Russia won the team figure skating competition behind the performance of the 15-year-old phenomenon Kamila Valieva, whose history-making free skate on Monday included the first two quadruple jumps landed by a woman at an Olympics.
The United States won the silver medal after taking bronze in the past two Winter Olympics, the only other times the team event has been held. Japan finished third.
Valieva won both the short program and free skate during the team event, powering the Russians to victory and previewing what could be an unstoppable performance in the women’s singles competition next week. She nearly set a world record for points in the women’s short program on Sunday and won by more than 15 points, skating’s equivalent of a mile.
Karen Chen, the American who finished a surprise fifth in the short program on Sunday, bounced back from her mistakes on Monday, though she still had trouble with the triple loop. She finished fourth in the free skate.
The U.S. team’s joy over winning the silver medal was tempered by bad news from U.S. Figure Skating. Just before the Americans climbed onto the medals stand, the skating federation announced that Vincent Zhou, who helped the team win the silver, had tested positive for the coronavirus and was awaiting confirmation tests.
If the follow-up tests are also positive, Zhou, a two-time Olympian and the only skater to win gold over his fellow American Nathan Chen in the past three and a half years, will miss the men’s event, which starts with the short program on Tuesday.
The Russians, however, celebrated their team victory without such worries.
Their pairs team of Anastasia Mishina and Aleksandr Galliamov won the free skate even after collapsing onto the ice in a dramatic fall during one lift. At the other end of the pairs leaderboard were the Americans Alexa Knierim and Brandon Frazier, whose mistake-laden performance landed them fifth out of five pairs.
The ice dancers Madison Chock and Evan Bates won the free dance for the United States — with Chock playing the part of an alien — and put the Americans solidly in second place heading into the women’s free skate. But the Russians’ lead was already too great for the United States to overtake them.
The team competition adds up scores from men’s and women’s singles skaters, pairs and ice dancers; points are awarded based on the order of finish (10 for first, 9 for second and so on).
