Key events
We’ll have some time before the men’s free skate, so this is a great time to send in your emails if you like.
I’m also duty-bound by the citizens of Vienna (Va.) to point out that Malinin is from my town. In fact, Marshall High School just got a shoutout on the broadcast. (I’m tied to the other school in Vienna, but still …)
Standings with one stage to go
How big was that extra point that the US pair of Ellie Kam and Danny O’Shea picked up? Without that, even if Ilia Malinin gets 10 points, Japan would be in position to tie by picking up nine.
Women’s scores
148.62 Sakamoto (JPN)
140.17 Gubanova (GEO)
138.62 Glenn (USA)
126.94 Gutmann (ITA)
125.00 Schizas (CAN)
Team standings
59 USA
59 Japan
52 Italy
50 Georgia
47 Canada
So lest we forget the bronze medal – Canada’s out, but there’s a chance that Georgia could pick up its first medal in any Winter Olympic sport. Maybe when someone invents ice judo.
Amber Glenn is being interviewed and is quite gracious, offering a matter-of-fact analysis in which she thinks she might have had too much adrenaline earlier in the day and then faded.
“Can Ilia bring it home?” she’s asked.
“Are you kidding? Of course he can.”
If nothing else, the USA have clinched their second medal of the Games. They can’t get less than silver.
Lipinski, Weir and Gannon are convinced Sakamoto has first place here. I’m not so sure. Her technical scores are indeed behind Gubanova’s.
But they know a bit more than I do about component scores. It’s a 148.62. Meh. Fine.
Why is it that figure skating competitions can land the rights to the original Edith Piaf songs but not pop/rock stars of the last 50 years?
Oh – Sakamoto lands everything else, though her technical score actually might not be ahead of Gubanova’s.
If they let me judge artistic impression, Gubanova would win. But they won’t.
Sakamoto’s first two jumps are smooth. A triple-double combo is flawless … but they’ll review anyway.
Yeah, this isn’t going to be close. Truth be told, this isn’t as entertaining as the other programs, but it’s immaculate.
So Japan’s Kaori Sakamoto can force a tie in this team event with one stage left. Her season best is 150.13. This should be easy for her.
Reviews have knocked her down to 70.88. Seems really unlikely that she’ll finish ahead of Gubanova.
Here’s the score: 138.62, 6.03 off her season best. And it’s behind Gubanova. Her face is a study in despair.
Apparently not, but it’s close. She’s at 72.37, pending other reviews. Gubanova was at 73.24. She shakes her head as she finishes, clearly unhappy.
“Amber, you worked through it,” her coach says as she steps off the ice. “I’m so proud of you.”
She lands the triple axel! Sort of. The landing was shaky and gets a review.
And oh no. She steps out of a triple-triple combination. She battles back with a triple lutz-double toeloop (under review, of course) and a triple salchow (not!).
Can she add a combo here? Triple loop, double axel, double axel, nailed it! That’ll ease some worries.
Then it’s a triple-double combo. Under review, but not bad.
Can she best Gubanova’s technical mark?
The graphics tell us Glenn has the highest planned technical program: 68.97 points.
This is nervy stuff …
Amber Glenn is warming up, and she pulls out of a triple axel attempt. Nerves are evident on her face. Her coach tells her to breathe.
Guttman’s score: 126.94, well off her season’s best and barely ahead of Schizas from Canada.
But there are some objective mistakes here. A triple becomes a double. And more jumps under review. Italy might drop an unexpected point once these scores come in. Her technical score is nowhere near Gubanova’s.
Gutmann’s first combo is under review. And her second combo. And a triple loop. No home-ice advantage in figure skating?
Oooh, a cartwheel! You don’t see THAT every day.
Her spin is under review. I’m personally offended at this point.
It’s a season’s best 140.17 for Gubanova.
Italy’s Lara Naki Gutmann is skating to the Jaws theme, and I say we should just award her a gold medal for that.
Georgia’s Anastasiia Gubanova plans to open with a triple-triple combination, and she’s successful. Green on a triple lutz, green on a triple salchow – though the latter might get a review. Hey, I’m right – the yellow bar comes up.
Triple lutz/double axel/double toeloop … looks good but is also under review. Triple flip/double toeloop is OK, maybe? Double axel is immediately under review. She seems to be tiring in the second half of this program.
I’m deducting five points for the music. It’s from Ghost: The Musical. At rehearsal tonight, I’ll be playing a song by Ghost, the Swedish metal-ish band. I’d prefer the latter. But tastes may vary.
Women’s event underway
Canada’s Madeline Schizas has a season high of 123.44. She falls on her first jump, a triple lutz. She gets a warm ovation when she lands the next one, a triple flip. Her next two jumps are fine, but she gets a review on her spin.
Triple lutz again, this time followed by a double axel and another double axel. Johnny Weir notes that she was supposed to open with a big combination but fell on the first jump, so she has improvised to do the combo here. Since that fall on the first jump, she has been impressive, landing three consecutive combinations.
She smiles toward the end of her routine but seems less than happy after she finishes.
