Alysa Liu, one of many skaters representing the U.S. within the staff occasion, practices on the Milano Ice Skating Area on Monday.
Matthew Stockman/Getty Photographs
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Matthew Stockman/Getty Photographs
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Olympic determine skating kicks off Friday with the staff competitors, during which the U.S. is closely favored to carry off rival Japan and defend its gold medal from 2022.
The staff occasion is comparatively new, making its debut within the 2014 Sochi Video games. It pits the world’s 10 top-ranked international locations in opposition to one another, through representatives in every of the 4 skating disciplines: males’s, girls’s, pairs and ice dance.
Nations get factors (1-10) relying on how they rating within the first two occasions (quick program and rhythm dance), and the highest 5 transfer on to the ultimate spherical (free skate and free dance).
The principle battle to observe is between the U.S. and Japan, who completed as the highest two in 2022 after Russia was disqualified over a doping case involving considered one of its skaters. The absence of Russia — nonetheless banned from the Video games over its warfare in Ukraine — signifies that the third medal is considerably up for grabs.
“There are such a lot of international locations vying for that bronze spot,” Canadian ice dancer Piper Gilles stated. “There’s Georgia, there’s us, everyone’s pushing for it.”
A part of the suspense is discovering out who every nation will select to compete in every class, which is normally introduced about 24 hours upfront.
It isn’t so simple as simply choosing the highest scorer in every self-discipline. It requires some strategizing, since anybody who competes within the staff occasion will nonetheless need to take the ice two extra instances in their very own class over the following two weeks.
“It is all going to return all the way down to the choices that the athletes and the individuals in cost make,” U.S. skater Amber Glenn stated earlier this week. “We’re going to prioritize each bodily and psychological well being.”
Take the boys, for instance. Their free skate closes out the staff occasion on Sunday, simply two days earlier than their first day of particular person competitors.
So international locations need to determine whether or not their strongest skater ought to compete in each packages of the staff occasion, or skip considered one of them to get some relaxation in between. Every nation can swap as much as two (out of 4) entries halfway by means of the competitors.
The U.S. has a bonus right here, partly due to the sheer dimension of its 16-person staff, having secured most quota spots in males’s, girls’s and ice dance. The subsequent greatest groups, Japan and Canada, have 12 individuals every.
“This staff specifically is so deep, so proficient, and has an incredible alternative for a gold medal,” U.S. ice dancer Evan Bates stated earlier this week, earlier than the roster was even introduced.
Here is what we all know to this point.
Who’s competing when?
Friday opens with the three shorter packages in girls’s, pairs and ice dance.
The U.S. has chosen Alysa Liu — the 20-year-old reigning world champion and two-time Olympian — to compete within the girls’s class, at the very least within the first a part of the staff occasion. Earlier this week, when requested whether or not girls would possibly cut up that class, Liu advised reporters “all of us signed an NDA for that!”
Her principal competitors is three-time world champion Kaori Sakamoto, who gained bronze in 2022 along with serving to Japan win silver within the staff occasion.
In pairs, U.S. is placing ahead 2024 nationwide champions Ellie Kam and Danny O’Shea. They face a steep problem from Japan’s Miura Riku and Kihara Ryuichi, two-time Olympians and two-time world champions.
Representing the U.S. in ice dance are powerhouses Madison Chock and Evan Bates, reigning seven-time nationwide champions who helped Group USA win gold on this very occasion in 2022. They’re hoping for a repeat this yr, which marks their fourth Olympics collectively.
“Any time you get the chance to compete on the Olympics, you wish to cherish it, so there’s nothing however positives for us right here,” Chock stated earlier this week.
What’s subsequent?
The staff occasion continues on Saturday with the final ice dance program — the free dance — and the primary males’s occasion, the quick program.
The U.S. has chosen gold medal favourite Ilia Malinin, who might change into the primary individual to ever land a quadruple axel on Olympic ice.
But it surely’s not clear whether or not Malinin will take that danger as early because the staff occasion, particularly since he would not want it in an effort to high the leaderboard. He gained U.S. championships in January by greater than 50 factors even with out the quad axel, taking part in it considerably secure (in case you take into account a backflip on ice secure) as he broke in new skates.
Saturday can also be once we’ll discover out who will characterize Group USA within the ultimate half of staff competitors, in different phrases, which two athletes will sub out. Sunday concludes with the free skate — the longer, extra artistic program — in pairs, girls’s and males’s.
On Sunday, as soon as all of the factors are tallied, the primary determine skating medals of those Video games might be given out. And there might be extra to return — the primary ice dance competitions begin the very subsequent day.
