After the first day of the figure skating Team Event at the 2022 Olympic Winter Games, there was a surprise leader in Team USA. But the Americans came back to earth just a bit and took silver, exactly where pre-competition projections would have had them. In the end, the Russian Olympic Committee wins its second Team Event title, eight years after they won in Sochi at the first-ever Team Event at the Olympics. Team Japan jumps on the podium for the first time. Here’s a quick look back what happened and what may come of it.
Japan’s rise is confirmed
In the last two Olympics, you would’ve never thought that Japan would be anywhere near the podium in the Team Event. But as soon as Riku Miura/Ryuichi Kihara entered the picture, there trajectory took a turn directly toward the medals. They came in as the clear bronze medal favorites, and they leave with the bronze, within an earshot of the silver medal. With another four years, could Japan build themselves into a gold medal contender? It’s not out of the realm of possibility.
What about burnout?
It happened in Sochi and PyeongChang, some skaters spent so much energy on the Team Event that they were unable to properly reset for their individual event, and the result was a much different result than they would’ve otherwise expected. One potential is Anastasia Mishina/Aleksandr Galliamov - the World champs seemed to have been shaken by losing the short program to Wenjing Sui/Cong Han. And subsequently, they had one very off practice and then a scary fall in the free skate in the Team Event. If not for Galliamov’s instincts, the results of the fall could’ve been much worse. Will they be able to shake it off before the individual event starts? Luckily, the pairs have another week to reset.
An ice dance outcome with ramifications?
When Madison Hubbell/Zachary Donohue beat Victoria Sinitsina/Nikita Katsalapov in the rhythm dance, you could attribute it to the mistakes that Sinitsina/Katsalapov had in the RD. But when Madison Chock/Evan Bates beat a fairly clean Sinitsina/Katsalapov, you wonder if this is an indication of what’s to come. Though they skated most of the program flawlessly, Chock/Bates weren’t even at their very best with a couple of elements, most notably a slight error at the end of their stationary lift that they covered up well, but resulted in a lower level and lower GOEs. Does this result mean that gold is a foregone conclusion for the French? And does it mean the potential for a podium without an ROC team exists more than just in a vacuum?