cal, UNLV and Manhattan are opening their facilities to WNBA players, as are fitness centers operated by Bay Club and Exos.

“These facilities are valuing our players, opening their doors, and saying, ‘We’ve got you.’ That kind of support means everything to our members,” WNBPA senior vice president of player relations Jayne Appel Marinelli said in a statement. “These hubs are about standing together and making sure every player has what they need to stay ready and keep doing what they love.”

Multiple players have spoken about how crucial these negotiations are to the future of the WNBA, including Indiana Fever superstar Caitlin Clark.

“This is the biggest moment the WNBA has ever seen, and it’s not something that can be messed up,’ Clark said last month in Durham, N.C., after a Team USA training session. ‘And, you know, we’re going to fight for everything that we deserve, but at the same time, we need to play basketball. That’s what our fans crave … because you want the product on the floor, and at the end of the day, that’s how you make the money, that’s how you’re marketable.”

While acknowledging the slim chances of an agreement by Friday, Stewart remained optimistic about reaching a resolution.

‘While we are both seemingly far apart, there is a place where we can come and find a mutual ground,’ Stewart said.

The Los Angeles Angels, along with eight other Major League Baseball teams, terminated broadcast deals with FanDuel Sports Network and its parent company, Main Street Sports Group, on Thursday, Jan. 8.

According to the Associated Press, MLB commissioner Rob Manfred said the league is prepared to produce and distribute the broadcasts of all nine teams — the Angels, Atlanta Braves, Cincinnati Reds, Detroit Tigers, Kansas City Royals, Miami Marlins, Milwaukee Brewers, St. Louis Cardinals and Tampa Bay Rays.

‘No matter what happens, whether it’s Main Street, a third party or MLB media, fans are going to have the games,’ Manfred told reporters.

Main Street reportedly missed a payment to the Cardinals a month ago, while Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald reported that Main Street also missed a payment to the Marlins that was due on Jan. 1. Tom Friend of the Sports Business Journal reported that the Rays might have been the only team to receive their 2026 rights fee payment on time.

This has happened before; MLB took over the broadcast rights of the San Diego Padres and Arizona Diamondbacks in 2023 after Main Street — then known as Diamond Sports Group — missed a rights fee payment to each team. The proverbial door however, isn’t exactly closed yet. According to Evan Drellich of The Athletic, all nine teams could return to FanDuel networks on re-negotiated deals.

Main Street is also the regional sports network (RSN) carrier for 13 NBA teams and seven NHL teams. Per the Sports Business Journal, Main Street was in negotiations with DAZN to buy the struggling network, but that talks are ‘teetering’ and the company might shutter unless a second bidder emerges.

The Minnesota Timberwolves held a moment of silence before their Jan. 8 game at the Target Center to honor Renee Nicole Good, who was fatally shot this week by a federal immigration officer.

Video of the Timberwolves’ broadcast of the trubute, posted to the r/NBA subreddit and reviewed by USA TODAY, shows that the moment of silence was punctuated by a fan yelling “go home ICE” followed by cheers.

The tribute came hours after Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz called for a moment of silence and issued a proclamation declaring Jan. 9 a “Day of Unity” in Good’s honor and asked the state to hold a moment of silence at 10 a.m. local time.

“I’d ask each and everyone to find a way to contribute in your community … to show the goodness, to rise up, to make sure that we’re being very, very clear about this, that we expect our Constitutional rights to be respected,” Walz said in a video message on X accompanying the proclamation.

USA TODAY’s eNewspaper is here – your source for timely, relevant stories, updated continuously.

Patrick Kane has joined an exclusive club, becoming the 50th player in NHL history to reach 500 goals.

Kane, 37, recorded the huge milestone when he scored twice in the Detroit Red Wings’ game against the Vancouver Canucks on Thursday, Jan. 8, picking up No. 500 on an empty-net score with 3:53 left.

The goal, in his 1,332nd career game, gave Kane 1,369 points, six shy of breaking Mike Modano’s mark for most points (1,374) by a United States-born player.

