Olympic figure skating results 2018: Canada leads after 1st day of team events

While the opening ceremony is still a few hours away, Winter Olympics action is well underway in South Korea, starting with figure skating. The team event started Thursday night, with two programs that will eventually determine medal winners.

Team figure skating is a relatively new Olympic event, first making its debut in Sochi four years ago. Countries compete as teams of skaters in different programs (men’s single, pairs, women’s single, ice dance), with the winners accumulating points for their respective nations. For example, the winner in men’s singles gets 10 points for his country, second place gets nine points, and so on.

Men’s singles and pairs were the main attractions on Thursday, and despite some shaky ice conditions (there were multiple delays while the Zamboni cleaned things up on the rink) the action mostly delivered. Team Canada has the lead so far after Patrick Chan finished third, and the pairs team took second place.

American Nathan Chen made his long-anticipated Olympic debut, but the 18 year old was less than stellar and finished in fourth.

Japan’s Shoma Uno dominated the men’s single program, while the Russian pair took first place in its program. Here’s a quick recap of the day’s events from Gangneung Ice Arena.

South Korea’s Cha Jun-hwan started off the men’s team short program, earning a score of 77.70. German Paul Fentz was next and slipped, hurting his score in the process. He ended up with a total score of 66.32.

France’s Chafik Besseghier didn’t dazzle on the technical sheet and finished with a score of 61.06 total points. Next up was China’s Yan Han, who placed just behind Jun-hwan with a score of 77.10. Italy’s Matteo Rizzo wowed the crowd with a great program, earning a 77.77 total score, putting him in first place for the time being.

The next skater was Chan, one of the event’s biggest stars. He took the silver medal in Sochi in men’s singles and also helped Canada to a silver in the team event. Here, Chan skated to “Dust in the Wind” and nearly had another outstanding program but took a bad spill on a triple axel attempt. That was a big hit on his technical score, but he still managed 81.66 overall to take over first place.

Israel’s Alexei Bychenko did Chan one better, leaping to the top at 88.49 overall. Next up was Chen, making his Olympic debut at 18 years old. Chen’s run was mostly successful, though he fell on his triple axel try. Chen finished with a score of 80.61.

The second-to-last skater was Russian athlete Mikhail Kolyada, who got 74.36 points. Uno was the last competitor in the men’s short program, and he pulled off a brilliant run, blowing past the field with a 103.25 total score, easily taking the victory and earning 10 points for Team Japan.

Just like the men’s event, South Korea started things off in the pairs program with Kim Kyu-eun and Alex Kam. They set the pace with a score of 52.10. The Israeli team of Paige Conners and Evgeni Krasnopolski earned 54.47 points, nudging them ahead of South Korea in the standings.

Japan’s pairs team — Miu Suzaki and Ryuichi Kihara — stole the show by skating to music from the anime Yuri on Ice, getting a 57.42 score in the process. The American husband-and-wife duo of Alexa Scimeca Knierim and Chris Knierim used the Moulin Rouge soundtrack and earned 69.75 points for an excellent program, though Alexa slipped near the end to deflate it a bit.

Yu Xiaoyu and Zhang Hao skated for China, using the classic “Swan Lake” as their theme. A slip-up at the beginning didn’t ultimately hurt them on the way to a 69.17 score. Italy’s Nicole Della Monica and Matteo Guarise picked up a 67.62.

Next up was France, which needed a good run after finishing dead last in the men’s program. Vanessa James and Morgan Cipres skated to Ed Sheeran’s “Make it Rain,” an interesting choice. They managed a score of 68.49, a better showing for Team France. Canada’s duo of Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford leaped to the top with a score of 76.57, a great showing for one of the top gold medal contenders in pairs skating.

The next team was Germany’s Aliona Savchenko and Bruno Massot, another medal contender. They won the crowd over, but Savchenko took a bad fall on an attempted flip, which surely hurt their final score. They settled for 75.36.

Finally, the Russian athletes closed out the night with Evgenia Tarasova and Vladimir Morozov. They had a near-flawless run, blowing past the Canadian team and taking first place with 80.92 points.