Chen impresses in bid for U.S. Olympic team
Fremont’s Karen Chen is going to the Olympics! Isn’t she? Right? Or will Ashley Wagner’s fury bump her off ?
By the time your newspaper lands on your doorstep, the skaters headed for next month’s Olympics will know their fate. Though the competition ended at around 8 p.m. Friday, the real winners will be decided by a subcommittee of a committee in the wee hours of Saturday morning and relayed to the exhausted skaters sometime later. The skaters will have to be camera-ready by 5 a.m., when the news will be announced on a made-for-East Coast television show.
Welcome to the farcical selection process, where an unnamed group of people in a room selects the Olympic team and what we saw on the ice Friday night might not be what we get next month in South Korea.
“As much as I want to be on that team, and I do, it’s up to someone else to make that decision,” said Chen, the defending national champion. “I want to stay positive and keep thinking about all the great things I’ve done today.”
Chen, 18, fought through illness and the doubts stemming from a difficult year to win bronze after the ladies’ long
program at SAP Center. She was marked down for an underrotation on one triple-flip and for putting her hands down on a triple salchow, but it was a strong performance.
But finishing third put her in a precarious position. Four years ago, Mirai Nagasu finished third but was left off the Olympic team by the selection committee. Wagner, who had finished in fourth, was selected for a berth in Sochi instead.
That nine-member International Committee Management Subcommittee — no, really, that’s the name — is made up of officials, coaches and athletes. The group will consider not only the results at these national championships but at last year’s world championships, the International Grand Prix series and a variety of other competitions weighted by different values.
The goal is to put the most internationally competitive group into the Olympics.
And if Wagner had her way, there could be another fight, just like the one four years ago. She disagreed with the way her components — the “artistic” part of the result — were scored.
“I’m furious, absolutely furious,” said Wagner, 26, who skated a new program to “La La Land.” “I am a performer, and that second mark is not there. … I delivered something that was solid.”
Does she think she deserves to be on the Olympic team? “Yes,” she said. She probably doesn’t have a case this year. She finished seventh at the 2017 World Championships, one of the heavily weighted events, three spots behind Chen.
The winner of Friday’s competition wasn’t in question. It was 19-year old newcomer Bradie Tennell, who skated two clean programs to claim her first title.
Nagasu, 24, was the clear fan favorite Friday night. She has become a sympathetic figure after being left off the team four years ago. She was a national champion in 2008 and an Olympian in 2010, finishing fourth overall in Vancouver. Since then, she has dealt with injuries and disappointment.
“This is about my journey,” Nagasu said. “It makes me really emotional.
“I really feel like the comeback kid.”
Chen, who grew up in Fremont but currently trains in Riverside, has had an erratic journey, at times succumbing to the pressure resulting from her surprise national championship a year ago.
“When I won my title, it all came over me,” Chen said, of the Olympic pressure she felt. “It was overwhelming at first. Why I put so much pressure on myself this season, why I got so tense, was because I wanted it so bad, which didn’t help.”
It also didn’t help that Chen was struck by an illness that kept her in bed in her hotel room all day Thursday. She received acupuncture and other treatments and tried to keep her thoughts positive.
“I wasn’t going to let some stupid sickness win,” she said.
She got a boost from her mentor, Kristi Yamaguchi, the Fremont native who won an Olympic gold 26 years ago. Yamaguchi, who has known Chen for years, heard the skater wasn’t feeling well. She texted Chen to tell her she was “the quiet assassin and that you’ve got this.”
“She’s a fighter,” Yamaguchi said.
Chen took the ice as thunderous applause, flowers and other gifts rained down on Nagasu, who had just skated an electric performance.
“I had to skate around all those little stuffed animals,” said Chen. “It was a good warmup.”
Skating to a tango, in a black lace dress with a red flower in her hair, Chen made a few mistakes. But overall, the performance was one of her strongest of the year, and she received a standing ovation from her hometown crowd. She buried her head in her hands and let the tears come.
“I’m so proud of her,” Yamaguchi said. “Fremont represents again!”
At least that’s what we think. Unlike when Yamaguchi earned her Olympic berth 26 years ago, it is now up to the subcommittee of a committee to decide who the real winners are.