The Buffalo, New York, native is the fifth U.S.-born player with 500 NHL goals. The others: Joe Mullen (502 in 1,062 games), Jeremy Roenick (513 in 1,363 games), Keith Tkachuk (538 in 1,201 games) and Modano (561 in 1,499, including four in 40 games with the Red Wings).

Kane is a guaranteed first-ballot Hockey Hall of Fame inductee, having established himself as one of the best players in the game since being drafted at No. 1 overall by the Chicago Blackhawks in 2007. Kane went on to win the 2008 Calder Memorial Trophy as the NHL’s rookie of the year, and during a decade and a half with the team was crucial to winning the Stanley Cup in 2010, 2013 and 2015. Kane was named the Conn Smythe winner as playoff MVP in 2013.

In 2015-16, he became the first American-born player to win the Hart Memorial Trophy as the most valuable player, and that same season he also captured the Art Ross Trophy as the NHL’s scoring champion.

As the Blackhawks went into a rebuild, Kane OK’ed a trade to the New York Rangers on Feb. 28, 2023. However, his tenure with his second Original Six franchise was short-lived. Following the Rangers’ first-round exit, Kane underwent invasive hip surgery that came with a four-to-six month recovery period.

Kane came to the Wings with 451 goals and 1,237 points in 1,180 games. He made his debut Dec. 7, 2023, and right away showed he still had it at age 35. The Wings re-signed Kane to one-year deals in each of the summers of 2024 and 2025.

Contact Helene St. James at hstjames@freepress.com. Read more on the Detroit Red Wings and sign up for our Red Wings newsletter. 

Texas sophomore guard Jordan Lee has tripled her scoring average in 2025-26 and emerged as one of the best two-way players in SEC women’s basketball.
The No. 2 ranked Longhorns are relying on the trio of Lee, Madison Booker and Rori Harmon to get back to the Final Four for a second consecutive year.
Lee uses a color-coded notes system, one example of the detail-oriented approach that drives her on and off the court.

AUSTIN, Texas — Balancing life as a basketball player on a national championship contending team as an aspiring pre-med student requires organization, so Jordan Lee developed a system. The Texas Longhorns guard schedules all of her activities three months out and meticulously color codes each item: Orange for basketball, blue for beauty appointments, red for schoolwork and green for name, image and likeness. 

That detail-oriented mentality inspired Lee to request a meeting with Longhorns head coach Vic Schaefer toward the end of her freshman season last spring, during the Southeastern Conference tournament. Lee, the No. 9 ranked player nationally in her high school recruiting class, was coming off the bench for a Texas team headlined by All-Americans Madison Booker and Rori Harmon. 

Lee walked into Schaefer’s office armed with game film and stats analyzing her contributions as well as the team’s performance. 

“Playing behind (former Texas guard) Shay Holle, who is so talented and had played for Coach Schaefer for four years, I wanted to see what I could do better,” Lee said. “That was a huge point in my career.” 

From that point on, Schaefer trusted Lee to play in high-pressure moments during Texas’ postseason run to the NCAA national semifinals. In the Longhorns’ Final Four loss to South Carolina, Lee scored 16 points off the bench and offered a preview of what was to come. 

“Going into this year, I had that game in my head as, ‘OK, I think she’s capable of bringing a lot to the table,’” Schaefer said. 

Fast forward a few months, and Lee is enjoying a breakout sophomore season as the unsung hero of an undefeated Texas team ranked No. 2 in the country. After averaging 5.8 points per game as a freshman, the graduation of multiple starters and a slew of injuries provided a springboard for Lee’s sophomore leap. Now in the starting rotation, she is averaging 15.6 points, 1.8 steals and 33.5 minutes while shooting 45% from the field and 39.2% on 3-pointers. Lee’s even better against top competition, averaging 17.7 points in six games against ranked opponents.

The main difference? Confidence. 

“Knowing that you’ve performed on the biggest stages a multitude of times,” Lee said. “Already being equipped with what it felt like to be in that moment is definitely something that set me apart and helped me be ready for the year that I’m having so far.” 

