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Ashley Wagner makes U.S. figure skating team; Mirai Nagasu is out

Ashley Wagner strikes a pose during her free skate at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships on Saturday at TD Garden in Boston.
(Jared Wickerham / Getty Images)
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BOSTON -- Ashley Wagner got a place on the U.S. Olympic team despite finishing fourth in the national championships on Saturday, when she fell twice in the free skate.

Third-place Mirai Nagasu, the only one of the top four finishers with Olympic experience, was bumped when U.S. Figure Skating announced the selections Sunday.

Wagner joins new national champion Gracie Gold and runner-up Polina Edmunds on the team for next month’s Winter Games in Sochi, Russia.

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An emotional Wagner, her voice cracking, said, “I’m at a loss for words right now. I’m happy my federation was able to see beyond one bad skate.”

In pairs and dance, the selection committee followed the results from nationals.

Marissa Castelli-Simon Shnapir and Felicia Zhang - Nathan Bartholomay got the two pairs places.

The three dance spots went to Meryl Davis-Charlie White, Madison Chock-Evan Bates and siblings Maia and Alex Shibutani.

The USFS Olympic selection procedure was left vague purposely to give wiggle room for someone like Wagner, 22, winner of the previous two national titles, if she did not make the top three at these championships.

“We don’t use a single competition as the sole measurement for who should participate in the Olympic Winter Games,” USFS President Patricia St. Peter said Sunday.

Nagasu finished fourth in the 2010 Olympics. She was the only one of the top four who did essentially clean (one underrotated jump) short and long programs in these championships.

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“Hopefully theyt pick me to the team,” Nagasu had said Saturday. “I haven’t always been the most consistent skater, but under pressure I have been the most consdisureemt skater most of the time.”

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