2025 US Nats Womens FS PBP - Wiches, I Am Coming For All Your Medals

[Theatregirl1122]

Sarah is such a rock and has nerves of steel, heck I’d send her to both.

There’s a reason no one is talking about sending her to both. The competitions are very close together in time a far away in space.

Sending her to both and then senior worlds would be a great way to ensure she can’t do her best at Worlds. USFSA should try to set her up for success, not failure.

 

[sk9tingfan]

I just finished watching. Alysa is such a delight.
On the other end of that comment - does Lindsay Thorngren even like skating? She looked miserable from start to finish.

She is so miserable. she needs to leave her coach and find a therapist.

 

[her grace]

I’d send Everhardt and Von Felton to Jr. Worlds. The U.S. has had only 7-8 JGP spots the last two seasons. If the U.S. wants to contend for the top, then the best team needs to be sent: Von Felton to go for broke (in the LP anyway) and Everhardt to be the reliable, stable skater who can help earn spots. Plus that kind of pressure on placement is more akin to Senior Worlds than 4CC so it’s not a terrible deal for Everhardt.

There really aren’t any other options that come close to Everhardt. Zhang has no 3-3 and looks like she’s still recovering from injury, i.e., she’s not at the standard that earned her 8th place last year. Higase-Chen has rotation issues. Lee has downgradeable rotation issues and we’ve already seen where that ends up at Junior Worlds twice. Jurka is too green. Nemirovsky and Lin-Gracey are too inconsistent.

 

[PRlady]

Well judging by Gracie’s careful treatment of Ashley in her book, Ashley lived her truth.

Personally I think in a sport like this you compete against yourself and your vision of a perfect skate, although given judges’ favoritism I’m sure there are many “why her” moments.

I just found this old WashPo story:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/sports/wp/2018/01/06/2014-olympian-ashley-wagner-fails-to-make-u-s-figure-skating-team-after-controversial-judging-ends-her-hopes-of-winter-olympics/

I’d forgotten how angry she was in 2018, and of course she took a lot of negativity for being chosen over Mirai four years earlier. She’s not going to be a poster girl for friendly camaraderie.

 

[maureenfarone]

Holey crap the audio is awful on Peacock the music is so loud i can't hear Ashley.

Count that as a blessing.

 

[sk9tingfan]

If not already posted, WAPO's review of the women's championship.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/olympics/2025/01/24/us-figure-skating-amber-glenn-alysa-liu/

 

[Carolla5501]

I’d send Everhardt and Von Felton to Jr. Worlds. The U.S. has had only 7-8 JGP spots the last two seasons. If the U.S. wants to contend for the top, then the best team needs to be sent: Von Felton to go for broke (in the LP anyway) and Everhardt to be the reliable, stable skater who can help earn spots. Plus that kind of pressure on placement is more akin to Senior Worlds than 4CC so it’s not a terrible deal for Everhardt.

There really aren’t any other options that come close to Everhardt. Zhang has no 3-3 and looks like she’s still recovering from injury, i.e., she’s not at the standard that earned her 8th place last year. Higase-Chen has rotation issues. Lee has downgradeable rotation issues and we’ve already seen where that ends up at Junior Worlds twice. Jurka is too green. Nemirovsky and Lin-Gracey are too inconsistent.

But then do you make Bradie the alternate for Worlds assuming the give a spot to Isabelle? That seems risky too imho. Sarah seems more consistent

 

[her grace]

But then do you make Bradie the alternate for Worlds assuming the give a spot to Isabelle? That seems risky too imho. Sarah seems more consistent

I’d put Everhardt above Tennell for Worlds. Lots of athletes do both junior and Senior worlds; Everhardt can, too.

I do think in that scenario, Tennell is on the 4CC team. Everhardt can’t reasonably do both 4CC and Jr. Worlds.

 

[Private Citizen]

I’d send Everhardt to Junior Worlds. These are the women she’s going to have to compete against in her prime years, so she may as well get used to it. It’s absolutely true she doesn’t have the content to be competitive. She needs to experience and understand this. Boring cleanish programs with lightweight content tell me her aspiration is for 15th place at Worlds. I’d like the USFS to prioritize ambitious skaters with killer instinct and the content to be medalists or champions.

 

[Debbie S]

I’d like the USFS to prioritize ambitious skaters with killer instinct and the content to be medalists or champions.

