Nathan Chen won’t bite off more than he can chew with next Olympics soon on his plate...and 6 other takeaways from 2021 figure skating worlds

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Nathan Chen won’t bite off more than he can chew with next Olympics soon on his plate...and 6 other takeaways from 2021 figure skating worlds

What’s next for Nathan Chen after yet another stunning performance, this one with five clean quadruple jumps, a striking interpretive affinity to his music and the mental strength to forget the fall in the short program that had left him some eight points behind longtime rival Yuzuru Hanyu of Japan?

Pandemic-related uncertainties make his planning uncertain. He would like to go to the World Team Trophy, still scheduled for next month in Japan. He has no idea if there will be any shows for him to do this summer. Even the usual fall events could be affected should there be resurgence of COVID cases.

That means Chen’s attention could turn completely to the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics before he expects.

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In sequel to 2017, Karen Chen reprises her worlds role with the same aplomb

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In sequel to 2017, Karen Chen reprises her worlds role with the same aplomb

Was this an episode of “The Twilight Zone”?

Or a spinoff using the plot of the movie, “Groundhog Day”?

And it may be said that those who fail to learn from history can be condemned to repeat it, but this was a case where Karen Chen’s redo came with as much to celebrate for U.S. figure skating as the original event at the 2017 World Championships in Helsinki.

This time, the historical record will show an even more unlikely path to the same outcome, which was having Chen’s free skate at the World Championships be the key to getting a third women’s singles spot for her country at the upcoming Olympics after a more decorated teammate had faltered.

You want more uncanny coincidence? Both took place in Nordic countries, first Finland, now Sweden.

And just as in 2017, Chen fought through mistakes on jumping passes late in her four-minute free program to come up with a good enough performance to succeed despite the pressure of a situation that, once again, she could not avoid being aware of.

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In world women’s short program to leave viewers gasping, Anna Shcherbakova’s breathtaking skating filled the rare air at the top

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In world women’s short program to leave viewers gasping, Anna Shcherbakova’s breathtaking skating filled the rare air at the top

Whew.

Maybe it’s because we are all out of viewing shape from not having had a significant international figure skating competition in more than a year, since the coronavirus pandemic forced cancellation of the 2020 World Championships and everything else of consequence this season until this week.

Or maybe it’s because there was so much to wrap our heads around during the first part of the first event at the 2021 ISU World Figure Skating Championships.

Whichever you apply, it was easy to be left breathless after trying to process the multiple storylines emerging from Wednesday’s women’s short program in Stockholm, Sweden.

There were some breathtakingly beautiful skating moments, too.

And, unsurprisingly, it took just a few hours in front of screens of various sizes for everyone to get fittingly exercised about the judging.

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Takeaways from 2018-19 figure skating season: big props for Zagitova (and others)

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Takeaways from 2018-19 figure skating season: big props for Zagitova (and others)

A baker’s dozen takeaways, with some looks to the future, from the 2018-19 figure skating season, which ended Saturday in Japan with the United States winning the World Team Trophy.

1. It’s time to give Russia’s Alina Zagitova full – and massive – credit for what she has done the past two seasons.

Zagitova and her coaching team were unfairly criticized in some quarters for what turned out to be a brilliant strategy of doing all seven jumping passes in the second half bonus area of the 2018 Olympic free skate. Not only was that an impressive feat of stamina, the bonus points Zagitova got for those jumps were the difference between her winning gold and getting silver.

When a Zagitova worn down by a post-Olympic whirl of appearances flopped to fifth in the 2018 World Championships, staggered to fifth at this season’s Russian Championships and was beaten at Europeans, there were suggestions she might be a one-hit wonder. Then, as she later said in an interview on the Russian Skating Federation website, Zagitova became so unsettled by the pressure and the thought of failure at 2019 worlds her jumps deserted her in practice, and she had thoughts of quitting.

Some of her struggles were not unexpected. She had grown some three inches since the Olympics. Her body proportions were changing from those of a girl to those of a young woman. New rules minimized one of her strengths by limiting skaters to just three jumping passes in the bonus area.

And Zagitova overcame all that, the psychological and the physical issues and the scoring changes, to win the 2019 worlds with two clean programs, a dazzling short and a strong, commanding free. At 16, she had added a world title to her Olympic title. That is worthy of unqualified acclaim.

2. Nathan Chen had a remarkable season, even if judged only by what he did on the ice.

When one puts his undefeated record in the context of having done it while simultaneously being a full-time freshman student at Yale University whose coach was 3,000 miles away, Chen’s was a season for the ages.

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In Russian Figure Skating Federation's no-win game to pick worlds team, Tuktamysheva the loser

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In Russian Figure Skating Federation's no-win game to pick worlds team, Tuktamysheva the loser

 The Russian Figure Skating Federation’s selection Wednesday of its women’s team for next month’s World Championships was sure to cause controversy, given four strong candidates for three places.

And it did, as Elizaveta Tuktamysheva was left off the team in favor of Alina Zagitova, Sofia Samodurova and Evgenia Medvedeva.

The controversy was centered on the pick of Medvedeva over Tuktamysheva.  The federation said on its web site that a vote of its 27-member coaching council had 19 votes for Medvedeva, 7 for Tuktamysheva and 1 abstention.

No selection criteria were given.  It is believed the result of last week’s Russian Cup Final, in which Medvedeva beat Tuktamysheva for first place by fewer than two points, was a significant factor.

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