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Post by Admin on Jan 16, 2017 21:34:12 GMT
The road to the Winter Olympics still has many miles to go, but some of the top athletes are likely to be involved at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Kansas City, which begin this Saturday. The event features some of the best American skaters, including those with high hopes of skating for the United States at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea. However, while star skaters Gracie Gold, Ashley Wagner and Jason Brown will be in Kansas City, Polina Edmunds and Adam Rippon will not be competing due to injury. U.S. Figure Skating Television Schedule DateSkating EventTime (ET)Network Jan. 19Pairs' Short5:30 p.m.-7:30 p.m.NBCSN Jan. 19Ladies' Short9:30 p.m.-midnightNBCSN Jan. 20Short Dance6 p.m.-8 p.m.NBCSN Jan. 20Men's Short8:30 p.m.-midnightUniHD Jan. 21Pairs' Free and Free Dance3 p.m.-6 p.m.NBC Jan. 21Ladies' Free8 p.m.-11 p.m.NBC Jan. 22Men's Free4 p.m.-6 p.m.NBC
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Post by Admin on Jan 17, 2017 21:26:14 GMT
Edmunds has a bone bruise in her foot that has kept her out all season. Rippon is out with a broken left foot. Both skaters are focused on returning to action in the future. "I hope the officials, the fans and the judges won't forget about me in the next few months," Rippon told the Associated Press (h/t ESPN.com). "I feel like I made huge strides and I've been coming into my own." Gold has been at or near the top of U.S. figure skating for years. The 21-year-old from Redondo Beach, California, won the U.S. championships in 2014 and 2016. She was also part of the team that won bronze at the 2014 Olympics, and she took silver at the U.S. championships in 2013 and 2015.
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Post by Admin on Jan 19, 2017 21:20:58 GMT
Ashley Wagner and Nathan Chen trained on the same ice for the last three years. They enter this week’s U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Kansas City as favorites, but took different routes to arrive there. Wagner, 25, seeks her fourth national title, following the worst Grand Prix result of her 10-year career. Still, Wagner is the 2016 World Championships silver medalist, which carries the most weight of all with the PyeongChang Olympics coming in 13 months. Wagner, the most accomplished U.S. women’s singles skater in a decade, can become the oldest U.S. women’s singles champion in 90 years. “Mentally, I’m feeling very confident,” Wagner said last week. “At this point in my career it is very easy for me to get mentally worn out and worn down, but I usually feel strongest when my training is backing me up and when I know that I am physically fit.”
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Post by Admin on Jan 20, 2017 21:19:33 GMT
A skater broke the U.S. Championships women’s short program scoring record Thursday night, but it wasn’t Ashley Wagner or Gracie Gold. Karen Chen, a 17-year-old former junior star who struggled the last two years, tallied 72.82 points at the Sprint Center to lead going into Saturday’s free skate (8 p.m. ET, NBC, NBCSports.com/live and the NBC Sports app). Mirai Nagasu, a 2010 Olympian, is second, .87 of a point behind. That leaves Wagner and Gold, who combined to win the last five U.S. titles, in third and fifth, respectively. This is concerning for Wagner (1.88 behind Chen) and Gold (7.97 behind) given U.S. Figure Skating can send three women to worlds in two months. That selection will be made this weekend, primarily — but not totally — based off U.S. Championships results.
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Post by Admin on Jan 21, 2017 21:30:06 GMT
Chen dazzled and dominated as he stamped himself as a future Olympic medalist contender, connecting on a pair of quads and slaying the competition with a short program record score of 106.39 at the U.S. figure skating championships on Friday night. The 17-year-old Chen delivered a stunning performance that seemed to defy gravity and had the Sprint Center crowd clapping along with his routine and earned him the only standing ovation of the night. "This is the performance I've been looking for all season," Chen said. "I finally put on a good short program. I hit all the elements I was setting out to do." Chen scored nearly 20 points higher than his closest competitor, Ross Miner, and would need a complete collapse Sunday not to walk out of Kansas City with a gold medal. Chen is poised to boost the flagging men's program needs headed into next year's Winter Games in South Korea. Chen hit his quadruple lutz triple toe loop combination, a quadruple flip, a triple axel and his fancy and flawless footwork was about as perfect as it could get.
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