Chen looks like world-beater in short program at skate nationals

Embed from Getty Images

It's easy to get carried away at moments like this, to get ahead of yourself, to forget what you have seen is just one performance that lasted just under three minutes, in what was only the first of two phases at a championships event.

And yet what 17-year-old Nathan Chen did Friday night at the 2017 U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Kansas City was so far ahead of its time in the history of U.S. skating that no one wants to wait any longer to envision the medals and titles -- both national and global -- that now seem within his reach.

"I honestly don't think he's going to have to wait his turn," 1984 Olympic champion Scott Hamilton said. "He can beat anyone in the world right now."

Chen already did that in winning the free skate at December's Grand Prix Final. He beat the three men who have won the last six world titles, did it by landing four quadruple jumps cleanly and did it in his debut season on the Grand Prix circuit, winding up second overall in the event to 2014 Olympic and world champion Yuzuru Hanyu of Japan.

His two most recent short programs entering the U.S. championships, however, were badly flawed. That was what made this performance, with its two quads, such an important measuring stick for him -- and led everyone else to start measuring Chen's chances for a world medal this year and an Olympic medal in 2018.

He landed a quad lutz-triple toe combination despite imperfect takeoffs on both, explaining the mishaps by saying, "Part of the program is learning how to fight and secure the jumps that aren't perfect." He followed the combination with a flawless quad flip, then tossed off his nemesis jump -- the triple axel -- with spread eagle transitioning in and out of it. He received maximum levels for his spins and footwork sequence as well.

For the first time, Chen showed a real ability to link skating and dance, which he had studied growing up in Salt Lake City. Skating to the ballet piece Le Corsaire, Chen moved in ways that must have pleased his old teachers at Ballet West Academy.

"It's something I have been striving for the whole season," Chen said of the artistry. "Of course, having the jumps helps that performance quite a lot. I'm glad it finally came together tonight."

It added up to a score of 106.39, breaking the U.S. record of 99.86 set by Jeremy Abbott in 2014. The 42.83 he scored for the three jumping passes was higher than the total technical score of all but two other skaters -- Vincent Zhou (48.53) and Ross Miner (46.21).

Chen's total technical score was 62.07. He has a lead of nearly 18 points over runner-up Miner and nearly 19 over third-place Zhou going into Saturday's free skate, making it a virtually foregone conclusion he will become the youngest men's national champion in 51 years.

"I've never in my long life seen a short program with that difficulty matched with world class artistry," Hamilton said. "I honestly feel he was under-marked.

"This kid is so crazy great and absolutely owns these jumps that everybody else loses sleep over."

Many would have lost sleep facing huge expectations in a competition for the first time, as Chen did here. His performance at the Grand Prix Final started a hum that had grown to a roar in the ensuing six weeks.

"It does add a lot of pressure and a little bit of nerves," Chen said. "At the same time, it gives me a lot more excitement. I feel the praise, and I feel it's something I'm expected to do. I feel like I'm able to deliver."

That does not surprise his coach, Rafael Arutunian, who said Chen has been dealing with expectations at every level of his career, which includes two national titles at each of the novice and junior levels.

"He grew up as a warrior," Arutunian said. "Since he was eight, he was winning his events against competitors usually much older than him. At the junior worlds in 2014, Chen finished third with a cast on his hand. Who does that?"

Chen's performance at the 2016 U.S. Championships, with a third-place finish and four quads in the free skate, had also started a buzz. It died quickly when Chen hurt his hip in the exhibition at the same event, leading to surgery that kept him out of last season's world junior championships and world championships.

Keeping Chen healthy is Arutunian's biggest concern. The coach made a point of saying how much he would like to have the financial means to hire a trainer or physical therapist who could work with Chen every day, an appeal that was clearly directed at U.S. Figure Skating.

Chen has done free skate practices this week with five flawless quads, adding a salchow to the lutz, flip and two toe loops.

"There is no limit," Arutunian said. "We are looking to do more and more. The only scary part is not to get damaged."

Neither Arutunian nor Chen shies away from questions about Chen winning medals or titles at worlds in March or the 2018 Olympics. No U.S. man has earned a senior global championship medal since Evan Lysacek won the 2010 Olympic title.

