2026 US Nationals Women's FS "Liu Monsters go Gaga"

[AngieNikodinovLove (ANL)]

The pressure of a team olympic medal does not compare with the pressure of being in 9th place at worlds after the short program.

Exactly and that’s the case for Amber being in the team event. That’s what this is about.

She’s already proven herself in the team situation. The two highest scorers of all six countries were Alysa and Amber. Just like last night they were both at or hovering at 150 then.

 

[Maximillian]

It's because of the way they carry their head and their straight backs.

It's so nice to see beautiful carriage on the ice.

 

[Karen-W]

Exactly and that’s the case for Amber being in the team event. That’s what this is about.

She’s already proven herself in the team situation. The two highest scorers of all six countries were Alysa and Amber. Just like last night they were both at or hovering at 150 then.

Sweetie, they're not splitting the Women for the TE. Or, rather, they're not splitting the Women and asking Ilia to do both. Go read today's reports in the practice thread to understand WHY he's not doing 4 programs in a week in Milano-Cortina.

 

[AngieNikodinovLove (ANL)]

Sweetie, they're not splitting the Women for the TE. Or, rather, they're not splitting the Women and asking Ilia to do both. Go read today's reports in the practice thread to understand WHY he's not doing 4 programs in a week in Milano-Cortina.

Yes, they are Miss know it all, and you can buy me a nice dinner in Prague in March as soon as it’s announced that women are being split. For me, it’s a it’s an easy case … this crime is so easy to solve.

 

[AngieNikodinovLove (ANL)]

Scratch that, I want jewels and securities.

 

[tangerine dream]

Exactly and that’s the case for Amber being in the team event. That’s what this is about.

She’s already proven herself in the team situation. The two highest scorers of all six countries were Alysa and Amber. Just like last night they were both at or hovering at 150 then.

You may have misunderstood me. I was trying to say that the pressure Amber felt skating the free skate at worlds when she was in 9th place and had no chance to medal will be a tiny fraction of the pressure she will feel when there is an Olympic gold medal on the line and an entire team of elite skaters depending on her to deliver.

Anyway, I don't really care to argue. USFS is gonna do whatever they want and find a way to justify it and we will be here trying to make sense of their choices.

 

[Theatregirl1122]

No one knows for sure, though it did look like the USFS used world standings in 2022 and 2018 to determine the TE assignments.

How does that compare to placement at previous worlds? Were they different for any skaters? I don't know if we could find that this long back. I had though they took the highest finished at the previous worlds each time, but it's possible those ended up being the same.

 

[Coco]

Scratch that, I want jewels and securities.

"Just give me furs, jewels and property, thank you," Mo Starkey (Ringo's first wife.)

 

[Karen-W]

How does that compare to placement at previous worlds? Were they different for any skaters? I don't know if we could find that this long back. I had though they took the highest finished at the previous worlds each time, but it's possible those ended up being the same.

God bless the Wayback Machine for archiving these pages, lol. As of Jan 27, 2022, here were the ISU World Standings -

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web.archive.org

7 - Karen Chen
14 - Alysa Liu
15 - Bradie Tennell
21 - Starr Andrews
27 - Mariah Bell

So, not only was Karen the highest ranked US woman in the WS, she also had the highest placement from 2021 Worlds.

Unfortunately, the Wayback Machine didn't archive the 2017-18 World Standings, so it's impossible to know for that season.

 

[Jammers]

You're probably right, but honey badger don't care!

This link probably has some NSFW language.

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111K likes, 1,548 comments - clenae on July 2, 2025: "Forever an iconic video 😅🦡 . . #explore #explorepage #fyp #trending #viral #reels #relatable #meme #memes #humor #honeybadger #honeybadgerdontcare #honeybadgers #animallovers #exoticanimals #animals #natgeo".

www.instagram.com

Sounds like Johnny Weir narrating a nature program.

 

[RoseAugust]

I was just told that Sonja was sitting in front of me at tonight's competitions. Dagnabit! I didn't know! I could have would have embarrassed myself, so it was probably for the best.

