Flatt, Nagasu are the Chosen Two

By Brandon Penny — 1/24/10
It’s official. Months of speculation are over in the ladies’ skating world. Americans Rachael Flatt and Mirai Nagasu are going to Vancouver to compete in the Winter Olympics. And they are determined to win.
“We’re just going to blow them away. Bam! Bam! Bam!” That is Mirai Nagasu’s prediction about her and Flatt’s chance against their competition.
But they will have a tough uphill fight. This is only the second time the United States is sending two women to skate instead of the usual three. That is because the ladies who were sent to the 2009 World Championships did not fare very well there.
This weekend seventeen-year-old Flatt and sixteen-year-old Nagasu punched their tickets to Vancouver by taking first and second place respectively at the 2010 U.S. Championships.
To earn their coveted Olympic spots, they had to contend with the likes of Alissa Czisny (2009 U.S. Champion), Caroline Zhang (2007 World Junior Champion), and Ashley Wagner (the only American to make it to the Grand Prix Final this season where she placed fourth). Czisny and Zhang fell so they finished tenth and eleventh, respectively. Thursday Wagner surprisingly fell in the short program putting her in fourth place. But after her free skate she was able to fight her way up to third.
This year’s National Championships also saw the return of two previous Olympians. 2006 Olympian Emily Hughes is the younger sister of ’02 gold medalist Sarah Hughes. She temporarily withdrew from Harvard University to train for her first Nationals since 2007. But this weekend Hughes fell twice in her free skate and finished in a disappointing ninth place.
Perhaps the biggest story of the season was the return of 2006 Olympic silver medalist Sasha Cohen. This was the first time in almost four years that she skated competitively. Thursday Cohen wowed her biggest critics with her short program. That put her in second place for the time being. Two nights later, in true Cohen fashion, she proved unable to complete two clean programs. She fell on her triple flip, and had mistakes on her other jumps. Cohen finished the competition in fourth place, erasing the chance of going to her third Olympics.
First-time Olympians Flatt and Nagasu will compete in Vancouver February 23rd and 25th.