Team, Mixed

The Team event made its début at the 2014 Olympic Winter Games in Sochi. Ten nations qualified to compete, and each must have qualified in three of the four individual events to be considered for the team event, and all athletes must have qualified for one of the other four events. The top five countries after the short programs in the men’s, dance, ladies and pairs free skate, advanced to the free skate of the pairs, men’s, ladies and dance. The bottom five did not advance. In the team event, skaters were awarded points based on their placements. The top finisher in each discipline was awarded 10 points, with second place earning 9 points, third getting 8, and so on. The country with the most points at the end of the third day won the gold medal.

The event took place at the Gangneung Ice Arena over three days between 9-12 February. The short programs and short dance were on 9 and 11 February, and the free skates and free dance on 11 and 12 February, and included 71 athletes from 10 nations.

Canada entered the 2014 Sochi Games treating it like a warm-up dress rehearsal for their individual competitions, and left Russia very disappointed with a silver medal. In 2018, the Canadians changed their tactics, and the team decided they were really going to go after that team gold, and not hold back.

Day 1 included the short programs for the men’s singles and pairs. Canada’s Patrick Chan, had a few stumbles on critical jumps in the men’s singles and his score of 81.66 points put him in third place behind Japan’s Shoma Uno (103.25) and Israel’s Alexei Bychenko (88.49). American Nathan Chen was in fourth with 80.61 points. Then there was a strong skate later in the day by Canadian pairs team Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford, who finished second with 9 points, and with Chan’s score of 8 points, the Canadians were in the lead after Day 1 with 17 points.

By the end of Day 2, Canada’s Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir were first in the ice dance short program with a score of 80.51 points giving Canada 10 points. Maia Shibutani and Alex Shibutani of the United States were second with 75.46 points, while Olympic Athletes from Russia Yekaterina Bobrova and Dmitry Solovyov were third with 74.76 points.

The ladies singles was won by Yevgeniya Medvedeva (OAR) with a world record score of 81.60 points. She was followed by 2012 World champion and 2014 Olympic bronze medalist Carolina Kostner of Italy with 75.10 points, and Canadian Kaetlyn Osmond placed third in her short program with 71.38 points.

With Virtue and Moir’s 10 points, Osmond’s 8 points, and pairs skaters Duhamel and Radford’s 10 points from finishing first in the pairs free skate (with one of their best scores of the season, 148.51), Canada topped the standings on Day 2. Canada now had a total of 45 points heading into the final day, ahead of the Olympic Athletes from Russia (39 points) and the United States (36 points).

Entering the third day, Canada subbed in Gabrielle Daleman for Osmond, and her third place performance in the ladies free skate mathematically guaranteed Canada the team gold medal, with Virtue and Moir still to stake in the ice dance. So with virtually no pressure, Virtue and Moir finished first with 118.10 points, 6 points ahead of Americans, The Shib Sibs, Shibutani’s, who captured the bronze medal. A brilliant ladies free skate by European champion Alina Zagitova of OAR, guaranteed her team the silver medal.

Canada won gold with 73 points, well ahead of Olympic Athletes from Russia (66), and the Americans (62). The team gold was Canada’s first in Olympic figure skating since Virtue and Moir won at Vancouver in 2010 and Canada’s first gold medal of the 2018 Olympic Winter Games. Chan became Canada’s first male singles skater to ever win an Olympic gold, while Radford became the first openly gay man to win a gold medal in a Winter Olympics.