 

[kwanfan1818]

Glenn is highest in WS among the US Women, with Levito 78 points behind her, and Liu more than 250 below Levito. If USFS is going by WS, it only matters for Glenn whether she agrees to skate the segment(s) she'd need to. It only matters to Levito whether there's a split, as next highest, unless Glenn passes on the TE.

 

[tangerine dream]

Glenn is highest in WS among the US Women, with Levito 78 points behind her, and Liu more than 250 below Levito. If USFS is going by WS, it only matters for Glenn whether she agrees to skate the segment(s) she'd need to. It only matters to Levito whether there's a split, as next highest, unless Glenn passes on the TE.

I don't put it past USFS because they've made confusing choices in the past, but it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to compare 3 seasons of world rankings for Amber & Isabeau to 2 seasons of world rankings for Alysa. If you only take the last 2 seasons Alysa is the highest US woman.

Should Alysa goes to 4CC? Then she'd have the highest WS. Would she be any more deserving after 4CC than before?

 

[Karen-W]

I don't put it past USFS because they've made confusing choices in the past, but it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to compare 3 seasons of world rankings for Amber & Isabeau to 2 seasons of world rankings for Alysa. If you only take the last 2 seasons Alysa is the highest US woman.

Should Alysa goes to 4CC? Then she'd have the highest WS. Would she be any more deserving after 4CC than before?

WS aside, she probably should go to 4CCs just to give that Gaga program some more mileage and in front on an international panel.

 

[kwanfan1818]

Should Alysa goes to 4CC? Then she'd have the highest WS. Would she be any more deserving after 4CC than before?

Either USFS has a fixed criteria/statistic for ranking skaters for the TE event, or they don't. If they do, and it's WS, then regardless of what you think about this choice and how it reflects multiple seasons, whoever is at the top of the WS gets the spot at the time they designate, which might by the team selection tomorrow, in which case 4C's is moot, or whenever they select the TE members, in which case 4C's points might matter.

It has nothing to do with "deserving" anything. If USFS bases its choice(s) on strategy, that's another story.

Also, the reason cited for Liu to go to 4C's is to get mileage and international feedback for the Lady Gaga FS, not more WS points. ETA: Scratch this: I had Chiba as a sub for 4C's; wishful thinking for Higuchi. Chiba can earn incremental points at 4C's. If Liu were to win, Chiba would have to finish in 2nd to stay 2nd in WS. If Liu were to finish in second, Chiba would need 3rd to retain WS #2; a 4th would have them tied. There is no tiebreaker listed in Communication 2550, so with those results, a split draw would be 5-6 for the first two spots, and 1-4 for the last four But with a gold or silver at 4C's, she could knock Chiba out of second and Glenn into 4th, while with 3rd-9th she'd bump Glenn into 4th.

If they do that split thing where 4-6 skate draw for the first three SP starts in the final group, and 1-3 draw for the last three, that might be an advantage to Liu in a way that skating earlier in the group might be for Glenn. ETA: unless Liu were to win silver and Chiba to finish 4th, in which case there would be a lopsided "split".

 

[annie_mg]

It's so nice to see beautiful carriage on the ice.

And so rare. Not to pick on Bradie but yesterday there was a moment where she was prepping a jump, and her posture suddenly went like "I don't care if I'm supposed to hold my shoulders right, I'm going to nail this jump and that's more important". Well it ruins it for me. And we see that a lot.

 

[Lanie]

I was just told that Sonja was sitting in front of me at tonight's competitions. Dagnabit! I didn't know! I could have would have embarrassed myself, so it was probably for the best.

When I went, today during men's, to the section to sit with @tony @thvu and Tim, Sonja was on the end of the row. I told her how awesome I think she is like a dork. She thanked me so I hope she didn't think I was a fcuking weirdo

then getting back in we got stuck in a bunch of people and commiserated about how insane this was with so many people

 

[Theatregirl1122]

God bless the Wayback Machine for archiving these pages, lol. As of Jan 27, 2022, here were the ISU World Standings -

Loading…

web.archive.org

7 - Karen Chen
14 - Alysa Liu
15 - Bradie Tennell
21 - Starr Andrews
27 - Mariah Bell

So, not only was Karen the highest ranked US woman in the WS, she also had the highest placement from 2021 Worlds.

Unfortunately, the Wayback Machine didn't archive the 2017-18 World Standings, so it's impossible to know for that season.

