Olympic Countdown: 3 days

Welcome to the third installment of Gail's completely biased and non-expert opinions on the US Olympic figure skating team! On Friday, I discussed the men's team, and last Wednesday, I pontificated on the ladies' team. Today, it's all about pairs!

Pairs...



Marissa Castelli and Simon Shnapir
Used under a Creative Commons
license; att'd to Jamie Hull

Marissa Castelli and Simon Shnapir won the gold at Nationals. These two have been skating together since 2006, which in US pairs, is a long time. They'd been just outside the Nationals podium bubble for a couple of years, but finally broke through and won their first National title in 2013. Castelli and Shnapir do an insanely difficult throw quad salchow. They're one of the few pairs in the world to attempt one, and when she lands it, it's something quite amazing to see. Here's a short video of a successful one at Nationals practice:

Felicia Zhang and Nathan Bartholomay claimed second place and Nationals and were named to the Olympic team. These two have only been skating together since 2011, but even last year they were good enough to land third at Nationals. They train in Florida, which seems to be the new hotbed of pairs skating (both of the 2010 pairs teams trained in Florida, and Amanda Evora, who was a 2010 Olympian, is now one of Zhang and Bartholomay's coaches). Zhang and Bartholomay skate a gorgeous free program to music from Les Misérables. They are so new to the international skating scene that again, I can't find a creative commons photo to use here, so here's a link to a video of their free program:

Olympic Countdown: 6 Days

Welcome back to Gail's Completely Biased and Non-Expert Opinions on the US Olympic figure skating team! (This is where you shout and whistle and throw confetti. Or applaud politely.)

Earlier this week, I talked about the ladies' team, so check that out if you missed it. As of today there are SIX days left until the Olympics! So I'm going to jump to the men's team.

MEN...

Based upon results from last year's World Championships, the US qualified only two guys for Sochi. Evan Lysacek (2010 Olympic gold medalist) withdrew from Nationals because of injury (which made me quite sad...love him!) The field was wide open at Nationals, and there were probably 5-6 guys who could've placed in the top two and been named to the Olympic team.  In the end, it was...

Jeremy Abbott
photo used under a
Creative Commons License,
attributed to David W. Carmichael

Jeremy Abbott took first place by skating two amazing programs. Jeremy is one of those skaters who, when he's on, he's ON. He's got everything he needs to win gold in Sochi, but he can't let the mental game get to him. See, skating is just as much about the mind games as it is the athleticism and artistic ability. It is SO easy to let that little, doubting, insecure voice in the back of your head get too loud. Jeremy has the great record (he's a four-time National champion, including 2010 when he also went to the Olympics and placed 9th) and tons of international competitive experience. He's been steadily improving all season, which is exactly what he should be doing. I absolutely love his skating, and hope he brings it all to the Olympics.


Jason Brown
photo used under a
Creative Commons License,
attributed to David W. Carmichael

Jason Brown took second at Nationals. There is nothing you can't love about him. (Excuse me while I put on my Mom hat.) He's so gosh-darned cute! Look at that smile and that ponytail. And did you hear him sing Disney tunes on the backstage feed at Nationals? I want to adopt him and bake him cookies. (Mom hat off.) Jason has great jumps (but not the quad, yet, which could hold him back at the Olympics) and tons of potential. He's crazy flexible, doing split jumps and half-Biellmanns. And he has this performance energy that crowds eat up. Seriously. If you don't believe me, watch this video (and watch to the very end to see his super adorable reaction to his scores):

Stayed tuned for my completely biased and non-expert opinions on the US pairs team...

Olympic Countdown: 9 days

I'm going to try something a little new and different on the blog. Since DON'T FALL DOWN is about a figure skater who dreams of the Olympics, I thought it would be fun to talk about skating once in a while.

And since the Sochi Winter Olympics are fast approaching....I hereby give you Gail's completely biased and non-expert opinion on the US Figure Skating team!

LADIES...

So this was a REALLY interesting year at Nationals. Normally, the US Figure Skating selection committee sends the ladies who have placed one-two-three at Nationals. However, they've always reserved the right to replace one of the top three with another skater who has proven herself through a "body of work". In the past, they've invoked this rule in order to send a skater who was injured and unable to compete at Nationals to the Olympics.

But this year was different, as I'll talk about below.



Gracie Gold
photo used under a
Creative Commons License;
attributed to David W. Carmichael

Gracie Gold, an 18 year old who placed first at Nationals, earned a well-deserved spot on the team. Gracie shook things up this season by not only switching coaches, but also changing her short program just a couple of months before Nationals. She did well at Worlds last year, and she has a solid triple-triple jump combination, which is kind of a must these days for top-ranked women.

Polina Edmunds, who is 15 and just barely age-eligible for the Olympic team, took second at Nationals and earned herself a spot to Sochi. Polina is fun and technically amazing (her jumps are just WOW)! She also has a triple-triple combination, but tends to be a bit rougher on the artistic side. She's like the US's answer to Russia's Julia Lipnitskaya (who is also very young and a fabulous jumper). Polina has very little senior-level international competition experience (so little that I can't even find a creative commons photo of her to use!), but what an opportunity for her to go the Olympics!


And here's where it got interesting...


Mirai Nagasu
photo used under a
Creative Commons
License; attributed to
David W. Carmichael



Ashley Wagner
photo used under a Creative
Commons License; attributed to Luu

Third-place finisher Mirai Nagasu (who competed and did very well in the 2010 Olympics) was not named to the Olympic team. Instead, the committee chose fourth-place Ashley Wagner (who had just barely missed making the 2010 team). Mirai skated great programs in both parts of the competition, while Ashley made small mistakes in each program.

So, why did they pick Ashley over Mirai?

This is the "body of work" thing. See, Ashley's been steadily improving since 2010. She won the National title in 2012 and 2013. She placed fourth at Worlds last year, and was the only US lady who qualified for fall's Grand Prix Final. She's proven she can compete with the likes of Mao Asana and Kim Yu-Na (who are, arguably, the top contenders for the Olympic gold medal).

Mirai, on the other hand, has had a rougher four years since 2010. Despite placing fourth at the 2010 Olympics, she hasn't done as well at Nationals or at international competitions since then. When you add to that the fact that she doesn't currently have a coach, it starts to make sense why the committee chose Ashley instead.

It's not particularly fair, and I can't even imagine how Mirai feels about the entire thing. Then again, how heartbreaking would it have been for Ashley -- after working so hard to build her career over four years and helping the US to earn three spots at these Olympics -- to just barely miss the team for the second time? As a friend of mine said on Twitter, I wish we could just send four women to Sochi!

Stay tuned for my equally biased and non-expert thoughts on the men's team...