There were eleven teleconferences with top Nationals contenders, although one of them, sadly, ended up being a withdrawal announcement.
Before U.S. Nationals, the top skaters there usually have teleconferences with the press in the weeks just beforehand. Over the past two weeks, eleven such interviews were conducted. One of them took a painful turn, when Adam Rippon had to use his video conference, which had of course been scheduled before he broke his foot, to announce his injury and withdrawal. He took it as an opportunity to express his hopes of coming back stronger though.
As for the other ten, like all athletes, the skaters in them spoke a good deal of cliche. Nonetheless, most of them did have some concrete content to pay attention to. So we have our updates on the skaters who will compete in Kansas City this weekend, although one of them, oddly, did not have a teleconference:
Jason Brown
Is recovering from a stress fracture in his right fibula. He already had it when he competed at the NHK Trophy, which is much of the reason why he skated so badly there. He was already sore, but when the pain got worse in mid-December, he finally went to the doctor. Recovery time’s supposed to be 4-6 weeks. Brown stayed off the ice for the rest of the month, and started jumping again only last week. He described his right leg as being at 80% on Friday, when he did the teleconference. Obviously this is going to make it harder to make the top two and the World team, especially since it may keep him from trying any quadruple jumps. But he’s being optimistic.
Naturally there were questions about missing his Nationals last year. They asked whether their rejection of his petition to be put on the World team influenced his decision to skate injured at this one. Brown replied that he was in much worse shape last year, and is simply trying to do all he can. He also spoke of trusting the officials “to do what’s best,” and rejected a suggestion that Rippon’s withdrawal had anything to do with his decision either.
Nathan Chen
Provided further clarity to his coaching saga. He first connected with Marina Zueva while looking for someone to help him improve his presentation scores. He liked working with her so much he followed her back to Michigan. But after his disappointment at the Trophée de France, he was advised to work with Rafael Arutunian again. Since then they’ve started sharing him, with him going back and forth between them. He paid Zueva a visit right after the Grand Prix Finale, so we’ll see what that results in.
Chen also talked about skating through pain in his hip the entirety of last year’s Nationals, even before things took their disastrous turn at the gala. He now thinks it unlikely he would’ve made it to Worlds even if he hadn’t aggravated it then. He’s says he’s pain-free now, though.
Max Aaron
Did not have a teleconference, which is kind of surprising. After all, he’s a contender for the men’s title. He even won it once already. Also, he’s changed his short program. He started the season still using the same short program he’s been skating since the 2015 World Team Trophy, but at last he now has a new one. His coach, Tom Zakrajsek, previewed a clip of it on Instragram:
Gracie Gold
Has been working with her old coach, Alex Ouriashev, again. She left him during her rise in 2013 for the illustrious Frank Carroll. But after her disaster of a fall season, she decided she needed his help. Thankfully he welcomed her back, even though they hadn’t been on speaking terms. She spent two weeks with him in Chicago, getting technical support and back to the roots of her training. She called the effect “flipping a switch,” and spoke of it as helping her a lot and restoring her confidence. Now she’s back with Carroll, who was supportive of her time away.
Someone asked Gold about the ongoing investigation on Adelina Sotnikova. That was pretty much inevitable, since if the Olympic champion loses her title, she’s in line to inherit the bronze. She sidestepped giving an opinion on an ongoing investigation, and said nothing particularly eyebrow raising. She said only that she’s never doped, never imagined the Russian doping was so extensive, and never thought ill of Sotnikova.
Ashley Wagner
Also claims she’s in a good place mentally, and better than usual for Nationals. She takes missing the Grand Prix Finale philosophically: as extra time to work on her jumps, and her long program, which she calls more of an endurance test than her past ones. She nonetheless refuses to admit she’s the favorite. That’s a little surprising, since she really, really is. But it’s probably just her trying to keep a mindset that leaves her more likely to skate well. What was most surprising, though, was her declaration that, contrary to what would assume about a skater her age, she currently has no plans to retire after the next Olympics. Instead, she says, she’ll stay as long as she feels she can remain competitive.
One reporter also prompted her for a comment about the inauguration, since she’s always been free with her political opinions. She kept it relatively mild this time, simply suggesting everyone watch Nationals instead. Because of course we all should.
