Olympic Figure Skating Team Competition Debuts In Sochi
Olympic figure skating team competition is making its debut at the Sochi winter games for the first time ever and a day ahead of the opening ceremony scheduled for Friday.
Thursday saw the first full day of competition at the Winter Games, after much hype over security concerns, day one is already in the record books and figure skating team competition is an official Winter Olympics event.
Much like the Summer Games has gymnastics team events and partly based on other professional sports tournaments — the Ryder Cup in golf comes to mind — Olympic figure skating team competition is sure to further revitalize a sport that is always a favorite of viewers during the Winter Games.
Russia got the crowd going at the Iceberg Skating Palace in Sochi on Thursday, as the host country ended up in first place. The US is currently in fifth place in the standings.
After day one, #TeamUSA finds themselves in a 5th place tie with 10 points. Full standings: pic.twitter.com/k9eB4zmDW8
— U.S. Figure Skating (@USFigureSkating) February 6, 2014
The Russians earn a total of 83.79 and they ease themselves into a victory in the short program. After day one, Russia leads overall, too.
— U.S. Figure Skating (@USFigureSkating) February 6, 2014
Experts believe that team competition will actually change the dynamics of the sport, as athletes usually participate in a handful of events during the year.
Adding the team event will disrupt the peak times they go through in their training routine. Figure skating works as a well oiled machine.
This is how team figure skating works in the Olympics. The top ten rated countries will compete in the four disciplines — men’s, women’s, pairs, and ice dance — in a short and long programs.
On Thursday, the Olympic figure skating team competition started with the men’s and pairs short programs in which they are required to complete seven elements, to the music of their choice.
Each program is then ranked and given a score, which goes to the respective country, starting at 10 and going down in consecutive order.
The interesting thing is that the coaches can replace the short program performer with any skater for the long program, if they are not satisfied with the results.
Russia’s own Olympic figure skating superstar Evgeny Plushenko thrilled the local crowd and finished in second place to Japan’s Yuzuru Hanyu, who had an almost flawless number and finished first, Patrick Chan of Canada was third.
In the pairs competition, reigning world champions Tatyana Volosozhar and Maksim Trankov — also of Russia — were the clear front runners and finishing on top of the standings over Canada in second place, and China in third.
The Olympics figure skating team competition resumes on Saturday with the women’s and ice dancing short programs.
