Canada claims 1st gold of PyeongChang 2018 in team figure skating

Canada has its first gold medal of PyeongChang 2018 thanks to a dominant performance in team figure skating.

Gabrielle Daleman's third-place performance in the women's free skate gave the Canadians a point total that could only be matched by the Russian team with the ice dancing free skate yet to be conducted.

After the Americans topped the Olympic Athletes from Russia in that discipline, Canada's star tandem of Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir sealed the win with a first-place performance.

The competition features eight different events before crowning a winner. The Canadians finished with 73 points, well ahead of the Olympic Athletes from Russia at 66 points.

With the win, Virtue and Moir have tied the all-time record for most career Olympic medals by a figure skater with their fourth. They will have the opportunity later in the games to break that mark in individual ice dancing.

Canada entered the final three events holding a six-point lead over the OAR after a dominant performance from Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford in the pairs free skate. Patrick Chan extended that lead to seven points with a first-place performance in the men's free skate earlier in the day.

Daleman turned in a brilliant showing in her Olympic debut, scoring 137.14 to clinch the gold for the Canadians. When the team event was first held four years ago in Sochi, Canada finished second to Russia by 10 points.