So that’s a wrap for tonight’s action (actually daytime in South Korea). The medalists were actually a little anticlimactic. Canada, Olympic Athletes from Russia and the USA took the podium as expected.
But the Americans did it in style. Adam Rippon, breaking a barrier for gay athletes, was nearly flawless. Mirai Nagasu landed a triple axel to start an emphatic return to the Games. And the Shib Sibs were in fine form.
(And the good day for the USA continued elsewhere, as Jamie Anderson has just won her second straight slopestyle gold.)
We’ll have much more coverage of figure skating through these Games, and this team event was a tantalizing preview. Thanks for all of your kind words by email, and we’ll see you next time.
Updated
Final scores
Free dance
Canada 118.10
USA 112.01
OAR 110.43
Italy 107.00
Japan 87.88
Team scores
Canada 73
OAR 66
USA 62
Italy 56
Japan 50
(And those who didn’t qualify for the free skates: China 18, Germany 16, Israel 13, South Korea 13, France 13.)
Virtue and Moir’s lifts look like something Pilobolus would pull off.
The Shib Sibs’ dance was a little more fun and rivals the Canadians for athleticism, but Virtue and Moir are surely going to be a couple of points in front.
Canada’s score: 118.10. OK, that’s a little overboard. But very good.
It’s a bit of Moulin Rouge music, and they are hitting the accents like the Allman Brothers’ two drummers.
USA’s free dance score: 112.01. Not their season best, but the best so far in this event. Certainly padding that margin in the final standings.
Now Canada’s Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir are here to make a statement before adding another gold medal to their collection.
These are the most synchronized spins I’ve ever seen. All across America tonight, siblings are probably seeing if they can spin in sync like that. At least on the West Coast. It’s a school night, and it’s a little late on the East.
They wrap it up, and ... that’s going to be a good score. They could’ve done a short-track speedskating demonstration and still claimed a bronze medal in this event, and they came out and amazed.
USA clinches bronze
OAR’s team dance score: 110.43. Ahead of the Italians, who cannot mathematically catch the USA now.
The Shib Sibs are basically getting a practice run now. Cue Coldplay’s Paradise and spin away ...
“Ekaterina’s character is blind,” says Tara Lipinski. “He is describing the world to her.” I’m guessing by her surprised look that we’ve reached the point at which her sight is restored? Maybe I’m artistically pedestrian despite my music major, but I’m more impressed by the spinning upside-down lift. This will probably top the Italian team, which will clinch bronze for the USA before the Shib Sibs hit the ice.
Italy’s free dance score: 107.00. A little off their season best, but a fine representation of what they can do.
Now up to the OAR team, which will be skating to Shattered (Turn the Car Around).
(No, I’m kidding, and there will be a strict enforcement of the “one joke about OAR also being the name of a band per event” rule.)
To paraphrase Monty Burns, I may not know ice dancing, but I know what I hate. And I didn’t hate that. That combined intricate steps with some dazzling lifts at a variety of angles. They started celebrating a beat before the music ended, a justifiable error.
Italy’s Anna Cappellini and Luca Lanotte have only a mathematical chance at a team medal now, but they have the experience and talent to do very well and perhaps leave a good impression before the team-less ice dance event later on. They’re ever so slightly out of sync in their spins, but not much. Watching this after the Japanese pair is a bit like watching varsity basketball after the junior varsity game.
Japan free dance score: 87.88. The Shib Sibs should be able to top that in their sleep.
Chris Reed was born in the USA but has lived in Australia, Japan and Hong Kong. His father is American; his mother is Japanese.
More germane to the business at hand: He fell hard on his back side on a spin. You don’t need to know much about judging to know that’s not good.
Speaking of Salt Lake City (this is from my then-colleague who had to report on all of that):
With only dance left in the team figure skating competition, Canada has secured the gold over OAR and OAR has secured silver over USA. Only way USA loses bronze is if Shibs are 5th in dance and Italians are 1st. That’s about as likely to happen as a Tonya Harding sighting here.
— Christine Brennan (@cbrennansports) February 12, 2018
Last check of the inbox before action resumes:
JoAnne Moyer is angry: “The component scores have merely become a way to prop up the favorite European skaters while hosing the Americans and nobody seems to speak out about it. Too much talk about jumps! They should just lose the costumes and music and rename it jump skating!”
Sammy Lopez Metta Bexar on Zagitova: “Should she snapchat Red Gerard? Yeah, that was dull.. Thanks for the Spin by Spin! (SBS)“
Spin by spin? I type fast, but ...
