It’s the third Team Event in the history of figure skating at the Olympics. A lot of people have feelings about the Team Event - whether the timing of the event is right, whether the team compositions are right, whether the scoring system is right. But whether you like it or not, the Team Event has seen a number of great and career-defining moments - think Julia Lipnitskaia and Kevin Reynolds in Sochi, think Valentina Marchei/Ondrej Hotarek and Mirai Nagasu in PyeongChang.
But to start, I’m bringing back the primer for the event - it doesn’t help that the Team Event is scored in a different way than World Team Trophy, a team competition that the skating world is much more familiar with.
A quick primer on the Team Event rules and scoring
Each team sends one entry per discipline for the short program
Team scores are calculated using the placements of their entries (10 points for 1st place, 9 points for 2nd place, all the way to 1 point for 10th place)
The top five teams move on to the free skate, where they send one entry per discipline for the free skate
In the free skate, teams are allowed to substitute in up to two disciplines if they have qualified multiple entries into those disciplines
Free skate placements earn the same number of points (10 for 1st, 9 for 2nd, 8 for 3rd, 7 for 4th, 6 for 5th) and are added to the short program scores to determine the final standings
There are tiebreaker rules in place, which we will get into if we get there
How strategy plays a huge role in team selection
A couple of factors come into play. The first is the scoring via placement rather than via actual scores - this provides equal weight for all discipline and ignores the margin of victory. The second is how teams who don’t have a chance at a medal position (or not position) their skaters - it’s the unpredictability here that could make a huge difference in the closer races.
A third factor that changes the dynamic is the relatively high volatility of the short vs the free because to the range of scores possible - because the lowest you can score is 6 points for a 5th place in the free (as opposed to 1 point for 10th in the short). So even if an entry has something of a meltdown in the free, their floor is much higher than if they were to have a meltdown in the short. Watch for countries to sub in skaters based on how they feel about their medal chances.
Team Event entries are due (China time)
— Jackie Wong (@rockerskating) January 26, 2022
+ 2/1 1000 list of all available for the team event
+ 2/3 1000 final entries for men SP, RD, pairs SP
+ 2/5 1000 final entries for women SP
+ 2/6 1100 final entries for men FS
+ 2/6 1345 final entries for pairs FS, FD, women FS#Beijing2022
When do we know who will compete?
Entries for the Team Event segments will not be confirmed until very close to the actual Team Event days themselves, which allow for teams with multiple entries at the Olympics to be able to pick and choose accordingly. All entry deadlines are in the tweet that I have embedded here.
Part 2 - Coming up - who will be the five teams moving onto the free skate?