And yet, Lee flies under the radar in comparison to the other two members of Texas’ leading trio. Booker, a junior forward, is a walking double-double and reigning SEC Player of the Year. Harmon, a fifth-year point guard, recently became the program’s all-time leader in career assists and could add career steals. 

Lee most recently went viral for her cheerleading skills when, during Texas’ 120-38 beatdown of Southeastern Louisiana, she and a couple Longhorn teammates picked up pom poms on the sideline. While Lee caught some flak online for a gesture that was perceived as disrespectful to the opponent, Schaefer said the moment was just Lee “being herself” and encouraging her teammates.

Make no mistake, though: Lee’s on-court exploits and her emergence as a two-way star are integral to Texas’ national championship aspirations. 

“Her development has really been on a pretty steep slope,” Schaefer said. “I think the kid works really hard. She plays the game really hard and, again, brings a lot to the table on both ends.” 

‘I don’t understand how people just ignore her’

Through 17 games this season, Lee has already scored more points and made more 3-pointers than she did in the entirety of her freshman season. She leads the Longhorns in minutes per game and is second in scoring average, behind Booker. 

On New Year’s Day, Lee scored a career-best 23 points in Texas’ 89-71 comeback win at Missouri. Three days later, she led Texas with 17 points while her defense locked down Ole Miss leading scorer Cotie McMahon for most of the game as the Longhorns beat the No. 15 Rebels 67-64. In both games, Lee played all 40 minutes. 

“She is the key to their success. Madison Booker, of course, is a superstar, but they don’t win without Jordan Lee,” Ole Miss head coach Yolett McPhee-McCuin said. “We respect her so much. I don’t understand how people just ignore her. This kid does a little bit of everything for them and makes you work really hard.” 

Because Booker and Harmon command a lion’s share of attention from opposing defenses, most games Lee only has to beat the opponents’ third-best defender — an easy task when you consider her quick-release 3-point jump shot, off-the-dribble package and seemingly endless endurance.

Lee doesn’t crave the spotlight but doesn’t shy away from it, either. 

“I feel like in this day and age, you gotta love it and everything that comes with those moments and the opportunity,” she said. “Especially having your face, your last name, where you’re from, be attached to a lot of those. I definitely take great pride in representing everybody that has helped me get to this point.” 

Both of Lee’s parents, Roderick Lee and Georgia Kovich-Lee, played collegiate basketball in Canada, though they were careful not to pigeonhole Lee and her older sister into the sport. Both girls ended up playing in college (Sophia Lee is a redshirt junior guard at Sacramento State). Growing up in Stockton, California, Jordan Lee’s first basketball experience was playing with her sister on a local boys’ team, coached by their father.

She rarely played, and when she did the boys almost never passed to her, but Lee fell in love with basketball because of the team environment and the thrill of pursuing a collective goal. 

“It’s a little bit different to feel surrounded by so many people who are kind of invested in the same thing,” she said. “Being that young, obviously, nothing serious, but you’re still working towards something. And that was like the first time that I had really felt like what it was like to be on the team.”

By middle school, Lee was head over heels for hoops. Around that time, she asked her father to buy her $40 worth of markers so she could start her color-coded system of sticky notes — a precursor to the strategy she uses today as a biology major studying to become a dermatologist.

Roderick Lee, a former drill sergeant who served in three branches of the U.S. military, used to take his daughters to drill practice with him and takes partial responsibilty for Jordan’s love of routine and organization. But he said her ambition and dedication is all her own. 

“She had a fire early,” Roderick Lee said. “Her drive, automatically, is a different mindset.” 

Once Lee sets her mind to something, she won’t stop. She hated running but won back-to-back state track championships in the 800-meter and the 1,600-meter because, as she put it, “I like to win.” In the high school state semifinal basketball game her junior year, Lee scored 47 points in her team’s loss, and afterward sobbed because she felt she let her team down. 

During the pandemic, when almost every basketball court in Stockton was shut down, the Lee showed up at 6:30 a.m. to the only open gym in the city. During Jordan’s senior year of high school, Roderick came to her school every day during lunch period to help her squeeze in an extra workout. 

