Winter Olympics preview: Figure Skating
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History
For the first time in figure skating’s 90-year Winter Olympic history, the competition will include a team event. The added event means the schedule for the sport will begin before the Opening Ceremony. Ice dance competition was reduced on the international agenda from three programs to two, and combining the compulsory and original dances freed an extra day to implement the team contest.
Figure skating will use the ‘Code of Points’ to score skaters in Sochi. The system was officially adopted by the International Skating Union in 2004 after a judging scandal in the 2002 Olympic pairs competition in Salt Lake City. Alleged cheating by several judges using the ‘old system’ (a scale of 6.0) resulted in a repeat of the award ceremony for the first time in history -- upgrading silver medallists Jamie Sale and David Pelletier of Canada to a tie for gold with Russian pair Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze.
Events (5)
Mens singles, Ladies singles, Pair, Ice dance, Team
Venue: Iceberg Skating Palace
The 12,000-seat arena in Sochi will host the figure skating and short track speed skating events. It takes about two hours to convert the surface from one sport to the other. The reported cost of the structure is $43.9 million. An early International Skating Union test event in October 2012 forced builders, who claimed the arena was fully ready, to improve several aspects including the floors.
The Top Story
The debut of the team event should be an interesting start for a sport already famous for its controversies. It’s hard to predict what course of action each country could pursue in order to fetch an early medal in Sochi. Some teams may opt to use their best skaters in the short program qualifier in order to notch a place in the long program. Others could go all-in and use their best in both the short and long, though the timeframe for certain skaters, like those in the pair event, is extremely short. Two early performances in the team competition could exhaust the athletes for their chance at an individual just medal days later.
Five Names To Remember
Yuna Kim (South Korea) - Ladies singles: Queen Yuna, as she’s known at home, “took a breather” for the entirety of the 2011-2012 season, and due to lack of results, had to earn back her spot to compete in the 2013 World Championships. There, Kim won her second world title by the largest margin (20.42 points) since the new ISU Judging System was adopted. The 23-year-old is planning to retire after Sochi.
Ashley Wagner (USA) - Ladies singles: After finishing a distant fifth at the US championships, Wagner was named to the Olympic team for her “body of work” bumping the rightful owner of the third Olympic entry, bronze medallist Mirai Nagasu, off the plane to Sochi. If Wagner doesn’t crumble under the pressure of the Olympic stage as she did at Nationals, the US Figure Skating Association might justify the first bumping of a medalist (not for injury) in its history.
Meryl Davis and Charlie White (USA) - Ice Dance: This powerhouse duo won a fifth straight U.S. title in 2013, and have won gold in 17 of their 19 events since taking the silver medal at the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver. They train with Canadian rivals (and reigning Olympic champions) Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir.
Patrick Chan (Canada) - Mens singles: Chan called his fifth place finish in Vancouver four years ago the low point of his career, but he hasn’t looked back. The year following the 2010 Winter Olympics, the 23-year-old was unbeatable in every competition he entered. He won his fourth world title in November and is a big favorite to add an Olympic gold to his resume.
Evgeni Plushenko (Russia) - Mens singles: One of the world’s most dominant Olympic performers is the dark horse in his home country this year. The 31-year-old veteran earned his berth as the sole Russian skater in the men’s competition behind closed doors in front of a panel of experts. Patrick Chan, who hasn’t seen Plushenko in competition since Vancouver in 2010, called the three-time Olympic medalist’s entry “more of a distraction” than a challenge in a February interview.
Three Terms You Need To Know
Element: Each element (trick) performed is worth a certain number of technical points, with Olympic programs requiring a set number of elements (8) for singles and pairs short programs. The free program has 14 elements for pairs, 13 for men, and 12 for ladies.
Technical panel: A technical specialist determines the base value of the elements performed, the technical controller verifies the decisions and adds the appropriate deductions for falls or illegal elements, and sends them to the judges’ computers. Each of the judging panel’s nine judges awards a mark (Grade of Execution) to the elements.
Personal Best: A skater’s highest career score in an International Skating Union event is known as his/her personal best. Athletes cannot earn personal bests at a national-level event.
Previews for each individual event below.