NORWOOD, Mass. (AP) — Alisa Efimova had an American flag on her warmup jacket but not where she needed it most: in her passport.
The two-time reigning pairs national champion and her partner — and husband — Misha Mitrofanov are heading overseas for their next competition, but it won’t be to Milan for the Olympics. Despite skating well enough at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships last weekend to qualify for the Winter Games, they are ineligible because Efimova isn’t an American citizen.
Click to Gallery
Alisa Efimova and Misha Mitrofanov compete during the pairs free skating competition at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026, in St. Louis. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)
Misha Mitrofanov lifts his partner Alisa Efimova after they took first place to win the pairs free skating competition at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026, in St. Louis. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)
Alisa Efimova and Misha Mitrofanov compete during the pairs free skating competition at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026, in St. Louis. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)
Gold medalists Alisa Efimova and Misha Mitrofanov pose with their medals after the pairs free skating competition at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026, in St. Louis. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)
Alisa Efimova and Misha Mitrofanov compete during the pairs short program at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2026, in St. Louis. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)
“Yes, we didn’t make it, but we don’t see that as a failure,” Mitrofanov said Wednesday at a send-off at the Skating Club of Boston for the rink’s three Olympians: U.S. bronze medalist Max Naumov and the pair of Emily Chan and Spencer Howe.
“Hey, this was an opportunity,” Mitrofanov said. “It may not have worked out. But so many great things have come from it that we are very happy moving forward.”
Mitrofanov is a U.S. citizen by birth, but Efimova was born in Finland and also has represented Russia and Germany in international competition. She moved to the States full-time in 2023 when they became partners, and she received a green card that year but faced a three-year waiting period for citizenship.
Their home rink worked with U.S. Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey to speed up the process, and the pair competed at nationals still hoping for what Mitrofanov called “a last-minute miracle." But the skaters weren’t able to sort out the red tape before the Olympic roster was submitted Saturday, and they were headed home by the time a gala celebration took place Sunday.
The two U.S. pairs spots for Milan went to Ellie Kam and Danny O’Shea, the silver medalists at nationals, and Chan and Howe, who finished fourth. U.S. Figure Skating CEO Matt Farrell said after announcing the team — without the two-time champions — that “there are sometimes rules … and this is not the fun part.”
Without Efimova and Mitrofanov on the ice, the Americans still will be favored to defend their gold medal in the team competition that opens the figure skating program, just not as heavily. The U.S. was not expected to compete for a pairs medal.
Efimova and Mitrofanov will instead head to Beijing for next week’s Four Continents, where the field will be made up mostly of non-Olympians, and then prepare for the world championships in Prague. The rules governing the International Skating Union are different from the International Olympic Committee, so Efimova does not have to have citizenship to represent the U.S. there.
“Whenever we first started as a team, we didn’t know whether or not the Olympics is even a possibility. We knew it was a long shot because of the paperwork,” Mitrofanov said. “The more we progressed with our skating career, the closer we got to that opportunity."
“There were so many people who messaged us and reached out to us wanting to support us,” he said. “So, for us, we’re very grateful.”
And there's still a chance for the 2030 Games in the French Alps. Efimova will be 30 and Mitrofanov will be 32.
“We’re thinking about it,” she said. “Four years is a very long time. For now, I think we’re just thinking of how to approach the next season, because this situation, and after these nationals, it left us with some kind of hunger to make it.
“(If) we make it in four years to the Olympics, I think it would be even more valuable, even more precious,” Efimova said. “So that’s definitely a motivation.”
AP Sports Writer David Skretta contributed to this story from Kansas and Missouri.
AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics
Alisa Efimova and Misha Mitrofanov compete during the pairs free skating competition at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026, in St. Louis. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)
Misha Mitrofanov lifts his partner Alisa Efimova after they took first place to win the pairs free skating competition at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026, in St. Louis. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)
Alisa Efimova and Misha Mitrofanov compete during the pairs free skating competition at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026, in St. Louis. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)
Gold medalists Alisa Efimova and Misha Mitrofanov pose with their medals after the pairs free skating competition at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026, in St. Louis. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)
Alisa Efimova and Misha Mitrofanov compete during the pairs short program at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2026, in St. Louis. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)
Boeing warned plane owners in 2011 about a broken part that contributed to a UPS plane crash that killed 15 last year but at that point the plane manufacturer didn't believe it threatened safety, the National Transportation Safety Board said Wednesday.
The UPS plane crashed in November 2025 shortly after taking off in Louisville, Kentucky, when the left engine flew off the wing as the plane rolled down the runway. Three pilots on the plane that was headed for Hawaii were killed along with 12 more people on the ground near Louisville’s Muhammad Ali International Airport.