Meanwhile, in actual competition outside, we may be looking at a repeat:
Jamie Anderson of the U.S. 🇺🇸launches into first place on the first run of women's slopestyle. Catch the second runs here: https://t.co/6IZg0CSjcY pic.twitter.com/WMtMSpF4zG
— CBC Olympics (@CBCOlympics) February 12, 2018
Jean Wan writes: “Sitting red and white in Canada and super proud of all our athletes (GO TEAM CANADA!), and I feel for what Ashley Wagner just said. I agree, but CBC commentators made a good point - if this is what the system allows, then no one can fault the athletes for taking advantage. And let’s be honest. Figure skating is a judged sport, so there’s enough room for controversy and bias already, even with a theoretically more objective system (uh, hello Sotnikova vs. Kim Yuna). And do we really want to return to the days of Salt Lake City rigging? Not me.”
Wagner agrees it’s not Zagitova’s fault. It’s the system.
Maybe, and I’m just brainstorming here, they could give less of a bonus for back-loading all the jumps?
But I was in Salt Lake City, and I would definitely rather not deal with that again.
Let’s take a look at this dance lineup and personal best free dances ...
Kana Muramota / Chris Reed (Japan) 98.59
Anna Cappellini / Luca Lanotte (Italy) 112.07
Ekaterina Bobrova / Dmitri Soloviev (OAR) 112.70
Maia Shibutani / Alex Shibutani (USA) 115.26
Tessa Virtue / Scott Moir (Canada) 118.33
Virtue and Moir are legends. Gold medal in 2010. Silver in 2014. Reigning world champion.
So the odds of Italy taking first and the USA taking last here are not good.
The short dance was barely 24 hours ago. Though teams can replace two skaters or pairs between the short and free programs, all five of these duos competed in the short dance.
We’ll have about 20 minutes until the free dance, so this is your reminder to email me at beau.dure.freelance@theguardian.com or tweet me @duresport with any comments you have about all this.
Ashley Wagner has plenty of comments ...
Ok. I respect the competitive approach. But no cannot do this set up. It's not a program. She killed time in the beginning and then just jumped the second half. It's not a performance. I understand that this is what the system allows but it's not all figure skating is about
— Ashley Wagner (@AshWagner2010) February 12, 2018
Women's free skate scores
Zagitova (Russia) 158.08
Nagasu (USA) 137.53
Daleman (Canada) 137.14
Kostner (Italy) 134.00
Sakamoto (Japan) 131.91
Team scores through seven of eight stages
Canada 63
OAR 58
USA 53
Italy 49
Japan 44
So Italy can only tie the USA, and that’s if Italy gets all 10 points in the dance while the USA takes only the six points on offer for fifth.
Also ...
Medal Alert 🚨
— CBC Olympics (@CBCOlympics) February 12, 2018
Canada guaranteed to win first gold medal in figure skating team event 🇨🇦 🥇 #PyeongChang2018
Watch Tessa and Scott skate next!https://t.co/3r6mBD6NDR pic.twitter.com/cN2VK6xOgz
So strange to see a skater go so long without jumping.
When is she going to jump....
— Ashley Wagner (@AshWagner2010) February 12, 2018
But Zagitova is flawless so far. Already surpassed Nagasu’s technical score. Great math, perhaps, but also off-the-charts athleticism.
Alina Zagitova has an unusual program. Most skaters open with a couple of jumps. She saves hers for the back half of the program. You might say all these scores look like cricket scores, but hers may be a target you wouldn’t want to chase.
Big swing for USA
Interview with Nagasu, who sounds a bit like Bonnie (Jennifer Tilly) on Family Guy with her wavering voice.
Kostner’s score: 134.00. Third place, two behind Nagasu. The USA’s medal chances look very, very good.
And that’s it? Her technical score is far behind Nagasu’s. Weir points out that she sometimes makes up for it in her component scores, but Lipinski points out that you have to land jumps. Sounds a bit like a soccer ref responding to a player saying “I was going for the ball!” with “Did you GET the ball?”
Also, comparing her listed program to what she’s done so far, Kostner turned a triple-triple combination into a triple-double. But she lands a double-single-triple combo. Several yellow boxes in the technical score.
Kostner starts with several triples, and they’re just a little wobbly. Her program is elegant, but I’m a Debussy fan, so I may have to admit some bias.
