It was not until the end of the performance of their lives, the one they had dedicated to those who died, that Alisa Efimova and Misha Mitrofanov remembered to take in the crowd. When they are skating, they try to focus on themselves and on one another. Efimova is so good at this that after the U.S. national championships, in January in Wichita, Kans., that she admitted to Mitrofanov that she had completely blocked out the fans. So on Thursday in Boston, as they finished a free skate that would eventually give them sixth place at the world championships, Mitrofanov grabbed his partner and spun her around.
“He said, ‘Watch!’” said Efimova. “And I was like, ‘Oh yeah, there’s a crowd!’”
