After a lackluster short program that led to an unexpected second-place finish for Ilia Malinin, the Quad God recuperated with a near-clean free skate to lead Team USA to a gold medal finish in the figure skating team event competition.
Going into the men’s long program on Sunday, Team USA and Team Japan were neck-and-neck vying for gold, with 59 points each, after three-time U.S. national champion Amber Glenn finished in a shocking third place, after Japan’s Kaori Sakamoto and Georgia’s Anastasiia Gubanova. Despite shaky landings and some missteps, Glenn fought for the program through-and-through, eking out a landing on her triple axel — the sole woman to attempt the difficult jump in the team competition.
Malinin eschewed his signature quad axel, a feat that no one else in men’s figure skating has attempted, much less completed cleanly, but his strong technical base score triumphed over Japan’s Shun Sato’s planned elements. (He did repeat his backflip from his short program, this time landing single-legged.) Sato gave it his all, but his less difficult jumping passes — even being performed in a textbook fashion — were no match for the 21-year-old American’s. Malinin cracked 200 points to add a total of 10 points to Team USA’s total, well behind his personal best of over 228. Meanwhile, Japan finished second with 68 and Team Italy clinched bronze with 60 overall points.
Sato was visibly disappointed by the second-place finish, despite posting a personal best of 194.86 (triumphing over his former record of 194.02). His teammates rallied behind him — including Sakamoto, men’s short program winner Yuma Kagiyama (who bested Malinin with a truly exceptional showing) and pairs favorites Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara — commending the rock solid performance. Later on, Team USA and Team Japan skaters could be seen shaking hands, congratulating each other and chatting beyond the kiss-and-cry booth.
Home country figure skaters also have cause to celebrate, with Italian Matteo Rizzo’s emotional skate to an Interstellar medley yielding a rousing performance. The skater marked the momentous occasion with fist pumps, cheers and a knee-slide coming off the ice, as the crowd and his teammates roared in triumph.
The team event is still a roughly novel competition, first cropping up during the 2014 Sochi Olympics. Team USA are repeat champions, and Team Japan are repeat silver medalists (in 2022, Sakamato, Kagiyama and Miura/Kihara were also part of the second-place team).
Next up, figure skating enthusiasts can expect the competition to continue with the ice dancing qualifiers tomorrow morning, where U.S. team Madison Chock and Evan Bates are favored to vie for gold.