Second, and the quest for first
There’s no shame, none whatsoever, in finishing second in the United States, in making the world championship team, in showing the consistency it’s going to take to be a serious contender at the 2010 Winter Olympics.
But — second is not first. Especially when first was there for the taking.
“There are definitely things to work on and things to improve and I’m looking forward to doing it,” Rachael Flatt was saying on the telephone after finishing second Saturday night at the U.S. Figure Skating championships in Cleveland.
Alissa Czisny won. She built a big lead in Thursday’s short program, then did just enough in the free skate to stay on top. Caroline Zhang took third.
Czisny, who is 21, has long been the picture of gracefulness on ice. To watch her is to appreciate artistry in skating. It’s easy to understand why, as my colleague Phil Hersh pointed out in the Chicago Tribune, virtually everyone in the U.S. figure skating community was rooting for her Saturday night.
Czisny is a senior at Bowling Green and so she was skating Saturday close to home. More, she’s model beautiful. Besides, her favorite celebrity is Audrey Hepburn, and who wants to admit they’re not rooting for that? Nobody doesn’t like Audrey Hepburn.
Never before, however, had Czisny been able to put it together when it counted.
Last year, for instance, she finished ninth. These were her eighth nationals. In all those years, the best she had done before had been a third, once, in 2007.
Czisny’s skate Saturday night was hardly perfect. She fell on a triple lutz. A planned triple toe loop-triple toe combo ended up a double-double.
But it was enough, Czisny finishing with 178.06 points, more than four points ahead of Flatt, the 2008 world junior champion.
Czisny skated last Saturday night, and after the scores were posted, she smiled a big, big smile as her longtime coach, Julianne Berlin, hugged her.
“Throughout the years, there’s been a lot of disappointments and hard times,” Czisny told the Associated Press. “I think I’ve been able to take all of them and learn from them. It’s made me a better person, it’s made me a better skater and I think I’ve learned a lot, a lot about life.”
Flatt, the 2008 world junior champion, now 16, a native Californian who now trains in Colorado Springs, skated clean. But there just wasn’t enough there there — not enough zip.
Why? No good reason, she said afterward.
Here’s the thing, though, and all but lost in all the understandable focus immediately afterward on Czisny is this — Flatt has now finished twice two years in a row.
Maybe Czisny now sustains the maturity she obviously displayed in Cleveland to and through the world championships in Los Angeles in March and beyond, to Vancouver. You can bet that many will be rooting for her, again.
“I’m very happy for her,” Flatt said, adding, “It’s a great honor for her to have won nationals this year.”
At the national and Olympic level, however, what matters the most in any sport is composure and consistency.
Just a little bit more life Saturday night, and maybe Rachael Flatt would be your national champion.
Just a little bit more in March, and who knows?
“Definitely,” Rachael Flatt said, “I will train very hard going into the worlds.”