You know, Vincent being selected for the TE would be the thing to look at. He was definitely not highest at worlds the year before; Jason was. Was he second highest in the WS? Or did they choose based on some kind of “body of work” argument known only to them? I’d bet Vincent was second, but they still may have selected him because of his SA win.

Either USFS has a fixed criteria/statistic for ranking skaters for the TE event, or they don't. If they do, and it's WS, then regardless of what you think about this choice and how it reflects multiple seasons, whoever is at the top of the WS gets the spot at the time they designate, which might by the team selection tomorrow, in which case 4C's is moot, or whenever they select the TE members, in which case 4C's points might matter.

It has nothing to do with "deserving" anything. If USFS bases its choice(s) on strategy, that's another story.

Considering that the world’s/olys selection criteria is written so they can kind of do whatever they want, id be very willing to bet there is no firm criteria that they are locked in to following.

For one thing, there’s no published criteria, which doesn’t guarantee there’s no firm criteria, but I think tends to go with it.

 

[kwanfan1818]

ou know, Vincent being selected for the TE would be the thing to look at. He was definitely not highest at worlds the year before; Jason was. Was he second highest in the WS? Or did they choose based on some kind of “body of work” argument known only to them? I’d bet Vincent was second, but they still may have selected him because of his SA win.

That's why I wrote, if they have a fixed criteria of WS, then there's no decision, just a lookup, based on the cut-off date and whether Liu competes at 4C's, but if they were strategizing, that was another story.

 

[Karen-W]

You know, Vincent being selected for the TE would be the thing to look at. He was definitely not highest at worlds the year before; Jason was. Was he second highest in the WS? Or did they choose based on some kind of “body of work” argument known only to them? I’d bet Vincent was second, but they still may have selected him because of his SA win.

Good point - here's the Men - https://web.archive.org/web/20220127012738/https://www.isuresults.com/ws/ws/wsmen.htm

3 Jason Brown
4 Nathan Chen
24 Vincent Zhou

Missing the FS in Stockholm really buried him in the WS.

Who knows then how they choose who gets the TE assignment for each discipline, whether they're splitting it or not.

Considering that the world’s/olys selection criteria is written so they can kind of do whatever they want, id be very willing to bet there is no firm criteria that they are locked in to following.

For one thing, there’s no published criteria, which doesn’t guarantee there’s no firm criteria, but I think tends to go with it.

Yeah, but there are certain things they are supposed to consider:

I replied to Jackie Wong's rather vague post on the topic tonight -

https://twitter.com/x/status/2010246051996049809

 

[Theatregirl1122]

That's why I wrote, if they have a fixed criteria of WS, then there's no decision, just a lookup, based on the cut-off date and whether Liu competes at 4C's, but if they were strategizing, that was another story.

I wasn't even replying to you with that comment. I replied to Karen.

 

[Theatregirl1122]

Good point - here's the Men - https://web.archive.org/web/20220127012738/https://www.isuresults.com/ws/ws/wsmen.htm

3 Jason Brown
4 Nathan Chen
24 Vincent Zhou

Missing the FS in Stockholm really buried him in the WS.

So it seems like there was no firm criteria at the time. We know it wasn't nationals because Karen was chosen. And the choice of Vincent means it wasn't WS or past year's worlds. So it has to be discretionary in some way.

Yeah, but there are certain things they are supposed to consider:

I replied to Jackie Wong's rather vague post on the topic tonight -

https://twitter.com/x/status/2010246051996049809

Jackie is referring to the selection of the team, as far as I know. We're talking about who does the team event, which has no published criteria.

 

[kwanfan1818]

I wasn't even replying to you with that comment. I replied to Karen.

You quoted both of us in that post (648) and I edited my response incorrectly, which should have been to quote your response to my quote, not Karen’s, because that’s the point I responded to.

 

[MacMadame]

I think they do have criteria and it is (hopefully) strategy. It seems like in the early days of the TE, they didn't have strategy for some reason but I don't think that's been true once they figured out that medals are on the line and that people take those medals seriously.

 

[her grace]

Dorothy Hamill’s announcement was sweet

ETA: oops, wrong thread, but right discipline