Winter Olympics 2022 Figure Skating Recap : Cross-over and coronation day for Nathan Chen

One was close to the podium 4 years ago and the other one was Olympics champion for the second time in a row becoming one the greatest figure skater of all time. But yesterday was an incredible switch for the quads King Nathan Chen and the Japanese legend Yuzuru Hanyu.


Following the short program result, Nathan Chen skated a perfect free program with five quadruples including a quadruple lutz in the second half of the program that of course got him bonus points. On the music Rocketman, the victory felt like evidence, the perfect music, for the perfect program with the perfect skater. Indeed, Nathan started to draw a beautiful smile on his face after the lutz, letting us understand that he knew, at that moment, that the gold was for him. His energy was so communicative that the audience couldn't hold their excitement (even me jet lagging for the second time this week in order to watch this event). A beautiful come back from the 2018 Olympics where on his «Nemesis» short program he fell to 17th place and succeed to win the free program to finally finishing close to the podium at the 5th place. Yuzuru Hanyu, Olympics champion in 2014 and 2018 attempted yesterday the legendary quadruple Axel that was never realized in the history of the Olympics. He was very close to making it and the jumps were beautiful but the rotation wasn’t quite complete. That got him to fell on this jump and on his quadruple salchow. He made the same mistake as his short program technically speaking. However, he did two beautiful quadruple Toe and triple Axel. He finished at 4th place in total.


Yuma Kagiyama and Shoma uno reflect their previous year's consistency. Yuma did two incredible programs, and the free skate on the music «Gladiator» showed as much he could fight for the gold. He took the silver medal with a total of 310.05. Yuma wasn’t such a revelation but a true gem. If you followed his previous result, he already has a big career behind. He is the silver medalist of the junior world championships, winner of the Youth Olympics game, and the silver medalist of the 2021 world championships.


Shoma won the Bronze with his «Bolero » free program. He did two beautiful quads (loop and Toe loop in combo) but did little mistakes on quad flip, his other quad toe and salchow.

 

Of course, I cannot talk of all the skaters here, but I can for sure say that overall the level of performances were very high, talking here about technical content and artistic creation. It was an absolute delight to watch! On the highlights, the Mexican skater Donovan Carillo delivers in the free a very joyful performance, refreshing and sparkly as a ray of sunshine on a rainy day! Brendan Kerry the Australian deliver the best performance of his career with a clean free program beating his personal best score ever with a total of 160.01 on the free program. The Russian boy and Olympic champion in the team event a few days ago, Mark Kondratiuk, was at this competition the reflection of what he is for two years, a revelation. In fact, Mark is the outsider with the most incredible stories. Injured and on the point to stop skating, not very well known on the international stage, he decides to keep going with the love of the sport. He succeeds to take the bronze medal last year at the Russian national creating a big surprise. Following this, he became this year's national champion and took the gold at the European championships this year. From being an outsider to an Olympics champion there was just one step for him!


Denys Vasiliev skated on Romeo and Juliet and watching the program I qualified him as « alive Romeo». A program full of emotion. Daniel Grassl from Italie and Boyang Jin execute the best quadruple lutz of the competition (with Nathan Chen). Technically both of their Lutz was the highest. To conclude, Jason Brown was just amazing to watch. His program on the music Schindler’s list from Steven Spielberg's movie was a chill giver.


Once again, it was a great competition, with an incredibly high level of athletes. The men introduce the event with beauty, classiness, emotion and suspense that make us want to continue with the other categories! The next event is the Ice Dance rhythm dance on the 12th of February.