Carroll ends coaching relationship with Gracie Gold

Frank Carroll and Gracie Gold looked like ships passing in the night after the free skate at nationals

Frank Carroll said Sunday his coaching relationship with Gracie Gold will end as soon as the two can iron out legal issues related to his contract with the skater.

Speaking exclusively to icenetwork, Carroll responded "No" to the question of whether he could see any way he would coach Gold in the future.

"There will be a change," Carroll said. "But you can't just say goodbye. It's got to be worked out intelligently and legally when we get home."

When reached for comment, Gold said she was caught off-guard by Carroll's decision.

"I am surprised that Frank announced his decision before informing me," she said in a statement. "I continue to have the utmost respect for Frank Carroll and his legacy. He took me on during a very vulnerable time, and I am forever grateful for our work together. Despite my sadness in missing this world championships, I will benefit (from the) extra time entering the Olympic season. I plan to use it well."

Carroll, based in Los Angeles, took over coaching Gold in September 2013 when she suddenly left her previous coach, Alex Ouriashev, in Chicago. Under Carroll's tutelage, Gold won two U.S. titles and finished fourth at the 2014 Olympics and the 2016 World Championships.

But this season has been a monumental disappointment for Gold, 21, who skated poorly at all four of her competitions. A sixth-place result Saturday night at the U.S. championships meant she is not going to worlds for the first time in her five-year senior career.

"When you spend a lot of time with somebody and give them all your energy and realize that it is now going nowhere, I think it is time for a change, definitely," said Carroll, 78, who plans to retire from fulltime coaching after next year's Olympics.

"I hope it will end graciously, because we both deserve that. I can't see being angry when you've spent a great deal of time together in the cold, and you've had great success.

"I think we did a pretty good job together, and then we had one complete disaster at the end of last year (worlds), which to me wasn't horrible, being fourth in the world and first in the short program.

"That, to me, isn't like the end of the world, (but) I think that basically it crushed her, and she felt like it was the end of the world. And then she could never get out of it. It didn't matter what anybody said or did -- it just wasn't going to be."

Gold was fiercely self-critical about her failure at worlds. She said two weeks ago that it was only during a recent trip to work with Ouriashev that she forgave herself for it.

The reunion with Ouriashev came in an effort by Gold to try to salvage the season after what would be its lowest ebb, a sixth-place finish last month at the Golden Spin of Zagreb in Croatia, where Gold received her lowest international scores since 2012. Two weeks of repair work had produced encouraging results for Gold, but the fixes clearly were short lived.

In a text message Sunday, Ouriashev said he had "no idea" whether Gold would return to him full time in preparation for the Olympic season.

"I feel very upset," Ouriashev said of his reaction to Gold's ninth-place free skate in Kansas City. "She was the best talent for ladies figure skating. I still believe in her."

(This article originally appeared on icenetwork.)

U.S. Figure Skating head wants Russia out of 2018 Winter Games

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KANSAS CITY - U.S. Figure Skating President Sam Auxier said Thursday that Russia should not be allowed to compete at the 2018 Olympic Winter Games because of the doping scandal that has enveloped the country's athletes.

Auxier added that the integrity of both the International Olympic Committee and the International Skating Union hinged on issuing a stiff penalty against the Russians.

"I mean, it's state sponsored. ... It was a huge program, well coordinated, to cheat, and they should pay a pretty stiff penalty," Auxier said during a press conference at the 2017 U.S. Figure Skating Championships. "I think the only way the IOC and the ISU maintain any level of integrity is to take a strong stand and weigh a strong penalty for those actions."

Auxier joins Sebastian Coe, president of the International Association of Athletics Federations, as one of the few sports federation heads in the world to take such a strong position on the issue of Russia's Olympic participation.

In saying all Russian athletes should be excluded, Auxier even went a step further than IAAF leader Coe, who called only for Russia's track and field athletes to be banned from the Rio Summer Olympics. Only one Russian track and field athlete was allowed to compete in Rio.

No Russian figure skaters have been officially implicated in doping allegations that could involve as many as 1,000 Russian athletes in summer and winter sports, according to an independent investigation commissioned by the World Anti-Doping Agency.

But 2014 Olympic ladies champion Adelina Sotnikova is reportedly one of 28 athletes under investigation by the IOC for a doping sample that was among those allegedly manipulated in the Russian anti-doping lab in Sochi.

The manipulation allegedly involved tampering with sample bottles to fill them with drug-free urine. Scratches on the bottles are seen as evidence of tampering, and the Italian sports newspaper La Gazzetta dello Sport reported that a bottle containing Sotnikova's sample had been identified as one of those with the scratches.

There is no evidence she was involved in or aware of any such tampering.

Sotnikova is the first Russian woman to win Olympic singles gold.

Should Sotnikova be banned, Gracie Gold would inherit the bronze medal, with Yu-Na Kim of South Korea getting gold and Carolina Kostner of Italy the silver.