Will Nathan Chen Skate Again in the Team Event
Nathan Chen finishes first in skating'southward team event, setting up the U.Southward. for a medal.
Update: Kamila Valieva stumbles in return, then floats to first identify.
With seamless footwork and high-flying quadruple jumps, Nathan Chen, the gold medal favorite in figure skating'southward men's singles event, easily finished first on Friday in the men's short programme of the squad event, giving the U.S. team an border to win an early medal at the Beijing Games.
More than that, though, Chen took a huge stride in redeeming himself later on a disappointing showing at the 2018 Games, where falls and mistakes in the short programs of both the team and the singles events fell cavernously short of his expectations. After a spectacular functioning in the long program in Pyeongchang, he finished fifth in singles.
Performing in a black tuxedo and a white T-shirt to a version of "La Bohème" on Friday, Chen landed 2 quadruple jumps, including one quadruple-Lutz/triple-toe-loop combination, that helped him score 111.71 points, his season's best.
Just with the men's singles event scheduled for next week, he is not celebrating just nevertheless.
"There will exist a fourth dimension and place for that," said Chen, a three-fourth dimension world champion with only one loss since the 2018 worlds. "I all the same have a lot more to do ahead of me. Of course, I'thousand very, very happy. I might not exist the most emotive person, but deep down I'm genuinely very happy."
Chen'southward effort, along with a second first-place terminate by Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue in rhythm trip the light fantastic toe and a potent performance in pairs by Alexa Knierim and Brandon Frazier, gave the United States team 28 points from the offset three events. (The competition resumes Sunday with the women'south short programme.)
The United States hopes to win still another medal in the event subsequently winning statuary in the competition at the concluding two Olympics. This fourth dimension, the skaters are feeling improve than ever nigh their chances, specially after standout performances in the first round.
"I watched Nathan Chen kill it, and if anything, it gave me a bit of excitement and calmness, because I felt like our land collectively is ready," Knierim said.
The Russian Olympic Committee's team was second, with 26 points, afterwards Marker Kondratiuk's third-place finish in men's singles and a shaky 2nd-place effort by the ice dance globe champions Victoria Sinitsina and Nikita Katsalapov.
China was a surprising third, with 21 points, after a record score in the pairs short program past Sui Wenjing and Han Cong.
The team skating event is a hybrid competition in which ten nations ship out skaters in all four disciplines. (Well, non all of the teams in all of the disciplines, it turns out: Positive coronavirus tests have wrecked the scoring chances — and thus the medal hopes — of the teams from Federal republic of germany and Ukraine.)
The format makes the event similar a mini-Olympics all in ane. Each nation enters a human, a woman, a pairs squad and a set of ice dancers, and each performs two routines, merely as they do in their main competitions. Points are awarded based on the order of finish (10 for first, nine for second, 8 for third, and on and on). The five best-scoring countries after the start round accelerate to a free skate on Monday, and the team with the virtually points after all the events are complete wins.
The squad event is not only a medal event in its ain right, though. It is besides a chance for savvy skating fans to mine for clues about who seems to be in good form for the big events still to come up. Countries typically ship out their height skaters, but can swap out up to two skaters or teams between programs. Iv years ago, for example, Chen skated the short program for the Americans, and Adam Rippon took the free skate.
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/03/sports/olympics/nathan-chen-figure-skating-team-event.html
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