U.S. Olympic Figure Skating Lineup Set, Here Are The Surprises
The U.S. Figure Skating Championships ended Sunday in San Jose, Calif., with some new champions in place and, even more significantly, an Olympic team.
Fourteen skaters in individual, pairs and dance categories will travel to South Korea next month to try to bolster America's sterling reputation in one of the Olympics' most popular sports.
Since 1908, when figure skating was first contested at the Olympics — strangely enough at the Summer Games — the United States has won 49 total medals — second only to perennial figure skating power Russia (and the Soviet Union before that).
Here are six things to know about the skaters and teams heading to the Olympics.
The sure thing: Nathan Chen
Eighteen-year-old Nathan Chen was excited to be named to his first Olympic team. Really. He was.
Even though Chen dominated the men's competition, winning his second straight U.S. title; even though he's ranked fifth in. Even with all those evens, when he got the text before he went to bed Saturday, telling him he'd made it, Chen was "so, so, excited to be part of this team."
