Post by Admin on Jan 7, 2022 20:43:22 GMT
Mariah Bell, a 25-year-old bidding to be the oldest U.S. Olympic women’s singles skater in 94 years and the oldest national champion in 95 years, tallied a leading 75.55 points with a triple flip-triple toe loop combination.
“I had chills,” Bell, eyeing her first title in her ninth senior nationals, said on USA Network. “I have this part of me that’s just, like, so gritty. When I really need to do something, I can tap into it.”
Bell is followed in the standings by the other pre-event favorites: Karen Chen (74.55) and Alysa Liu (71.42 with a triple Axel fall). They will make up the three-woman Olympic team barring something seismic in Friday’s free skate.
Gracie Gold, 26, is in a surprisingly high sixth place going into the free skate. Though the Olympics are a long shot, it marked the 2014 Olympian’s best program in five years and since overcoming anxiety, depression and an eating disorder.
“It was just this huge emotional moment on so many different levels,” Gold said of her skate in Nashville. “The crowd was just phenomenal. I always feel like the crowd at nationals makes it special.”
Gold trails the three Olympic favorites, plus 14-year-old Isabeau Levito, who is too young for this year’s Olympics, and Lindsay Thorngren, a 15-year-old who makes the Olympic age cutoff.
Gold is 7.94 behind Bell and 3.81 behind third-place Liu. But nationals are not an Olympic Trials.
Rather, a committee picks the three-woman team after Friday’s free skate, taking into account the last year’s worth of results starting with last January’s nationals. That will hurt the case of Gold, who was 13th last year and 13th again in her lone international competition this season.
Gold said making it back to the Olympics has been one of her goals.
“It is, in theory, completely attainable,” she said, expressing satisfaction with her short. “Copy and paste for tomorrow.”
Gold said she will evaluate after the season whether she will continue competing.
“My mom always said I had a case of the mores,” she said. “I just wanted one more of everything.
“Have we ever sent anyone to the Olympics for singles that was 30?”
Yes. Theresa Weld-Blanchard in 1924, then again in 1928 when she was 34, according to Olympedia.org.
Bell, who counts former training partner Adam Rippon as a coach and choreographer, has room for error in Friday’s free skate to still become the oldest U.S. Olympic women’s singles skater since Weld-Blanchard and Beatrix Loughran in 1928.
In her short, she landed a positively graded triple-triple jump combination for the first time this season.
Bell was a contender for the 2018 Olympic team before finishing fifth at those nationals. She pressed on at an age when many skaters who miss an Olympics would have retired.
Bell took silver at 2020 Nationals but was fifth last year and fifth in this season’s domestic rankings before an improved performance at her last pre-nationals event in November upped her to the second seed this week.
Chen is in good shape to become the first American women’s singles skater to make back-to-back Olympics since Sasha Cohen in 2002 and 2006. Chen, who didn’t compete in the 2018-19 season due to injury (and considered retirement), changed her short program before nationals.
“I had chills,” Bell, eyeing her first title in her ninth senior nationals, said on USA Network. “I have this part of me that’s just, like, so gritty. When I really need to do something, I can tap into it.”
Bell is followed in the standings by the other pre-event favorites: Karen Chen (74.55) and Alysa Liu (71.42 with a triple Axel fall). They will make up the three-woman Olympic team barring something seismic in Friday’s free skate.
Gracie Gold, 26, is in a surprisingly high sixth place going into the free skate. Though the Olympics are a long shot, it marked the 2014 Olympian’s best program in five years and since overcoming anxiety, depression and an eating disorder.
“It was just this huge emotional moment on so many different levels,” Gold said of her skate in Nashville. “The crowd was just phenomenal. I always feel like the crowd at nationals makes it special.”
Gold trails the three Olympic favorites, plus 14-year-old Isabeau Levito, who is too young for this year’s Olympics, and Lindsay Thorngren, a 15-year-old who makes the Olympic age cutoff.
Gold is 7.94 behind Bell and 3.81 behind third-place Liu. But nationals are not an Olympic Trials.
Rather, a committee picks the three-woman team after Friday’s free skate, taking into account the last year’s worth of results starting with last January’s nationals. That will hurt the case of Gold, who was 13th last year and 13th again in her lone international competition this season.
Gold said making it back to the Olympics has been one of her goals.
“It is, in theory, completely attainable,” she said, expressing satisfaction with her short. “Copy and paste for tomorrow.”
Gold said she will evaluate after the season whether she will continue competing.
“My mom always said I had a case of the mores,” she said. “I just wanted one more of everything.
“Have we ever sent anyone to the Olympics for singles that was 30?”
Yes. Theresa Weld-Blanchard in 1924, then again in 1928 when she was 34, according to Olympedia.org.
Bell, who counts former training partner Adam Rippon as a coach and choreographer, has room for error in Friday’s free skate to still become the oldest U.S. Olympic women’s singles skater since Weld-Blanchard and Beatrix Loughran in 1928.
In her short, she landed a positively graded triple-triple jump combination for the first time this season.
Bell was a contender for the 2018 Olympic team before finishing fifth at those nationals. She pressed on at an age when many skaters who miss an Olympics would have retired.
Bell took silver at 2020 Nationals but was fifth last year and fifth in this season’s domestic rankings before an improved performance at her last pre-nationals event in November upped her to the second seed this week.
Chen is in good shape to become the first American women’s singles skater to make back-to-back Olympics since Sasha Cohen in 2002 and 2006. Chen, who didn’t compete in the 2018-19 season due to injury (and considered retirement), changed her short program before nationals.