The incredible Gracie Gold steps foot on the ice after taking a few years away from the sport, in order to support her mental health. She returns this year and is back on National level ice to perform. This is her comeback and underdog story, and she begins with this performance. Her short program consists of a triple lutz, triple toe combo followed by a triple loop, and a double axel. She is skating to “I Put A Spell On You” by Annie Lennox.
Her choreography to this program grabs everyone’s attention, as the mood is very sassy, and she does a perfect job of matching her body language to the music. Her opening jump is the triple lutz, triple toe combo. Unfortunately, she missed this jump on the 5 minute-warm up and fell. This may have gotten into her head because she turned the second jump into a double toe instead of a triple. She still did an amazing job of attempting it regardless. She has bold choreography that goes perfectly with her music, up through the triple loop. She sadly popped the jump and did a single rather than the triple. In the senior ladies category, it is essential to do a double or a triple in order to receive any points for the jump. This is considered an invalid element and is worth no points. She follows it up with a flying camel spin that is a level 4. Her footwork down the arena received a level 3, because of the amount of power and turns she had in a sequence to receive the level boosts. Her final jump pass is a double axel, and she lands it with ease and grace. It looked effortless for her to do. She does two amazing spins to finish her short program. The combination spin received a level 4, and her layback spin received a level 2.
It was a huge statement for her to stand there in front of everyone and perform again after such a long time away from the sport. It takes a lot of guts and bravery to come back out and do what you love to rewrite the way she finishes the sport when she so chooses so. However, everyone is so excited she is back out there performing for everyone. She wanted everyone to see a comeback and she went above and beyond to give a stunning one. She will always be an outstanding United States figure skater that puts in her all in every competition. There were many people that did not believe in her but she believed in herself and that in itself is a big statement. Her final score for the short program was 54.51. Her technical score was 25.59 and program component score was 28.92.
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