Coach Julia Lautowa with Lindsey Thorngren
What Happened In Las Vegas Actually Happened BY KENT MCDILL Photos by Melanie Heaney Nathan Chen coached by Rafael Arutyunyan
T
here can be no underselling or soft-pedaling of the reaction to the U.S. Figure Skating Championships held in Las Vegas Jan 11-21, 2021: They were considered triumphant in both substance and style. The substance was the skating, which, in the eyes of all who attended,
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was as skillful and artistic as any that had come before. The style was unique due to the cautions surrounding the existence of the coronavirus, but, in the eyes of those who were allowed to attend, the event went off without a hitch. PSA interviewed half a dozen participants, from officials to coaches,
to describe what turned out to be an event so successfully conducted it created within those in attendance the belief that figure skating can and will proceed in 2021 in the new-normal environment the coronavirus demands.
