2020 U.S. Nationals Previews & Predictions (Pairs & Women)

I’ve been subletting my blog this past week to a series of posts I wrote for fans of the ABC drama The Good Doctor, but my skating roots run deep enough that OF COURSE I’m still gonna make previews and predictions for the 2020 U.S. Figure Skating Championships! (I even went skating myself, just yesterday, for the first time in about a year. I won’t post the video here, as I don’t know that I want to immortalize my terribly exciting one-foot spin in that fashion. But it’s over on Twitter…)

As is usually the case nowadays, all the Nationals action can be found over the next several days at either NBC, NBC SN, or NBC Sports Gold. Here’s a link to help you sort out what you can watch vs. what you may have to read about later…

And this year I’m breaking my preview/predictions into Pairs & Women, which both start later today (1/23)… and Dance/Men, which get going Friday and Saturday, respectively.

PAIRS

There are 12 teams competing in all; the top 8 from last year are all returning EXCEPT 2019 Bronze Medalists Deanna Stellato-Dudek/Nate Bartholomay, who ended their partnership last spring. (Stellato-Dudek is now representing Canada along with Maxime Deschamps; they finished 6^th at Canadian Nationals last weekend.)

Here’s my guess for the top 5. Tough call between gold and silver, but since no pair has won back-to-back U.S. titles since Castelli/Shnapir did it in 2013-14, I’m picking Denney/Frazier to return to the top. Last time they won was 2017.

GOLD: Denney/Frazier

SILVER:  Cain-Gribble/LeDuc

BRONZE: Knierim/Knierims

4^th: Kayne/O’Shea       

5^th: Calalang/Johnson

WOMEN (Even the event page for NBC called them “women” this time rather than “ladies”… So it’s time to talk about the WOMEN!)

There are 18 competitors this year; that number does not include 3 withdrawals (Ting Cui, Hanna Harrell, Emilia Murdock).

Gracie Gold, as mentioned previously, is making her first appearance there since 2017. Paige Rydberg (who finished 11^th in 2017) will also be back this time, and Karen Chen returns after missing last year with an injury. The top 3 from last year—Alysa Liu, Bradie Tennell, and Mariah Bell—will all be there. Number 4 last year was Harrell; #5 last year was Cui, and last year’s 6^th place finisher, Megan Wessenberg, did not meet the minimum TES requirements now needed to compete at U.S. Nationals. To me, that means there are only two real challengers to last year’s strong podium: Chen, who of course won the title in 2017, and last year’s junior national champion Gabriella Izzo. Nonetheless, I’m sticking with last year’s top 3…

GOLD: Alysa Liu

SILVER: Bradie Tennell

BRONZE: Mariah Bell

4^th: Karen Chen

5^th: Gabriella Izzo

Others that are worth keeping an eye on include Amber Glenn (7^th last year), Starr Andrews (8^th last year), and yes, the aforementioned Gold.  My prediction for Gracie? Top 10. I’ll say 9^th, specifically, because I don’t know how many additional triples she’ll manage for her FS when she wasn’t getting a lot of them done in the prelim events this season. (If you’ve watched any of the practice videos this week you know she’s looking pretty good… I’m curious how she’ll do under a pressure she likely hasn’t felt in well over  a year.)

More predictions soon!