Ashley Wagner Displaced By Bradie Tennell On US Olympic Figure Skating Team
By all accounts, Ashley Wagner was (and still is) one of the top two or three figure skaters in the US. However, Wagner has been displaced by Bradie Tennell on the US Olympic Figure Skating team, and that’s not sitting well with various critics of the Olympic selection process. Apparently, even though the 26-year-old Wagner is a 3-time national champion, won Silver in the 2016 Worlds, and took home a Bronze in the 2014 Winter Games, the selection committee has shifted its focus of what kind of performers the US team needs to beat the heavily favored Russian (or Olympic Athletes of Russia) team. Specifically, the US squad needs big jumpers.
To that end, in the final qualifiers for the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympics, Wagner – who has an unimpugnable all-around game – lost out to three better leapers, most notably the 19-year-old Tennell. Tennell easily won her qualifiers and is an eminently gifted jumper. As jumps seem to be the core of Figure Skating in these Olympic Games, Wagner found herself on the short end of the stick.
Interestingly, even with renewed focus on aerial ability, Bradie Tennell is not present on any of Bet365’s or Bovada’s boards for olympic betting odds, where the only American listed is teammate Karen Chen (at +30000 odds). Of course, if you want to bet on Tennell to podium, these books will allow custom wagers on request, so you can still likely get excellent terms on such a longshot gamble. And frankly, if Tennell does in PyeongChang what she did at the US qualifiers, she’s likely to bring home some serious hardware.