Huh? In 2014, Ashley finished two spots ahead of the U.S. #2, Polina, at the Olympics (also one spot ahead of her at Worlds). And the U.S. #3, Mirai, finished 10th (!) in a weak field at Four Continents. How exactly could those results be used as proof that it was a mistake to pick Ashley for the team?
I think like an investor, so those results are subpar for the major risk that they took for her. This was the Olympics and also the most watched sport in the Olympics. When they made that decision, all the positive buzz about the ladies event was cast under this controversy. Her sponsors were attacked as though they had anything to do with the decision. The decision cost companies a lot of money.
Ashley needed to redeem herself. The selection committee chose her because they believed she could win a bronze medal based on her GPF results. The only way she could banish the controversy would be to finish just off the podium, like Mirai did. She did not. Which made the criticism go on and make USFS still look bad years later. For instance, last year during the Gabby selection controversy, Ashley defended Gabby on twitter. The savage "once in four year" viewers attacked her and declared she stole Mirai's spot. Two years after the fact! Most of these viewers did not know she just won a worlds silver medal or how much she had improved. And those viewers unfortunately count more than us skating fans that constantly watch.
The increased ratings and attention equate to more money for advertisers and skaters. If we can't have winners in ladies, they just want nice buzz with relatively likable skaters that the audience can cheer for. They had that in Gracie. Ashley, OTOH, few people were cheering for because they didn't know her beyond that awful nationals performance. After all, few Olympic viewers would watch the GP or worlds. So when they saw her lose relative to Gracie, Yulia, and Mao, they didn't see "top ten finish" they saw "loser." Which is fine if there is no controversy. However, when such a risk is taken better results are expected especially when she was perfectly healthy and competed just like everyone else unlike Michelle and Nancy.
None of these viewers know what 4CC is, so Mirai lackluster performance there doesn't matter. They just watched the Olympics and promptly moved on. While Mirai would've finished outside of the top ten, a loss is still a loss from viewers perspective. Worse, they were the same viewers that saw Mirai finish fourth in 2010, so Mirai was better known than Emily and Michelle were and made the backlash was far worse. Corporate investors didn't want their company's name to go down during the second most important advertising event of they year. NBC was probably irritated at the potential loss of ratings because potential fans had been turned off by the decision. USFS was hurt not only by losing potential investors and viewers, but also potential skaters as well. From a financial perspective, it wasn't worth the risk.
This time, they have Nathan and his quads to focus on. NBC doesn't need to focus on ladies as much as last time. They don't need a "potential" bronze medal from ladies. They don't want a controversy clouding over the Olympics. They will most likely go with the top three and save themselves the headache.
However, Ashley's PCS scores are so high, I doubt she'll fall out of the top three again.
.