Mirai Nagasu
A student of Zakrajsek who did have a teleconference, she got questions about the triple axel he’d also been Instragramming her doing. She refused to say whether she’s doing it or not, claiming she’ll decide at the last minute. She’ll show it in practice, though. She describes herself as more excited for Nationals than she’s been in a while. Her teleconference happened the day after Wagner’s, and one reporter brought up the latter’s statement that she’s not planning to leave after the Olympics. Nagasu said to this that she herself plans to compete until her body won’t let her anymore. Though she emphasized the importance of her education, too. She’s currently working on a degree in international business.
She also called her experience at Worlds last year as “the kind of thing we live for.” Naturally her goal is to get to go again. Hey, all she has to do this time is hold her position from last year.
Tarah Kayne & Daniel O’Shea
(Unfortunately it seems the first part of this one was cut off when IceNetwork posted it.) The reigning U.S. pairs champions are also dealing with injury. Early in the season she injured a tendon in her right knee. This can making landing jumps very painful, but they’re doing their best to work and design their training regimen around it. They also changed the contents of their programs a bit, reworking elements to try to get higher levels of difficulty. The short program they revamped to an even greater extent, though at least they didn’t have to get a new one this year.
They are thinking of themselves as underdogs, but they pretty much admit that’s simply because doing so works for them. However, they also take confidence from the fact that they won last year’s title after a Grand Prix season no dissimilar to the one they had this year.
Haven Denney & Brandon Frazier
Talked a good deal about her injury and their having to miss the entirety of last season. In response to certain questions, they included the full timeline of her return to the ice, and a touching story about watching last year’s Nationals together. They also addressed their disastrous showing at the Golden Spin of Zagreb. They declared it an anomaly and chalked it up to not being prepared, since they only decided to do that competition at the last minute. They’d also been experimenting with altering the major elements in their programs. They haven’t kept any of those attempted changes in.
They describe themselves as being in good shape. However, they aren’t putting too much pressure on how they place at this Nationals. They should worry about that next season, when they may also up their technical difficulty. They even talked about doing a quad throw.
Maia & Alex Shibutani
Unfortunately, much of their press conference was pretty bland. Alex even said at one point after repeating words about working hard that he felt like a broken record. They talked a good deal about their free dance, calling it the next stage in their development. Recently they’ve worked on it with their choreographers in Los Angeles, and tweaked the music, trying to make for a fuller sound. But really, the best recent streaming related to the Shibutanis lately isn’t their teleconference, it’s their 2016 in review video. That’s a bit overly cheery too, but their year kind of warranted it:
Madison Chock & Evan Bates
Spoke of “significant changes” to their programs since the Grand Prix Finale. These are mostly choreographic ones in the free dance. They aren’t changing the music, but they wanted the pacing to be a little less frantic. No major changes to the technical elements, though Chock spoke of tweaking some. Bates spoke of the free dance actually being the story of their struggles last season.
They still refuse to fret over their somewhat disappointing results in the fall, insisting the results aren’t their focus. Bates was particularly upbeat, even talking about loving skating “more than ever.” Though given the reporters were trying to get them to despair due to the results at the Finale, where they made what was really was just a fluke mistake, you can’t blame them.
Madison Hubbell & Zachary Donohue
Are satisfied with the current version of the short dance. They’re now just trying to sharpen it and further improve the levels they get on the elements. Hubbell described the new version as having more of a “party atmosphere” than the old one, and they had more fun doing it. She also said judges’ feedback has gone both ways, but American judges have generally liked it, so they should be good for Nationals. They still stand by their free dance, and are trying to up the level on the footwork and the intensity of the ending.
They were also asked if they were worried about missing out on the Olympics should Meryl Davis & Charlie White return to defend that title. There’s absolutely no indication they’re actually going to do; this was probably wishful thinking on the part of the reporter. But they handled the question well, saying “the more, the merrier,” and they wouldn’t be worried about getting stuck in fourth again. They are very much aiming to move up from third this year, which they very much have a chance at.
Next: The Defenders Could Very Well Get a Second Season If Krysten Ritter Gets Her Way
U.S. Nationals got underway in Kansas City last Saturday with the lower-level events. The senior, or Championship, events start on Thursday.