Making magic, and making it work: Sui and Han’s partnership with choreographer Nichol

Sui Wenjing and Han Cong are not the oldest pair skaters competing at the 2021 ISU World Figure Skating Championships this week, but at ages 25 and 28, respectively, they may have had more comebacks, misfortunes and reinventions than the rest of field combined.

The two-time world champions (2017, 2019) burst on to the senior Grand Prix circuit in 2010 as gingham-clad teenagers skating a country hoedown short program. The tiny Sui charmed crowds with her high-flying vivacity and winsome sass, and they captured bronze at the Grand Prix Final.

Since then, they’ve matured into the most sophisticated and versatile performers on the current pairs’ scene, presenting programs ranging from a Spanish…