It’s a 125-flat, just ahead of her season’s best, but she still seems to be stewing over that missed jump.
The women’s free skate is officially behind schedule. Some of us have to be somewhere at 1700 ET, folks.
Amber Glenn landed a triple axel in warmups. That could be big if she does it when it counts.
Back at figure skating (or while we wait) – Japanese skaters have won four of the six segments so far. The big difference is that the USA’s Madison Chock and Evan Bates won both phases of ice dancing, while Japan conceded a lot of points there.
That is, however, bad news for my fantasy curling team. Yes, I drafted Sweden in mixed doubles.
While we wait for the women to start, we’ll peek at curling, where the US mixed doubles pair of Korey (Dropkin) and Cory (Thiesse) are on the verge of clinching a spot in the playoffs. Maybe.
Oh – yes. That’s it. An 8-7 win over Sweden puts the USA into the four-team playoffs.
Pairs results and standings (6/8 stages complete)
155.55 Miura/Kihara (JPN) – personal best for what was already the best pair here
139.70 Metelkina/Berulava (GEO)
136.61 Conti/Macii (ITA)
135.36 Kam/O’Shea (USA)
134.42 Pereira/Michaud (CAN)
Standings
51 USA
49 Japan
45 Italy
41 Georgia
41 Canada
The Japanese pair gets underway, and they’re not quite landing things smoothly at first. But a graceful throw gets a 7.27 for the moment, well ahead of the base value of 5.30.
Still, a death spiral (which sounds like a Norwegian metal band) is under review. This might not be so simple.
The rest is impressive, though – a lift and a throw that far exceed their base values, then a final lift that is the most dazzling of the evening. (And yet it’s under review.)
Miura pumps her fist while being held aloft at the end. It’s an 80.75 on technical scores for the moment, and that might come down into the 77-78 range, but that’ll be plenty.
The Georgians have finished, and it’s a sizable advantage on the technical scores – nearly 10 points ahead of the Italian pair.
So if we’re going to think only in terms of how this affects the USA, consider this – what if Japan does not get 10 points in the pairs? What if Georgia snags the top spot instead? It won’t lift Georgia onto the podium, but might be one more point toward keeping Japan off the top step.
Scores are in: 139.70. Actually not that much of an edge over Italy, especially given the advantage in technical scores.
Final pair: Miura and Kihara from Japan. They have to win this in order for Japan to keep the pressure on the USA.
Metelkina and Berulava, the heart of Georgia’s team, take to the ice. Berulava tosses her into the air like a drummer tossing a drumstick. Their side-by-side jumps are nearly perfect – maybe we could quibble over one skater’s leg being slightly higher than the other’s, but they’re not messing around.
Another throw. Metelkina lands like she just took a small step while walking on solid ground. Nothing to it. We can surely forget any chances that they’ll be in anything but first place with one pair to go.
Johnny Weir reminds us that the Italian pair will have the edge on the artistic scores. It’s not hard to see why, even if you know nothing about figure skating. They’re mesmerizing.
And there it is: 136.61, 1.25 points ahead of Kam and O’Shea.
Conti and Macii start with a solid throw, but they’re at sea on a jumping sequence, with Conti not completing one jump and each of them having some wobbly landings. They bounce back on their next jumps, and Conti firmly and gracefully lands a throw. Macii hoists Conti into the air – looked great from here, but the yellow “review” sign pops up.
It’s a stunningly graceful program. And when Conti lands a triple salchow throw, it’s hard to imagine the US score holding up for first place.
But … their technical score is lower! Could it be? It’s 69.18 (for now) to the Americans’ 69.65.
And it drops to 68.23!
The lowest free skate score this season for Italy’s Sara Conti and Niccolo Macii is 130.92, but that was early on. In Grand Prix competition, their low was 134.89.
So they’ll need to be on point to knock the USA off the top spot. Will skating at home be a boost, or will it bring extra pressure?
The last time Italy hosted the Winter Olympics, the ice dance duo of Barbara Fusar Poli and Maurizio Margaglio finished their free dance with a disastrous fall, leading to this viral moment in which Fusar Poli shot Margaglio a heartbreaking look of despair and disappointment.
Canadians’ scores: 134.42! It’s a season best by far, but it doesn’t catch Kam and O’Shea. Job done for the US pair, earning at least one more point than the minimum.
Pereira and Michaud nails their first couple of elements. All green to start. (“Green” meaning they’re getting what was expected or better on a particular element.) But Pereira has to take several extra steps to stay upright on a throw triple loop.
They march onward, though, and Pereira lands the next throw beautifully. The Canadians are giving up fourth place in this segment without a fight.
In fact, forget fourth here – the other pairs are going to have to be on top of their games here to beat all these upstart North Americans.
Kam and O’Shea got 69.65 on their technical elements. Pereira and Michaud finish with … are you kidding? 69.73!
But at least one element is under review.
In fact, as I type, it has dropped to 69.54.
Kam and O’Shea score 135.36, a season high. Also a personal best.
For comparison – Canada’s Pereira and Michaud have a season high of 123.22.
