Gracie Gold on verge of becoming U.S figure skatting champion ever

Gracie Gold is just one more amazing performance away from becoming America's most aptly named figure skating champion.

A surprise runner-up at last year's U.S. Nationals, Gold raised her profile one more notch after dominating Thursday's short program at the 2014 U.S. Figure Skating Championships.


The 18-year-old from Chicago skated last in the third of four groups and raised the bar with a 72.12 to grab the lead. Her crowd-pleasing program featured the jumping prowess that allowed her to skyrocket from ninth to second in her free skate at last year's Nationals in Omaha.

"It's all about tunnel vision for me," Gold said. "I think last year at competitions when maybe I hadn't skated as well, I wasn't focused on me and my training." "I've turned off all texting, all twitter, all social media. It's just my headphones, me warming up and then skating the program I trained in practice."