Skating trio ready to rock steady

'Blade Angels' Levito, Liu and Glenn are keeping calm as they try to end U.S. spell.

- THỤC NHI NGUYEN

JEFF ROBERSON Associated Press ISABEAU LEVITO skates in last month's U.S. championships. She's part of a deep team looking to earn the first women's singles medal for the U.S. since 2006.

After a one-hour on-ice training session and on the way to yet another interview, Isabeau Levito has one big problem on her mind.

One of the plants in the U.S. figure skater’s room has started growing mold. She needs to figure out how to wrangle it.

“That’s our task of the day,” Levito said Monday.

Never mind that the biggest competition of her life was starting in about 24 hours.

Levito and the United States’ “Blade Angels” are trying to stay calm under pressure at the Olympics, where chaos has reigned at Milano Ice Skating Arena.

The United States was expected to dominate figure skating in Milan, but has yet to win a gold medal in an individual event entering Tuesday's women’s short program. A supposed surefire gold medal disappeared in stunning fashion with Ilia Malinin’s eighth-place collapse.

Three-time reigning world ice dance champions Madison Chock and Evan Bates settled for a “bittersweet” silver that was marred by judging controversies.

But the talent and depth on what is likely the best U.S. women’s Olympic team in decades could help end a 20-year Olympic medal drought in women’s singles skating. The last U.S. woman to stand on an Olympic podium for an individual event was Sasha Cohen in 2006. Sarah Hughes’ 2002 gold medal was the last for the United States in women’s singles.

Alysa Liu has already ended one skid. The reigning world champion was the first U.S. woman to win the world title since 2006. With blond horizontal stripes dyed into her black hair and a piercing in her upper lip, the 20-year-old Liu is putting an alternative spin on figure skating.