Muddled picture for Olympic berths
U.S. women’s field wide open heading into short program
SAN JOSE >> America’s leading skater Ashley Wagner made a risky decision last month: She changed her long program routine for the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in San Jose.
Reigning national champion Karen Chen of Fremont has changed her free skate program three times this season, finally reverting to the music she used for 2016-17 competitions.
The late switches symbolize the muddled state of American women’s skating heading into the short program Wednesday night at SAP Center as the U.S. championships turn its focus on the seniors competing for berths at the 2018 Winter Olympics.
Recent results, latechanging programs and other factors have led to a wide-open field with three Olympic berths in the balance.
“It’s changing so much that it depends on the night,” said Brian Boitano, the 1988 Olympic champion from Sunnyvale.
Indeed, the landscape is open with Wagner, 26, perhaps the only favorite to advance to the Pyeongchang Games next month in South Korea.
The three-time U.S. champion finished seventh at the Sochi Games in 2014. Gracie Gold, then 18, was fourth while San Jose’s Polina Edmunds, then 15, took ninth.
With three in the top 10, the United States hoped to become a serious challenger to the Russian and Japanese women who have dominated figure skating in the past decade.
Then Gold withdrew from competition this season to seek treatment for an eating disorder and depression.
Edmunds, now a sophomore at Santa Clara University, was on the verge of a major breakthrough after finishing second to Gold at the 2016 U.S. championships. But within a month of her spectacular performance, she suffered a foot injury that eventually kept her off the ice for four months. Edmunds lost 1½ years of competition and enters the short program as a bit of an unknown.
“It has been difficult getting everything back,” she said Sunday.
But the 5-foot-7 skater hopes to show the hometown audience that her career isn’t on the backside. Edmunds made the first coaching change of her career when asking Christy Ness, Kristi Yamaguchi’s former trainer, to take over in September.
“We stepped back from zero and started again,” said mother Nina Edmunds, who has been part of her daughter’s coaching team from the beginning.
The derailment of two such talented skaters has left others to fill the void. Chen, 17, finished fourth at the World Championships last year but then came unglued during the Grand Prix season in the fall.
She reverted to last season’s successful programs to try to salvage her chance of qualifying for the Winter Games.
“I’m in better shape than I was last year at this time,” Chen said last week. “I do have nothing to lose. That’s my mindset and that’s when I skate best.”
If Wagner and Chen fail to perform this week, the United States has plenty of others in waiting. The most intriguing candidate is 2010 Olympian Mirai Nagasu, who will be competing in her 11th senior national championships.
Nagasu, 24, enters the competition as one of two Americans in history to land the difficult triple axel in competition. The other was Tonya Harding, a 1994 Olympian.
“Absolutely,” the skater replied when recently asked if she plans to attempt a triple axel during the competition.
Nagasu finished third at the 2014 U.S. championships but was passed over for Wagner for Olympic selection. Wagner had finished fourth but was picked ahead of Nagasu because of a strong Grand Prix season.
The best skater heading into the competition is Bradie Tennell of Winfield, Illinois. Tennell, 19, finished third at Skate America last month by outshining Wagner and Chen. After winning the U.S. junior title three years ago, Tennell has finished sixth and ninth in the championships as a senior.
Now she has to duplicate her performance from Skate America under the hot lights of pressure.
Few handle intense situations better than Wagner, who won her first U.S. senior title in San Jose six years ago. She’s counting on showing some style with a free skate to “La La Land,” a program Wagner initially scrapped at the start of the season.
“What’s most important for me with my skating is that I believe in what I’m doing, and if I am 100 percent sold on my story, I can make it happen,” she said. “That’s what ‘La La Land’ has finally given me.”