Angela Nikodinov was always undermarked, I feel like she should been placed higher and had more chances internationally to represent the US, especially over inconsistent skaters like Bobek and Kwiatkowski
The judges really turned on Karen Kwan here even though she skated great. You can tell they were basically trying to push her out after Michelle won worlds, as if there can only be 1 Kwan or something. You wouldn't think that judges would or could be that petty but that's exactly what they were. I'm reading Inside Edge and it goes into exactly how subjective the judging is/was in figure skating.
She was a nice skater with nice style, but she didn't really have the jumps to be competitive at all. Only a triple toe and triple salchow in her arsenal, and occasionaly tried a triple loop she never made cleanly. If this were 1987 she could have been respectable but not in 1997.
