Perhaps the U.S. figure skating team should stay on the ice and away from the diamond.
Multiple members of the team — including some from the gold medal-winning squad from the 2026 Winter Olympics — appeared at Citi Field to throw out the first pitch ahead of the Mets’ 5-4 loss to the Nationals on Thursday.
Although the skaters are known for their gracefulness, their attempts at throwing out the first pitch could not have been more chaotic.
Pairs skaters Ellie Kam and Danny O’Shea went first, with Kam throwing the ball well wide of Andrew Torgashev while on O’Shea’s shoulders.
Ilia Malinin — known to many as the “Quad God” — went next, throwing a ball slightly more accurately to Torgashev, who dropped the pitch.
Amber Glenn, a three-time gold medalist at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, then threw a pitch to Emilea Zingas, who was on skating partner Vadym Kolesnik’s shoulders.
Despite landing an impressive jump beforehand, Glenn’s ball soared over Zingas’ head.
Evan Gates, who was part of the silver medal-winning ice dancing duo in Milan, threw the only successful pitch of the day to skater Jason Brown.
The first pitch ceremony was perhaps a precursor to a chaotic Mets game, which marked their 17th loss over the past 20 games.
Washington jumped out to a two-run lead after a two-base throwing error by Mets pitcher Freddy Peralta.
The Mets later answered with a three-run homer by MJ Melendez, but ultimately lost a lead in the eighth inning after reliever Luke Weaver gave up a two-run blast to Nationals shortstop CJ Abrams.
“This pursuit of perfection is just an ultimate pressurized failure mindset,” Weaver told reporters following the loss. “I just think it becomes everybody wants to be the hero because we care and we want to win really, really bad.
“And I just don’t think success lives in that realm. The freedom of which we play day to day is kind of being suffocated a little bit.”
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