The routine planted the seed for an important lesson that Lee didn’t fully internalize until college: It’s better to hold yourself to high standards than to let others’ expectations define you.

Jordan Lee learned to star in her role at Texas

Lee is quick to say that she’s not a perfectionist, despite her note-taking habits. But when she began her freshman season at Texas, she struggled because it was one of the first times in her life that she didn’t achieve immediate results. 

Schaefer doesn’t like to call many timeouts and refrains from substitutions when the team is on a run, which left few opportunities for freshmen to get consistent minutes. 

“Someone like myself who’s spending a lot of time just thinking and potentially even overthinking, I feel like I tended to put a lot of pressure on myself to go in and make something happen, or see if something that was broken that I could potentially fix,” Lee said. “And in that moment, I was just like, ‘OK, I kind of need to take a step back and maybe just relax a little bit and let the moment come to me.’” 

Lee and her best friend, Longhorns backup point guard Bryanna Preston, leaned on each other. They invented entertaining bench celebrations to unleash when teammates made a big play, their way of “starring in our roles,” Preston said. Schaefer called the duo the “juice” of the team. 

With Preston’s help, Lee got out of her own head. Over the summer, she worked on improving her 3-point shot. She won a gold medal with USA Basketball at the 2025 FIBA U19 World Cup, where she embraced a leadership role as captain. 

This season, Lee and Preston are still planning sideline celebrations although they aren’t on the bench together as much.

“Honestly, she’s always been confident, and I love that about her,” Preston said. “I’m able to feed off of that myself and be confident in my own game. So just seeing her thrive, I’m just really proud of her, because anybody could just give up at any moment and just stop putting in the work and get a little down. But she, like, literally did the complete opposite.”

In hindsight, Lee said she’s grateful to have had the chance to learn from Booker and Harmon before becoming their co-star. 

“It’s a blessing,” Lee said. “A lot of people talk about the pressure that comes with being a great player and performing at this level. And I feel like it’s very nice to have two people that are in front of you, and you kind of get accustomed to things before you’re in that deep water and you’re either primary look on the scouting report or the biggest face on one of the best college basketball teams in the country right now.” 

Why Lee is key to Longhorns’ NCAA title aspirations

On a Saturday afternoon in January inside Texas’ practice facility, Lee flew down the court in a dead sprint, racing against the clock. She and two teammates weaved and passed the ball as they ran to one end of the court and back, finishing the timed drill with a layup.

On the back wall of the gym was a whiteboard with a main objective scrawled in the upper right-hand corner: “2026 NATIONAL CHAMPIONS!!!”

And below that: “Whatever it takes.”

Texas is 17-0, its best start since the 1986 championship season. The Longhorns acknowledged in a team meeting at the beginning of the season a national title is the ultimate goal, but Schaefer prefers to emphasize the journey. 

“They kind of carry that torch,” Schaefer said. “I try to keep them focused one step at a time, climbing the mountain. Don’t get up there and start looking at the mountaintop, because you’ll miss a step, and you’ll fall back down and you got to climb them all again. I try to keep them focused one day at a time, embracing the process.”

Texas smothers opponents with defensive pressure, ranking 11th in the country in turnovers forced per game (24.7). The offense is as disciplined, ranked second in assist-to-turnover ratio (1.94) and third in field goal percentage (51.9). 

The three-headed monster of Booker, Harmon and Lee is at the core of the Longhorns’ success. 

“Those three play off each other as well as anybody I’ve ever had,” Schaefer said. “You take your eye off one of them, they’re going to make you pay.” 

Lee’s development became especially important when the Longhorns were hit by early season injuries to Preston, freshman guard Aaliyah Crump and senior transfer guard Ashton Judd. Crump remains out while Preston and Judd have since returned, but for most of the non-conference schedule Texas operated with a seven-player rotation. 

