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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, January 21st, 2016

OLYMPIANS GRACIE GOLD & ASHLEY WAGNER HIGHLIGHT 2016 PRUDENTIAL U.S. FIGURE SKATING CHAMPIONSHIPS, BEGINNING THIS SAT. LIVE AT 3 PM ET ON NBC

New U.S. Figure Skating Championships All Access Page on NBCSports.com Includes Live Scoring, Leaderboards, Video Features & More

Coverage to Stream Live on NBC Sports Live Extra

STAMFORD, Conn. – January 21, 2016 – Olympians Gracie Gold and Ashley Wagner highlight NBC’s live coverage of the 2016 Prudential U.S. Figure Skating Championships, beginning this Saturday, Jan. 23, at 3 p.m. ET and continuing on NBC in primetime at 8 p.m. ET from Xcel Energy Center in Saint Paul, Minnesota.  Live NBC coverage on Sunday, Jan. 24 begins at 4 p.m. ET. Coverage includes the pairs, ice dance, ladies, and men’s free skate competitions.

Gold and Wagner, the last two U.S. ladies champions, will go toe-to-toe this weekend. Twenty-four-year-old Wagner, the three-time and reigning U.S. champion, could become the oldest woman to claim the title since 1937 (Maribel Vinson). Gold, who along with Wagner won team bronze at the 2014 Sochi Olympics, claimed the title in 2014. 2014 U.S. silver medalist Polina Edmunds and 2008 U.S. champion Mirai Nagasu will also compete.

2015 Skate America champion and 2013 U.S. champion Max Aaron, 2015 U.S. silver medalist Adam Rippon, and 2014 U.S. junior champion Nathan Chen highlight the men’s competition.

This year, the U.S. Championships serve as the final qualifying competition before U.S. Figure Skating selects the 2016 U.S. World Figure Skating Team. Team USA will send three ladies, three men, two pairs teams and three ice dance teams to the 2016 ISU World Figure Skating Championships, March 28-April 3 in Boston (NBC and NBCSN will have live coverage).

Universal HD will present encore coverage of NBC’s broadcasts on Thursday, Jan. 28 at 3 p.m. ET and Friday, Jan. 29, at 6 p.m. ET. In addition, NBC will present the Smucker’s Skating Spectacular exhibition gala on Saturday, Jan. 30 at 4 p.m. ET.

NBC Sports Group’s lead figure skating commentary team, featuring three-time U.S. figure skating champion Johnny Weir, 1998 Olympic gold medalist Tara Lipinski, the youngest person to win a U.S. Championships title at 14, and play-by-play announcer Terry Gannon, will call the 2016 Prudential U.S. Figure Skating Championships and Smucker’s Skating Spectacular, with four-time U.S. champion and Olympic gold medalist Scott Hamilton offering analysis and insight throughout NBC’s coverage this weekend. They’ll be joined by 2006 Olympic ice dance silver medalist Tanith White and reporter Andrea Joyce on-site at the Xcel Energy Center.

For the first time, NBCSports.com is providing a destination for fans dedicated to behind-the-scenes and social media driven content through its U.S. Figure Skating Championships All Access page on NBCsports.com/USFIGS. U.S. Figure Skating Championships All Access includes live scoring and leaderboards, video features, fan polls and a social media aggregator with the latest Tweets from NBC Olympics, the broadcast crew, experts, and skaters.

NBC Sports Group’s figure skating coverage (all times ET, subject to change):

NBC SPORTS LIVE EXTRA

NBC Sports Live Extra — NBC Sports Group’s live streaming product for desktops, mobile devices, tablets, and connected TVs — will stream coverage via “TV Everywhere,” giving consumers additional value to for their subscription service, and making high quality content available to MVPD customers both in and out of the home and on multiple platforms. The NBC Sports Live Extra app is available on the iTunes App Store, Google Play, Windows Store, Roku Channel Store and Apple TV. For desktops, NBC Sports Live Extra can be accessed at NBCSports.com/liveextra.

–NBC SPORTS GROUP–