Karen Chen, Bradie Tennell, and Mirai Nagasu are the faces of the US women’s figure skating team for these Winter Olympics. Tennell, 19, finished first in the 2018 U.S. Championships, with Nagasu, 24, and Chen, 18, taking second and third, respectively. Nagasu is the elder stateswoman of the group. She competed in the 2010 Vancouver Olympics and finished fourth. She is the only one representing the U.S. who has competed in a previous Olympics.
The three competitors from the Sochi tournament—Ashley Wagner, Polina Edmunds, and Gracie Gold—are all missing out from a combination of injuries, personal problems, and in Wagner’s case, bad performance. She finished fourth in the U.S. Championships and will be the first alternate.
These current three will bear the responsibility of bringing back the hope to a team that once thought its future was bright, but has underperformed in recent years.
What time and how can I watch?
All competitions can be watched live on: NBC or on NBCOlympics.com and the free NBC Sports app. And you can find figure skating results here.
Sunday, Feb. 11
9:45 p.m.: Team Event: Ladies’ Short Program
Monday, Feb. 12 — Medals Awarded
9:45 p.m.: Team Event: Ladies’ Free Skate
Wednesday, Feb. 21
8 p.m.: Ladies’ Short Program
Thursday, Feb. 22 — Medals Awarded
8 p.m.: Ladies’ Free Skate
Why should I quit my job and become a lifelong devotee of women’s figure skating?
Probably the most famous of the winter Olympic sports, the women’s figure skating competition is a beautiful display of ability and grace. Competitors have to be daring, all while appealing to often subjective concepts like aesthetics and whether they are skating with “soul.” It is one of the most difficult sports because of how it is judged and thus, requires the skaters to maintain an inhuman elegance while performing incredibly difficult feats.
What are the rules of women’s figure skating? Follow up: What is the weirdest rule of women’s figure skating?
The skaters are judged on five program component scores: Skating skills, their ability to skate with ease; transitions, what the skater is doing between technical elements (basically, don’t skate without a purpose); performance, which is the art of it; composition, which is how the skater tells the story of their performance on the surface; and interpretation, another abstract concept that can be best explained as the skater skating with their soul. Basically, are they in tune with what they’re doing. Is the skater in flow?
These are graded on quarter increments from 0.25 to 10.00 on an absolute scale.
Competitors can lose points for not skating perfectly along with their music. Or for skating “purposely” between techniques.
What can I talk about to impress the women’s skating enthusiast in my life?
Florence Syers won silver in the men’s competition in 1903 at the London World Championships, when there was no women’s competition. She would then win gold in the 1903 British Championships, before winning back-to-back world titles in 1906 and 1907. A year before figure skating was added to the Olympics.
Whose jersey should I buy?
Out of the three women representing the United States, Bradie Tennell has the best opportunity to medal.
What is the sport’s AMERICA RATING?
None of the Americans medaled in the Sochi Olympics and the same is expected this time around. The history of the women in figure skating has been bleak in recent times, but the U.S. still has the highest medal count. If no one medals, then it’s a shoddy competition anyway, but if one of the three does really well, then it’s the resurgence of America in the sport.