GREENSBORO, N.C. – Bradie Tennell punched the air when she finished her winning short program at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships Thursday night.
For most athletes, that is a common reaction to a strong performance.
For Tennell, whose default mood is self-containment, it was an unusual outpouring of emotion.
And maybe it showed just how well she understood the way her choreographer, Frenchman Benoit Richaud, wanted her to perform a program in which her confident, sometimes sassy skating complimented the staccato, robotic music.
After all, she would be skating it in a look-at-me bright red dress.