Chen leaps into history again and, thankfully, gets world team spot

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Chen leaps into history again and, thankfully, gets world team spot

ST. PAUL, Minn, -- U.S. Figure Skating officials finally got the message.

They rewarded a history-making performance by Nathan Chen with a place on the U.S. team for this year’s senior World Championships.

It would have been better if their judges also gave the 16-year-old Chen the scores he deserved at the national meet that ended Sunday, but sending him to worlds is a step in the right direction for an organization stuck in a talent-development rut.

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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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