Figure Skating | 2020 Guaranteed Rate Skate America Recap

While COVID-19 has made sporting events few and far between in 2020, figure skating fans were finally treated to an international Grand Prix event with this year's Skate America held in Las Vegas.

With travel restrictions, 2020's competition wasn't the international fete is normally is with the world's best traveling to compete in hopes of becoming one of the top six in the series to compete in the final. Instead, it was a uniquely American affair that brought with it a weird combination of being simultaneously uneventful as well as controversial. Unlike the dueling Russia Cup taking place in Sochi where drama and technical merit went together hand in hand, Skate America proudly called out from a field of creepy cardboard spectators... "Drama! But make it BEIGE, BLAND, and BORING."

The problem with these international competitions being mostly domestically held, is that you are bringing all of the usual family dysfunction along for the ride. Imagine a party where everyone is invited, but there's a snowstorm, and only your weird family shows up because it's being held at your house with only a couple of outsiders with four wheel drive showing up. Suddenly, instead of a party, someone complaining loudly about the shrimp dip being nothing like Grandma's leads to a fight about who she intentionally left out of the will, and your aunt leaves in tears after having too much to drink.

Yes, it's that boring, but like a bored neighbor, you have your ear up to the wall because you're so starved for entertainment anything will do.

Welcome to Pandemic Skate America, folks.

We begin with the ladies event where there isn't much to highlight. 2014 Olympian Gracie Gold started off both the short and long programs, making all of us shift in our seats uncomfortably because this seems like a personal journey we should not be privy to, and almost exploitative in a way. It's as if drawing in viewers has been paid for with the currency of watching someone get crushed by the weight of six years of unmet expectations. Skating pundits will then spend the next two days putting on their hair shirts, wringing their hands, and begin flogging themselves while screaming at the sky, "WE ARE JUST SO CONCERRRRNED ABOUT GRACIE!" Are you though? Are you? Because seeing her name glues her to your screen to get every drop of tea you can. That's not love of sport. That's reality television.

My outrage at outright exploitation aside, the top five wound up being exactly who we thought they would be with the exception of junior Audrey Shin making a splash and ending up with the bronze medal overtaking 2018 Olympian Karen Chen.

The incredibly bland manufactured rivalry of Americans Mariah Bell and Bradie Tennell was the headline with Mariah giving the judges the bland, inoffensive 'that's nice' skate that has kept American women's figure skating stuck in 1998. Mariah is lovely, cherubic, and 'nice' to watch. She had two safe and uneventful skates, but she's not really bringing anything exciting to the table with a forgettable short program and a Carnival Cruise inspired ABBA long program that leaves you a pile of whatevers when it's over.

The story here is that the judges have clearly anointed Mariah Bell as the number one US Woman, not because she's the best hope for Olympic glory in Beijing next year... it's because there was one cookie cutter stamped out in 1968, and Bell is the the one USFS can jam into the mold with the least resistance.

Bradie Tennell is the better and more consistent skater looking at the entire body of work of the ladies' field. She's been an Olympian, a Grand Prix finalist in a deep international field, and it's safe to assume that with her and Bell's combined efforts had there been a World Championship last year, Tennell's consistency and technical merit would have brought the U.S. back to three spots at the World Championships in 2021.

The judges began the competition's theme of, "We don't know quite what to do with you, so we will discard you," with Tennell's skates. Tennell is what could best be described as a hard working technician. She gets the job done, but she lacks a verve, a juuush, to market to the masses. There isn't a smile, an emotional connection, or a moment that makes you stand up and clap when she skates. She's a blonde girl from the midwest you can count on, so when she isn't living up to her label, she doesn't get the benefit of the doubt. It's an American sensibility that holds this sport back. Instead of using sport to advance marketing, marketing is being used to save sport. The judges will elevate an inferior skater that gives us the feels, smiles, and skates to a corny toe tapper.

Eteri Tuberidze could never, and that's why Russia is the force it is.

