The day we’ve waited four long years for has finally arrived; Olympic figure skating is back.
To start off competitions, top skaters from each country take their place on Olympic ice in the team event, where skaters from each of ten participating countries compete to earn points toward their team’s final standing.
The rules are relatively simple. There is a short program and free skate for men’s, women’s, and pairs skating and a rhythm dance and free dance for ice dance. Teams can put forth one skater/pair for each competition or, if they have multiple people in a division competing at the Olympics, they may switch out entries between the short program and the free skate. This method can help maximize points and/or conserve the athletes’ strength for the individual competition. Skaters earn points for their team based on their standing after their competition concludes. The points are earned as follows:
First place – 10 points
Second place – 9 points
Third place – 8 points
Fourth place – 7 points
Fifth place – 6 points
Sixth place – 5 points
Seventh place – 4 points
Eighth place – 3 points
Ninth place – 2 points
Tenth place – 1 point
The teams with the first, second, and third most points after the conclusion of all competitions are awarded the gold, silver, and bronze medals, respectively.
The first competition of the team event was the men’s short program. Here’s my recap of the round.
Opening the short program was Paul Fentz from Germany. His music was nice and his costume looked great, but Fentz didn’t give us a stunning skate. He didn’t fall, but had sloppy jumping passes and turned a planned quad toe loop into a triple toe loop. His spins were slow, as was his speed on the ice in general. His score of 68.64 put him in first place after his run and ninth after the short program, earning Team Germany 2 points.
Roman Sadovsky from Canada was second to take the ice. Sadovsky put out a respectable performance for his Olympic debut. Right off the bat Sadovsky had some beautiful crossovers, but his jumping passes didn’t quite hold up to the same standards. Sadovsky under-rotated his quad salchow (which was counted as a triple salchow) and almost fell on the triple lutz in his triple lutz/double toe loop combo, but he did have a beautiful triple axel. His spins were gorgeous – Sadovsky has some of the best spins in the world. Despite his issues with the jumps, Sadovsky is a beautiful skater and you can truly see the emotion he puts into the choreography of his program. While he won’t be winning the competition, Sadovsky was enjoyable to watch and has potential to be a big winner in the future if he can improve his jumps. His score of 71.06 put him in first place after his run and eighth after the short program, earning Team Canada 3 points.
Skating third was Michal Brezina from the Czech Republic. This is Brezina’s fourth Olympics and the fact that he’s still competing at this level after twelve years is nothing to sneeze at. Brezina’s attempted quad salchow was turned into a double salchow, but after that he had a great skate with a gorgeous triple axel and triple flip/triple toe loop combo. Throughout his program, Brezina showed a lot of confidence and swagger that made him entertaining to watch. He isn’t going to be a medal contender in the individual competition, but we need to make sure to keep Michal Brezina in our conversations when we discuss prominent male figure skaters. The fact that he performs such beautiful triple jumps as an older skater after three Olympics is something to remember about him because not a lot of men would be skating the way Brezina does at 31 years old. His score of 76.77 put Brezina in first place after his run and seventh after the short program, earning Team Czech Republic 4 points.
Rounding out the first group was Jin Boyang from China. Jin started out with a beautiful quad lutz/double toe loop combo followed by a fall on his quad toe loop. Jin recovered with a pretty and solid triple axel. Jin is not known as the most artistic skater, but his program was fun to watch and he gave some strong energy in his performance. It was easy to see he was feeling the music. Jin’s score of 82.87 put him in first place after his run and sixth after the short program, earning Team China 5 points.
Starting off the second group to take the ice was Mark Kondratiuk representing the Russian Olympic Committee. Kondratiuk’s first two jumps, a quad toe loop and a triple axel, were wobbly, but he was able to hang on and execute a better quad salchow/triple toe loop combo. What Kondratiuk lacked in his jumps, he made up for in his interpretation of the music. Kondratiuk’s performance wasn’t perfect, but it was clean and it was good for his Olympic debut. His score of 95.81 put him in first place after his run and third after the short program, earning Team ROC 8 points.
The next skater was Shoma Uno from Japan. Uno faces a lot of pressure in this competition. In the past, Japan wasn’t a contender for a medal in the team event, but their luck could change this year. It’s up to Uno to give the team a strong start. In this skate Uno debuted a new costume, which really suits both the program and Uno. Uno did well on his jumping passes; a gorgeous quad flip, beautiful quad toe loop/triple toe loop combo, and beautiful triple axel. Uno also had wonderful spins and choreographic sequences, receiving positive GOE for most of his elements. To quote commentator Tara Lipinski, Uno understood the assignment with this skate. His score of 105.46 put him in first place after his run and second after the short program, earning Team Japan 9 points.
Our next skater is Morisi Kvitelashvili from Georgia. Kvitelashvili’s skate will be a key factor in whether or not Georgia is able to advance to the final. He started out with a quad salchow/triple toe loop that wasn’t the best, but he was able to hold on. He came back with a good triple axel and a great quad toe loop. Kvitelashvili was a little sloppy on his jumps and spins, as his arms and legs weren’t very close to his body. He had a clean skate with some good aspects and some more mediocre ones. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t phenomenal. In the end, however, he did exactly what he needed to do for Georgia’s score. Kvitelashvili’s score of 92.37 put him in third place after his run and fourth after the short program, earning Team Georgia 7 points.
Next on the ice is Nathan Chen from the United States of America. This skate is a very important one for Chen, as his team event short program at PyeongChang 2018 went horrendously, followed by the worst skate of his career in the singles short program (after which he made a miraculous and very Chen-like comeback) which defined his Olympic debut. He started out his team short program in Beijing 2022 with a perfect quad flip for which he gained almost +4 GOE, an extremely rare level of GOE for a quad flip. He did well with his triple axel and had a wonderful quad lutz/ triple toe combo. These seem to be some of the better jumps we’ve seen from Chen in a while. Chen did leaps and bounds better than he did in 2018, which just goes to show how much of a difference a few years of growth and maturity can make in this sport. What really rounded out this program, though, was the look on Chen’s face when he realized what he had just done. He conquered the ghost of PyeongChang 2018. Chen’s score of 111.71 (his personal best short program score) put him into first place after his run and first after the short program, earning Team USA 10 points.
Rounding out the night was Daniel Grassl from Italy. He started with a quad lutz that wasn’t bad, but went under review for under-rotation (and was later deemed fully rotated). He followed with a triple lutz/triple toe loop combo that wasn’t bad and a great triple axel. Grassl seems like more of a technical skater than an artistic one. Grassl’s score of 88.10 put him in fifth place after his run and fifth after the short program, earning Team Italy 6 points.
The standings at the end of the men’s short program were as follows:
USA – 10 points
JPN – 9 points
ROC – 8 points
GEO – 7 points
ITA – 6 points
CHN – 5 points
CZE – 4 points
CAN – 3 points
GER – 2 points
UKR - 0 points (Ukraine withdrew from the men’s short program due to their skater testing positive for COVID-19)
This is a great start for Team USA, but don’t feel too safe yet. We have yet to see the results of the ice dance, pairs, and women’s singles competitions as well as the men’s free skate. Catch the results of the rhythm dance and pairs short here.
Looking to the men’s free skate, I think Nathan Chen and Shoma Uno have secured spots in the top two overall (barring an act of the universe, of course). For the rest of the skaters, however, nobody is safe. Scores can move up or down based on actions that happen in the blink of an eye – it’s part of what makes this sport amazing.
Tune back in to get my recap after the men’s free skate and the team event men’s competition overall later this week!
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