A Russian ball at figure skating worlds? Women’s medal sweep possible, not probable

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A Russian ball at figure skating worlds? Women’s medal sweep possible, not probable

A year ago, three Russian women seemed ready to have a ball at the world figure skating championships.

A debutante ball.

Not only was Russia’s “A” team (each first name began with that letter) composed of first-year international seniors, there was a good chance they would sweep the medals, joining a 1991 U.S. trio as the only women to have done that at worlds.

After all, Aliona Kostornaya, Anna Shcherbakova and Aleksandra Trusova had finished first in all six 2019-20 Grand Prix events, each winning two, and they swept both the Grand Prix Final and European Championships podiums in that order.

Not only that, all three had the same coaching team, headed by Eteri Tutberidze in Moscow.

And then …

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Karen Chen hopes to reprise helping U.S. gain third women’s figure skating spot for upcoming Olympics

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Karen Chen hopes to reprise helping U.S. gain third women’s figure skating spot for upcoming Olympics

Karen Chen could not help herself. Even while trying to narrow her focus only to the free skate she was about to do at the 2017 World Figure Skating Championships, the bigger picture distracted her 17-year-old mind.

As she came out for her warm-up with the leading six skaters after the short program, Chen, in her first senior worlds, glanced at the overall standings on the video board in Helsinki’s Hartwall Arena. The numbers showed that her veteran teammate, Ashley Wagner, then 25, competing in her seventh worlds after winning silver the year before, had a free skate result that left her in danger of losing ground from her seventh place after the short program.

That meant the United States was in danger of not having a third women’s spot at the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics, which had happened at two other Olympics when countries earned entries, in 1994 and 2010.

It meant Chen, fifth after the short program, not only realized but also admitted knowing that in this individual sport, this performance wouldn’t be only about her.

That will also be true at the 2021 World Championships beginning Wednesday in Stockholm, where Chen and reigning U.S. women’s champion Bradie Tennell are trying to earn a third women’s entry for their country at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. Whether the denouement is as dramatic as in 2017 is yet to be seen.

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Bradie Tennell arrives again at the summit of U.S. women’s skating

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Bradie Tennell arrives again at the summit of U.S. women’s skating

Bradie Tennell knows the old cliché athletes use to explain what keeps them going through thick and thin, when they try not to have their eyes always on a prize.

“They say it’s about the journey, not the destination,” Tennell said. “But the destination feels pretty good, too.”

It was a place she had been before and one Tennell turned her life inside out last summer to reach again: the top step of the women’s podium at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships.

Tennell got there Friday night as convincingly as she had the first time, in 2018, sweeping the short program and free skate, earning 232.61 points and winning by a whopping 17.28 over the surprise (and surprised) runner-up, Amber Glenn, whose best previous finish at nationals was fifth last year.

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Virtual figure skating competition offers glimpse of sport’s possible future

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Virtual figure skating competition offers glimpse of sport’s possible future

It was early April. The 2020 World Figure Skating Championships had been canceled by Covid-19, abruptly ending last season. Rinks were closing down for health reasons. Some entire countries were on lockdown.

Anyone who has been around figure skating as long as Gale Tanger could see even then how difficult it would be to have any competitions the rest of 2020 if they required travel by athletes or officials, whether the events were international, national, regional or local.

Tanger, an international judge for 32 years, began looking for an alternative to give elite U.S. skaters left unmoored by the pandemic’s impact at least something that could feel like a competition, something to anchor a goal in the early part of the 2020-21 season.

So the Peggy Fleming Trophy became the first virtual event in the sport’s history.

“It worked!!!!!!!” an excited Tanger said in an email late Tuesday, after the judging of the competition was completed. “What an incredible leap for our sport. Obstacles have been removed, and a new highway has been paved.”

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Skater Gracie Gold has comeback plans after long break from competition

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Skater Gracie Gold has comeback plans after long break from competition

Gracie Gold is coming back to competitive figure skating after a lengthy absence from the sport to cope with eating disorders, anxiety and depression.

The two-time U.S. champion and 2014 Olympic bronze medalist in the team event received a berth to the Rostelecom Cup Grand Prix competition next November.

She has not competed since the January 2017 U.S. Championships.

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