Ashley Wagner fails to make U.S. figure skating team in early start to Olympic drama

Correction: an earlier version of this story misspelled mirai nagasu’s name.

San jose — women’s figure skating holds marquee repute at the wintry weather olympics for its athleticism, artistry and beauty — and, once in a while, for the drama that extends past the ice.

With the aid of those measures, the games scheduled to begin next month in south korea were given an early start at this weekend’s u.S. Figure skating championships.

Ashley wagner, a three-time country wide champion and 2014 olympian, become imagined to be one of the most endearing, most acquainted lady athletes representing the united states on the pyeongchang games. Instead, she will be able to now not be there, giving manner to a brand new wave of talent and not using a nicely-hooked up megastar.
The 13-member committee’s selection came no matter a ramification technique adjusted in current years to allow deference to skaters consisting of wagner with extra significant global music information. 4 years in the past, the olympic choice committee chose wagner, who finished off the podium on the country wide championships, over nagasu, a 2010 olympian who finished on it. This time, tennell and nagasu left them little desire for 2 of the three spots, and wagner did no longer offer as robust an normal season as she did then.
The discussion among karen and ashley turned into pretty instructional,” u.S. Discern skating president sam auxier stated. “karen was fourth final year” at the world championships. “ashley became 7th. After which 1/3 as opposed to fourth at this year’s u.S. Championships. It become a completely truthful, clear criteria for deciding on karen as the third member of the crew.”

Those standards to which auxier referred are enormously new. U.S. Discern skating officially modified the rules for olympic selection a year ago, outlining using a skater’s latest frame of labor (such as his or her effects inside the most latest world and u.S. Championships) instead of absolutely selecting the pinnacle 3 finishers at the countrywide championships, as have been carried out in the beyond and remains the technique used in lots of different sports.