United States figure skater Bradie Tennell has addressed rumors that she’s hanging up her blades after backing out of the 2026 World Championships.
“I just wanted to jump on here to address a couple things I see circulating since the Worlds announcement,” Tennell, 28, wrote via her Instagram Stories on Saturday, March 7, referring to her choice not to compete at this year’s ISU World Figure Skating Championships. “The decision to give up my sport was my own.”
She continued, “It wasn’t one I made lightly. There was much thought and many reasons — I wasn’t passed over, and I’m (thankfully) not injured.”
While Tennell did not reveal why she planned to skip Worlds, she stressed on Saturday that she’s not ready to retire.
“Please don’t mistake this for a retirement announcement because that’s not what this means,” the pro athlete stated. “They are two entirely different decisions. Thank you for all of the concern and support. I’m doing well and very excited to cheer on the team from afar.”
The 2026 ISU World Figure Skating Championships will be held in Prague beginning Tuesday, March 24, where top global athletes compete across men’s, women’s, pairs and ice dancing disciplines.
Tennell made her Olympic debut at the 2018 Winter Games, where she helped Team USA earn bronze in the team event. Tennell sat out the next Olympics cycle amid back-to-back injuries. She returned to competition ahead of the 2026 Games, finishing fourth at the 2026 U.S. National championships behind Amber Glenn, Alysa Liu and Isabeau Levito. (The trio made up the Team USA women’s skating team at the 2026 Olympics, where Liu, 20, walked away with the gold medal. The American squad also earned first place in the team event.)
“It’s taken me a bit to sort through some of my emotions about nationals,” Tennell wrote via Instagram in January. “This nationals was about more than placements & medals. I have never skated with such joy & love for this sport as I did last week. I came into this competition knowing that making the team was a long shot. I also knew that I wanted to go out and skate for the version of myself that I couldn’t four years ago.”
Tennell sustained a season-ending ankle injury in 2023, undergoing surgery before returning to the ice once she fully recovered.
“My goal became [about] happiness and to leave the ice every day proud of what I had done,” she said in her January statement. “Through that shift in mindset, I started to come back to life. It wasn’t immediate or without setbacks — recovery is not linear. But I look back at who I was and see a girl who picked herself up time and time again to show the world she isn’t afraid of failure. And I’m proud of her. Without her, the woman, the athlete I am today wouldn’t exist.”
