x
Breaking News
More () »

Pressure is on USA's Bradie Tennell in her Olympics debut in team figure skating

SAN JOSE, CA - JANUARY 05: Bradie Tennell competes in the Ladies Free Skate during the 2018 Prudential U.S. Figure Skating Championships at the SAP Center on January 5, 2018 in San Jose, California. (Photo by Matthew Stockman/Getty Images)

PYEONGCHANG, South Korea – The hour was early. The ice was slippery. The nerves were jangly.

The excuses — or perhaps we should call them explanations — were out in force after a mistake-filled first day of the Olympic figure skating team competition Friday. With a day off Saturday, the event picks up again Sunday morning with the ice dance and women’s short programs, followed by the pairs long program.

The final three disciplines’ long programs will be Monday, followed by the first medal ceremony of the 2018 Olympic figure skating competition.

As things stand now, Canada and the United States are looking good, with 17 and 14 points each. Tied for third after one-quarter of the competition were Japan and the Olympic Athletes from Russia, each with 13 points. Israel was a surprising fifth with 11.

Ten nations are entered in the event, but only the top five will make the cut and live to skate another day after the women’s short program.

The women’s competition is stacked. Because she is so new to the world stage and doesn’t have a strong international ranking, U.S. national champion Bradie Tennell will skate early in the women’s portion of the event: third in the field of 10 skaters.

There’s a lot of pressure on the 20-year-old in her first major international skating competition. Her jumps were perfect at last month’s nationals, and that consistency was one of the reasons the U.S. judges fell head over heels in love with her, propping her up while dumping three-time national champion and 2016 world silver medalist Ashley Wagner.

Now we’ll start to see if that decision was the right one. Tennell was sitting just feet from the ice as quad king Nathan Chen unleashed a debacle of an Olympic debut, making more mistakes than he has since he was probably 10 years old.

We’ll see what Tennell is made of when she takes the ice knowing the U.S. team needs her not to do what Chen did.

The last group of five skaters in the women’s short program is loaded, including Italy’s Carolina Kostner, the 2014 Olympic bronze medalist; Canada’s Kaetlyn Osmond, the 2017 world silver medalist; and OAR’s Evgenia Medvedeva, the two-time defending world champion.

Meanwhile, in dance, the sister-brother team of Maia and Alex Shibutani, two-time national champions and three-time world medalists, will be looking for a top-three finish to keep the USA in position to win its second medal in the team event. The Americans won the bronze in the inaugural team competition in 2014 in Sochi.

They’ll all be up and at ‘em for the unusual 10 a.m., start, and practicing as early as dawn just as the skaters did Friday, with all kinds of slips and falls to show for it then.

Alexa Scimeca Knierim, who with her husband and partner Chris Knierim had the skate of her career Friday, was asked about the skaters’ concerns, offering a succinct reply: “You gotta deal.”

Now there’s a wake-up call for you.

Related:

People are not having Johnny Weir and Tara Lipinski's skating commentary

Johnny Weir on Twitter criticism: 'I'm a commentator not a complimentor'

Before You Leave, Check This Out