Despite twists and turns, U.S. ice dancers Zingas and Kolesnik stay in fast lane

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Despite twists and turns, U.S. ice dancers Zingas and Kolesnik stay in fast lane

There are a lot of unexpected plot twists in the story of how Emilea Zingas and Vadym Kolesnik got here.

Not the least of those surprises simply is what “here” means to them this week.

The U.S. ice dancers are in Helsinki, Finland, where they will compete beginning Friday in the Finlandia Trophy event on the Grand Prix circuit, with a chance to make the Grand Prix Final and/or simply build their case for getting one the three U.S. ice dance spots at the 2026 Winter Olympics. 

Who would have imagined a convert from singles skating in 2022 and an ice dancer from a war-ravaged city in Ukraine could be a team in this position so quickly?

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Her choice of music is no accident: Bradie Tennell is on a personal mission of trying to make another Olympic team

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Her choice of music is no accident: Bradie Tennell is on a personal mission of trying to make another Olympic team

The story of Bradie Tennell’s long and decorated figure skating career has a satirically cartoonish side to it, which is something she wryly acknowledges, no matter that it has hurt like heck at times to be its protagonist.

“I have definitely felt a bit like Eeyore,” Tennell said, recalling the donkey in A.A. Milne’s Pooh stories with a perpetually aggrieved and ironically comedic view of his plight.

“They’re funny things, Accidents. You never have them till you’re having them,” Eeyore says in The House at Pooh Corner.

How true that has been for Tennell, 27, who makes her Grand Prix season debut this weekend at Skate Canada in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. For the last five seasons, it has been one thing after another for the two-time U.S. champion and 2018 Olympic team event bronze medalist.

Injuries. Boot problems. More injuries. Blade issues. Tennell kept trying to avoid having the other boot drop, because it usually hit her leg. Whether her travails were purely accidental or just the damage elite athletes incidentally do to their bodies and equipment, she had them all while trying to make another Olympic team.

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Amber Glenn’s path to Grand Prix Final, figure skating stardom a decade-long journey

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Amber Glenn’s path to Grand Prix Final, figure skating stardom a decade-long journey

(Note: After this story was published, Amber Glenn won the Grand Prix Final (above), becoming the first U.S. woman to take that title since 2010)

Damon Allen remembers well how he felt about Amber Glenn after seeing her performances in the junior event at the 2014 U.S. Championships.

“I thought, ‘This girl is going to be the next star,’” Allen recalled last week.

There is, of course, a tendency in figure skating to anoint the next big thing prematurely. Still, Allen’s reaction did not seem impulsively hasty.

After all, the 14-year-old Glenn had shown preternatural poise in winning the title. Her free skate earned a score better than those of all except the three medalists in the senior event, despite juniors having one fewer scoring element.

“This was not an overnight success, to say the least,” Glenn told NBC Sports earlier this season.

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At 5-2 and just 15 years old, Isabeau Levito becomes commanding presence

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At 5-2 and just 15 years old, Isabeau Levito becomes commanding presence

SAN JOSE, Calif. – With a calm command belying her age, Isabeau Levito has taken control of U.S. women’s skating at age 15.

Levito came here as the solid favorite to take her first national title, and she did it with a seemingly effortless grace, her balletic style producing solid winning performances in both Thursday’s short program and Friday’s free skate.

She was the last of 18 skaters in the free skate, following rivals who made mistakes big and small. Levito did not need perfection, but her skating approached it, even if the execution of some jumps could have been better.

Levito left no doubt of her superiority and burst into a wide smile even before the scores were announced. After a narrow win over Bradie Tennell (.02 points) in the short program, Levito (223.33) wound up 10.21 points ahead of the runner-up Tennell (213.12) in the final standings.

Amber Glenn was third at 207.44. She, Levito and Tennell will fill the three women’s places on the U.S. team for the March World Championships in Japan.

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Bradie Tennell returns to U.S. Figure Skating Championships after nightmarish comeback

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Bradie Tennell returns to U.S. Figure Skating Championships after nightmarish comeback

Bradie Tennell was ready. Her bags were packed for an early October trip to the Japan Open, an event that had would have symbolic resonance for her. It was to bring a traumatic part of her life full circle toward its end.

Tennell would be returning to figure skating competition in the same country where she had last competed 20 months earlier, at the 2021 World Team Trophy, before a right foot injury that frustratingly defied diagnosis.  The two-time U.S. champion had missed an entire competitive season, missed a chance at going to a second Olympics, missed the part of her identity that was Bradie Tennell the athlete.

It was the day before she was to leave for Japan. Tennell was practicing at her new training base in Nice, France, where she moved last September from her home in suburban Chicago (before her injury, she had been training in Colorado Springs). She was hoping such a dramatic change could bring renewed energy to her oft-delayed comeback.

Tennell had been training well, regularly doing clean program run-throughs in practice. She had been able to work her way back slowly and deliberately, with a schedule that allowed her to be patient.

And then, in her words, “something weird” happened on the landing of a triple toe loop jump. And now she had pain in her left foot, and the trip to Japan was off, as was a planned trip to Hungary for the Budapest Trophy a week after the Japan Open, as was … another season?

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