She’s tough enough

Coach Pam Gregory has used one word to describe Kimmie Meissner all week at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships: tough.

Meissner proved her coach right on Saturday afternoon before an Arena crowd of 10,393 and made Championship Ladies history in the process.

Meissner’s hand touched the ice as she landed her first jump, a miscue that forced her to back out of a planned triple-triple combination and forego a shot at some points.

Yet it turned out to be a good decision by the skater and the pivotal moment in the deciding free skate.

The move allowed Meissner to respond like the champion she is: regaining her composure, skating a clean program the rest of the way, and earning her first national title. She became the only woman since Barbara Roles in 1962 to complete the U.S. nationals triple crown: Novice, Junior and Senior champion.

Meissner, the reigning world champion, edged Emily Hughes by less than a point (181.68-180.86). She was sure she could still win the event if she kept going through her program and finished strongly. It was a self-confidence rooted in personal experience.

“I train my programs a lot,” said Meissner, 17, of Bel Air, Md., who trains at the nearby University of Delaware Figure Skating Club. “I train them to be perfect and I train them with little mistakes, so I’ve learned over the years to keep going.”

Gregory said she feels it is necessary to do things that way – to replicate the competitive environment.

“If you stop every time you make a mistake, what happens? You never know what’s going to happen under pressure. So, then she could have been in real trouble,” said Gregory.

On the podium at a post-event press conference, the further maturation of Meissner during this pressure-packed nationals week was evident. The classic All-American, girl-next-door type – who is also painfully shy at times under the spotlight – smiled broadly as she took in the scene.

She will lead a U.S. team of the top three finishers (Meissner, Hughes and third-place Alissa Czisny) into the worlds in March in Tokyo. She said she is ready to be the forerunner of a new generation of U.S. figure skaters, one without Michelle Kwan or Sasha Cohen.

“I’m just proud of her, so proud of her. Her hard work at home and hard training and mental toughness, even on a daily basis is what allowed her to win this competition,” said Gregory, who has coached Meissner to every title.

Resolve also helped.

The pressure of this nationals took its toll on nearly every other skater. Over the first two hours of competition, seemingly every skater took a fall or clunked an element of their program.

So, it all came down to the last five skaters; three of them delivered in a big way.

First came Czisny, who was fifth after the short program due to a fall. She mesmerized the audience with a program choreographed to excerpts from the “Sabrina” soundtrack. Dressed for the role and playing it well, she skated the program flawlessly and earned the only full-fledged standing ovation from the crowd.

Junior phenom Rachel Flatt, in her first nationals, came next and made up ground from her short program with an eye-catching effort to finish fifth. Katy Taylor, who entered the free skate fourth, was next and had a rough outing.

That set the stage for Meissner, first, then Hughes.

Hughes had a fall on the last jump of her otherwise inspired and fine program. She was hit with a 1.0 deduction which cost her the crown.

It was just another obstacle for Hughes, who entered the competition with an injured ankle and forgot her costume in her hotel room Saturday. Her coach, Bonnie Retzkin, had to make a shuttle trip from the Arena to a nearby hotel to retrieve it after the mistake was discovered just 20 minutes before Hughes was scheduled to skate.

“Drama … always drama,” said an emotionally and physically drained Retzkin.