"I don't think [the medal talk] is something I should be afraid of," Chen said. "It's something I have wanted my entire life. It will bring more energy to my skating versus pulling me down.

"At the Grand Prix Final, I was able to stack up against high-level skaters," he continued. "This short program helps me push that further, to think (of a world medal or title) as a possibility."

Yes, we're getting a bit overheated. But it has been so long since anyone could be carried away by the medal prospects for a U.S. male skater that even the possibility casts a glow.

(This article originally appeared on icenetwork.)

U.S. champions no longer guaranteed spot on world figure skating team

New selection rules mean none of the champions crowned at the 2017 U.S. Figure Skating Championships this week in Kansas City are guaranteed a place on the team for the 2017 World Figure Skating Championships in Helsinki this March.

According to a U.S. Figure Skating spokesperson, the rules change to eliminate the champions' automatic qualification was made in the fall by the U.S. Figure Skating International Committee, with approval coming Dec. 13 by the organization's board and its Athletes Advisory Committee.

That decision was made too late to make it into the 2017 U.S. Figure Skating media guide, which says the winner of each discipline at the current U.S. championships will earn an automatic spot on the world team.

There has been no public announcement of the new rules, nor are they available on the public area of U.S. Figure Skating's website. The change was first reported by International Skating Online.

The new selection procedure is the same as the one that was used for the 2014 Olympic Winter Games (PDF), and it will also be used for the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics.

The process bases 2017 world team selection on results from events beginning with the 2016 World Championships and ending at the 2017 U.S. Championships.

The events under consideration are separated into three tiers (see below), with more weight accorded by tier level. There are no specific weighting numbers assigned to each tier.

The selection criteria is based on the body of work of those athletes who are believed to have the best chance to win Olympic medals, as opposed to relying on the results of a single competition, and, in the case of the 2017 worlds, those with the best chance to place well and earn the United States the most spots at the 2018 Olympics.

"This is the most important U.S. championships of the quad (four-year Olympic period)," U.S. Figure Skating Executive Director David Raith said.

While it seems highly unlikely that a national champion would be left off the world or Olympic teams, Raith said Friday he could imagine some scenarios in which it might happen.

Although the U.S. championships in an Olympic year are not called Olympic trials for financial reasons -- doing so would give the U.S. Olympic Committee broadcast rights and some of the marketing rights -- the USOC still has final approval over the athletes picked for its Olympic team in any sport.

With the possibility that a relatively undecorated athlete could win a medal at the U.S. championships, including the gold, U.S. Figure Skating officials now have the option to discount that result entirely if the athlete's record over the past year is less than impressive.

The following, excerpted from the new U.S. Figure Skating document "World Team Selection Procedures," outlines the essence of the new procedure:

Athletes shall be selected based upon performance(s) in the events below. The events have been stratified into tiers from the highest value events in Tier 1 through the lowest value events in Tier 3. Events within each tier shall be evaluated at equal weight.

Tier 1

- 2017 U.S. Figure Skating Championships

- 2016 ISU Grand Prix Final

- 2016 ISU World Figure Skating Championships

Tier 2

- 2016 Grand Prix Series Competitions

- 2016 Four Continents Figure Skating Championships

Tier 3

- 2016 Challenger Series Events and other senior international competitions

- 2016 U.S. Figure Skating Championships

- 2016 World Junior Figure Skating Championships

- 2016 ISU Junior Grand Prix Final

The names of the top five athletes/teams at the current U.S. Figure Skating Championships will be automatically placed into the pool of athletes/teams being considered for the World Team, if eligible. Consideration will be given to add additional athletes/teams to the pool by reviewing the events above in priority order and adding others due to extenuating circumstances as approved by the respective International Committee Discipline Group. Discussion on, and the selection of the pool of athletes identified by the International Committee Discipline Group, will be limited to the competitions listed above.

(This article originally appeared on icenetwork.)

A day for comeback kids pairs at U.S. Figure Skating championships

Embed from Getty Images

It was an afternoon for four comeback kids in the pairs competition at the 2017 U.S. Figure Skating Championships to shine.

