Routines so nice, they’re skating them twice.
This Olympics, figure skating fans will have lots more skates to watch, with the addition of a new team competition. But they may just be seeing more of the same.
In the team figure skating event, new to this Olympics, countries field teams composed of one man, one woman, one pair and one ice dancing couple. The athletes perform, and are ranked by judges, receiving points based on their ranking in each particular skate: 10 for first place, 9 for second and so on. These points are then added together for the country’s score.
Skaters selected for the team event will skate their short program and free skate routines for the team event, then, a few days later, skate the same routines again for the individual event. In previous Olympics, skaters only performed twice: the short program and free skate.
More: Sochi Figure skating schedule
Although it means twice as much work for the skaters, Skate Canada is looking on the bright side.
“You know what, it’s an opportunity for another medal,” said Mike Slipchuk, High Performance Director with Skate Canada. “We haven’t had one athlete on our team express that they don’t want to be a part of it.”
He thinks that having the team event first could help some athletes prepare for their individual performances. “It’s kind of a unique opportunity to get a feel for the atmosphere,” he said.
As for the fact that the athletes will be performing the same routines twice: “The skating routines, it takes such a long time for them to master them, that to have to come to the games and do four different programs would be very taxing on any athlete in the games,” he said.
And which of Canada’s 17 Olympic figure skaters will be part of the six-person team? Skate Canada is naming them at the last possible moment: the day before the event. So far, they’ve announced that Patrick Chan will skate the men’s short program, and Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford will skate the pair short program. Other skaters will be announced from Feb. 7-9.
They want to keep their options open, said Slipchuk, in case they need to make last-minute changes.
Since it’s the first time this event is being held at the Olympics, every country is in the same boat, Slipchuk said. “No one has an advantage or disadvantage. We’re all going to learn together through this process.”
The first team competitions are the men’s singles and pairs on Thursday, Feb. 6, one day before the Opening Ceremony. Individual events begin on Feb. 11 with the pairs short program.
Download a full Olympic events calendar here.
Note: Updated Feb. 5, 2013 at 8:26 am to include announcement of men’s and pairs short program team participants.
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