2026 U.S. Nationals Gala Making The Team

[CanadianSkaterGuy]

I guess. It's frankly scary for the US to rely on Torgashev for spots. (and I say this as someone who thinks he is the skater who comes closest to the quality that Jason always brought before this season. He deserves high GOE, he deserves great PCS. I am a huge fan of his skating.--maybe not of him personally) However, consistency isn't his MO. Max isn't any better in this regard and he doesn't have the same quality skating or elements. I would feel better with Tomoki at Worlds. He's been pretty consistent this season. He doesn't have the same scoring potential as Andrew but he might be a safer bet with the less that stellar season Jason is having. Basically, I guess we have to hope Jason is ready by Worlds or going to the Olympics makes Torgashev more confident in competition.

Who cares if the U.S. doesn’t get three spots post-Olympics?

I know the goal is to get 3 spots in every discipline every year of the quadrennial till the end of time. But the U.S. is fortunate to get to send three spots to the Olympics and Worlds. With Malinin out of the picture they’d only have 2. But with him in it, they just need a top 12 finish from anyone else. While Jason doesn’t deserve the Olympics - on the other hand we also shouldn’t put the onus on him to save the three spots either.

Lol or just keep sending Malinin - and no other US men - and if he is top two y'all get 3 spots for next year. if the other U.S. men have a crappy season then don’t send them to Worlds until they can reliably prove they can finish top 12, and Malinin can autonomously maintain 3 spots - if needed. Totally sound logic lol!

 

[CanadianSkaterGuy]

He had one bad skate.

He has had multiple bad skates this season. Torgashev has had a bad season too but at least got it together at Nats.

Brown was mercurial last season but this season he needed to rely on laurels because he’s lost his triple axel (which was not entirely reliable to begin with) and his combos. Popping three jumps when he has no quad… he knows better.

Brown is artistically superior than most of the field but at some point ya gotta admit when the emperor no longer has clothes.

 

[moonvine]

Who cares if the U.S. doesn’t get three spots post-Olympics?

The skaters? USFS? Me? That’s to start.

 

[4everchan]

I mean they beat CPOM already.

yes they did. Domestically but CPOM are ahead in world standing and would get a better starting order for the Olympics... which may result in higher scores. So that would be the only advantage for them to do 4CC is to pass CPOM in world standing and then skate after them at the games.

 

[4everchan]

Who cares if the U.S. doesn’t get three spots post-Olympics?

Most of the times, spots earned are spots needed... There are a few exceptions where a country needed 3 spots and only got 2... I remember LaLa staying home because of that one year... The USA need their 3 spots in dance and women. They don't really need them in men and pairs. Of course, I am going to get some angry emojis for saying this. It's the reality though.

 

[LeReveur]

My overall take thinking about this Making the team format (and I was there in person): I'm more against it than for it.

The skaters going to the Olympics will be seen again, and they will skate again this season. NBC's crappy work was so contrived. I didn't enjoy hearing the same questions with the same answers ("How do you feel?" This feels unreal.").

Think of the skaters who work to get to Nationals or to perform well at Nationals. I would prefer to see them let loose and share more of what they can offer. Crowd favorites Samuel Miranda or Brown/Brown or even Jason Brown (despite his poor showing or perhaps because of his poor showing) could have been showcased along with the medalists and celebrated. Instead, the harping about the Olympics just got more intense and National competitors were entirely out of the picture unless they were named to the team. I don't approve.

 

[skatespin]

My overall take thinking about this Making the team format (and I was there in person): I'm more against it than for it.

The skaters going to the Olympics will be seen again, and they will skate again this season. It was so contrived to see NBC's crappy work and to hear the same questions with the same answers ("How do you feel?" This feels unreal.").

Think of the skaters who work to get to Nationals or to perform well at Nationals. I would prefer to see them let loose and share more of what they can offer. Crowd favorites Samuel Miranda or Brown/Brown or even Jason Brown (despite his poor showing or perhaps because of his poor showing) could have been showcased along with the medalists and celebrated. Instead, the harping about the Olympics just got more intense and National competitors were entirely out of the picture unless they were named to the team. I don't approve.

Yeah it was weird how that replaced the typical showcase that would happen at the end of nationals. Medalists were left out and crowd favorites were left out.

 

[Arriba627]

Kudos to them for trying something different with the naming of the team. I did fast forward thru some of the questions. Really enjoyed seeing some of the greats -- Tenley Albright, Carol Heiss, Dorothy Hamill, Brian Boitano, etc.

Happy for all, but happiest about Zingas & Kolesnik, Kam & O'Shea, and Chan & Howe. Most worried about Torgashev, remembering his 21st and 22nd place finishes at Worlds and how he handled the pressure there.

 

[kan01]

Surprised thru chose Jason over Maxim forvl world . Tomoki isn't first alternate but Jason.

No issues just curious as why .

Maybe because Jason had a bad competition at nationals but was superior than Maxim the whole season (with unreliable triples and still was above him scores wise). Maybe because Jason already had a bad season last season (worst than this one) and then was 8th at Worlds... (We've seen it before, skaters like Torgashev, Naumov etc are a mess internationally and then have one good skate at Nationals with Jason holding it together at Worlds and WTT)

 

[kan01]

Sometimes there comes a time to retire and not be embarrassment brown nice guy but

What embarrassment? Jason beat all the us guys except Ilia in international competition this season (and without his triples right). The others can only hold it together for nationals somehow and then comes Jason around March time to save the day. Imagine having quads and you can't come above a guy who struggles with triples, internationally. That is "embarrassing". The only reason one of them is on the team is because Jason had one bombed free skate and because Jason was 8th at Worlds (while Torgashev was 22nd).

