U.S. Women's Figure Skating Championships becomes a search for a needed superstar | Estes

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Only two snowy nights at Bridgestone Arena to sort this out.

So many candidates, and so little time.

It was supposed to be young Alysa Liu, a national champion at 13 now eyeing her first Olympics at 16. And it still could be her. Even with an opening-night tumble in Thursday’s short program, she was good enough for third place, well within range entering Friday's final session.

Maybe it’s Karen Chen, a college student who thought about giving up figure skating rather than trying to return to the Olympics. She seemed glad that she didn’t, pumping a fist after a solid routine that ended up netting her second place.

The leader? Mariah Bell, 25. Her beautiful performance was one point better than Chen.

So maybe it’s a veteran like Bell. Or one like Gracie Gold, a former Olympian whose personality and talent once shined brighter than her perfect name. She’s still here after overcoming the past few years.

Maybe one day, it’ll be 14-year-old Isabeau Levito. She hinted at what’s to come.

Mariah Bell skates in the short program during the U.S. Figure Skating Championships at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tennessee.
Mariah Bell skates in the short program during the U.S. Figure Skating Championships at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tennessee.

In a farsighted sense, this wide-open women’s singles competition at this week’s U.S. Figure Skating Championships is about more than three spots on Team USA for Beijing 2022.

It’s an audition for a leading role.

Americans aren’t just looking for Olympians to follow in a month. They’re looking for the sport’s next star with whom they can fall in love.

When sports media reporter Richard Deitsch wrote his 2022 predictions for The Athletic, the first was “The Beijing Games will be the least-watched Olympics in history.” He had several reasons, including NHL players pulling out because of COVID and human rights issues in China. But part of it, too, was “a lack of household athletic stars heading into the Games (especially in figure skating).”

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On the men’s side, the U.S. does have a gold-medal hopeful in Nathan Chen. (He’ll skate Saturday at Bridgestone, hopefully for a larger crowd after all this snow melts.)

But the U.S. has been without a female skating superstar for a while. So long that you wonder if casual American fans are indeed starting to tune out a generational favorite.

For nearly a century, few Olympic sports – summer or winter games – have rivaled women’s figure skating in popularity. Since Sarah Hughes in 2002, however, the U.S. hasn’t won gold in the ladies competition. No female American, in fact, has medaled in singles since Sasha Cohen took silver in 2006.

You’d need to be an avid follower of figure skating to name the past three women’s gold medalists (Yuna Kim of South Korea and Adelina Sotnikova and Alina Zagitova of Russia).

Gold finished fourth in the 2014 Olympics. She was once that People magazine-style celebrity and a strong hopeful for 2018 before having to withdraw from competition for mental health reasons, a struggle she later revealed to the New York Times.

Her comeback continued Thursday with a stirring performance that was the night’s best moment, leaving her in sixth place.

“It was just this huge, emotional moment on so many different levels,” Gold said.

Gracie Gold skates in the Championship Ladies Short Program event during the U.S. Figure Skating Championships at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tenn., Thursday, Jan. 6, 2022.
Gracie Gold skates in the Championship Ladies Short Program event during the U.S. Figure Skating Championships at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tenn., Thursday, Jan. 6, 2022.

Without Gold on the team, none of the U.S. skaters placed better than ninth at the 2018 Olympics. Americans aren’t expected to do much better in Beijing, either.

It’ll be an upset if the Russians don’t sweep the medals. Given its current dominance, Russia will bring the world’s top three women’s skaters to the Olympics, and the fourth or fifth-best might be the ones it has to leave at home. Elizaveta Tuktamysheva finished second in the 2021 World Championships and still may not make it to Beijing behind gifted teenagers Anna Shcherbakova, Kamila Valieva and Alexandra Trusova.

The Russians, it appears, have raised their game more than everyone else lost theirs.

But the difference in skill level is so vast that Karen Chen was asked on a media call a couple of weeks ago if she ever thinks of her sport as being two different competitions. She replied, “You know, I'm going to be honest: Yes, I've had those thoughts before.”

“Maybe my best, obviously, it isn't comparable to the Russians,” she added later.

Karen Chen skates in the Championship Ladies Short Program event during the U.S. Figure Skating Championships at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tenn., Thursday, Jan. 6, 2022. Chen finished in second place in the event.
Karen Chen skates in the Championship Ladies Short Program event during the U.S. Figure Skating Championships at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tenn., Thursday, Jan. 6, 2022. Chen finished in second place in the event.

You admire the candor of the 22-year-old Cornell University student. It’s hardly a comforting sentiment, though, when it comes from perhaps the sport's top American.

Chen is a wonderful skater. She finished fourth in last year’s World Championships and might be the brightest female medal hopeful at Bridgestone this week.

If not her, it’s Liu, who couldn’t quite land her triple axel Thursday night but said afterward that she was glad she went for it.

Alysa Liu skates in the Championship Ladies Short Program event during the U.S. Figure Skating Championships at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tenn., Thursday, Jan. 6, 2022. Liu finished in third place in the event.
Alysa Liu skates in the Championship Ladies Short Program event during the U.S. Figure Skating Championships at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tenn., Thursday, Jan. 6, 2022. Liu finished in third place in the event.

Then there's Bell, who'll see if she can hold her lead for another night and be able to reach her first Olympics.

“We all want to be on that (Olympic) team because we've all put the work in all these years,” Bell said. “It's just something that goes without saying, I think, for all of us. We're all very lucky to be here and have this amazing opportunity to be able to really make our dreams come true.”

Reach Gentry Estes at gestes@tennessean.com and on Twitter @Gentry_Estes.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: US Women's Figure Skating Championships a search for needed superstar