“One of the only benefits about having such a limited roster is kind of finding everybody’s niche,” Lee said. “Through that, you get to play through some mistakes that you wouldn’t necessarily get to iron out when we did have a longer bench, like playing with two fouls in the first quarter, or, you know, someone takes a bad shot or has a couple bad turnovers. So it kind of allowed us to get really comfortable with each other.”

Lee’s increased production is partly the result of more playing time, and partly the result of her targeted improvement. In high school, 3-point shooting was never a huge part of her game. But the Longhorns are near the bottom of Division I teams in 3-point attempts, and Lee realized she could make the team more dynamic by hitting from deep. 

This season, Lee is shooting 39.2% behind the arc and leads the Longhorns with 40 made 3s; the next-closest player is Booker with eight. 

“This summer, she got in the gym, she worked hard in her craft every day,” Booker said. “She was going to make shots before and after breakfast. I mean, it’s showing now, but I’m not surprised, because I’ve already seen this before.” 

Lee’s catch-and-shoot ability and off-ball movement are so effective Schaefer runs lots of plays designed to get Lee open shots, banking on Harmon and Booker to act as decoys and get the ball into her hands. 

If a Texas player gets a steal on defense, chances are Lee is already taking off and ready to receive an outlet pass for a transition bucket. Her track background assures she never gets tired. 

“She’s like the Energizer bunny,” Schaefer said. 

While other Texas players tell stories of their shocking first practices under Schaefer, whose nickname is the Secretary of Defense, defense always came easily to Lee. Even playing alongside two other elite perimeter defenders in Booker and Harmon, Lee is often assigned to guard the opposing team’s best player.

 “She talks and communicates really well on the floor, and I think that permeates through your team,” Schaefer said. “She has a calming effect when you’re on the defensive end in that she is communicating down there.”

After practice the day before Texas’ SEC home opener against Ole Miss, Lee told associate head coach Elena Lovato she planned to go under screens while defending McMahon, who isn’t a 3-point threat. Lee assured the coach she would adjust if she got beat more than once early in the game.

But she asked Lovato to send her McMahon’s shot zone chart, anyway, just to be extra prepared.

If there’s one thing Jordan Lee believes, it’s that greatness lies in the details. 

ST. LOUIS — There’s a lot of things that can go wrong in figure skating. But what happens when it’s not your fault?

That’s what happened to the ice dance pair of Raffaella Koncius and Alexey Shchepetov, who weathered a music blunder that stopped them midway through of their rhythm dance at the 2026 U.S. figure skating championships on Thursday. 

About two minutes into their program, there seemed to be an odd transition of their music — a Ricky Martin song — inside the Enterprise Center. Koncius and Shchepetov noticed the difference immediately.

“We just were doing our thing, and then I think we just heard some extra music started playing,” Shchepetov told reporters. “We figured we would just keep going, and hopefully they would just fade out the other music, but it just kept going and going. So then they just called us to stop it.”

Koncius added that by the time the stoppage occurred, they “couldn’t even hear our music anymore.”

The pair skated over to the judges table to work out the confusion, which resulted in about a five-minute delay. The music started once again, but not at the correct part of the program, so the pair spoke with the judges again. 

The crowd was cheering on Koncius and Shchepetov, something they said really helped them during an odd time. Shchepetov said the music mix-up happened just as they were about to do their midline step sequence, so the officials gave them the opportunity to complete it entirely, giving them about a 15-second leeway. 

It’s not necessarily a situation skaters think about when they’re competing, but Koncius and Shchepetov felt a little prepared for the scenario of having to suddenly stop and pick right back up in the middle of a performance.

“When we train, we do a lot of where we kind of train similarly, like that,” Shchepetov said. “Like not with the music cutting off and whatnot, but we’ll train like one section, you rest while the music plays, and then you just pick it up for our next section.”

“We train these sections all the time so we know how to pick it up when something like this happens,” Koncius added.

The pair were able to resume their program without another issue, finishing with a score 65.15.

Even though it may have been a little chaotic, Koncius and Shchepetov were all smiles about the entire situation.

“Made for a great experience, truly,” Koncius said. “And a good story, too.”