Brennan: Ashley Wagner still building on skill set

GREENSBORO, N.C. – At 23 ½, most female figure skaters are easing up a bit, jettisoning a tough triple jump or two from their repertoire after a decade of pounding out thousands of those jumps in practice.

Two-time U.S. national champion and 2014 Olympic team bronze medalist Ashley Wagner is 23 ½, but she will have none of that. In fact, she has decided to do just the opposite, adding the most difficult triple-triple combination jump most women do – the triple lutz-triple toe loop – to her short and long programs for the first time in her career.

That decision, combined with a relatively minor mistake from reigning national champion Gracie Gold, allowed Wagner to win the women's short program over Gold by more than five points Thursday night at the 2015 U.S. national figure skating championships.

Less than a point behind Gold in third place was Polina Edmunds. Those three -- Wagner, Gold and Edmunds – were in familiar territory. They were the three skaters who made the U.S. Olympic team for Sochi a year ago, and here they were again.

If there was a surprise, it was Wagner, who a year ago had to rely on her international resume and body of work to make the Olympic team when she skated poorly at the trials in Boston.

"It's really great to be standing in front of you guys and not having to explain myself," she said after her short program. "That's refreshing."

So too was her decision to up the ante – and the very real possibility to rack up more points – in her program, a decision that has its origins in last month's Grand Prix Final, when her strategy paid off and she finished a surprising third.

Wagner's coach, Rafael Arutunian, told her recently, "You're not like the other girls."

"I know, Raf, I'm old," Wagner replied.

"No, not even that, I teach you these things, you learn."

Said Wagner: "I'm so hungry to learn and improve. The whole reason why I'm with Raf is because I said, 'OK, I don't have a triple-triple combination, I have a flutz (a mistake on her lutz), I have problems. How am I going to fix it?

"The whole point of working with him is I want to improve. If I'm 23 and not improving, I'm wasting my time and I'm wasting the audience's time. So I'm doing my job."

Wagner won the 2012 and 2013 national titles, becoming the first woman since Michelle Kwan to win back-to-back national championships. Gold succeeded her last year when Wagner finished fourth but was voted onto the Olympic team.

This year's national title is still up for grabs in Saturday night's long program, but Wagner took a big step in that direction Thursday. Not only did she beat Gold technically when Gold turned the second triple jump of her combination into a double, Wagner scored slightly higher than Gold in the component (artistic) scores as well.

"I know technically what I'm capable of and I have seen girls skate those exact technical programs abroad and pull off those scores," Wagner said. "So that is what I'm expecting of myself."

Earlier this month, on a conference call with reporters, Wagner sounded the theme that has become her mantra this season.

"I am one of the older girls competing and 23 is not even close to old, but with 15-year-olds (in Russia and elsewhere) in this sport it makes you think another way. I'm a competitor. I don't like to get beat and I do not like to get beat by girls. I'm not just some decoration in the sport going to hang around to the bitter end."

Duly noted.

Follow Christine Brennan on Twitter @cbrennansports.