Kind words here from the skater controversially added to the 2014 Olympic team ahead of Nagasu:
Just left filming to find out that @mirai_nagasu got her axel called clean in the team comp! So proud of this girl, such an inspiration with what she has done to her career 👊👊👊
— Ashley Wagner (@AshWagner2010) February 12, 2018
Meanwhile, Daleman (137.14) comes up just short of Nagasu (137.53). If Carolina Kostner finishes below Daleman, the USA will pad its lead by at least two points.
Here she goes ...
That was superb. The skating fit the music perfectly, and her technical score is close to Nagasu’s. When this score comes back, it might clinch the gold medal for Canada.
Canada’s Gabrielle Daleman brings the Gershwin. And a triple-triple combination. Quality start.
Sakamoto’s score: 131.91, more than five points behind Nagasu. Kostner should beat that.
Quick note on the jubilation in the U.S. box after Nagasu’s skate:
That embrace between @mirai_nagasu and @adaripp has special significance. He choreographed the poignant exhibition program she did 4 years ago after being left off the US team - and went through travails of his own at that nationals. Comebackers who understand each other.
— Bonnie D. Ford (@Bonnie_D_Ford) February 12, 2018
Sakamoto’s technical score is trending a couple of points behind Nagasu’s right now. Japan has little chance of medaling, but she could play spoiler here if she finishes between Nagasu and Kostner.
The U.S. team box was full of happiness and Adam Rippon fist-pumps.
Nagasu’s score: Personal best, 137.53.
Pressure’s on Italy’s Carolina Kostner now. But first, Kaori Sakamoto for Japan, which stands little chance of getting into the medal mix now.
Updated
The judges are checking some possible underrotations. That would be a pity, because this is a beautiful skate, a wondrous mix of athleticism and artistry. She even let out a little yell upon nailing a late jump, and the crowd goes wild.
Mirai Nagasu on the ice...and lands a gorgeous triple axel. That’s Olympic history. pic.twitter.com/MYh4Gay9hm
— Christine Brennan (@cbrennansports) February 12, 2018
I’m sorry ... Nagasu’s personal best is so much lower than the others, how? She has launched into this free skate like an Elon Musk rocket. The second half opens with a big combo.
Wow! She nailed the triple axel. Just the third woman to do it in the Olympics, NBC tells us.
Mirai Nagasu is up. The former phenom, fourth in the 2010 Olympics, is back in the Games after being left out in 2014. She’s going to try a triple axel, which isn’t something a lot of women have landed.
Tara Lipinski and Johnny Weir are not happy. Yes, Rippon underrotated a jump. They’re not arguing the technical scores, where Kolyada had an edge. They’re arguing the component scores, in which Kolyada got an 86.22, just behind Rippon’s 86.78. All for a program Weir described as “oatmeal.”
The women’s skaters, in order, with personal best free skates:
Mirai Nagasu (USA), 132.04
Kaori Sakamoto (Japan), 142.87
Gabrielle Daleman (Canada), 142.41
Carolina Kostner (Italy), 142.61 (2014 Olympics)
Alina Zagitova (OAR), 157.97
So if they finish in the order of their top scores, Italy and the USA would be tied for bronze heading into the last event.
So what else is happening at the Olympics right now? Glad you asked:
1. Canada has defeated Norway in the mixed doubles curling semifinal.
2. The women’s slopestyle final is still delayed but might be starting in about 15 minutes.
Men's free skate scores ...
Chan (Canada) 179.75
Kolyada (OAR) 173.57
Rippon (USA) 172.98
Rizzo (Italy) 156.11
Tanaka (Japan) 148.36
Team scores through six of eight stages
Canada 55 (all but clinched gold)
OAR 48
USA 44
Italy 42
Japan 38
That little discrepancy between Kolyada and Rippon could be costly. Instead of being two points behind OAR and three ahead of Italy, the USA is pretty much out of the race for silver and clinging to bronze.
But what’s figure skating without a bit of drama?
Fridge break ...
“Rippon just got royally ripped-off by horrible judging!” says Beth Derick by email. Yeah, it’s hard to understand the component score.
Speaking of scores, we’re still waiting on Tanaka’s. Here we go: 148.36. Fifth place. Japan is basically out of this. Italy remains within shouting distance of the USA, and Carolina Kostner has the capability to make up the distance.
Tanaka lands a triple, and no one even applauds. He lost the crowd early. His technical score is shaping up to be about 18 points off the pace.
Tanaka was supposed to open with a quad salchow, then a quad salchow-double toe loop combination. He opened with a double salchow. Then a double salchow. He recovered a bit but then fell on an attempted quad and turned a triple-double-double into a shaky triple-single-single.
Music’s nice, though.
