Post by Admin on Jan 20, 2022 2:04:05 GMT
There is nothing quite like figure skating at the Olympics - or in all of sport - as athletes attempt to strike the balance between artistry and athleticism ... on ice.
The sport made its debut at the London 1908 Summer Games, but officially joined the Winter programme in 1924.
For the third consecutive Olympic Games, figure skating will stage both an individual event in each of its four disciplines - men's singles, women's singles, pair skating and ice dance - as well as a team event at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics.
The team event kicks off the action on 4 February and runs through 7 February, followed by the first individual event, which is set to feature the men.
While each of the four disciplines offer compelling storylines, the host nation China will save its strongest event for last as its world champion pairs team - Sui Wenjing and Han Cong (pictured above) - will try to win Olympic gold at the close of the Games.
Read on to find out the schedule of events and the best way to watch the action.
Figure skating events at Beijing 2022
In total, there are five separate figure skating events at Beijing 2022: the team event; men's singles; women's singles; pair skating and ice dance.
At Sochi 2014 the team event - which features a 10-nation field in which skaters earn points in each discipline - was introduced to the Olympic programme. The ROC captured gold in 2014, while Canada won the team event at PyeongChang 2018.
Figure skating stars to watch at Beijing 2022
Reigning and two-time Olympic champion Hanyu Yuzuru will no doubt be looking to write more history. The 27-year-old Japanese star became the first man since Dick Button (1948-52) to win back-to-back Olympic golds in 2018, and will try and become the first skater in any discipline to go three in a row in nearly a century in Beijing.
American Nathan Chen is the three-time and reigning world champion, and will be hoping to shake off his fifth-place finish from 2018, where he was in 17th after the short program.
Hanyu's compatriots, Olympic silver medallist Uno Shoma, and world medallist Kagiyama Yuma, as well as Chen's countryman Vincent Zhou, are all eyeing the podium, in addition to the ROC's Mikhail Kolyada, if selected.
Teenagers have come to dominate women's skating over the last two Olympic cycles, and ROC skaters Kamila Valieva, Anna Shcherbakova and Alexandra Trusova would expect to continue that trend if selected.
Japan's Sakamoto Kaori is in her second Games, however, as is Loena Hendrickx of Belgium. American Alysa Liu and Higuchi Wakaba of Japan will look to add their names to the short list of women who have completed a triple Axel in Olympic competition.
The aforementioned pair of Sui and Han will no doubt be the home hope of the Games, with the pairs event set for last (18 & 19 February) and the two-time world champions having had a strong season leading into Beijing.
In their way are any of the ROC teams in the field, most notably the reigning world champions, Anastasia Mishina and Aleksandr Galliamov, most likely to be selected after winning the 2022 European Championships in the pairs.
In ice dance, Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron will be back four years after a disappointing silver medal finish, while the likes of Victoria Sinitsina and Nikita Katsalapov (ROC), if selected, Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue (USA), Madison Chock and Evan Bates (USA), and Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier (CAN) are also likely contenders for the dance podium, too.