Except one of those kids -- who had returned to pairs after time away from the sport -- is 33, another 27, another 26 and the youngest, 21.

And that made their comeback skates Thursday at the Sprint Center in Kansas City even more striking. Especially since both couples involved -- Ashley Cain and Timothy LeDuc, and Deanna Stellato-Dudek and Nathan Bartholomay -- began their partnerships less than eight months ago.

The oldest of the group, Stellato-Dudek, had never skated pairs until then.

"Certain things in pairs don't relate at all to singles skating," Stellato-Dudek said. "It was like you were a really good pitcher and retired for 16 years and came back as a first baseman."

She had, in fact, been away from skating for 16 years after her singles career ended in 2001.

Cain, 21, who dropped pairs after 2012 to concentrate on singles, and LeDuc, 26, a show skater on cruise ships the past two years, won the short program with 69.33 points for a program that included impressive side-by-side triple loop jumps.

Stellato-Dudek and Bartholomay -- a 2014 Olympian who was out of competition last season -- were third at 65.04. They stand a whisker behind favored Haven Denney and Brandon Frazier, who achieved 65.39 points, with Denney putting a hand down on the throw triple loop landing and stepping out of her landing on a side-by-side triple salchow.

Denney and Frazier are also making a more traditional kind of comeback: They missed last season after she underwent knee surgery.

Defending champions Tarah Kayne and Danny O'Shea stumbled into fifth place with 61.80 points after receiving negative grades on three of seven elements, the lowest coming on their throw triple flip, on which Kayne took a hard fall.

Cain began the season trying to compete in both singles and pairs, which she had done until age 16. Her decision to drop singles in September fit into what LeDuc described as a plan to "triage" their training.

"Because we're a new team, we have to triage everything so we don't push ourselves too hard," LeDuc said. "There is this much work and this much time, so we're trying to focus on the things that need to be done right now."

After she did both singles and pairs with LeDuc at a low-level event in New York last September, she realized it was too much.

"Because I did it for such a long part of my life, I thought I could do it again, but my body is no longer 16 years old," Cain said. "There was a lot of fatigue, and I was really burned out."

Why pairs over singles?

"His beard," Cain said, laughing. "Timothy brings out strengths in me and in my confidence. In singles, I was a little tentative in my jumping."

After two years of skating with his sister in Willy Bietak productions for Royal Caribbean cruise line, LeDuc decided he wanted to compete again. He was searching for a partner when Mitch Moyer, U.S. Figure Skating's high performance director, suggested Cain.

"Everything happened so fast," Cain said. "Our tryout was Thursday, we teamed up Monday, and Timothy moved to Dallas (where they are coached by her parents) that week."

The Stellato-Dudek partnership with Bartholomay was more accidental.

After winning the U.S. junior title and world junior silver crown in 2000, Stellato-Dudek competed part of the next season before injuries ended her singles career. She went on to work for 12 years as an aesthetician for a Chicago plastic surgeon and married Michael Dudek, a consultant, three years ago.

Last March, she dragged out her old skates and boots to take a spin on a suburban Chicago rink.

"I always thought about skating when I was off," she said. "I would hear music on the radio and think about skating to it. I was getting these skating vibes from all over the place. It was like the universe was trying to tell me something."

She then brought her vintage skates along on a trip to visit her old Chicago-area coach, Cindy Watson Caprel, at the Ellenton, Florida, rink where Watson Caprel now works.

Bartholomay, who had trained there with his Olympic partner, Felicia Zhang, also was working at the Florida rink and casting about for a way to come back after splitting with his post-Olympic partner, Gretchen Donlan, after one season.

Once again, Moyer played matchmaker.

"We had been looking at partner options on YouTube, and the week Deanna came down, Mitch Moyer was there, and he said, 'Why don't you try out?''' Bartholomay said. "As soon as our coaches saw us together, they said, 'You look compatible.'''

Still, a partner who hadn't skated for 16 years? And U.S. championships sixth months later?

"I've dreamt about this moment," Stellato-Dudek said.

But making it come true?

"I'd say surreal is a good word to use," the thirtysomething comeback kid said.

(This article originally appeared on icenetwork.)

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

Embed from Getty Images

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.