Rachael Flatt wins gold, Mirai Nagasu silver and Ashley Wagner bronze, Sasha Cohen denied a medal

Another exciting final as Rachael Flatt chalks up an extraordinarily powerful free skate to capture the gold by nearly 12 points. She had a command of the rink that I hadn't often seen in her performances.

Mirai Nagasu also looked good in her last skate, but it only got her third place in the free and the silver overall. Ashley Wagner, who was fourth after the short, posted a strong second place showing in the free skate, which as good enough for the bronze. And Sasha Cohen, the media darling of the entire event, just couldn't put it together for her last skate and finished fourth in both the free and overall.
RachaelFlattRock

More to come as I collect my thoughts, but below are the final results. Also, we spoke to Rachael just a few weeks ago in New York City when she skated on the Today Show. I've included an interview we did with her, as well as a slideshow of her performance that day. At the time, I described Rachael as winsome and wholesome -- a nice, smart high school senior who just now happens to be the US ladies figure skating champion. That's a nice thing to put on your college application, isn't it (and she seemed to me to be a high achiever academically as well as athletically).

Below are the results for the senior ladies after the short program. Note: SP=Short Program and FS=Free Skate. Points are the sum of the Total Element Score (TES) + Total Component Score (TCS). Think of the TES as the technical marks and the TCS as the artistic marks which take into account skating skills, footwork, performance, choreography and interpretation.


2010 US Figure Skating Championships Rank:

Rachael Flatt, Broadmoor SC

69.35

130.76

200.11
2

Mirai Nagasu, Pasadena FSC

70.06

118.72

188.78
3

Ashley Wagner, SC of Wilmington Inc

62.55

122.15

184.70
4

Sasha Cohen, Orange County FSC

69.63

104.65

174.28
5

Christina Gao, Northern Kentucky SC

56.26

100.27

156.53
6

Amanda Dobbs, Peninsula SC

56.11

94.61

150.72
7

Beatrisa Liang, All Year FSC

51.98

95.73

147.71
8

Alexe Gilles, Broadmoor SC

53.54

89.77

143.31
9

Emily Hughes, SC of New York Inc

53.75

86.85

140.60
10

Alissa Czisny, Detroit SC

54.18

86.19

140.37
11

Caroline Zhang, All Year FSC

49.94

88.33

138.27
12

Melissa Bulanhagui, Uni. of Delaware FSC

45.60

83.61

129.21
13

Becky Bereswill, Houston FSC

44.60

83.36

127.96
14

Samantha Cesario, SC of New York Inc

44.33

74.87

119.20
15

Laney Diggs, All Year FSC

42.87

71.51

114.38
16

Kristiene Gong, All Year FSC

48.11

64.81

112.92
17

Blake Rosenthal, SC of Wilmington Inc

43.43

68.99

112.42
18

Chelsea Morrow, Greater Grand Rapids FSC

46.35

65.38

111.73
19

Christina-Maria Sperduto, St Paul FSC

31.62

78.27

109.89
20

Tatyana Khazova, Broadmoor SC

41.63

67.26

108.89
21

Ellie Kawamura, All Year FSC

33.51

69.82

103.33
22

Rebecca Stern, University of Delaware FSC

32.49

64.73

97.22
*

Kayla Howey, DuPage FSC

35.59

NA

Withdrew