As U.S. figure skater Bradie Tennell begins her third Olympic season this week at the ISU Challenger Series Kinoshita Group Cup in Osaka, Japan, it’s the start of what she hopes will be the ultimate conclusion to a series of comebacks.
“It seems like in the past three or four years, it’s been one thing after another,” Tennell told Olympics.com in an interview earlier this year. “We had Covid, then I was injured Olympic season, then I came back and I struggled a lot. And then I came back again, I injured myself. So it’s been kind of up and down.”
In Japan, Tennell is looking for a smooth start to a season, a season that could lead to a return to the Olympic Games at Milano Cortina 2026.
A 2018 Olympic team bronze medallist, the 26-year-old missed the Beijing Games in 2022 with a foot injury.
Since then, injuries have plagued her – including a season-ending one around Halloween 2023 that kept her out of the 2024 season.
With Milano creeping closer by the day, Tennell hopes to continue the momentum she started in the 2024–25 season.
“I really feel like, in terms of overall physical and mental health, I’m in the best place I’ve been in a very long time,” she said ahead of the 2025 nationals. “Every moment on the ice is like a gift… I’m so lucky that I was able to come back and that I could still do what I love.”
Last season, she finished fifth at both her Grand Prix assignments – Skate America and NHK Trophy – before a fourth-place finish at the U.S. Championships.