Heavily favored Canada has used its strongest figure skaters to increase its lead in the team event at the Pyeongchang Olympics. The Canadians, in the end, had a final score of 73 points, the Olympic Athlete from Russian Federation team took the silver with 66 and the United States, with 62 points, the bronze medal. Each team is composed of one man, one woman, and one pair, who will complete a short program, and one ice dance couple who will complete a short dance.
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With their team gold medal assured, Virtue and Moir tied the record for most Olympic medals won by figure skaters.
“But for the overall vision of the program, we hope that this new position fits a little better”.
Slopestyle was one of the events that was not interrupted or delayed by the inclement weather, as the event has become one of history’s coldest games with temperatures dropping to minus 14 degrees Celsius, with a wind chill up to minus 25 degrees. Canada finished on top with the team of Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford, with a score of 148.51.
“We had determination this time around”, said Chan. “Going into it, I was like a train, getting on those tracks and getting some speed”, she said.
That sent Canada into the final two disciplines – women and dance – with a comfy 55-48 lead over the OAR.
Competing in their third Olympics, Virtue and Moir earned a maximum 10 points for their short programme, and matched that in the concluding free with an exhilarating four-and-a-half minute performance to the music of Moulin Rouge. Adam Rippon made his Olympic debut at 28 years of age, and skated a clean program to finish third in the five-man field. It marked the start of a solid day for Canadian athletes, as freestyle skiers Mikael Kingsbury and Andi Naude impressed in moguls qualifying and the mixed curling team of John Morris and Kaitlyn Lawes improved to 3-1 with a pair of wins.
All the competing teams will aim to capture the look and feel of the Latin rhythm, which could result in many programs feeling like they overlap.
Zagitova is set to perform her short programme on February 21 and her long programme two days later.
Adam Rippon of the USA had an absolutely brilliant run in the men’s free skate, putting up a score of 172.98, with a almost flawless routine.
Her teammate, Gabrielle Daleman, was part of the Canadian team that won silver in Sochi.
“I’m going to hold this medal tight to me and it’s going to be as good as the individual event”, he said, before he even knew he’d officially won gold.
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Canada and the OAR clinched gold and silver before the final event, the ice dancing free skate, took place. We have such a solid Canadian team. In several interviews, they’ve said that they’ve come back to the competitive circuit with one goal in mind: to win gold in the Olympics. “Most of us are 30 and we are very proud of that”, Italy’s Carolina Kostner said.
