The veteran Ashely Wagner — a two time national champion — will lead the US women’s figure skating team in the opening event this Saturday in Sochi.22
Wagner will represent the US in the first event of the figure skating competition — the short program. Gracie Gold, the 2014 national champion, will skate the long program Sunday night.
But the pressure to deliver a perfect program will be on the 22-year-old, after an iffy show at the nationals in Boston during the short program and two falls in the long program.
The competition starts on Thursday night with the men’s and pairs’ short programs and concludes on Sunday.
Ashley Wagner’s selection to Team USA was controversial because of her poor performance at nationals, but she was chosen nonetheless, due to her experience in international competitions which includes being team captain at last year’s world team event, won by the US.
“Unfortunately, Saturday night just wasn’t my night,” Wagner told PEOPLE at the time. “But luckily for me I had plenty of other nights in the past couple of years that convinced everybody that I was ready to be on that team.”
“I’m not a crier,” Ashley Wagner said about the moment she found out she made the team with skaters Gracie Gold and Polina Edmunds . “But when I heard the news I dropped to my knees and started crying.”
Sochi will see figure skating team competition for the first time in an Olympics and when asked if the US is a strong medal contender, Wagner didn’t hesitate:
“Absolutely,” she said. “The United States is a very strong team. Absolutely hands down, I think the US is one of the front-runners for a medal in the team event.”
This will be an adjustment for Ashely Wagner and her teammates.
Countries are allowed to enter any skater that qualified for the four traditional disciplines in the Games: women, men, pairs, and dance.
The new rules let a team have one skater or pairs/dance team skate both sections of the team competition or teams can split the short/long-program duties in up to two of the four events.
Some of the athletes have stated that they would rather not compete in both portions of the event, so they can prepare for their individual competition later in the games. Many compare the new event’s style to that of he Ryder Cup in golf, only with judges.
“I think that this will be an incredible event to watch,” the two-time US national champion said Wednesday after practice. “I think honestly, any team event is really easy for fans to get into just because you get behind the country and you start cheering for them and it’s kind of easier than (cheering for) individual (skaters), because you have to pick and choose which ones you like the best, I guess.”
“It’s an opportunity to receive another Olympic medal,” Ashley Wagner said. “Being team leader, I realized there was a great sense of camaraderie with our team, which made it so much fun.”
