BEIJING — The United States won a silver medal in the figure skating team competition Monday morning, the country’s best result since the event debuted in 2014. The Russian Olympic Committee, which has strong skaters in each discipline, clinched the gold medal even before 15-year-old star Kamila Valieva shined in a historic free skate to end the competition.
What to know about team figure skating
- Women’s singles completed the competition Monday morning in Beijing (Sunday night Eastern). Karen Chen skated for the United States, and her fourth-place performance was enough to clinch silver. Valieva’s historic routine put her easily in first among the women.
- Madison Chock and Evan Bates had the top score in the ice dance to push the United States to the verge of its second-place finish. (There are eight segments in team figure skating. Teams are awarded points in descending order of finish, with 10 points awarded for first place in a segment.)
- Alexa Knierim and Brandon Frazier competed for the United States in the pairs skate to open the final day, finishing fifth of five teams. The Russian team took first.
- Follow more Beijing Olympics coverage here. See the full event schedule here. And keep up with the latest news and highlights here.
Karen Chen in tears after strong free skate for United States
BEIJING — A day after struggling in the short program of the team event, American Karen Chen performed a strong free skate Monday morning, leaving her in tears as she stepped off the ice. She celebrated with her American teammates as her score of 131.52 appeared on the arena screens. Chen under-rotated her triple loop but otherwise had a great program that surely comes as a relief after her mistakes in her first skate of these Games.
The U.S. team is now guaranteed a silver medal because Chen finished better than China’s Zhu Yu, who only scored a 91.41. The only way Japan could have pushed ahead of the United States would have been if Chen finished last (and Japan’s Kaori Sakamoto placed first) and the Japanese team won on a tiebreaker. Chen made sure that couldn’t happen.
U.S. figure skating poised for silver in team event with one segment to go
BEIJING — The United States is in second heading into the final segment of the figure skating team event, and the Americans are nearly assured a silver medal.
Teams earn points based on their ranking in each of the eight segments (a short program and free skate in all four disciplines). The Russian Olympic Committee leads with 64 points and star Kamila Valieva will cap the competition with her free skate. The United States (58 points) is comfortably ahead of Japan (54).
The only way Japan could catch the U.S. team is if Kaori Sakamoto wins the women’s free skate (10 points) and American Karen Chen finishes fifth and last (six points). In that scenario, the United States and Japan would tie with 64 points. The first tiebreaker procedure looks at each team’s top two placements, and if it comes to that, the tiebreaker process would become more complicated. But that’s unlikely, particularly because it would require Valieva to falter.
Once the competition ends, the strong free dance from Madison Chock and Evan Bates will almost certainly have been the key skate that helped the Americans clinch a silver. A bronze for Japan would be the country’s first medal in this event. Canada, in fourth with 45 points, and China, in fifth with 44, are both too far behind to challenge for a medal.
American ice dance tandem delivers top score
BEIJING — With the United States in a tight race for a silver medal, ice dancers Madison Chock and Evan Bates delivered an excellent and engaging program to earn a 129.07, the best score of the segment. They narrowly edged the Russians, Victoria Sinitsina and Nikita Katsalapov, who scored a 128.17.
This is the third segment the United States has won during the eight-segment figure skating team event. Nathan Chen earned the top score in the men’s short program Friday in Beijing, and Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue placed first in the rhythm dance, also on Friday.
ROC leads free dance with Americans up next
BEIJING — Russians Victoria Sinitsina and Nikita Katsalapov jumped into the lead in the free dance with a score of 128.17. Canada’s duo, Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier, is in second with a 124.39.
Americans Madison Chock and Evan Bates will be the final competitors to skate in this segment. They have a chance to overtake the top spot, and should certainly put the U.S. team back into sole possession of second in the overall standings.
What happens if teams tie in the final results?
BEIJING — Two disciplines remain in the figure skating team event, the free dance and the women’s free skate, and Japan and the United States entered the free dance segment tied for second. It will be a tight battle for the silver medal, and if the teams finish with the same point total, a tiebreaker would determine the color of each team’s medal.
The first procedure in the tiebreaker favors the team that has the highest score from its two best finishes. The United States has won two segments, while Japan’s top two placements are first and second. If Japan earns another top finish, the tiebreaker would become more complicated, but that scenario doesn’t appear likely.
Japanese duo Misato Komatsubara and Tim Koleto skated first in the free dance, but China’s tandem already scored higher, so Japan cannot win this segment. Kaori Sakamoto would have to defeat Russian star Kamila Valieva and win the women’s free skate to force the tiebreaker to move to its next procedure. In other words, a tie is almost certain to favor the Americans.
What are those green boxes? A simple guide to figure skating scoring
Those green boxes in the top left of your screen? They started showing up on NBC television broadcasts in 2016. Judges do not see them. They are television tools to help viewers have a better sense of how the event is being scored.
If there are a lot of green boxes, that’s an indication that a skater is doing well. If the boxes are red, the skater is probably messing up in subtle but important ways.
The evaluations by judges are usually done almost instantly, and viewers can see the numbers changing as judges punch in their evaluations after an element is completed. But sometimes, the evaluation takes a little more time: if the jump is sloppy, or not very high, or has a funny take off. That’s when the box turns yellow.
It doesn’t stay yellow forever; an evaluation must be made, often using instant replay. When the technical panel reaches a decision, the box will then turn either red or green, this time for good.
