Gracie wants to do the long program in the Team event, gets through an interview without saying Soshi.
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Figure skater Ashley Wagner has changed the music and choreography of the long program she will perform at the Sochi Olympics after a mediocre performance that nearly cost her a berth in the Winter Games.
Wagner finished fourth at the recent U.S. championships after skating to “Romeo and Juliet” in her long program. She made the Olympic team only because the committee in charge of selecting the three-woman delegation chose her over third-place finisher Mirai Nagasu of Arcadia on the strength of her body of work.
Wagner, who lives in Laguna Beach, said Tuesday she will revert to the “Samson and Delilah” music she used last season, when she won her second straight U.S. title. She will keep portions of the “Romeo and Juliet” choreography because it has become familiar to her through repetition.
She said she had suggested to her coach, Rafael Arutunian, that she return to the “Samson and Delilah” program before the Grand Prix final but he discouraged it.
“I had mentioned it to him earlier in the season and he told me it was crazy, which it is,” she said during an interview at her training rink, East West Ice Palace in Artesia.
“When I step out onto the ice to compete ‘Romeo and Juliet,’ I don’t feel like a fighter. I feel very nervous and it’s very difficult for me to get into the mind-set for it. I think he saw that it was kind of getting harder and harder for me to compete as the season went on. So after nationals I sat him down and I tried again. I said, ‘Raf, I understand that this is insane but I really need to change this. If you want me to be able to train it the way you want me to, I need to change it.’
“He wasn’t happy about it but I think he was able to see that it wasn’t clicking with me…. He understands and he has been doing an awesome job working with me to get this program as comfortable and as familiar as possible.”
She is hopeful that having music she enjoys and portraying a strong character should help reinforce her confidence, which was dented by her performance at the U.S. competition.
“When I’m competing, I need to be strong,” she said. “I’m not a pretty princess and I’m aware of that, so I like music that is really intense, really bold, and characters that in a way almost have a dark side and are kind of evil because for me, that’s when I feel my strongest and fiercest, when I’m not necessarily the good girl. ‘Samson and Delilah’ just provided a sense of comfort and a style of skating that is much more natural to me. I felt that I was really forcing it this season with ‘Romeo and Juliet.’”
She said the new program “is a Frankenstein of a program,” in that it is pieced together from last season’s program, parts of her “Romeo and Juliet” program and some moves done at different stages than they were before.
“The general setup of it is ‘Romeo and Juliet,’ but we took pieces from ‘Samson and Delilah’ that I really liked, and I liked the character at those moments and we kind of placed them in methodically,” she said.
She plans seven triple jumps, including a triple flip-triple toe combination. “So far in training everything has been really comfortable,” she said.
Gracie Gold, who trains in El Segundo, won the national title and a ticket to Sochi. Runner-up Polina Edmunds of San Jose finished second and earned an Olympic berth.
Arutunian said he was aware she didn’t like the “Romeo and Juliet” program and that it was reflected in her skating.
“She always was telling me she doesn’t like music. It does not encourage her to get into the music,” he said. “I like her program a lot but she don’t like music and at last she said, ‘Please, just let me do it,’ and we just kind of make some adjustments and I think she loves it.”
He said he had never coached a skater who made so big a decision this late in the season but “she didn’t want to skate to that program,” and has been practicing the new routine well.
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Making major changes this late is bold but not unprecedented. Sarah Hughes, unhappy after finishing third at the 2002 U.S. championships, re-cut the music of her long program to enhance the drama, added speed, and revamped the ending. Her risk paid off when she won gold at Salt Lake City.
"Changed it right after nationals and it made a world of difference for me," she told the Chicago Tribune. "I liked the program a lot more. It was more fun to skate."
Wagner, who lives in Laguna Beach, said she doesn't want casual figure skating fans to remember her by her performance at the U.S. championships. She believes the new program will play to her strengths. "At nationals you don't want to peak, and I definitely didn't peak," she said.
She did find one positive to finishing behind Gracie Gold and 15-year-old Polina Edmunds at the U.S. competition.
"It might be a blessing in disguise that I'm not going in as the national champion and not going in as the favorite for the medal," Wagner said. "But I've accomplished a lot in the past couple of years and I think internationally I have established myself as someone to watch out for. That skater did not show up at nationals and I need to make sure that I am the athlete that achieved those titles and brought home the hardware and really show people that I deserve a spot on this team, which I fully believe that I do.
"So I think not going in as the champion will be a nice little breather for me."
