Reposting my post in US ladies' thread. I'm so proud of Ashley. I'm elated!
She came out into an arena reverberating with echoes of Karen's magnificent skate.
And Ashley Wagner did her job. She kept her mind on her mission: to compete, to secure a spot on the Worlds team, and to captivate the crowd with her mesmerizing skating. She called on all her skating skills, painstakingly trained and tweaked and corrected over months and years. She gathered power within her, her own power, and did she draw on the electricity in the crowd? Only she can tell us. Ashley's skate was filled with all the emotions: love, pain, disappointment, and joy, to name a few. Her skating was glorious, lyrical, womanly, and transcendent.
We in the USA are so lucky to have Ashley representing our country. For ten years, she's had to endure the flack and nattering of critics who go on and on about URs, not being competitive with other countries or with [insert newest teen-age phenomenon's name]. She rises above it. She's like a phoenix every year, because every year she has to contend with yet another source of grumbling. She gets up and she gives us a show. Again and again and again.
to take a good look, know her own mind, and then change it if it's called for. I feel certain that this decision was the right one for her, because I trust her judgment.
