Rachel Flatt wins world junior skate title

All season long, Rachel Flatt has been the phenom who was skating under the radar.

When she competed at her first senior nationals a year ago, Flatt, then 14, slipped almost unnoticed into fifth place. The buzz about the young women then involved the 13-year-olds in the junior competition, where Mirai Nagasu upset favored Caroline Zhang.

That buzz continued into this season.

Few paid much attention to Flatt’s second-place finish at January’s nationals. The spotlight fell on Nagasu’s surprising win, Zhang’s implosion in the short program and defending champion Kimmie Meissner’s total collapse.

Flatt didn’t mind being overlooked.

“It was actually kind of nice,” she said. “I didn’t have that much attention, which was great. I think it helped me skate well.”

Today, Flatt, now 15, skated better than she had all year, well enough to win the free skate and the world junior title in Sofia, Bulgaria.

Flatt finished with 172.19 points, just 0.35 ahead of Zhang (171.84), who also delivered a strong free skate, and nearly 10 points ahead of Nagasu (162.89), the short program winner, who struggled with four jumps in the long program.

It was the second straight medal sweep for U.S. women at the junior worlds. Only one other time (Russia in 1998) has a country swept the junior medals.

Nagasu, Flatt and Zhang were 1-2-4 at this year’s senior U.S. Championships, but all three missed the minimum age for senior worlds.

The U.S. women’s competition figures to be exceptional – and exceptionally tough – between now and the 2010 Olympics, especially if 2006 world champion Meissner pulls out of her slump and Ashley Wagner, bronze medalist at nationals, continues her solid skating.

“I can’t wait,” Flatt said by telephone from Bulgaria.

Flatt, who trailed Nagasu by nearly five points and Zhang by more than two after the short program, overcame the deficit with immensely strong jumping and quiet consistency.

Her only significant mistake was a wrong edge takeoff on a triple-lutz jump.

“This gives me a lot of confidence,” Flatt said. “It was a really good competition, and it was great to come out on top.”

Flatt, a native of Del Mar in San Diego County, moved with her family to Colorado seven years ago to train. She has spent the last four years working with Tom Zakrajsek in Colorado Springs.

She had won the free skate at both the U.S. Championships and Junior Grand Prix Final while finishing second to Nagasu in both.

Nagasu, 14, of Arcadia had sloppy landings on both triple-lutz jumps, and her triple loop was judged as underrotated. She said the mistakes were a “mental thing” but also was bothered by knee soreness from a fall in practice 10 days ago.

“I’m not very disappointed,” she said by telephone. “It was a good way to end the season.”

Asked to explain why losing a big lead was good, Nagasu replied, “I did my best in the short program, and this gives me leverage for what I need to work on next year.”

Zhang, 14, of Brea was pleased to finish her season with good skating in both programs, even if she failed to become the first woman to win two junior world titles.

“My year had good parts and disappointing parts. I didn’t want the year to end the way I skated at nationals,” Zhang said, also by phone.

Zhang was the only one of the three U.S. women to skate entirely on the senior level the rest of the season. She finished fourth in the senior Grand Prix Final after taking second and third in her Grand Prix events.

Wrong edge takeoffs on both triple-lutz jumps cost Zhang the title today.

“This is a really good group of ladies,” Zhang said of her U.S. rivals. “The next two years will be tough but really fun too.”

Nagasu agreed. And she put the upcoming competition in a wider perspective:

“I think this will be really good for the U.S, and I hope it helps make the sport a lot more popular.”

Philip Hersh covers Olympic sports for The Times and the Chicago Tribune.