Us Figure Skating Championships

In the end, despite all the intriguing story lines, the decision came down to a familiar scenario in figure skating, whether the judges preferred the accomplished athlete or the dazzling artist. But it wasn't the skater everyone would have singled out as the artist before the U.S. championships began. And it was no surprise, given the mathematical emphasis of the sport's new judging system, that the winner was an athlete who knew how to play the numbers exceptionally well.

OMAHA - Since she emerged from anonymity at age 13 and had an upset win in the junior event at the 2007 U.S. Championships, Mirai Nagasu has rarely been out of the figure skating spotlight. Prodigiously talented, with an impish personality, Nagasu attracted attention for what she said and what she did.  A senior national title at age 14.  A fourth in the 2010 Olympics at 16. She is 19 now.  Her skating the last two seasons has been so erratic she came to this nationals as something of an afterthought, no surprise given her seventh place finish at last year's championships.

Figure skating has a scoring system only a computer could love, a judging mandate that accentuates the negative by nitpicking performances to death and technical requirements that lead to tediously repetitive performances. As if that hadn't damaged the sport's visibility enough, here comes another turnoff: a U.S. Figure Skating Championships that begins today in Spokane, Wash., and drags over two weekends, with three dark days in the middle, to satisfy NBC's programming demands. Not only has that forced many cash-strapped fans and media to make a choice about which part to attend -- pairs and men this weekend, ice dance and women next -- it has created a conundrum for the men and pairs skaters who do well enough to earn a spot in the Jan. 24 encore show.

Reporting from Greensboro, N.C. With Evan Lysacek and Johnny Weir not competing, it figured to be a wide-open men's title fight at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships. After all, either Lysacek or Weir or both ? five times ? had been on the podium every year one of the seven previous seasons. But no one could have predicted Sunday's results, among the unlikeliest in U.S. skating history. "Very, very surprising," reigning Olympic champion Lysacek said after presenting the gold, silver, and bronze medals to Ryan Bradley, Richard Dornbush and Ross Miner ?

At age 81, in his 49th year of coaching, it figured John Nicks would say he isn't surprised by much. So Nicks initially said he was disappointed rather than surprised in how badly his athletes, Keauna McLaughlin and Rockne Brubaker, had skated Friday afternoon in the U.S. Figure Skating Championships at Spokane Arena. A few minutes later, Nicks changed his mind. "These last three or so days here, they have practiced as well as any pair I have taught," Nicks said. "I was surprised."

The two men who have been in an Olympics, Evan Lysacek and Johnny Weir, shared both mixed feelings about their flawed performances Sunday and the hope the best will come a month from now in Vancouver. The man going to his first Winter Games, Jeremy Abbott, may find it hard to top what he did. And he may not need to, for Abbott's free skate was such a tour de force it not only turned an expected close competition at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships into a rout but was easily good enough to win an Olympic medal -- even gold.

Sasha Cohen took the ice a few minutes after the other five skaters in her practice group Friday afternoon, and why not? Doesn't the star always come on last? From the moment she finished second in her senior national debut at age 15 a decade ago, with a persona already so outsized it was hard to imagine that a 5-foot-2 frame could accommodate it, Cohen has been the closest thing to a pure diva in figure skating. Yet never before has everyone else in a competition seemed like just a warmup act for Alexandra Pauline Cohen, known by the Russian diminutive of her first name, so well known that the nickname alone identifies her. From 1996 through 2006, Michelle Kwan's commanding presence diminished that of everyone else in the sport.

They were going to be the next great U.S. pairs team, the one that made NBC commentator Sandra Bezic rave after their victory at the U.S. Championships two years ago. "I've got shivers, not just for that performance but also for their future," Bezic said of Keauna McLaughlin and Rockne Brubaker. McLaughlin and Brubaker both vowed Saturday they still have a skating future together, but it won't include what had been an expected appearance at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada.

Germany's Katarina Witt had a simple goal when she decided to return to competitive skating after the five-year absence following her second straight Olympic gold medal in 1988. Witt wanted to get to the 1994 Olympics to show the world her program -- "Where Have all the Flowers Gone?" -- to portray the torment of war-torn Sarajevo a decade after the joyous Olympics where she won her first gold. Then the 1994 competition began, and Witt did so well in the short program she found herself in a place that had become unfamiliar.

SCHEDULE A day-by-day look at the senior skating schedule at Staples Center: * Today--Ice dancing, compulsory dance, 5:15 p.m. (two compulsory dances, each worth 10% of the final score); Pairs, short program, 8:30 p.m. (worth one-third of final score). * Thursday--Women's singles, short program, 12:30 p.m. (worth one-third of final score); Men's singles, long program, 4:15 p.m. (worth two-thirds of final score); Ice dancing, original dance, 8:30 p.m. (worth 30% of the final score).

