Lol, first there would need to be a legit US lady contender. And I'm trying to imagine a fluff piece making Evgenia look evil when she is just so sweet and innocent looking with her big doe eyes!!
This makes me think though....good guy versus bad guy narratives are good for the casuals. Simple stories, they know who to root for and who to root against. It's nationalistic and terribly unfair to whoever ends up portrayed as the "bad guy," but I doubt the US is the only country who has ever done it. I don't think it's a coincidence that the sport was pretty darn popular after the end of the Soviet Union with a continued faux Cold War narrative.
Ten year old me fell in love with the sport during the 2002 Olympics when I was rooting for underdogs Sale/Pelletier to end the evil Russian pairs gold dynasty and win OGM. (Obviously I have seen the error of my ways.)
:agree: Narratives in general are very much needed in FS, IMO. And big rivalries are what make every sport exciting for casual and also non casual viewers. Decades of FS have literally been defined by big rivalries: the battle of the Carmens, the battle of the Brians, Michelle vs Irina (and vs little powerhouse Tara), Plush &Yags (loved that one, it was epic!), V/M vs D/W, Mao vs Yuna and so on...now, the return of V/M has opened the chance of a "old" glories vs young, supertalented guys narrative; the men have their quadbattle and, together with pairs are IMO the most interesting (and most impredictable) field. If I were a in ISU, I would make ample and wide use of these plots in the upcoming season (a fluff to make the men and pairs OGM challengers known would be useful, also to emphasize the incredible amount of technical progress of the very last few years).