Team USA got its best ever result in the figure skating team event, but it still wasn’t enough to topple the Russian Olympic Committee at the 2022 Winter Olympics.
The ROC won gold for the second time in three Olympics, while the U.S. earned silver for the first time. Team USA took home bronze the first two times the event was held since being introduced at the 2014 Sochi Olympics.
Japan earned the bronze medal this time around, while Canada, the defending gold medalist, came in fourth.
Here are the overall final standings:
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1. ROC, 74 points
2. United States, 65 points
3. Japan, 63 points
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4. Canada, 53 points
5. China, 50 points
The ROC entered the final day with 45 points through five events, while Team USA was narrowly behind with 42.
Day 3 events included the pairs’ free skate, free dance and women’s free skate. Alexa Knierim and Brandon Frazier competed in the pairs’ free skate for Team USA, Madison Chock and Evan Bates skated in the ice dance and Karen Chen took on the women’s free skate.
Knierim and Frazier finished fifth in the pairs free skate with a score of 128.97. ROC’s Anastasia Mishina and Aleksandr Galliamov earned their team 10 points with a 145.20 score despite a fall near the end of their routine. Japan finished in second, China finished in third and Canada came in fourth.
Chock and Bates’ winning free dance score of 129.07 just barely beat out Victoria Sinitsina and Nikita Katsalapov’s score of 128.17 for the ROC, earning 10 more points for Team USA. Canada placed third, China placed fourth and Japan placed fifth in the free dance.
Kamila Valieva, the ROC’s 15-year-old sensation, came out on top with a 178.92 score in the women’s free skate. While she did slip at one point in her routine, she made history as the first woman to ever land a quad at the Olympics.
Japan’s Kaori Sakamoto helped her country secure its podium spot with a 148.66 score in the free skate. Madeline Schizas earned Canada eight points with a 132.04 score, Karen Chen earned Team USA seven points with a 131.52 skate and China’s Zhu Yi rounded things out with a 91.41.
On Thursday, Nathan Chen got the U.S. off to a spectacular start by placing first in the men’s short program, scoring a personal best of 111.71. Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue also earned first place in their event, the rhythm dance. Alexa Knierim and Brandon Frazier scored eight points for Team USA with a third-place finish in the pairs short program.
The U.S. dropped in the overall standings on Saturday. Karen Chen placed fifth in the women’s short program, while Vincent Zhou placed third in the men’s free skate, the first event that took place after the field was cut from 10 countries to five.
Next up on the Olympic figure skating docket is the men’s short program, which begins at 8:15 p.m. ET on Monday. After helping Team USA earn a silver medal, Nathan Chen has the opportunity to add a gold.