So which "ambitious skaters" would you send instead of Sarah to 4CC and possibly Worlds? Bradie, who can't cleanly rotate her 3-3's? Sherry Zhang or Starr Andrews, who have less ambitious content than Sarah? Based on GP scores, Sarah with her current content would place higher than 15th.

 

[MacMadame]

So which "ambitious skaters" would you send instead of Sarah to 4CC and possibly Worlds? Bradie, who can't cleanly rotate her 3-3's? Sherry Zhang or Starr Andrews, who have less ambitious content than Sarah? Based on GP scores, Sarah with her current content would place higher than 15th.

I think people are maybe thinking Isabeau will be ready. If so, Alysa, Amber and Isabeau to Sr Worlds and Sarah and ??? to Jr Worlds

She is. For a while it looked like she was working mostly for the Chinese Fed, but I'm pretty sure some of the Japanese skaters at GPF had programs choreographed by her.

She choreographed at least one of the Women's programs we saw in the past two days.

I just finished watching. Alysa is such a delight.
On the other end of that comment - does Lindsay Thorngren even like skating? She looked miserable from start to finish.

I suspect she loves to skate but hates to compete.

 

[Aceon6]

All this thought about competitiveness has me thinking of golf. It’s the player against the course, not against the other players. There’s no defense. The athlete who does best wins. A lesser player has to execute his/her strongest skills to perfection. Because the successful players tend to be older, rivalries are more about lost opportunities than players trying to beat the sh!t out of each other.

It’s no different in skating. I think Ashley’s idea of competitiveness contributed to a lot of her missed opportunities.

 

[Karen-W]

I wouldn't send Sarah to Jr Worlds, the more I think about it. She'd have to create a junior FS in about 4 weeks time and the WS points are less than she'd get by going to 4CCs and likely finishing in the same 5-6 range.

And, with all love & respect, @Private Citizen, but are you on crack? Here are the women who made the FS at Worlds last year:

Sakamoto - no way Sarah beats her
Levito - well, if Sarah's there, then clearly Isabeau's not, but let's put Liu in this space ahead of Sarah since the US has 3 spots
Kim - beat Sarah at GPdF & that was with her worst comp of the season so far
Hendrickx - ankle injury & probably won't be there
Repond - skating well, Sarah isn't likely to beat her
Lee - looking rough at both the 4CCs Selection comp & Korean Nats, easily beatable
Chiba - skating well, Sarah isn't likely to beat her
Yoshida - not going to Worlds; but sub in with Higuchi, and I'll grant you Sarah isn't likely to beat her either
Kaiser - better tech content, but struggling this season - Sarah beats her by being consistent in delivering her own content
Glenn - Sarah definitely won't beat her
Kurakova - please, Sarah could beat her with doubles
You - suspended, but replace her with Ahsun Yun & Sarah still beats her
Gubanova - Sarah beat her already at GPdF & her one good comp every season is Euros, not Worlds
Mikutina - injured, who knows what her status is, either way, Sarah likely beats her
Pinzarrone - Sarah also beat her at GPdF, but I don't know that I expect lightning to strike twice
Petrokina - injured, probably won't beat Sarah unless everything goes her way
Schild - Sarah already beat her at GPdF & nothing about that changes in Boston
Schizas - sure, a clean Maddie would probably beat Sarah
Taljegard - doesn't even have the CTES mins for Worlds this year
Joos - not going to be there, but Gutmann will & while she's inconsistent as heck, she has beat Sarah once already
Langerbaur - not going to be there since EST only has one spot, but whomever makes the FS in her place isn't beating Sarah
Ting - see above
Gomez - Sarah ain't beating her
Pelkonen - no Finnish woman, whomever they send is beating Sarah

So, that's 11 women who could finish ahead of Sarah, but I say the chances of all 11 hitting when they're at the pre-Olympic Worlds with all the pressure of securing Olympic spots is exactly zero. Top 10 is pretty doable. Maybe not much higher unless it's a real stinker of a competition, but don't be rude and exaggerate how low Sarah is likely to finish.

 

[Karen-W]

So which "ambitious skaters" would you send instead of Sarah to 4CC and possibly Worlds? Bradie, who can't cleanly rotate her 3-3's? Sherry Zhang or Starr Andrews, who have less ambitious content than Sarah? Based on GP scores, Sarah with her current content would place higher than 15th.

Sherry isn't even senior age-eligible, so it would be Starr or Sonja.