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this is the right way to think. Olympic year national champions: Michelle Kwan. Sasha Cohen.
not National champions: Tara Lipinski. Sarah Hughes. Evan Lysacek. (of course Shizuka and Yags!)
although Ashley doesn't really have a shot at gold
When she was but 20 months old, her mother plopped her into a pair of figure skates, noting pointedly, "She could not follow directions yet."
At 2 1/2 years, she was taking lessons and, "She did everything the coach asked."
A dozen years later, no teenage rebellion here, she was slicing and dicing the competition at the junior level, posting six victories in 2013, including the U.S. junior championship.
Now, in Polina Edmunds' first year on the senior level, the high school sophomore from San Jose's Archbishop Mitty High School has made the U.S. Olympic team. Her brief career arc, if charted on a spread sheet, is a black arrow angled at 45 degrees and aimed squarely at Sochi, Russia.
At 5-foot-4, all pipe-cleaner arms and stork legs, Edmunds weighs just 98 pounds*cringe*, but a weakling she is not. There is a strength to her slim physique as she glides across a sheet of ice preparing to power into a combination jump that could earn her big points at the Winter Olympics that begin Feb. 6.
"Her natural feel for the ice has been set from a young age," said Edmunds' coach, San Jose native David Glynn. "She is a beautiful skater. She has the technical skill of the best ladies in the world. She skates with a maturity beyond her 15 years. She is light and delicate and balletic while doing the hardest technical elements in skating. That's a rare quality to have - to skate with power and speed and look delicate."
Those qualities carried Edmunds to a second-place finish in this month's U.S. Championships in Boston and landed her on the Olympic team with event winner Gracie Gold, 18, and the faltering but experienced Ashley Wagner, 22.
"I knew if I skated well I'd have a chance to get on the podium and make the Olympic team," Edmunds said following a practice session at Sharks Ice in San Jose. "I was very happy with my skating. After the short program when I ended up in second place, that was the moment I knew I had a shot and it wasn't a dream."
Edmunds fell once in her long program, four minutes of grace and grit and glamour choreographed by Marina Klimova and set to the music of "Swan Lake" and "Peer Gynt," but her personal best score of 193.63 was more than enough to put her ahead of everyone but Gold.
Like all skaters on the elite level, Edmunds' goal at the Olympics is to "skate two clean programs," meaning no falls or slips or wobbles or technical transgressions. When a clean program dovetails into a skater's artistic skill and expression, the result is surpassing to witness.
"I think for sure the technical difficulty in my program is really what helps me the most because I have two triple-triple combinations in my long program," Edmunds said. "What also helps me is my balletic skill. I've been taking ballet since I was 4 years old."
Edmunds went out of her way to thank her ballet instructors, the husband and wife team of Maggie and Javier Ferla, formerly of the San Francisco Ballet, for developing "my gracefulness on the ice. Ballet is such a huge part of my skating. They taught me to use my arms and emotions in skating."
Polina Edmunds is the result of an international romance that began in Russia and found a home in San Jose. In 1992, her American father, John Edmunds, was teaching English and business to Russian students in the town of Tver, located between St. Petersburg and Moscow.
Either the teacher noticed a particular student named Nina or the student took a liking to her teacher. lol you don't say...Either way, they eventually married and have three children, with sons James, 17, and Daniel, 11, bracketing Polina.
John Edmunds is CFO of a computer software company in Santa Clara. Nina was certified in Russia as a coach. The family, along with Polina's best friend, Anna Fry of Willow Glen High School in San Jose, will join forces with Nina's family in Russia to support this skating sylph. best friend in tow...lol working those Tara comparisons hard I see.
"It's very special because I'm Russian, of course," Nina said. "I'll see my relatives and friends. It's great to be in the motherland."
Unlike other young elite skaters who build fortresses of isolation around themselves as they train full time, Polina is of the real world. She enjoys attending Mitty High School and developing friendships. She'll be away from school for three weeks while in Sochi for the Games.
"I'm probably going to be taking a lot of work with me and checking the Internet to see what assignments I need to be doing," she said. "Education is very important to my family. It's really good to go to regular school and have good interpersonal skills. I couldn't imagine being home-schooled. I've made so many friends. I'm definitely thankful for all the support I get from school."
In short order, Edmunds has gone from schoolgirl to skating star, a role she has been preparing for all her young life.
"It can be a bit overwhelming at times," she said.
