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<\/a><\/p>\n\u201cI’m pleased with my performances here in this competition, but obviously I would like to have a higher degree of difficulty in my programs,\u201d Trusova told the media, through a translator, in the post-event press conference.<\/p>\n
She included only one quadruple jump in her free skate, a quad lutz that she landed forward and with a bent free leg, the impact of her landing likely affecting her injured foot. While a quad lutz might be a feat for other skaters in both the women\u2019s and the men\u2019s event, it was a watered-down program for Trusova, who is the first female skater to land the quad lutz, flip, and toe loop in competition.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I came here to this competition, we wanted to skate with three quads, but it didn\u2019t really work because of my injury, and I did not,\u201d she said. \u201cI lost a lot of practice time. So I skated this program with one quad for the very first time today.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 2021 World Bronze Medalist said she would take a few days to recover and then get back to training. She competes next at the NHK Trophy in Japan in three weeks.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m a little bit upset about my free skate because not everything worked out, but I am happy with my results,\u201d Usacheva said, through a translator.<\/p>\n The third Russian competitor, Kseniia Sinitsyna, was in third place after the short and it looked like there might be a Russian sweep, but four-time South Korean National Champion Young You vaulted up from fifth place after the short for the bronze medal.<\/p>\n You took a hard fall on her triple axel in the short, sliding into the boards, but she landed it in her free skate. It was called with a q, meaning it was a quarter rotation short and received full base value, but negative grades of execution from the judges. \u201cToday, I think the triple Axel was a little \u2018q\u2019 and my other triples were little \u2018q\u2019 but I’m still happy that I didn\u2019t do a big mistake in my free program, so I’m happy with that,\u201d You told reporters in English during the press conference. \u201cBut I think I need to work more on my nervous system when I get nervous and I do mistakes, so that’s my next goal for the next competition.<\/p>\n Amber Glenn of Team USA practiced her triple axel at this event but did not include it in competition. She finished in sixth place, but earned new international personal best scores in both the free skate and total score. It was the first time Glenn exceeded 130 points in a free skate and 200 points overall in international competition.<\/p>\n She earned well over that number on home ice at the 2021 U.S. Nationals (scores are often elevated at domestic events in all countries), held on the same ice surface where she delivered her solid free skate here at Skate America, the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas.<\/p>\n \u201cI went out there, I got the job done. I did, not even as much as I do in practice, but pretty close to it. And knowing that I\u2019ve done this more than one time in this arena brings me more confidence into the rest of the season,\u201d Glenn said. \u201cAnd then off course, breaking that point target internationally for the first time, it really makes me feel like I\u2019m up there and it\u2019s not just, \u2018Oh she got second at Nationals, she did this in her own country.\u2019 I know I can hold my own internationally and this is just a taste of that. That\u2019s not even all I have to offer.\u201d<\/p>\n Glenn added that she is \u201chugely focused on consistency\u201d in light of the body-of-work qualification requirements for the U.S. Olympic Team. She\u2019ll compete against Trusova again at the NHK Trophy.<\/p>\n Starr Andrews of Team USA finished in 10th<\/sup><\/span> place; she found out that she\u2019d be replacing an injured Bradie Tennell at this event on Sunday, Oct. 19, just five days before the short program.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019d been given a head\u2019s up, but it wasn\u2019t sure. I got the official call Sunday, so it was a very quick turnaround for me, but I\u2019d been training really hard already so it wasn\u2019t hard to adjust,\u201d Andrews said.<\/p>\n In the short, she performs to her own cover of \u201cAt Last,\u201d and her free skate is set to \u201cBigger\u201d and \u201cI Was Here\u201d performed by Beyonce.<\/p>\n \u201cSometimes I forget I\u2019m skating to my singing because I\u2019ve been training that program for awhile now, so it\u2019s normal for me to hear it a couple times a day,\u201d Andrews said after the short program in the mixed zone. After the free skate, where she earned a new international personal best, FSO asked to hear more about her music choices for the season.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve always wanted to sing my short and this year was the perfect year to do that. My coach played \u2018At Last\u2019 and instantly, I was like, this is definitely my choice for my short this year because it is just perfect. And the music didn\u2019t have to be cut at all, all of the lyrics are still in the song and I thought that was also very, very cool,\u201d Andrews said. \u201cMy long program, I wanted to skate to \u2018Bigger\u2019 since last season, since COVID year, but I already had a program so I was like, OK, we can save this program for next year\u2026the song wasn\u2019t long enough to be a whole long, so I knew that I had to mix it with something\u2026and then my coach brought up the song \u2018I Was Here\u2019 and this meshes perfect and it really worked out. This year my music choices were not hard to pick because we both had stuff in mind already.\u201d<\/p>\n For more from 2021 Skate America, check out our event page<\/span><\/a> and photo galleries<\/span><\/a>!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Maura Sullivan Hill, Team FSO staff writer On Friday night, the word was that Alexandra \u201cSasha\u201d Trusova wouldn\u2019t be able to compete at 2021 Skate America, due to a nagging foot injury in her landing foot. By Sunday night, she was wearing the gold medal, her third career Grand Prix gold. \u201cI’m pleased with…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23791,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,289],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23790","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gp","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/figureskatersonline.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23790","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/figureskatersonline.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/figureskatersonline.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/figureskatersonline.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/figureskatersonline.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23790"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/figureskatersonline.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23790\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23800,"href":"https:\/\/figureskatersonline.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23790\/revisions\/23800"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/figureskatersonline.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23791"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/figureskatersonline.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23790"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/figureskatersonline.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23790"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/figureskatersonline.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23790"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a>Fellow Russian Daria Usacheva, competing in her first senior international event, took the silver medal. She was behind Trusova by less than a point after a stellar short program to the song \u201cNever Enough\u201d from \u201cThe Greatest Showman\u201d movie, but she finished fourth in the free skate after stepping out of a triple flip in a planned triple-triple combination. Her triple lutz-euler-triple salchow combination was a highlight of the second half of the program.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n