The NTSB said Wednesday that Boeing had documented in 2011 there were four previous failures of a part that helps secure the MD-11's engines to the wings on three different planes, but at that point the plane manufacturer "determined it would not result in a safety of flight condition." These planes were actually built by McDonnell Douglas, which was later bought by Boeing.
The NTSB previously said investigators found cracks in some of the parts that held the engine to the wing. Those cracks hadn’t been caught in regular maintenance done on the plane, which raised questions about the adequacy of the maintenance schedule. The last time those key engine mount parts were examined closely was in October 2021, and the plane wasn’t due for another detailed inspection for roughly 7,000 more takeoffs and landings.
It’s not clear when the cracks started to develop in the parts that helped hold the engine on the wing, but this crash is reminiscent of a 1979 crash in Chicago when the left engine flew off an American Airlines DC-10 during takeoff, killing 273 people. The DC-10 was the predecessor of the MD-11.
That previous crash led to the worldwide grounding of 274 DC-10s. The airline workhorse was allowed to return to the skies because the NTSB determined that maintenance workers damaged the plane that crashed while improperly using a forklift to reattach the engine. That meant the crash wasn’t caused by a fatal design flaw even though there had already been a number of accidents involving DC-10s.
But former FAA and NTSB crash investigator Jeff Guzzetti said that a service bulletin McDonnell Douglas issued in 1980 did identify failures of the spherical bearing race as a “safety of flight condition” so it's surprising that Boeing didn't call it that in 2011. He said that American had removed the engine of that plane so it could inspect that bearing.
“I just think it raises questions regarding the adequacy of the severity of the 2011 service letter, and it also raises questions about how UPS incorporated that information and acted upon it,” Guzzetti said.
The service bulletin that Boeing issued didn't require plane owners to make repairs like an FAA airworthiness directive would, and the agency didn't issue such a directive.
Former federal crash investigator Alan Diehl said the notice from Boeing recommended replacing the bearings with a redesigned part that was less likely to fail, but it still allowed operators to replace defective bearings with another older bearing that had demonstrated it was prone to failing.
“As the investigation continues, the NTSB will have to address whether this service bulletin was an adequate solution to a known problem which could have had catastrophic results,” Diehl said. “The UPS crash highlights the need for increased maintenance measures on older airframes.”
NTSB didn't say whether there had been additional documented failures of the spherical bearing race since 2011. Investigators found that part broken into two pieces after the UPS crash, and the lugs that held that part were cracked.
Photos released by the NTSB of the Nov. 4 crash show flames erupting as the rear of the engine starting to detach before it flew up and over the wing. Then the wing was engulfed by fire as the burning engine flew above it.
The factual report released Wednesday doesn’t state what caused the engine to fly off, but it's clear that investigators are focused on the failure of this bearing. The ultimate conclusion won't come though until the NTSB's final report, which usually doesn't come until more than a year after a crash.
But the report will undoubtedly be cited in the first lawsuit over the crash that was filed last month and subsequent lawsuits.
The report does make clear that neither of the plane's two other engines were on fire before the crash. Some experts had previously speculated that debris flying off of the left engine might have damaged the engine on the tail.
Boeing, UPS and the Federal Aviation Administration are limited on what they can say while the NTSB investigation is ongoing, so they all declined to comment on Wednesday's report. Boeing and UPS both expressed condolences to the families that lost loved ones in the crash.
“We remain profoundly saddened by the Flight 2976 accident," UPS spokesperson Jim Mayer said. "Our thoughts continue to be with the families and Louisville community who are grieving, and we remain focused on the recovery effort,” Mayer said.
The 34-year-old MD-11 plane only got 30 feet (9.1 meters) off the ground before crashing into several industrial buildings just past the runway and generating a massive fireball that could be seen for miles. Dramatic videos of the crash showed the plane on fire as it plowed into buildings and released a massive plume of smoke.
Airlines quit flying this type of plane commercially years ago because it isn't as efficient as newer models, but they had continued to fly for cargo carriers like UPS and FedEx and a few of these planes were also modified for use in firefighting. All the MD-11s that had been in use and 10 related DC-10s have been grounded since the crash.
A cleanup crew detects and decontaminates water in a ditch during a tour of the UPS plane crash site, Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026, in Louisville, Ky. (AP Photo/Jon Cherry)
Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg speaks during a tour of the UPS plane crash site, Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026, in Louisville, Ky. (AP Photo/Jon Cherry)
A UPS Boeing 737 takes over a destroyed truck during a tour of the UPS plane crash site, Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026, in Louisville, Ky. (AP Photo/Jon Cherry)
FILE - This photo provided by the National Transportation Safety Board shows UPS plane crash scene on Thursday, Nov. 6, 2025 in Louisville, Ky. (NTSB via AP, File)
FILE - Plumes of smoke rise from the area of a UPS cargo plane crash at Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport, on Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2025, in Louisville, Ky. (AP Photo/Jon Cherry, File)
