It’s time for another night of Olympic figure skating in the form of the team event men’s free skate! If you missed the first night of competition and want to catch up on the rules of the team figure skating event, the play-by-play of the competition, and the results, click here.
After the conclusion of all of the short programs and the rhythm dance, the five countries with the lowest scores – Georgia, Italy, the Czech Republic, Germany, and Ukraine – were eliminated, leaving five left to compete in the free skate.
The standings going into the men’s free skate were as follows:
Russian Olympic Committee – 36 points
United States of America – 34 points
Japan – 29 points
Canada – 24 points
China – 22 points
Starting off the night was Roman Sadovsky of Canada. Sadovsky was hoping to recover from his less than stellar performance in the short program, but his jumps just didn’t hold up. Right
off the bat, he stepped out of a quad salchow and had his hand down on the ice. This was followed by a triple lutz/triple toeloop combo that was solid and a single axel that he stepped out of, had his hand down for, and was most likely supposed to be a triple that he singled. He stepped out of his triple loop but had a good combo of a double salchow, a euler (which is a half-loop), and a triple salchow. Sadovsky then jumped a single lutz, followed by a fluke fall and a good triple flip. Sadovsky’s jumping passes were riddled with errors, but his spins remained amazing and helped make up for his deductions. In the end, it was a disappointing run for Sadovsky but he still has the opportunity to show himself up in the individual men’s competition. Sadovsky’s score of 122.60 put him in first place after his run and fifth in the free skate.
Next to skate was Jin Boyang of China. Jin started off strong with a solid quad lutz, but then stepped out of a quad toeloop and had a combo of a triple axel, euler, and triple salchow that he almost stumbled on, but was able to hang on to. He stepped out of a quad toeloop/double toeloop combo, jumped a good triple lutz/double toeloop combo, and stepped out of a triple axel. Jin ended his program with a sloppy double flip. It wasn’t the program he wanted, for sure. His music and costume were beautiful and he had some good choreography, he just didn’t have a good night for jumps. As he continued to make mistakes it looked like he was slowing down a bit, you could tell his errors were getting to his head. After his jumping passes were finished, however, you could see him get some of his confidence back as his music picked up and he ended with some strong choreographic sequences. Jin’s score of 155.04 put him in first place after his run and fourth in the free skate, earning Team China 7 points.
Third to skate was Mark Kondratiuk of the Russian Olympic Committee. Kondratiuk started out with a good quad toeloop. He almost fell on landing, but was able to hang on. Kondratiuk continued to impress with a great triple axel, solid triple axel/triple toeloop combo, solid triple loop, a great quad salchow/triple toeloop combo, a great quad salchow, and a good triple lutz/euler/double salchow colombo. He switched out a couple of jumps/jump combos, but overall that was a phenomenal skate from Kondratiuk. He had a very strong ending and when the music died, his excitement was plain as day – he killed that free skate and he knows it. Kondratiuk’s score of 181.65 put him in first place after his run and second after the free skate, earning Team ROC 9 points.
The penultimate competitor was Yuma Kagiyama of Japan. Kagiyama blew the audience away from the start by executing beautiful jump after beautiful jump; quad salchow, quad loop, quad toeloop, triple axel/triple toeloop combo, quad toeloop/euler/triple salchow combo, triple flip/triple loop combo, and triple axel. Each jumping pass was just as beautiful and eloquent with such amazing form as the last. He doesn’t just make these jumps look easy, but he makes performing these jumps with beautiful form easy. Kagiyama combines his amazing jumps with some excellent spin elements and beautiful choreographic sequences. This was a practically flawless program. Kagiyama’s score of 208.94 put him in first place after his run and first after the free skate, earning Team Japan 10 points.
Rounding out the competition was Vincent Zhou of the United States of America. Zhou had a not-so-great start with a quad lutz that was under-rotated followed by a single flip, an under-rotated quad salchow, and an under-rotated quad toeloop. He under-rotated the quad salchow in his quad salchow/triple toeloop combo, but was able to pull out two solid combos of a triple axel/euler/triple salchow and a triple axel/double toeloop. His choreography helped make up for his jumping pass errors but it still wasn’t perfect, as you could see he wasn’t extending as much as he could in some of the movements. It wasn’t his cleanest program, but he’s done a lot worse. Zhou’s score of 171.44 put him in third place after his run and third after the free skate, earning Team USA 8 points.
The standings as of the end of the men’s free skate are as follows:
Russian Olympic Committee - 45 points
United States of America - 42 points
Japan - 39 points
Canada - 30 points
China - 29 points
The women’s short program occurred before the men’s free skate. To view a play-by-play of the women’s short, click here.
Team USA will have three more chances to earn points and pull off a win in the form of the free dance, pairs free, and the women’s free that will happen in the coming days. However, Team USA is already on track to improve over their past team event results, having won bronze in both 2014 and 2018.
Tune in throughout the week for more Olympic coverage!
Yorumlar