In the end, despite all the intriguing story lines, the decision came down to a familiar scenario in figure skating, whether the judges preferred the accomplished athlete or the dazzling artist. But it wasn't the skater everyone would have singled out as the artist before the U.S. championships began. And it was no surprise, given the mathematical emphasis of the sport's new judging system, that the winner was an athlete who knew how to play the numbers exceptionally well.

Sasha Cohen took the ice a few minutes after the other five skaters in her practice group Friday afternoon, and why not? Doesn't the star always come on last? From the moment she finished second in her senior national debut at age 15 a decade ago, with a persona already so outsized it was hard to imagine that a 5-foot-2 frame could accommodate it, Cohen has been the closest thing to a pure diva in figure skating. Yet never before has everyone else in a competition seemed like just a warmup act for Alexandra Pauline Cohen, known by the Russian diminutive of her first name, so well known that the nickname alone identifies her. From 1996 through 2006, Michelle Kwan's commanding presence diminished that of everyone else in the sport.

Germany's Katarina Witt had a simple goal when she decided to return to competitive skating after the five-year absence following her second straight Olympic gold medal in 1988. Witt wanted to get to the 1994 Olympics to show the world her program -- "Where Have all the Flowers Gone?" -- to portray the torment of war-torn Sarajevo a decade after the joyous Olympics where she won her first gold. Then the 1994 competition began, and Witt did so well in the short program she found herself in a place that had become unfamiliar.

The two men who have been in an Olympics, Evan Lysacek and Johnny Weir, shared both mixed feelings about their flawed performances Sunday and the hope the best will come a month from now in Vancouver. The man going to his first Winter Games, Jeremy Abbott, may find it hard to top what he did. And he may not need to, for Abbott's free skate was such a tour de force it not only turned an expected close competition at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships into a rout but was easily good enough to win an Olympic medal -- even gold.

They were going to be the next great U.S. pairs team, the one that made NBC commentator Sandra Bezic rave after their victory at the U.S. Championships two years ago. "I've got shivers, not just for that performance but also for their future," Bezic said of Keauna McLaughlin and Rockne Brubaker. McLaughlin and Brubaker both vowed Saturday they still have a skating future together, but it won't include what had been an expected appearance at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada.

Johnny Weir always has been comfortable in his skin, especially if it is an oilskin corset with a pink shoulder tassel, a pink stripe down an arm and pink laces across the chest like the one he wore for Friday's short program at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships. "I felt very diva tonight," Weir said after finishing third, putting himself in excellent position to make a second straight Olympic team with Sunday's free skate. Only once since Weir won his first of three U.S. titles in 2004 has the diva persona not fit, even if there often was a palpable disconnect between the classical skater and the avant-garde showman who never hides his light under a tassel, who never apologized -- or needed to -- for anything he did on or off the ice. At last year's nationals, Weir rationalized his fifth-place finish by pointing out he had been very sick after an ill-advised long trip for an ice show in Korea, a trip he made despite having been ill before going.

Reporting from Greensboro, N.C. With Evan Lysacek and Johnny Weir not competing, it figured to be a wide-open men's title fight at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships. After all, either Lysacek or Weir or both ? five times ? had been on the podium every year one of the seven previous seasons. But no one could have predicted Sunday's results, among the unlikeliest in U.S. skating history. "Very, very surprising," reigning Olympic champion Lysacek said after presenting the gold, silver, and bronze medals to Ryan Bradley, Richard Dornbush and Ross Miner ?

At age 81, in his 49th year of coaching, it figured John Nicks would say he isn't surprised by much. So Nicks initially said he was disappointed rather than surprised in how badly his athletes, Keauna McLaughlin and Rockne Brubaker, had skated Friday afternoon in the U.S. Figure Skating Championships at Spokane Arena. A few minutes later, Nicks changed his mind. "These last three or so days here, they have practiced as well as any pair I have taught," Nicks said. "I was surprised."

Figure skating has a scoring system only a computer could love, a judging mandate that accentuates the negative by nitpicking performances to death and technical requirements that lead to tediously repetitive performances. As if that hadn't damaged the sport's visibility enough, here comes another turnoff: a U.S. Figure Skating Championships that begins today in Spokane, Wash., and drags over two weekends, with three dark days in the middle, to satisfy NBC's programming demands. Not only has that forced many cash-strapped fans and media to make a choice about which part to attend -- pairs and men this weekend, ice dance and women next -- it has created a conundrum for the men and pairs skaters who do well enough to earn a spot in the Jan. 24 encore show.