The men weren't showstoppers, either. Quad Bae, Nathan Chen went out there in rumpled business casual costumes, and delivered the jumps in completely milquetoast programs like he was completing an obligation. Skate America, done. There was a bit of curiosity on what the judges would do in the case of Vincent Zhou and Canadian Keegan Messing. Both Zhou and Messing are comfortably in the top ten internationally, but where Tennell was punished in the ladies program for being formulaic, Zhou was rewarded with clearly under-rotated jumps and spins that couldn't match the quality of Messing's. The U.S. men's field is a little clearer cut than the ladies with the top three basically being Chen, Jason Brown, and Zhou since the 2018 Olympics. The depth chart of American men doesn't have the depth chart of the women with the potential of a dark horse like Karen Chen, Amber Glenn, and Audrey Shin to play spoiler. Vincent Zhou gets the push because there is literally no one else. Every other U.S. man in the field is a hand grenade sitting on a land mine.

Ice Dance didn't have a deep field, and the only placement up for grabs was the bronze medal between Parsons/Green and Carreira/Ponomarenko with the latter pulling off the upset. Gold medalists Hubble and Donohue won the gold they were expected in spite of a horribly packaged Rythm Dance to 'Burlesque' that showcased Hubble in a ghastly 1980's Barbie inspired gold lame nightmare with bad hair extensions that distracted the eye from the wonderful skating product they had on the ice. An albatross this team has carried with them the last three seasons. They have a knack for mixing all the right ingredients, but something always makes the cake fall.

Silver medalists Hayawek and Baker look to be solidly improving, and have cemented themselves as the number three American ice dance team for another season barring huge improvements from the 3rd and 4th place teams this year. They're putting their money on their experience and maturity closing the door behind them, and so far, it's a good bet.

Finally, let's talk pairs, because that's where we got the real drama, and by drama, I mean, beige paint drying in a beige room American drama where we set out our cookie cutters, and whomever fits the best into them will get the advantage. However, where this is a more subtle art by American judges, this yoke placed on fourth place finishers Ashley Cain-Gribble and Tim LeDuc was so egregious, even NBC analyst Johnny Weir spoke out about in on air.

Cain-Gribble and LeDuc turned in two slightly flawed performances technically, but even to the untrained eye, they should have been an easy bronze medal. However, a downgraded triple salchow for Cain-Gribble that on replay was perfectly fine, set them back enough in the standings that they could not make up the ground from solid preformances given by newcomers Lu and Mitrofanov.

Cain-Gribble and LeDuc have always been the excited theater kids of the US pairs bunch. They live out loud on social media, and with Cain-Gribble standing a very tall 5'6", they do not look like other pairs teams foreign or domestic. When the field wasn't deep the last two seasons, they were able to capture the spotlight and make a name for themselves, but now with two new teams in Calalang/Johnson and Scimeca-Knierim/Frazier that fit into that USFS cookie cutter much better, and likely only two pairs spots available for the Beijing games, Cain-Gribble and LeDuc have outlived their usefulness, and now their uniqueness has become garishness in the judges' eyes, and it was reflected in their placement here.

That being said, the excitement for the top two teams is not undeserved or unwarranted. While gold medalists Scimeca-Knierim and Frazier have only been training together a matter of months, both come from teams who have Olympic and international experience that's translating well from the start. While again, they are rather sterile from a style standpoint, there is potential there on the international stage. Oh! And they fit into those American cookie cutters stamped out in 1968. Win-win. Their win was not undeserved here, but it wasn't a showstopper.

Calalang and Johnson also deserved their silver medal here, but there were light years between their polish and style against the technical flubs they experienced. This is a team having that unique problem of being ready to step into the spotlight as the top U.S. pairs team, but also having the growing pains of becoming elite. Something Scimeca- Knierim and Frazier have already gone through, even though it was apart. Experience counts for a lot in pairs, no matter where you get it.

So while 2020 Skate America was a bit of an odd snoozefest and a head scratcher, it was definitely a salve to skating fans who have been hungry for something... anything... that resembled a real international skating competition. Unfortunately, American dysfunction came along for the ride, and only served to shine a bright light on how far behind this country has fallen and continues to fall in the international skating world with old cookie cutters and ideas.