US Figure Skating Championships: Tennell, Nagasu, Chen named to Olympic team

[malthaussen]

2. Very interesting, last night.

Wagner is ready to chew nails, and she has a point: the judges appear to have had a down on her this time. Losing to Chen by fractions of a point because her PCS was short-changed is a legitimate gripe. I am no expert, but it seems to me that the judges allow technical excellence to influence their PCS scores. She scored less than she might reasonably expected; whether she scored less than she deserved is a debate I'm not gonna touch.

That said, I thought Nagasu had the best free skate overall (a couple of technical bobbles notwithstanding) and deserved the gold, but Tennell had flawless execution of a pretty tough program, so she deserved her TES. But I do not rate her PCS as high as the judges evidently did. Still, she's young, and could improve her style points in the future. The crowd loved her, anyway.

-- Mal