Figure Skater Ashley Wagner Rips Into Judges Over Olympic Team Snub

Ashley Wagner is 'furious' after her low scores at the U.S. figure skating championships, missing [...]

By Daniel S. Levine

Ashley Wagner is "furious" after her low scores at the U.S. figure skating championships, missing the cut for the U.S. Olympic team.

After her free skate to music from La La Land, Wagner thought she gave a good performance. But the judges awarded her a 130.85 score, and Karen Chen bumped her out of third place.

"I'm furious, I am absolutely furious," Wagner told reporters after seeing the score, reports the Associated Press. "I know when I go and I lay it down and I absolutely left one jump on the table, but for me to put out two programs that I did at this competition as solid as I skated and to get those scores, I am furious, and I think deservedly so. I am a performer and that second mark is just not there. I am absolutely OK with them being strict on my rotations. That's what I think that U.S. Figure Skating should demand of their judges but it needs to be across the board. I don't necessarily feel like it's been that way at this event, so we'll see how things pan out."

Hours after the championships, U.S. Figure Skating officials announced that the team headed to PyongChang, South Korea includes National Champion Bradie Tennell, Miari Nagasu and Chen, notes the Washington Post. Nagasu last went to the Olympics in 2010. Wagner was named first alternate.

The 26-year-old Wagner won a bronze medal in Sochi in 2014 in the Team competition. That year, she needed a special waiver to make the team. She won the national championships in 2012, 2013 and 2015, and also picked up a silver medal in the 2016 World Championships.

Wagner hoped to make the team as one of the oldest U.S. figure skaters to make the Olympics.

"To be a 26-year-old woman on the ice is an achievement in this sport because you're working against a lot of different things," she told PEOPLE in November. "If I got to Pyeongchang, I will be the oldest U.S. female figure skating athlete since 1924 or something like that — so I think it really goes to show that my longevity is something that's very, very rare. And I'm really proud of that, and it's because I'm so freakin' stubborn."

"Out of my eleven senior nationals, this is the one I'm most proud of. It has been a long and winding road to get to this point, and I am going home at peace with the moment I made for myself. Thank you San Jose," Wagner wrote on Instagram Saturday.

The 2018 Winter Olympics kick off in PyongChang on Feb. 9.

Photo credit: Matthew Stockman/Getty Images

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