Brilliance at nationals unsurprisingly not enough to earn Ilia Malinin an Olympic spot
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Ilia Malinin in an expressive moment during his free skate. (U.S. Figure Skating photo)
Nathan Chen won his sixth straight national figure skating championship Sunday, a feat unmatched since Dick Button won his sixth of seven straight in 1951.
Ilia Malinin finished second, but he upstaged Chen and everyone else in the competition, both in the short program and the free skate.
That Malinin’s two stunning performances still did not earn the 17-year-old a place on the U.S. team for next month’s Winter Olympics in Beijing was not really surprising, given selection criteria that broadly favored results in senior level events the past two seasons.
In a decision complicated by the free skate performances in Nashville, the U.S. Figure Skating selection committee gave the three men’s singles spots to Chen, Vincent Zhou and Jason Brown.
“I think all three of us have really shown over the past two years why we deserve this spot,” Chen said.
Chen, 22, and Zhou, 21, finished fifth and sixth, respectively, at the 2018 Olympics. Brown, 27, was ninth in 2014 but did not make the team in 2018. They were 1-2-3 at last year’s nationals, and each has been on senior international podiums this season.