 

[Arigato]

Think of the skaters who work to get to Nationals or to perform well at Nationals. I would prefer to see them let loose and share more of what they can offer. Crowd favorites Samuel Miranda or Brown/Brown or even Jason Brown (despite his poor showing or perhaps because of his poor showing) could have been showcased along with the medalists and celebrated. Instead, the harping about the Olympics just got more intense and National competitors were entirely out of the picture unless they were named to the team. I don't approve.

The name of the show was Making the Team. It was created specifically for revealing and celebrating the skaters who made the U.S. Olympic team and was promoted as such.

 

[kan01]

He has had multiple bad skates this season. Torgashev has had a bad season too but at least got it together at Nats.

Brown was mercurial last season but this season he needed to rely on laurels because he’s lost his triple axel (which was not entirely reliable to begin with) and his combos. Popping three jumps when he has no quad… he knows better.

Brown is artistically superior than most of the field but at some point ya gotta admit when the emperor no longer has clothes.

Jason had a worse season last season than this one. His only good comps were Worlds and WTT. It was so bad he had to retire from nationals and petition for worlds

 

[CanadianSkaterGuy]

Most of the times, spots earned are spots needed... There are a few exceptions where a country needed 3 spots and only got 2... I remember LaLa staying home because of that one year... The USA need their 3 spots in dance and women. They don't really need them in men and pairs. Of course, I am going to get some angry emojis for saying this. It's the reality though.

Yup, what I was trying to get at is that the U.S. men (assuming Brown doesn’t continue after this season) don’t currently have the senior depth that their ice dance and women have that necessitates that 3rd spot.

I get that the U.S. especially with Russia out of the picture feels like anything less than 3 spots is a failure when they’ve already locked up a likely top 3 skater for the next four years post Cortina. But if they only get two spots at the next Worlds, it’s also not the end of the world (the Japanese women recovered after only having 2 spots that one year) as they can recover the third spot in subsequent years leading up to the next Olympics and have enough up and coming potential talent to do so.

 

[readernick]

Most of the times, spots earned are spots needed... There are a few exceptions where a country needed 3 spots and only got 2... I remember LaLa staying home because of that one year... The USA need their 3 spots in dance and women. They don't really need them in men and pairs. Of course, I am going to get some angry emojis for saying this. It's the reality though.

To be fair, if we looking at consistent skaters who regularly put out great performances it's true the US doesn't need three spots but neither does any county on Earth including Japan who have two men right now who regularly perform impressive programs. That doesn't mean countries don't want them. Countries want to give their young athletes an opportunity to compete on the World stage. Because of the inconsistency of the field, the US has had a pretty decent record of keeping their three spots and they don't want that to change.

 

[labgoat]

Congratulations Carriera and Ponomarenko .

I asked this elsewhere, but why didn't Anthony get his jacket from his parents like everyone else?
He got it from Polina Edmunds - they grew up together as their parents were friends

 

[Spiralgraph]

I'm puzzled about that too. Who knows? Maybe getting his jacket from the 1992 gold medalists would overshadow or detract from his own accomplishment of making the team? Dumb theory, but I can't think of any other reason.

 

[4everchan]

To be fair, if we looking at consistent skaters who regularly put out great performances it's true the US doesn't need three spots but neither does any county on Earth including Japan who have two men right now who regularly perform impressive programs. That doesn't mean countries don't want them. Countries want to give their young athletes an opportunity to compete on the World stage. Because of the inconsistency of the field, the US has had a pretty decent record of keeping their three spots and they don't want that to change.

Sure but what about other countries, also with inconsistent skaters... My issue with the 3 spots is that it's usually easier to gain or get because only 2 skaters need to achieve the total score, compared to two spots where again, 2 skaters need to be consistent enough to keep it and even worse, if a country has only 1 spot, they need to work really hard to get a second.... Right now, Canada has good women. much better than in the last few years. They are not consistent, but more than one deserves to go to Junior worlds or Worlds.... but with the 3 spots from USA and Japan, and the 2 Koreans, it's almost impossible to finish in top 10. So why is it okay for inconsistent skaters from a fed (US men) to get a chance to get experience and not even remotely possible in some other cases? If it were up to me, every nation who has two skaters with minimums would get... 2 spots... No qualification other than the minimum scores... A bit off topic but I'll steer back to it : it's ridiculous to have someone like Jason earn spots for the following year, if he won't be there anymore... So then, the US would have 2 spots for inconsistent skaters . An entire reform of this system needs to happen and then, national team selections may be fairer to everyone as well.

 

[LeReveur]

The name of the show was Making the Team. It was created specifically for revealing and celebrating the skaters who made the U.S. Olympic team and was promoted as such.

Right. And it's replacing the exhibitions/gala, so I was comparing the two concepts.

 

[BlissfulSynergy]

Carol Heiss introduces Isabeau Levito.

Yes, it was quite nice to see the legends (Carol Heiss, Tenley Albright, and Dorothy Hamill) introducing the current ladies for their Olympic Games send-off. I wish figure skating's old-timers who are still around could be connected and involved with today's skaters more often.

 

[BlissfulSynergy]

Wow! The Browns got 4CC over Bratti/Somerville.

Yes, there are some interesting assignments overall when we look closely. Let's discuss further in Replay Lounge in Edge forum.