Man it’s not worth arguing this point here. There’s a ton of overlap between touchy overly sympathetic Gracie fans and fans who can’t stand Ashley. I knew the hypocrisy would be strong the second Ashely gave any kind of hint of competing again. “But her skating skills!” Is not a compelling or worthwhile argument when comparing to a skater who just came out and only managed to score a 37. And had to withdraw from the long. Anyway.
I used to really want Ashley to come back but now I almost hope she doesn’t. She was dumped by her fed in favor of a skater who has had like three solid competitions her whole career and earns urs like candy being thrown at a parade. In fact her whole career it always seemed like the fed was always ready to push the next big thing over Ashley who was out there getting the best results. Most Fans can’t stand her and look for any little reason to discredit her achievements, and act like she has the talent of any random 9 year old at a rink in the middle of nowhere. Internationally, “women’s” skating keeps moving more and more towards completely becoming “teenage girl” skating. Why throw yourself back into such a mess? When you’ve already achieved so much, more then almost any fan thought possible. The only regret and thing that makes me wish she would compete, even just once more is that her swan song was so rudely taken from her by unfair and biased messy judging.
This might sound rather mean but by American standards it was kind of a Jennifer Robinson time of life in America. It wasn't exactly stellar skating that Ashley should have dominated but she did have to deal with Gracie Gold, Karen Chen, Polina Edmunds, Mariah Bell, Mirai Nagasu.
