Red:when did you get encouraging
Joel:Mistake. Won't happen again.
Red:there he is
Read 9:34 PM
ESPN — March 18
Coffey claims first world title with masterful free skate in Saitama
American lands high-value quad Lutz combination to overtake Japan's Kurosawa
SAITAMA, Japan — Joel Coffey is a world champion.
The 26-year-old American delivered a career-best free skate Thursday at Saitama Super Arena, scoring 218.47 points to overtake overnight leader Yuki Kurosawa and claim gold at the World Figure Skating Championships. His combined score of 324.91 gave him a 6.33-point margin over Kurosawa, with France's Adam Deschamps taking bronze.
Coffey opened his program with a quad Lutz-triple toe loop combination that earned 19.24 points with a GOE of +4.2, setting the tone for a skate that featured four clean quads total. His quad flip at the midpoint drew a standing ovation from the Japanese crowd, and his level-four spins and footwork pushed his component scores to 95.80—the highest of the competition.
"I left everything on the ice," Coffey said. "That's all you can do."
Kurosawa, skating last in the final group, needed 214.60 to overtake Coffey but managed only 211.33, underrotating his opening quad Salchow and stepping out of his triple Axel. The Japanese star was gracious in defeat.
"Joel was the best skater today," Kurosawa said through a translator. "I have no complaints."
Notably absent from the kiss and cry: pop star Milo Hayes, Coffey's boyfriend of three months. The two have been the subject of breakup speculation in recent weeks. When asked about Hayes's absence, Coffey was terse.
"I'm focused on the skating," he said. "Everything else is noise."
E! News — March 19
Joel Coffey and Milo Hayes Split Confirmed—and the Timing Is a Lot
It's officially over between Joel Coffey and Milo Hayes, and girl, the drama.
Sources close to the couple confirm the figure skating world champion and the "Gravity" singer called it quits just days before Coffey's gold medal win in Japan. Yes, the same competition where eagle-eyed fans noticed Milo was nowhere to be found in the kiss and cry.
"It was mutual," one source tells E! News, though Milo's cryptic Instagram story posted hours after Coffey's win (a black screen with just the caption "some people only know how to take") suggests otherwise. The post was deleted within the hour, but screenshots are living forever on fan accounts and we have the receipts.
Neither rep has responded to our requests for comment. Coffey dodged relationship questions at his post-competition press conference, offering only: "Everything else is noise."
Okay, Joel. We hear you.
The pair first went public at a charity gala in Berlin back in December and had been serving couple content ever since—courtside seats at Lakers games, coffee runs in matching sweats, that one paparazzi shot of them holding hands in the West Village that broke Tumblr for like six hours.
No word yet on what caused the split, but we'll be watching Milo's next album drop very closely for clues. Stay tuned.
March 19, 2:47 AM
Joel:You watched.
Red:half the world watched
Joel:But you watched.
Red:congrats on gold
Joel:That's it?
