Ambitious Harrell Will Reach for the Stars in Zagreb

Some of the most indelible images from the 2019 GEICO U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Detroit this January were created by Hanna Harrell, who impressed one and all with her triple jumps and triple-triple combinations, many done at breakneck speed with both arms overhead.

"Hanna has very high-flying, beautiful, fast jumps [with] great rotation," gushed NBC Sports commentator Johnny Weir.

"Her jumps have that Russian technique …. I would say she is one of the best jumpers in the event," added Weir's broadcast partner Tara Lipinski.

The fearless 15-year-old from Texas surprised many, skating two clean programs to place fourth in her senior debut. She even surprised herself.

"I wasn't nervous," Harrell told her coach, Aleksey Letov, in the kiss and cry after her free skate. "I was more nervous in the warm-up."

But when the score popped up, the look of joy and astonishment was unforgettable.

"203!" she exclaimed – or 203.11, to be exact. More than 30 points above her score at the Midwestern Sectional Figure Skating Championships six weeks earlier.

"I was just very surprised and excited that I got the pewter medal, 'cause I didn't even imagine I would place this year," Harrell said. "I was just thinking to myself, 'Oh, it's okay, I just want to do my personal best and show everyone my jumps and leave a mark.'"
 

Time off leads to new outlook

Few would have expected the podium finish, considering how Harrell's season started.

Fourth in the U.S. junior competition last season, the diminutive ninth-grader arrived in Detroit unheralded. After strong performances in summer competitions, injuries forced her off the ice in late August. She was unable to compete at her first Junior Grand Prix assignment in September, and placed seventh at her second JGP event in Yerevan, Armenia, in October.

"I had a bad injury on my foot and I had two stress reactions, and they were almost fractured, so I had to take some time off of skating," Harrell said. "It was really hard for me at first to get all my jumps back, because of the lack of training."

Healing required more than a month in a protective boot. Harrell was off the ice completely for two to three weeks, and had to ease her way back.

"Once I started skating, I was still in a boot off of the ice," she said. "On the ice, I wasn't allowed to do jumps, just skating skills. I couldn't even skate for an hour straight, maybe only 30 minutes at a time. It was pretty difficult."

Stepping away to focus on recovery helped her examine her training habits and competitive mindset. The result: an equally determined, but more mature, athlete.

"I've never had a bad injury before," Harrell said. "It taught me a lot by just making me be more careful about how I train and what I do. It also helped me with becoming stronger mentally, because it's just a small obstacle in my skating career."

Olga Ganicheva, Letov's coaching partner and wife, never doubted Harrell's ability to rebound.

"She is a brave girl, very athletic and brave," Ganicheva said. "She is also a very hard worker."

Part of a close-knit group

Letov and Ganicheva, who train their skaters in Plano, Texas, are Russian-born former competitors and show skaters who strive to instill good technique in their skaters, bolstered by a robust off-ice regimen including running, yoga and strength exercises like push-ups and sit-ups.

The couple also trains 2017 U.S. junior champion Alex Krashnozon, who placed fifth in the senior men's event in Detroit; 2018 U.S. junior pairs champions Audrey Lu and Misha Mitrofanov, sixth in Detroit; and junior ladies Akane Eguchi and Stephanie Ciarochi, as well as younger skaters including Alyssa Chan and Tamnhi Huynh, among many others. Their success has earned them multiple "Developmental Coach of the Year" nominations from the Professional Skaters Association, and they won the award in 2016.

"All of the girls in our group push each other to get better, to land the harder triples and triple-triple combinations," Ganicheva said. "The younger girls learn from watching the older girls, and of course none of the older girls want to see younger skaters pass them."

Harrell confirms that there's plenty of healthy competition.

"We all want to be the best," she said. "We just push each other, we help each other, we motivate each other to train every day. Yes, it is pretty competitive, but everyone is friendly with each other and we all support each other because we're all on the same team."

Off-ice, the Plano skaters are a close-knit group. Recently, they got together on Eguchi's 16^th birthday to watch the hit comedy Crazy Rich Asians.

"We like to hang out, and it's really fun because since we're all around the same age, and we all do the same sport, we all relate to a lot of things," Harrell, an only child, said. "School friends don't understand how hard skating is, and how the training is."

The skater's mom, Atsuko, fully supports her daughter's career, but doesn't watch her practice on a daily basis.

"My mom works, so usually when I'm skating, my coaches are the ones that push me," Harrell said. "But I also push myself, because I know I need to be self-disciplined in order to be successful in this sport."

"I can't just be ordinary"

In addition to her rink mates, Harrell looks across the seas – to Russia and Japan – for inspiration. Watching stars like two-time World champion Yevgenia Medvedeva execute triples with an arm or two overhead prompted her to do the same. Seeing Grand Prix Final champion Rika Kihira, and World Junior champion Alexandra Trusova, land triple Axels and quadruple jumps feeds her ambition.

"Hanna is working on a triple Axel and quad flip, in the harness," Ganicheva said. "Not for this season, of course, but for future seasons."

"Not a lot of people can do those jumps, so it can be a little scary," Harrell said. "The height is different, the speed is different. But I just try to motivate myself and hopefully I'll land those jumps one day in competition. When I get scared, I just tell myself, 'I want to get this jump, just go for it.'"

Harrell's fourth-place finish at the U.S. Championships, added to her previous competitive record and her performance at the World Junior Team Camp last month, earned her a spot at the 2019 World Junior Figure Skating Championships in Zagreb, Croatia, March 4-10. There, she will face off against Trusova and other strong Russian and Japanese competitors.

"I'm very excited to compete with them, because at my JGP I competed against Trusova," Harrell said. "She had a quad Lutz and it was really amazing to watch her practice in person, because it's much different than just watching on the videos. I can take in what (other skaters) are doing and their technique, and hopefully I can put that into my jumps and be able to land the quads."

So, what will it take for Harrell to defeat these top juniors – if not in Zagreb, then next season, or the season after that?

"To win, I think I need to do something different," she said. "I just really want to be able to do one of those difficult jumps not everyone can do, so I can always be in the top. I want them to be like, 'Oh, it's Hanna Harrell, with this jump or this skill.' I can't just be ordinary."

The ladies competition kicks off tomorrow, March 8, at 5 a.m. ET. Watch Hanna Harrell live here and follow all of Team USA on competition central.