With every ounce of her fire(bird), Gracie Gold becomes champ again

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With every ounce of her fire(bird), Gracie Gold becomes champ again

ST. PAUL, Minn. – Polina Edmunds looked a little tentative, which was understandable.  Edmunds never had been in the position she was Saturday night, having won Thursday’s short program to take a substantial lead over past champions Ashley Wagner and Gracie Gold into the long program at the U.S. Championships.

Edmunds did not crack.  She nailed jump after jump, spin after spin, making just one small mistake, an under-rotated triple jump.  When her scores went up, Edmunds was first in the free skate and still first overall with only Gold left to skate.

“I’m happy I skated a clean long program,” Edmunds would say.  “That was my goal, to skate two clean programs.  I really think I showed a good champion mentality.”

She is not the champion, though, because Gold delivered one of the greatest long program skates in the history of nationals, making the short program brain cramp that left her 7.69 points behind Edmunds seem like the aberration it was.

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Stunning at nationals: both the Shibutanis' free dance and judges' decision are electrifying

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Stunning at nationals: both the Shibutanis' free dance and judges' decision are electrifying

ST. PAUL, Minn.  – It was hard to know which was the more stunning part of Saturday afternoon’s the ice dance final at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships.

The electric brilliance with which Maia and Alex Shibutani, the @ShibSibs, performed their free skate to Coldplay’s “Fix You?”

Or the judges doing the right thing, rare in ice dance, with scores that made the Shibutanis champions ahead of designated darlings Madison Chock and Evan Bates, the defending champions and reigning world silver medalists?

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Clean as a whistle, Kayne-O'Shea rise far above pairs mess

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Clean as a whistle, Kayne-O'Shea rise far above pairs mess

ST. PAUL, Minn. - Let's get one thing clear:  Tarah Kayne and Daniel O’Shea won their first U.S. pairs title with a free skate impressive in its own right.

But coming after the falls, stepouts, out-of-sync spins and slow-as-molasses skating that preceded them, what Kayne and O’Shea did seemed nothing short of spectacular.

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Chen makes history, but U.S. skating judges stuck in past

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Chen makes history, but U.S. skating judges stuck in past

ST. PAUL, Minn. - For the United States to have any chance at Olympic or world medals in the current state of men’s figure skating, it will take a skater with the attitude of Nathan Chen.

That Chen, only 16 and still competing at the junior as well the senior level, understands the sport’s new realities was evident in his adopting a mindset allowing him to make history before a distressingly small crowd at the U.S. Championships Friday night.

If only U.S. judges had a similar level of comprehension.

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Through ups and downs, Polina Edmunds sticks to plan

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Through ups and downs, Polina Edmunds sticks to plan

ST. PAUL, Minn. – It may have looked as if Polina Edmunds was just going through the motions Friday while doing a practice run-through of her free skate to selections from the “Gone With The Wind” film score.

This one was more of a walk-through, like a director blocking a scene.

Every place a jump was programmed, Edmunds simply popped lightly into the air and came straight down, with no attempt at a rotation.  That was in stark contrast to the approach of the other skaters, who practiced executing the jumps the way they want to in Saturday night’s final at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships.

It was just another part of Edmunds’ game plan, the one she and her coaching team have stuck with during what seems like a long two years since she became an overnight sensation at this event two years ago.

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