Kamila Valieva will skate again, likely with an opportunity to clinch the Russians’ gold
BEIJING — The Russian Olympic Committee, which is expected to win the team event gold medal, didn’t make any substitutions from the short program portion of the competition. That means 15-year-old star Kamila Valieva will perform again during the final segment of the event.
Valieva is the gold medal favorite in the women’s individual competition, and she combines difficult jumps with mesmerizing artistry. The Russians would probably have to make multiple mistakes for their gold medal to be in jeopardy, but Valieva will get the opportunity to officially clinch the win when she’s the final competitor to skate.
ROC, Japan hold on to top spots in pairs free skate
BEIJING — China’s Peng Cheng and Jin Yang earned a 131.75 for their pairs free skate, allowing the Russian duo to hold onto the top spot with the Japanese pair in second. It was a disappointing skate for Peng and Jin with a couple shaky moments.
China had the top score in the pairs short program thanks to Sui Wenjing and Han Cong’s standout performance. Sui and Han are expected to contend for the gold medal in pair skating next week.
Russian pair falls but earns top score so far
BEIJING — Russian pair skating duo Anastasia Mishina and Aleksandr Galliamov both fell to the ice on the final lift of their free skate, but they still earned the top score of this segment so far with a 145.20. Even with the mistake, the Russian Olympic Committee is in position to win the gold medal in the team event.
China’s duo will be the final competitors in the pairs free skate.
U.S. pairs skaters Alexa Knierim and Brandon Frazier struggle with their free skate
BEIJING — U.S. pairs skaters Alexa Knierim and Brandon Frazier had a standout short program in the team event three days ago, but they had trouble with their free skate on the final day of this competition.
On a jump combination, Knierim only performed a single toe loop when she intended to do a double, and she stumbled later in the program on a triple Salchow.
Pair skating is one of the United States’ weaker disciplines, and Knierim and Frazier’s 128.97 is the lowest score so far with two strong pairs still to go.
Knierim was part of the 2018 U.S. team that won a bronze medal in this event, but this is the first time she has skated with Frazier at the Olympics.
Japan gets closer to first team event medal with strong pairs free skate
BEIJING — Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara of Japan delivered a solid pairs free skate, scoring a season-best 139.60, which keeps alive their hopes of challenging the United States for the silver medal.
Miura and Kihara placed fourth in the short program, behind the representatives from China, the Russian Olympic Committee and the United States.
Japan has never won a medal in the figure skating team event, which debuted in 2014. In the previous two editions of this event, the Russians, Canadians and Americans claimed the medals.
Who’s skating for the United States?
BEIJING — On the final day of the team event, the United States will rely on the performances of Alexa Knierim and Brandon Frazier (pairs free skate), Madison Chock and Evan Bates (free dance), and Karen Chen (women’s free skate).
Knierim and Frazier are coming off an excellent showing in the short program. They placed third, which was the best result they could have hoped for without major errors from the top teams in this discipline, the Russian Olympic Committee and China.
The Americans have lately had strong ice dance tandems, and a top finish from Chock and Bates could help secure a silver medal in the team event. Chen struggled in her short program Sunday, placing just fifth. She won’t be able to match Kamila Valieva of the Russian Olympic Committee, but the women’s free skate is the final segment of this team event and Chen might need to skate well to keep the United States ahead of Japan.
How the team event works
BEIJING — The first figure skating medals will be awarded with the team event concluding Monday morning in Beijing (Sunday night in the United States). This is a relatively new event that debuted in 2014. The United States has won a bronze medal in both previous editions of the competition.
Ten countries participate in the team event, but only the top five advanced to the free skate portion of the competition. Countries select a representative to perform in each segment — the short program and free skates of all four disciplines — but can only make two substitutions. The U.S. team, for instance, switched its skaters for men’s singles (Nathan Chen in the short program, then Vincent Zhou in Sunday’s free skate) and ice dance (Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue in the rhythm dance, then Madison Chock and Evan Bates in the free dance). The same Americans will perform in both programs for women’s singles and pair skating.
Teams earn points based on their skaters’ placements. The top finisher receives 10 points, second place gets nine points and so on. Points from the short programs and free skates are added together to make each team’s total. The United States enters the third day of competition in second with 42 points, behind the Russian Olympic Committee (45). Japan is in third with 39. Those three teams seem poised to land on the medal podium because Canada, now in fourth, is well behind with just 30 points.
Kamila Valieva dazzles as Russian team surges past the U.S.
In less than three hours on Sunday, the U.S. lost its first-day lead in the team event, falling to second, three points behind the team representing the Russian Olympic Committee. Vincent Zhou’s third-place finish came after Karen Chen finished fifth in the women’s short program. Each was far behind the brilliant performances skated by the top finishers, Russia’s Kamila Valieva and Japan’s Yuma Kagiyama.
The Americans’ stumbles — Zhou under-rotated on back-to-back quadruple jumps and Chen fell to the ice on a triple loop and under-rotated on a triple Lutz and toeloop — left the American team somewhat deflated. That is especially because Monday’s final three disciplines play to the Russian team’s biggest strengths: the women’s individual, pairs and ice dance free skates. While the U.S. should be able to get at least a bronze medal, as it has in the two previous Olympic team figure skating events, it will have to battle with third-place Japan for the silver.
