Bradie Tennell and Karen Chen will represent the United States in the women’s competition at the 2021 World Figure Skating Championships, scheduled for March 22-28 in Stockholm.
Three men, three ice dance teams and two pairs’ teams will be named by U.S. Figure Skating on Sunday.
Tennell and Chen head to Stockholm with the goal of earning the U.S. the maximum three women’s spots for the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics. They can do that if their placements combine to equal 13 or lower.
FIGURE SKATING NATIONALS: Full Results | TV Schedule
Chen, 21, faced the same pressure four years ago and delivered. She was fourth at the 2017 worlds, helping secure three spots for the 2018 Winter Olympics.
She and Tennell went on to make that Olympic team, along with Mirai Nagasu. Chen has not competed at worlds since; she was named to the 2018 team but withdrew following the Olympics.
This is the third world championships for Tennell, 22, who was sixth at her senior worlds debut in 2018, then seventh in 2019. She made the 2020 world team but the event was cancelled just days prior to the start, at the onset of the coronavirus pandemic.
On Saturday night, she became the first woman in more than a century to win national titles three or more years apart.
Amber Glenn earned the silver medal at nationals, but was passed up for the world team by Chen based on their bodies of work over the past year, which includes Chen outscoring Glenn at this season’s Skate America, as well as the 2020 Four Continents Figure Skating Championships and 2020 U.S. Championships.
This is the first time the selected women’s world team did not follow nationals results (for age-eligible skaters) in a non-Olympic year since 2008, when Katrina Hacker was bypassed in favor of 2006 World champion Kimmie Meissner.
Glenn was named first alternate, followed by Skate America champion Mariah Bell and Skate America bronze medalist Audrey Shin, pending minimum required score.
OlympicTalk is on Apple News. Favorite us!