Chan’s score: 179.75. In another context, that would be disappointing. Here, it’s probably good for first.
Last up is Japan’s Keiji Tanaka. If you’re rooting for the USA to take bronze, you want a score between Rizzo’s 156.11 and Rippon’s 172.98.
And still, Chan’s technical score is close to Kolyada’s and Rippon’s. He simply has so many high-scoring elements. He’ll get a one-point deduction for the fall, but his component scores should put him in first. When he wasn’t touching the ice, he was simply grace in motion.
But Chan is human. A planned triple-single-triple combination becomes just a double axel with a shaky landing. And then he falls. And then he puts a hand down. This is more shocking than the men’s luge final, where Germany’s Felix Loch banged into some walls and missed the podium, let alone the gold.
Rippon’s score: 172.98. Behind Kolyata by 0.59 points. Please don’t check Twitter right now.
Next up: Canada’s Patrick Chan, who kills a quad-triple combination to start. He’s just in another world. Placing first in this group should be a formality.
All the yellows are gone. His technical score is ahead of Kolyada’s. If Kolyada’s component scores are higher, then I don’t know what they’re watching. He is fist-pumping and jumping.
Was that a little smile for the judges? Rippon seems very confident. And the in-progress technical score backs him up on that. He’s going to be very close to Kolyada. He did his job tonight and more.
He’s through his toughest element, a triple-double-double combination, just before Chris Martin’s voice comes in to remind you that we’re listening to Coldplay. He has one yellow dot suggesting an element under review, but this is nice so far.
A quad lutz is listed as Rippon’s first element, but NBC’s Tara Lipinski says he took it out, opting to make sure he goes clean. And through one jump and one combination, he certainly seems clean.
Rizzo’s score: 156.11. Not even his season best. I don’t get it.
Here’s Adam Rippon, who can put the USA in terrific shape for a medal. Beating Rizzo would help. Beating Kolyada would be huge.
If Kolyada’s program was a guitarist trying a sweep-picking solo and messing up a bunch of notes, Rizzo’s was an elegant Mark Knopfler excursion, smooth but not flashy. His technical score won’t match Kolyada’s because Rizzo goes without the magical “quad” jumps, but that was an enjoyable program, and that still counts for something in this sport.
Kolyada’s score: 173.54. Now here’s Matteo Rizzo for Italy, skating to a Beatles medley. Rock and roll will never die.
I have access to technical scores, because I’m special (OK, they’re in the enhanced live stream), and Kolyata did indeed get some nice scores for elements in the second half of the program. But the start was brutal. And though I’m often wrong about such things, I can’t imagine he’ll get good component scores.
I once saw a Czech Elvis impersonator in a taqueria where you had to order your tacos in Spanish, and that STILL made more sense to me than Kolyada's program.
— Maggie Hendricks (@maggiehendricks) February 12, 2018
Kolyada does indeed rally a bit. He lands a quad jump, and such things get bonus points in the second half of the long program.
But personally, I prefer UB40’s version of I Can’t Help Falling With You.
It gets worse for Kolyada. He was supposed to do a quad-triple competition. He two-footed the landing on the first jump, which means he didn’t even attempt the second jump.
But stay tuned. Skaters often rally later in a program, and they can always add a jump combination if they’re up to it.
We're underway ...
And it’s an athlete from Russia but not representing Russia, Mikhail Kolyada, skating to an Elvis Presley medley. Why not?
He starts with a quad lutz ... and falls.
The men competing here, in order of appearance, with the scores from their personal best free skates in international competition:
Mikhail Kolyada (OAR): 185.27
Matteo Rizzo (Italy): 157.34
Adam Rippon (USA): 182.28
Patrick Chan (Canada): 203.99
Keiji Tanaka (Japan): 169.63
Spoiler alert: NBC is still showing women’s moguls from earlier. Meanwhile, skaters are taking to the ice for the men’s phase of the team event, which is why we’re here.
NBC should still have time to switch over before the skating begins in earnest, but if it doesn’t, be warned that we will not be waiting on them.
Pro tip: If you want to know what each skater is planning to attempt, go to the official site and click the “+” to expand the info.
This is important because you may often see something that seems impressive, only to find it was supposed to be something else. They’re not necessarily penalized for that, but if a triple becomes a double, the number of potential points drops. And the commentators will usually let you know.
Meanwhile, Canada leads Norway 3-2 in the fifth end of the mixed doubles curling semifinals. With the wind whipping around the mountains, not much else is going on at the Olympics right now.
Good day to be inside ...
