BEIJING, China — Completing a triple twist lift, a forward inside death spiral and a throw triple flip all while skating on ice seems about as easy as hiking Camelback Mountain on an 110 degree summer day without water.
Yet, Phoenix-native Brandon Frazier and his partner Alexa Knierim gracefully made their team pairs' final performance look as if they were floating on ice.
Despite a beautiful performance at the Winter Olympics, Knierim seemingly whispered "I'm sorry" as she and Frazier came off the ice.
In an interview Monday on the "Today Show", Knierim said she had a few slip-ups during the performance, which is why she apologized.
"I had a couple of hiccups from myself in the program and I just really wanted Brandon to have this magical moment with the free skate like we had with the short because I knew that he delivered so well in the free program," Knierim said in the interview.
"It's just the nature of a partnership to kind of say 'I'm sorry' when you make a mistake because it goes back and forth."
Frazier and Knierim had a career-best score of 75 during the team pairs' short program and finished the free skate program Sunday with a score of 66.23.
While Knierim mentioned a couple of technical mistakes during the free skate, their most poorly rated element was an under-rotated triple salchow where Knierim lost her footing.
Out of 10, that element was rated a 1.72 by judges. The two still won silver medals after Team USA came in second overall in the team figure skating events.
Despite not placing where they might have wanted to, Frazier was still a supportive partner.
After the performance, Frazier is seen giving Knierim a pat on the back and an encouraging smile.
"I already felt that magic moment in the free skate," Frazier said in the "Today Show" interview.
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