No home boost for Wagner
Judges shortchange three-time U.S. champ
SAN JOSE – It will shock absolutely no one to hear there’s a bit of a judging controversy at the 2018 U.S. figure skating national championships.
This one doesn’t involve a French judge or the Russians, the usual suspects when trouble is afoot in the land of sequins and ice. This one centers squarely on the judges from the good old U S of A, doing something that has not been done in recent memory at a nationals — hammering one of their own.
In an odd and unprecedented twist, the nine-judge panel in the women’s event Wednesday night scored threetime national champion and 2016 world silver medalist Ashley Wagner lower in her short program component (artistic) score than international judges did at two Grand Prix events last fall.
This might not sound like much, but within the arcane world of figure skating judging, it’s very strange. It’s not just that international judges almost always tend to be stingier than domestic judges. It’s that U.S. judges at their national championships are understandably generous to their most illustrious skaters with these subjective artistic marks — although it must be said that no one can top Canada, which long ago retired the gold medal in the rush to toss high numbers at its skaters.
Wagner has skated three competitive short programs this season. She received a 33.47 total program component score at Skate Canada and a 33.68 score at Skate America. Don’t be fooled by the name; Skate America is a Grand Prix event with international judges.
On Wednesday, skating the same program to the same music in just about the same way, she received a 32.94.
Decimal points, you say? Agreed — but the very fact that it wasn’t several points higher is what’s surprising, and ominous, for Wagner, who found herself in fifth place, nearly eight points out of first.
Cheating, you say? No, more like home cooking with the referees in a basketball game. In the days of the old 6.0 system, it wasn’t uncommon to see a great like Michelle Kwan be sent off to an Olympics with a bouquet of 6.0s, just because, whether she always deserved them or not.
Tellingly, the judges did give that added boost to Bradie Tennell, the 19year-old newcomer and technical marvel who is poised to win her first national title Friday night. Tennell, still a raw talent, was also at Skate America, held over Thanksgiving, where she received a 29.38 total component score in her short program, 4.3 points lower than Wagner’s.
But here, the judges bumped Tennell up to 32.91 — exactly what is to be expected at a nationals.
So, in what might be the most significant statistic of all, by not giving Wagner a similar boost, Tennell ended up only 3/100ths of a point behind Wagner in the component score. The judges took a look at all of Wagner’s maturity and presence on the ice, and basically discounted it all, at least in a comparison with Tennell.
This was a strange and unexpected decision for U.S. judges to make to the athlete who is the heavily promoted face of the fall Olympic preview season.
So, why did they do it? Are they done with the 26-year-old Wagner? Are they holding her to a higher standard than the younger ones? Are they tired of the Hip Hip Chin Chin short program she used for the second season in three years?
Or, are they asserting their power in what always becomes an Olympic year parlor game? There is (or should be) a church-and-state separation within the U.S. Figure Skating national governing body. USFS officials involved in the business side of the sport work with the athletes to help promote the sport. Those athletes end up with corporate sponsorships that are financially beneficial to them and bring attention to the sport.
Wagner has been one of the most prominent personalities in U.S. skating for more than a quadrennial, and once Gracie Gold took herself out of Olympic consideration last fall, Wagner became the go-to person for sponsorships on the women’s side of U.S. skating. That requires time away from training, of course, but it’s deemed to be good for all involved — the sport and the athlete.
Will it now come back to haunt Wagner with the decisive long program and three Olympic spots awaiting Friday night? She was critical of her performance in the short program, knowing she left technical points on the ice.
But she also knows the judges could have given her that traditional and expected national championship boost, and for some reason or other, chose not to.