Bradie Tennell is asked to recall one memory from 2017 Skate America.
“Standing at the door for free program and looking into the arena and saying to myself, oh, it feels a bit like nationals,” she said.
Tennell returns this week to the event where she broke out last season. Before 2017 Skate America, Tennell had never competed on the top senior international level. She had finished sixth and ninth at two nationals appearances, spending a summer in a back brace in between. She was the dark horse for the three-woman Olympic team.
Then Tennell went 15 for 15 on her jumps at Skate America at the Lake Placid 1980 Olympic Arena on Thanksgiving weekend.