My Five takeaways from 2017 World Championships

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My Five takeaways from 2017 World Championships

HELSINKI, Finland -- With the 2017 World Figure Skating Championships in the rearview mirror, here are my five takeaways from an eventful week in Helsinki, Finland.

1. This time around, Ashley Wagner should have no margin for error based on past performance when it comes to the Olympic selection process: She either finishes in the top three at next year's U.S. championships or stays home.

In 2014, the procedure provided ample justification for U.S. Figure Skating to pick Wagner, even though she finished fourth in Boston -- including a fifth-place showing in the free skate.

The uproar over third-place Mirai Nagasu being overlooked was emotional rather than rational because few were aware of the criteria then in place.

Wagner, a three-time U.S. champion, understood the situation was different after her poor free skate Friday jeopardized the United States' chances of getting three ladies spots in South Korea next February.

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Battered skates give Nathan Chen the boot at World Championships

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Battered skates give Nathan Chen the boot at World Championships

HELSINKI, Finland -- Everyone has a favorite pair of shoes, the ones so comfortable you will have them repaired over and over again and then wear them even after no repair will really hold them securely together.

For figure skaters, that situation is compounded by the stresses from torque and impact they put on their most important shoes: the boots with blades they wear in competition.

There frequently comes a time when a skater must decide between the risk in wearing battered boots and the risk in wearing a pair that is barely broken in -- or not broken in at all.

Such a moment occurred for Nathan Chen early in the week leading up to the 2017 World Figure Skating Championships, when the boots he had been wearing for three and a half weeks began to fall apart.

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Chen's coach says six quads on the table for free skate

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Chen's coach says six quads on the table for free skate

HELSINKI, Finland - Nathan Chen will apparently try to make history again Saturday.

Asked at an early afternoon practice Friday how many quadruple jumps Chen is likely to do in the free skate, the skater's coach, Rafael Arutunian, told icenetwork with no hesitation, "We are thinking about six."

The sixth, Arutunian said, would be a second quadruple lutz.

That could bring another can-you-top-this moment for Chen, 17, who two months ago became the first skater to land five quads in a free skate on his way to earning the U.S. title. He repeated the feat in winning the Four Continents Championships in South Korea last month.

"[Arutunian] hasn't told me that yet," Chen said, with a laugh, when the second quad lutz was mentioned. "We obviously have a lot of different variations that we can possibly do. So, whatever Raf said..."

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Brown holds optimism despite quad-less programs

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Brown holds optimism despite quad-less programs

HELSINKI, Finland -- The practice rink for the 2017 World Figure Skating Championships is carved out of the granite below the main arena.

As Jason Brown skated in that stonewalled ice cave Tuesday afternoon, the setting was an appropriate metaphor for the state of his career since he made his only appearance at worlds in 2015.

With injuries having slowed his progress the past two seasons, Brown, a 2014 Olympian, finds himself caught between a rock and a hard place.

The rock? Quadruple jumps.

The hard place? Being the only one among the world's once-and-current top men to never land a quad in competition.

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Skating rings around his rivals, Nathan Chen's rise to the sport's elite has been meteoric

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Skating rings around his rivals, Nathan Chen's rise to the sport's elite has been meteoric

Perfect symbolic fit:  Five Olympic rings.  Five Nathan Chen free skate quads.  And Chen doing them on the rink where a year from now he will be a strong contender for an Olympic gold medal.

The improbability that I could now confidently make such a bold statement about Chen is, in keeping with the numerical theme, the first of five takeaways from what he did Friday and Sunday in winning the Four Continents Championships in Gangneung, South Korea.

1.  Few U.S. singles skaters have had as meteoric a rise as Nathan Chen.

Last December 8, a day before the free skate at the Grand Prix Final, the 17-year-old from Salt Lake City was a prodigiously talented young skater with no striking international success at the senior level.

Barely three months later, he has become the most striking figure skater in the world, with a real chance to win the title in his debut at the senior World Championships beginning March 28 in Helsinki, Finland.

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