Get ready to hear some Hans Zimmer …
A fierce look of determination on Ellie Kam’s face as the non-Eurythmics version of Sweet Dreams starts. The first throw is solid, though it looks like something (maybe a piece of glitter?) flew off. Their first synchronized jump has a bobble from Kam.
Kam successfully lands on the throws, if only just.
As the music pulsates (a sturdy remake of Everybody Wants to Rule the World), O’Shea’s lifts are breathtaking. Pairs skaters have to be stronger than a lot of athletes in other disciplines. The crowd loves it, and O’Shea is smiling as if he knows he’s putting on the skate of his long career.
Tara Lipinski and Johnny Weir, NBC’s stellar commentator duo, are beside themselves.
This should be good …
Kam/O’Shea open pairs free skate
Gotta love their musical selections – Sweet Dreams, Eleanor Rigby and Everybody Wants to Rule the World.
Some of their elements include Triple Twist Lift, Triple Toeloop, Triple Salchow+Double Axel+Double Axel, Throw Triple Lutz and Throw Triple Loop.
The difference in the technical elements …
Sato’s planned program includes these jumps/combinations:
Malinin?
Skaters can change their minds during the course of the program. But packing in seven quads to Sato’s three is quite the statement of intent.
Start lists and analysis
Pairs
The USA will open with Ellie Kam and Danny O’Shea. Then it’s Lia Pereira and Trennt Michaud (Canada), Sara Conti and Niccolo Macii (Italy), Anastasiia Metelkina and Luka Berulava (Georgia) and finally Riku Miuru and Ryuichi Kihara (Japan).
All five of these pairs competed in the short program, where the order was Japan, Georgia, Italy, Canada and the USA. But Kam and O’Shea (66.59) weren’t far behind Pereira and Michaud (68.24), so if they can improve just slightly, they can gain another valuable point. Miuru and Kihara have gone silver, gold, silver, gold in the last world championships. The Georgia pair took fourth last year and also won the world junior championship. Conti and Macii have been on the podium two of the last three years.
Best-case scenario for the USA would likely entail picking up seven points (fourth place) to Japan’s 10.
Women
Starters are Madeline Schizas (Canada), Anastasiia Gubanova (Georgia), Lara Naki Gutmann (Italy), Amber Glenn (USA) and Kaori Sakamoto (Japan). The one change from the short program is for the USA, where Glenn replaces Alysa Liu. Sakamoto took first in the short program, followed by Liu, Gutmann, Jia Shin (South Korea), Gubanova and Schizas. Sakamoto won three straight world championships but dropped to second this year behind Liu. Glenn won last year’s Grand Prix final.
So this is likely 1-2 for Japan and the USA. If the USA took fifth in pairs, then we’ll have a tie going into the last phase …
Men
List is Nika Egadze (Georgia), Matteo Rizzo (Italy), Stephen Gogolev (Canada), Ilia Malinin (USA) and Shun Sato (Japan). The good news for the USA is that Malinin has dominated men’s skating since the last Olympics, and he has overcome a slightly shaky short program in the past. In the free skate, he’ll line up so many quad jumps that he can afford a few mistakes and still win. The other good news for the USA: Sato isn’t Kagiyama. So this will be Malinin’s – and the USA’s – to lose.
Let’s set the stage …
The team competition is pretty simple. Finish first in a particular program, and your team gets 10 points. Second place is 9 points. Third is 8. Halfway through, we cut down to the final five.
So the current scores, after five of eight stages are …
44 USA
39 Japan
37 Italy
35 Canada
32 Georgia
So the USA are virtually assured of their second medal of the Olympics this evening. It’s expected to be a second gold. But Ilia Malinin was expected to win the men’s short program, and he was second to the brilliant Japanese skater Yuma Kagiyama yesterday after some small errors on his jumps.
Malinin will skate again today in the men’s free skate. Kagiyama will not.
And that could be pivotal. Japan could make up four points in pairs to pull within one point with two events left.
Competition starts with pairs in about 25 minutes (1330 ET). The women start at 1445 ET, then the men at 1555.
Get comfortable. Get popcorn. Get tissues. Enjoy.
Beau will be here shortly. In the meantime, here’s Bryan Graham on how an eventful women’s downhill competition played out:
There was always a version of this story that ended in a single, violent instant. Lindsey Vonn was 13th to push out of the start gate on Sunday in Cortina d’Ampezzo knowing exactly what she was racing with: a fully ruptured ACL in her left knee, a heavy brace wrapped around the joint, and the accumulated wear of a career spent flirting with speed and consequence.
She barely made it out of the opening phase of the run.
Not 13 seconds into her descent, under bright late-morning sunshine on the Olympia delle Tofane, the 41-year-old American appeared to clip her right pole on a gate. The contact was subtle, almost imperceptible at full speed, but catastrophic in effect. She lost her balance, lurched violently to the right, twisted awkwardly in the air and landed hard on her side before being pitched backward down the piste.
You can read the full article here:
You can also keep up to date with the latest events in other disciplines here:
And check out our schedule, results and medal table.