Get used to it, kid. It's only going to get more overwhelming as the Games draw nearer.
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At age 11, Polina Edmunds is young enough to carry a teddy bear for good luck, but old enough to be a veteran dreamer of an Olympic gold medal in figure skating.
Polina Edmunds at the U.S. championships. “My biggest dream would be to go to the Olympics and win,” she said.
On skates at 2, in formal lessons at 4, out of bed at 5 on most school days, on the ice six days a week, she finished an encouraging sixth on Tuesday in the novice ladies division at the United States championships.
The youngest of 12 skaters, Edmunds gave a balletic performance in her long program with only one major flaw, a fall on a triple toe loop. At 4 feet 11 inches and 70 pounds, she is poised, candid about the sacrifices required and frank about her own ambivalence toward a sport that can make enormous demands on a skater’s time, body and family pocketbook.
Nina Edmunds, Polina’s mother and one of her coaches, also spoke frankly about the balance that parents must strike between their own expectations and their children’s hopes.
David Glynn, who also coaches Edmunds in San Jose, Calif., said: “Skating is a business. You’re selling the dream. At the same time, you have to have integrity as a coach. You have to be honest, tell them when they’re progressing and when they’ve plateaued. There’s so much more to life than ice skating.”
He asks beginners what their goals are. Some want only to learn basic skills. Others want to be competitors. Nina Edmunds showed up with 4-year-old Polina and told Glynn, “We’re going to commit everything to it.”
If Polina seemed too young to commit, she was not. Not by skating standards, anyway. By 13, a skater aspires to compete internationally on the junior Grand Prix circuit. Tara Lipinski became an Olympic champion at 15.
“For a girl, at 4 or 5, you’ve got to start then,” Glynn said.
Nina Edmunds grew up in Tver, Russia. Her father was a hockey player, and she skated. She wanted ice sports to be in her children’s lives, as they were in hers. By 2, Polina seemed as coordinated as a 5-year-old.
“In the future, I don’t want to regret, ‘Oh I didn’t take enough lessons,’ and she’s not good enough,” Nina said. Julie McDonough, is that you?
On Monday, Wednesday and Friday, Polina awakens at 5, skates from 6:30 to 7:45, then attends sixth grade in San Jose. Each weekday afternoon, she also skates from 3 to 5 p.m. and is in bed by 8. On weekends, she takes jazz, tap and ballet lessons. She also bakes and plays the piano.
“My biggest dream would be to go to the Olympics and win,” Polina said.
Could she be happy if she didn’t win a gold medal?
“Yeah, I think, if I win other things,” she said.
Forthrightly, Polina said she often thought, “Ugh, I don’t want to get up,” when the alarm rang. “I do it because I know I have to practice,” she said.
On winter and spring breaks, her classmates can sleep in while she must spend much of her time at the rink.
“I do want a break sometimes,” Polina said. “I’d like to go to a birthday party.”
Asked if she skated for herself or because others wanted her to, she replied, “I guess it’s half and half; sometimes I want to and sometimes I don’t.”
When she tells her mother she doesn’t want to skate, Nina sometimes replies, “O.K., don’t do it.”
“Then I think, O.K., I really want to do it,” Polina said.
The rewards: good results at competitions, travel, skating before crowds, learning new routines.
“It’s exciting,” Polina said.
Still, there is no way to sugarcoat it, Glynn said. Skating demands hard work from children. And the chances of anyone winning Olympic gold are slim.
Interests change, bodies change. Costs can reach $40,000 to $50,000 a year and deplete a family’s bank account. Obsession can bring eating disorders and injury. Lipinski compulsively repeated missed jumps and eventually needed hip surgery.
“The athlete who does it 100 percent out of their own self-motivation is few and far between,” Glynn said. “I believe you have to push a kid at a young age if you want greatness, if you want to look like Sasha Cohen or Michelle Kwan. I always say to Polina on her rough days, ‘You’re going to thank me later.’ ”
Nina Edmunds said she avoided the mistake that many parents made — demanding specific results instead of steady progress. But she added: “You should not talk with the child, ‘Do you want it or not want it?’ The child can start to manipulate.”
Asked if she would let Polina quit tomorrow if her daughter wanted, Nina laughed and said: “Probably not. I see her potential. For sure I would like that she continue and do her job. I think she can do it.”
On Tuesday, Polina pumped her fist when her marks were announced and seemed thrilled with the results. There was another reward, too. A week off.
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so about those skate-mom-from-hell rumors...