 

[Private Citizen]

Skaters like Everhardt shouldn't be optimizing to how they'll finish at Worlds this year. They should be optimizing to how they'll finish in 2-3 years, when the Russians are likely back and the current crop of juniors moves into seniors. Everhardt looks like she wants to be Tonia Kwiatkowski with this content and these programs. She's flatlining when she should be upgrading. Sure, maybe she's 11th at Worlds and that can be her career highlight before slowly dropping to 15th as the Russians come back and the juniors move up. I'd send her to Junior Worlds for a dose of reality and hopefully to light a fire in her. I think she can be a great skater.

I'm not saying anyone else deserves the spot more, just the USFS needs to encourage more ambition. More Sophie Jolenes, please!

 

[Matryeshka]

Sarah is coached by Ilia's parents. Their strategy seems to be get the jumps first, PCS later. Two years ago we were all talking about how terrible he was in terms of PCS and look at his improvement in that area, especially last season. I'm assuming Sarah will follow the same trajectory--get those jumps squeaky clean and consistent and we'll add the rest ever. One step at a time. It's a methodical approach that's worked well for Ilia and Sarah seems very similar.

 

[Firedancer]

It won’t let me post the link but worlds is Amber, Alysa and Isabeau. Sarah Is first alternate

ETA: Bradie and Starr are other alternates.

 

[Firedancer]

Four continents: Amber, Sarah and Alysa
Alternates: Bradie, Starr, Sonja

Jr worlds: Elyce Lin-Gracey and Sophie Joline von Felton
alternates: Logan Higase-Chen, Sherry Zhang and Josephine Lee

ETA alternates

 

[Wyliefan]

Elyce seems an odd choice.

 

[Lutzes&Loops]

Skaters like Everhardt shouldn't be optimizing to how they'll finish at Worlds this year. They should be optimizing to how they'll finish in 2-3 years, when the Russians are likely back and the current crop of juniors moves into seniors. Everhardt looks like she wants to be Tonia Kwiatkowski with this content and these programs. She's flatlining when she should be upgrading. Sure, maybe she's 11th at Worlds and that can be her career highlight before slowly dropping to 15th as the Russians come back and the juniors move up. I'd send her to Junior Worlds for a dose of reality and hopefully to light a fire in her. I think she can be a great skater.

I'm not saying anyone else deserves the spot more, just the USFS needs to encourage more ambition. More Sophie Jolenes, please!

You know nothing about Sarah so I would ask that you stop talking trash about her and stop being an a*hole. Thank you.

 

[Theatregirl1122]

I wouldn't send Sarah to Jr Worlds, the more I think about it. She'd have to create a junior FS in about 4 weeks time and the WS points are less than she'd get by going to 4CCs and likely finishing in the same 5-6 range.

This was the point I made yesterday. If you think she's going to be going to worlds, it's not a good idea to have her spend time before worlds training a Junior FS.

 

[Rukia]

Elyce seems an odd choice.

Tammy Gambill

 

[Matryeshka]

I think I'd rather be fifth at 4CC than fifth at Jr Worlds. While if I still think Sarah is an outside chance for the Olys, there have been less likely candidates who have been surprise Olympians, and I think 4CC is a more useful experience than Jr Worlds looking ahead. To me, looking at Jr Worlds is the lesser option. There have been so many skaters that medaled at Jr Worlds and went nowhere after that and a lot of skaters who didn't exactly set the world on fire in juniors and won the Olympics.

 

[Rob]

U.S. Figure Skating Names Women's World, World Junior and Four Continents Team Selections - U.S. Figure Skating Fan Zone

U.S. Figure Skating has announced its women's selections for the ISU World Figure Skating Championships 2025, the ISU World Junior Figure Skating Championships 2025

usfigureskatingfanzone.com

Full article

 

[kwanfan1818]

It’s no different in skating. I think Ashley’s idea of competitiveness contributed to a lot of her missed opportunities.

Skating is a judged sport, though, so it's not just the skater vs. the ice, and aesthetics play a big role, physical attributes and what you can throw money at, like costumes. But aside from head games, making the warm-up a contact sport, or trashing your rival's skates or costumes, skater have little choice but to approach it like it's between them and the ice. (ETA: Assuming they want to stay sane.)

 

[viennese]

I tried to research why US has a pewter medal. All I could find was it was added in 1988. Anyone know why?

I wondered when it started, too.


I go to regionals and/or sectionals as often as possible and I am ashamed to say I pop out during medal ceremonies. Fourth place certainly matters.