The Skate America
“Bubble” By Terri Milner Tarquini Photos by Jay Adeff/U.S. Figure Skating
T
he 2020 Skate America in-person competition was a victory for Mariah Bell, Nathan Chen, Alexa Scimeca Knierim and Brandon Frazier, and Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue, but it was especially a victory for the sport of figure skating. November 10 was 14 days after the skaters, coaches, officials and staff left Las Vegas and the tracking window closed, reporting zero positive COVID cases. The Skate America “bubble” was a success. “There’s a big sigh of relief,” said Bob Dunlop, Senior Director of Events for U.S. Figure Skating. “We knew we could do it, but to actually do it — and do it completely safely — is a wonderful feeling.” Skate America, with a 60-skater maximum entry, was the perfect sized competition to test the proof of bubble concept, which had to be approved by the Nevada Gaming Control Board, as the Orleans Arena is adjacent to the hotel and considered casino property. “The bubble took shape with private rooms and walkways Gracie Gold waits to take the ice
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and elevators,” Dunlop said. “It was approved and came to fruition and there has been wonderful feedback.” Master-rated Tammy Gambill, a coach of over 30 years currently at the Broadmoor Arena in Colorado, had three competitors at the event: Karen Chen, Camden Pulkinen, and Audrey Shin. “The amount of work that had to go into making it happen is astronomical,” said Gambill, the U.S. Figure Skating/PSA Developmental Coach of the Year in 2017. “Everyone did such an amazing job.” The overview version of the bubble was this: athletes, coaches and officials were each picked up at the airport and transported to the arena, where COVID tests were administered and boxed meals were picked out. From there, participants used elevators and a walkway that was specifically set aside for Skate America to get to their rooms, where they waited until their test results came back negative. After that was established, there were masks and social distancing and temperatures taken to enter the arena and an app to disclose any symptoms. “It was all so well-organized, and the kids were so excited to be there and so thankful to have the opportunity to compete,” Gambill said. “They even had clapping and audience noise so there wasn’t just silence when they finished their routines. I can’t say enough about how U.S. Figure Skating pulled this off. The fact that they made it happen is mindboggling. And there was never a second that I didn’t feel safe and comfortable being there.” With no spectators allowed and only athletes under the age of 18 able to have a chaperone present, skaters performed in front of a cut-out “audience,” that even included the Geico gecko — and a judging panel that looked different from previous Skate Americas. “While the technical panel is assigned by the ISU, usually the judging panel is a true international panel, with one judge from each represented country,” Dunlop said. “But we decided that the Grand Prix series would have to be a domestic-only event, so no international judges and an all-U.S. Figure Skating officials’ panel. The only participants from abroad were a few international skaters who live and train in the U.S.”
