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Sometimes, once you start to compete the adrenaline will mask the pain. But if it's extremely painful the adrenaline is not enough. Maybe she was hoping it would kick in after a minute or 2. Clearly it did not. You can't blame her for trying. And remember she skated 2016 worlds with a torn muscle.
Meanwhile Gracie is hanging in Cali ignoring the ****show that is this season. Good on her.
Everyone needs to take into account that Ashley's leg was feeling ok for her to skate on and she was doing well with it until pre LP warm up.
So saying she's constantly making excuses or should have pulled out all together before the event is not making anyone's comments better than the trash that Tara and Johnny spewed about her on air today that everyone's complaining about.
Ashley did what she had to do in a split second decision to protect her health and her future in this sport in her run for the Olympics.
Cut the woman some slack.
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A section?!?!
.... you can literally WD at any point, including in between your warm-up and taking the ice.

.... you can literally WD at any point, including in between your warm-up and taking the ice.
Bradie is new and untried and has had one good skate.
I think Ic3Rabbit knows that...
Obviously, my point was using the excuse that she didn't know until the warm-up isn't a good one.
I think it's more complicated than that. Ashley may have been psyching herself and telling herself she could skate through it even with pain. It's likely she didn't want to withdraw if she didn't have to and didn't want to withdraw earlier and feel like she should have skated. It was a no win situation for her.
Obviously, my point was using the excuse that she didn't know until the warm-up isn't a good one.
There's no winner here! Karen has regressed back to her pre-2016 ways. Gracie is dealing with demons. Ashley has a potentially serious infection and little or no time to heal. Bradie is new and untried and has had one good skate. Mirai is Mirai. Mariah has a lot of potential but doesn't have it all together yet, Polina Edmunds is rusty from lack of competition.
I think the US Women are a long-shot for top 10 at the Olympics unless something really changes in the next 2 months.
Then you totally missed my original point.
I might've because I was just directly reacting to the "ashley's leg was feeling ok for her to skate on and she was doing well with it until pre LP warm up" comment.
There comes a time and place in most elite skaters lives when they are put in a situation like Ashley was in today. You were cleared to skate for the last week on it, and it's been great and then you have to make a split second decision when you are out there skating or even on warm up. She thought she could push through and then decided that she couldn't midway through her program. I applaud her for what she did, protecting her future for this season.
I mean seriously, what was going to happen? It's not like if she W/D only a bit earlier (had she known she wasn't going to be able to proceed) that they'd have a replacement skater for her or something. I mean really. This is getting ridiculous. Unless you have been there yourself, you can't say she was wrong for what she did.
@andromache, I understand about the interviews and selling herself. No one wants to board a sinking ship. And, to the extent that judges consume her sound bytes or care about the way she portrays herself to the press, I get why she wouldn't want to beat herself each time she doesn't skate perfectly. But that's different than having multiple bad skates in a row and always finding some kind of exogenous excuse. As a fan, I'd like her to just say, "Look, this wasn't great. I am responsible for my skating. I know better by now, and I should do better. I'm working on it." Right now, she mostly sounds like a combination of nonchalant about her bad outings and completely lacking self-awareness about her progress. I hope that whatever conversations she's having with her coaches/ whatever plan she's developing for herself to improve her skating is more brutally honest/ angry/ frustrated than she's seemed of late.
I'm still keeping my fingers crossed that she slays at Nationals and skates her very best in Pyeongchang.