U.S. figure skater Ashley Wagner changed her long program less than one month before the Olympics.
Wagner, the 2012 and 2013 U.S. champion, struggled at the Grand Prix Final in December and the U.S. Championships two weeks ago, her last two events.
She finished fourth at the U.S. Championships and was placed on the three-woman Olympic Team. Third place Mirai Nagasu was left off.
“If I had not skated poorly at Nationals I wouldn’t have been able to change a program that wasn’t going to get me far in Sochi,” Wagner said.
She’s reverting her long program music from “Romeo and Juliet” to “Samson and Delilah,” which she used in 2012-13, when she won her first two Grand Prix series events and was second at the Grand Prix Final.
“I told my coach the night they picked the Olympic Team that we needed to change this program because it was something I struggled with all season,” Wagner said. “I just couldn’t connect with the Juliet character, the program made me nervous. I was terrified. I didn’t feel confident stepping out onto the ice.”
The skate setup will stay the same.
“My coach let me change the music if we didn’t completely re-do the skate itself,” she said.
Wagner will also revert to a similar yellow free skate costume she wore last season.
“I feel like now I’m really going to be a name to watch, I really feel that,” she said.
