Opinion: US figure skaters falter on jumps, but they're still guaranteed a medal at Winter Olympics
BEIJING – After Day 1 of the Olympic figure skating team competition, U.S. athletes talked about skating with intensity and building momentum for an improbable gold-medal run against the Russians.
On Day 2, the conversation turned, sharply. Thoughts of momentum were replaced by concerns about “picking each other up.” High-fives and fist bumps were gone. Hugs and kind words showed up in their place.
That’s because, given the chance to rise to the occasion, both Karen Chen and Vincent Zhou turned in flat, lackluster performances, leaving the United States likely settling for the team silver medal and wondering what might have been had Chen and Zhou been able to skate cleanly – or how things would have been different had U.S. Figure Skating officials chosen other skaters in their place.
No one will ever know what Alysa Liu, the nation’s most internationally competitive female skater, would have done in this circumstance. She was flying to Beijing over the weekend; Chen said she found out she was going to participate in the team event “shortly after nationals (in early January),” so one can surmise that Liu knew she wasn’t chosen and planned accordingly.
BEIJING TEXT UPDATES: Get behind-the-scenes access to the Winter Olympics!
NEVER MISS A MOMENT: Subscribe to our Olympics newsletter to stay informed!
And what about using reliable and beloved artist Jason Brown instead of Zhou for the men’s long program? Or, how about this: put young jumper Ilia Malinin on the Olympic team and use him for the long. In hindsight, either might have been better options than Zhou, who can be brilliant, and also erratic.
One option that was off the table for the Americans was Nathan Chen. He skated exquisitely in the team men’s short program to put the Americans into the early lead Friday, but that was all the energy he was going to exert on this event. He wants to be fresh for the infinitely more important men’s individual event, which begins Tuesday. He’s the gold-medal favorite there.
No one is going to lose sleep over the team event, an add-on to the Olympic figure skating program whose importance pales in comparison to the sport’s four traditional Olympic disciplines. But since they are holding the event, you would like to try to win it, and Sunday’s two performances turned out to be a couple of glaring missed opportunities.
ON THE PODIUM: Snowboarder Julia Marino wins USA's first medal in Beijing
Chen was no longer the steady-eddy she had been on the international stage, saving the day for the USA at the 2017 and 2021 world championships. Saying she felt “a little tense,” Chen fell on her normally reliable triple loop in the short program and finished a disappointing fifth rather than a likely third, giving up two valuable points and allowing the Russians to erase the U.S. lead and move ahead by two points.
No one was going to beat 15-year-old Russian phenom Kamila Valieva, the gold medal favorite in the women’s individual event, who was exquisite Sunday.
“I’m happy that I was able to bring the maximum score to my team,” she said. “I did everything I could have done today. I felt very nervous but also calm.”
Zhou could have cut the margin with the Russians to one point, or even tied it up with a strong performance in the men’s long program, but he landed only two of his five planned quadruple jumps, the air going out of his sails with each miss.
When asked to grade the performance, he said it was a “B-minus.” He’s a generous grader.
“It wasn’t terrible, there were some good things, there were some bad things,” he said. “It definitely wasn’t a lights-out skate obviously, but it wasn’t a disaster either. I’m better trained than that, than to let a disaster happen.”
So it wasn’t a disaster, but neither Chen nor Zhou could replicate their teammates' strong performances from the event’s first day.
“I wouldn’t say either of us couldn’t do it, I think that’s a little harsh,” he said. “I think all of us are great athletes and are prepared to do our jobs here and it’s a team effort so let’s see what happens.”
Both Russia and the United States are guaranteed a medal in the event, which ends Monday with the final competition in pairs, dance and women. But after winning bronze in 2014 and 2018, it looked like gold was at least a possibility for the Americans here, until it was not.