Skate America: What we learned

LAKE PLACID, N.Y. - After three days of skating at Herb Brooks Arena, here's what we learned from the competition.

Lysacek leads murky mix of American men
Entering an Olympic season as the reigning world champion might make a skater feel pressure to prove himself again with every performance. But the title appears to agree with Evan Lysacek, whose comfort level is evident as he steadily builds from one event to the next. In Lake Placid, Lysacek once again posted a score above 230, improving on his China total by about five points, to win his first Skate American title. The result maintains his place in the top tier of men's skating, while leaving room for improvement at the Grand Prix Final and beyond. Lysacek's approach might aptly be called the patient pursuit of perfection - and he says he will need to be perfect to win in Vancouver. While Lysacek is considered a lock to make the U.S. team, very few people would say the same of Ryan Bradley - including Ryan Bradley. He knows he has to take risks to be noticed and those risks paid off in the form of a bronze medal after he landed two quads and earned a standing ovation for a delightfully humorous Amadeus free skate. Bradley lacks the polish and intricate in-between skating of Johnny Weir or Jeremy Abbott, but if he lands multiple quads at Nationals while the others struggle to land even one, and is as entertaining as he was this weekend, an upset is possible. Meanwhile his Colorado Springs training mate, Brandon Mroz, has been unable so far this season to find the form that won him the U.S. silver medal last January. He was third after landing a quad in the short program, but plummeted to eighth overall with an 11th-place showing in the free skate. At Cup of Russia, Mroz had the opposite problem but nearly the same result. He was 11th in the short program and fourth in the free to finish seventh.

Yu-Na is human
After Kim Yu-Na's rock star of a short program - in front of an adoring audience on Saturday that made Herb Brooks Arena feel more like a concert in Seoul than a figure skating competition in Lake Placid - the coronation was almost instant. The biggest Olympic gold medal favorite in decades, she was being called. Her scores - several people pointed out - were more in line with those of the top men than the ladies she was competing against. The topic of conversation wasn't whether she would win this event - or the Vancouver Games, for that matter - but by how much. On Sunday, however, Kim struggled with her triple flip in the six-minute warmup - as she had often in practice- and sure enough, she went down on it in the free skate. The fall was far from her only mistake in a program where the reigning world champion managed only three clean triple jumps. Kim needs to get her flip under control - she also balked on it at the Paris Grand Prix - especially because she already opts out of another triple, the loop. She may have a soaring triple-triple combination, but she's maxing out at six triples and filling jumping passes with double Axels as it is. That said, Kim still won the event. Easily. And she is still the runaway favorite for Olympic gold. The short program showed Kim at her best - technical mastery topped of with the sizzling self-assurance that comes from owning one's superstardom. Perfection has come to be expected of Kim. Come February, making a few errors at Skate America may seem like the best thing that could have happened to her.

Flatt still a front-runner
Over the past two seasons, the most reliable skater among the American ladies has been Rachael Flatt. She won two silver medals at the U.S. Championships, a world junior title, and last season she was the highest U.S. finisher, fifth, at the world championships. But the 17-year-old looked sluggish at her season opener in China, finishing fourth, while another American, Ashley Wagner, skated with attack to win medals at each of her events. Flatt quieted talk of a momentum shift by demonstrating in Lake Placid the traits that have been key to her success so far: consistency and confidence. She went for a triple-triple in the short program, something the other U.S. ladies - and Flatt herself last season - have backed off for fear of downgrades. She fell on the attempt, but got full credit for rotating the jumps, and got up to deliver a personality-packed program with improved energy. Then Flatt came back in Sunday's free skate and went after the triple-triple again. This time she landed it, along with five more triples, for a clean seven-triple performance that was good enough to beat Kim in that phase of the competition. Flatt's total score, 174.91, was about 11 points higher than Wagner's Grand Prix best, and only two women - Kim and Japan's Akiko Suzuki - have scored higher this season.

Shen and Zhao aren't just the sentimental favorites
This season has been about comebacks, and none has been more compelling than that of Shen Xue and Zhao Hongbo. After a two-and-a-half year absence, the two-time Olympic bronze medalists from China have provided a reminder of how breathtaking pairs skating can be. They weren't perfect in Lake Placid, but Shen and Zhao performed on a different plane from their peers, winning by nearly 30 points. Their power and polish is apparent, but it's their emotional connection to each other and the audience - almost two decades in the making - that is truly unsurpassed. Just ask Rockne Brubaker, two-time U.S. champion with partner Keauna McLaughlin, who stores his favorite Shan and Zhao performances on his iPod for inspiration. 2006 Olympic silver medalists Dan Zhang and Hao Zhang, have struggled of late, while the two-time world champions from Germany, Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy, are scrambling to re-work their free skate program after a disastrous season opener in Paris. At 31 and 36, Shen and Zhao are at an advanced figure -skating age - and injury is always a concern - but if they can stay healthy, they're not just the sentimental favorites to win gold, finally, at their fourth Games in Vancouver. They are the favorites outright.

True test will come in Tokyo
As expected, Olympic silver medalists Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto won their fifth Skate America title and their second Grand Prix gold of 2009. But for the second time this season, their total score was in the range of 195 points. Meryl Davis and Charlie White, meanwhile, won their two Grand Prix events with scores above 201. In December, the two American teams will meet at the Grand Prix Final in Tokyo, where for the first time this season they will be not just judged, but directly compared. Typically the second-ranked team from one country does not surpass the first, especially in an Olympic year, but these two couples haven't skated head-to-head for a U.S. title since 2008. Davis and White are the reigning champions, but they won that title in the absence of an injured Belbin and Agosto, who had previously claimed the title five years running. How the judges rank these teams in Tokyo will be an interesting prelude to January's U.S. Championships, which will determine which couple enters the Games as the leading American medal contenders.