A woman had never landed a quadruple jump at the Olympics until Feb. 7, 2022.
Ten days later, we could see as many as 10 quads in the women’s free skate at the 2022 Winter Olympics.
WATCH LIVE starting at 5 a.m. ET: USA | NBCOlympics.com | Peacock | NBC (8 p.m. ET)
The 10 planned quads are shared among only the Russian Olympic Committee skaters: Aleksandra Trusova leads the way with five, Kamila Valieva will go for three (plus a triple axel) and Anna Shcherbakova two.
Valieva, who is in first after the short program, successfully landed two in her team event free skate, falling on the third. Japan’s Kaori Sakamoto stands in the way of a ROC sweep of the top three spots but will likely be passed by Trusova, who is fourth, if the reigning world bronze medalist pulls off any of her quads.
Follow along below with our live blog…
Group 1 feat. Schizas
The first of five groups will have seven skaters, followed by six in each group that follows. That’s because the International Olympic Committee and International Skating Union decided 25 skaters would advance to the free skate, one more than typical, if Valieva is among the top 24, in light of the ongoing case surrounding her Dec. 25 positive test for trimetazidine that came to light on Feb. 8.
5:15 a.m. ET: Finland’s Jenni Saarinen, who benefited from that rule, struggles through this Rachmaninov program, falling on her opening triple flip and two more jumps; starts the free skate off with 96.07 points and a 153.04 total.
5:23 a.m. ET: Great skate for Ekaterina Kurakova of Poland, who scores 126.76 points for a total of 185.84 that will move her up in the standings.
5:31 a.m. ET: A faulty free for Bulgaria’s Alexandra Feigin, who under-rotates nearly all of her jumps and falls on a triple loop. She’s into second with 100.15 points and a 159.31 total.
© 2024 KOBI-TV NBC5. All rights reserved unless otherwise stated.