We're delayed at least an hour on the women's snowboard slopestyle because of the weather here.
— Rachel Axon (@RachelAxon) February 12, 2018
We have an update on Mikaela Shiffrin’s schedule ...
“Good morning from Pyeongchang, where the bad news is that the women’s giant slalom is postponed due to high winds,” writes Sean Ingle in, er, Pyeongchang. “It will now take place on 9.30am local time on Thursday, before the men’s downhill. That, if you remember, was due to take place yesterday but was postponed after 50 mph gusts made it impossible for the gondolas taking the skiers up the mountain to be safely operated.”
A few facts for figure skating newbies ...
1. The difference between the short program and the free skate is simple. The short program is shorter. It’s two minutes and 50 seconds, no more (lest you attract the digital thumbs-down from the judges). Free skates are in the 4-minute to 4:30 range, varying slightly by event. (We’re preparing to watch, not judge it with a stopwatch. If you’re doing that, you can probably skip the rest of this entry.)
2. If you think figure skating is still judged with a 6.0 as the top score, welcome back from your cryogenic freeze. Skaters get a technical score, which is based on degree of difficulty of various elements and a score on how well each one is done. That score is shown while skaters are on the ice, though it’ll be reviewed after the program. Then we have the familiar wait for the judges to weigh all that and the second part of the final score, the presentation score.
Want to know more? Go to the International Skating Union.
Meet Adam Rippon. The USA has two openly gay male athletes on the 2018 Olympic teams, Rippon and freestyle skier Gus Kenworthy. That fact, juxtaposed with the presence of vice president Mike Pence at the Opening Ceremony, drew just a bit of attention.
Tonight, Rippon faces some apolitical pressure. (Perhaps. Figure skating judging is still not an exact science.) He’s probably not a medal contender in the men’s individual event, but he’ll be called upon to maintain the USA’s tentative grasp on a medal, especially given the modest credentials of fourth-place Italy’s Matteo Rizzo. Figure skating may not be the sort of sport that makes people think of going after a rival team’s weakest links, but that’s basically what we have here.
The women’s skate will see the USA’s Mirai Nagasu, who finished fourth in 2010 but was left off the team in 2014, going up against Grand Prix final champion Alina Zagitova (OAR) and 31-year-old Italian Carolina Kostner, a bronze medalist in Sochi.
Then it’s up to the “Shib Sibs,” the USA’s ice-dance duo of Maia and Alex Shibutani. They’re medal contenders in their own right, but Italy counters with the strong duo of Anna Cappellini and Luca Lanotte.
So if you were hoping for a USA-Italy showdown in next year’s World Cup (the men’s soccer variety) and can’t shake your disappointment about both teams failing to qualify to that tournament, tune in tonight.
Here’s the situation (old-school Will Smith fans reply: My parents went away on a week’s vacation):
Through two days of competition and five ... stages? What do we call the events within the event? Anyway, the field of 10 teams is narrowed down to five after each team does a short program. Unlike the grad-school math required to calculate individual skaters’ scores, the overall team-event scoring is rather simple. Winner nets 10 points for his, her or their team. Second place is nine. Third is eight, and so on.
As it stands now, the final five are:
45 Canada
39 OAR (Russia but not Russia)
36 USA
35 Italy
32 Japan
In other words ... it’s close.
And if you were thinking of watching Mikaela Shiffrin in the giant slalom instead of this, you’re out of luck. The high winds that have forced several schedule adjustments have struck again, and the giant slalom will not run today.
Let’s go, team!
Hello everyone. I’m Beau Dure, your host for a big evening of figure skating. The team event will be decided by these three programs:
8 p.m. ET: men’s free skate
9:10 p.m. ET: women’s free skate
10:20 p.m. ET: free dance
Stay tuned for all the action and selected quips.
Beau will be here shortly, in the meantime here’s more on a dramatic end to the men’s luge competition:
David Gleirscher struggled to make Austria’s Olympic team and Chris Mazdzer’s season hit rock-bottom less than a month ago. In the end it didn’t matter: they finished with gold and silver medals respectively as the Olympic reign of Germany’s Felix Loch came to a stunning and sudden end.
Gleirscher was the surprise first-run leader and a bigger surprise as the leader when it was all over. He finished his four runs at the Alpensia Sliding Center in 3 minutes, 10.702 seconds for the gold, Austria’s first in men’s luge in 50 years.
Mazdzer made history for the US, giving the Americans their first men’s singles medal by finishing second in 3:10.728. Germany’s Johannes Ludwig took third in 3:10.932.
Click below for the full story:
