2008 Nationals - Not a great night for Kimmie

Posted on Sunday, January 27th, 2008 at 3:12 am

Every cloud has a silver lining.

Coming into the free skate over 12 points behind leader Mirai Nagasu, Kimmie needed a spectacular performance — or her competitors to slip up — in order to successfully defend her 2007 title.

Neither of those scenarios occured. Actually, the opposite took place in St. Paul. Most others skated flawless or near-flawless programs, whereas Kimmie hit the ice 3 times during her program. As a result, she finished 7th overall after a combined score of 157.56.

Nagasu took the 2008 title with a total of 190.41 points, followed by Rachael Flatt (188.73), Ashley Wagner (188.56), Caroline Zhang (173.16), BeBe Liang (164.87), and Katrina Hacker (158.28).

With Nationals also serving as a selection meet for the World Champs, there came a new challenge for US Figure Skating. Three of the top 4 finishers are not old enough to compete according to ISU rules. This leaves the US Figure Skating governing body with the tough choice of who would represent the United States.

If you look at the finishers, there were 3 skaters ahead of Kimmie that met the age requirement for Worlds, but US Figure Skating likely decided that her track record at the competition (2006 Champion) and overall international credentials were enough to choose her for the US team over Hacker. Simply put, her leadership and experience is invaluable to the US team.

Joining Kimmie at the 2008 World Championships in Gothenburg, Sweden, are Ashley Wagner and Bebe Liang.

Here is a statement from Kimmie regarding her performance at Nationals:

“I didn’t have a good competition here, which is very unfortunate. I’m so upset. I need to think about what I did here and why, and I need to fix it.”

The announcers continued to point out that Kimmie has had some sort of ankle injury over the past few months or so that she had been keeping under wraps. Maybe it affected her performance. Maybe it didn’t. One thing is sure: Kimmie isn’t blaming her performance on an injury. She cites lack of execution.

In any case, I’d like to say to her “KEEP YOUR HEAD UP, KIMMIE!” As her fans, we know she’ll bounce back from this and continue to represent herself, her family, and her country well; like she always does.

ETA: I’ll see if I can add video of her skates tomorrow.