Winter Olympics Figure Skating 2022: Sunday Predictions and Live Stream
The first medals in figure skating at the 2022 Winter Olympics will be handed out Sunday.
There will be a total of three events, starting with the pairs free skate. The ice dance free skate will take place thereafter and is followed by the women's free skate.
All three events will also count toward the overall team standings. Team USA held a surprising lead with 28 points following three phases of the team event, but the Russian Olympic Committee was already closing the gap with 26 points.
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Sunday Figure Skating Schedule
Pairs Free Skating: 8:15 p.m. ET
Ice Dance Free Skate: 9:30 p.m. ET
Women's Free Skate: 10:35 p.m. ET
Watch: NBC
Live Stream: Peacock and NBCOlympics.com
Standings via NBCOlympics.com.
Predictions
History suggests the Russian Olympic Committee is going to perform well in all three Sunday events.
Russians haven't finished worse than third in any of these events since the team format was adopted in 2014, including three wins eight years ago en route to the team winning gold.
If there is going to be a potential spoiler, it could come in the pairs free skate or free dance. The Chinese duo of Sui Wenjing and Han Cong placed first in the short program Thursday. They squeaked past Anastasia Mishina and Aleksandr Galliamov 82.83 to 82.64 thanks to a .44 advantage in the component score.
For perspective on how dominant those teams were in the short program, the U.S. pair of Alexa Knierim and Brandon Frazier finished a distant third with a score of 75.00.
Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue got off to a fantastic start at the 2022 Games on Thursday. They took the top spot in the rhythm dance with an 86.56, more than one full point ahead of Victoria Sinitsina and Nikita Katsalapov in second place (85.05).
Hubbell and Donohue are vying for their first Olympic medal and redemption in the free skate. A technical fall by Donohue four years ago left them in fifth place in the free-skate standings. They finished fourth overall in the final standings.
The most anticipated performance of the day will likely end up coming in the women's free skate. The 15-year-old Kamila Valieva is enjoying a rapid ascent up the world rankings.
She has already set the scoring world record in the short program twice in the past three months.
Vaileva posted a score of 87.42 at the 2021 Rostelecom Cup in November, beating the previous world-record mark of 85.45 set by Alena Kostornaia in 2019. She became the first woman to break 90 points in January at the ISU European Figure Skating Championships (90.45).
At the same Rostelecom Cup event in November, Vaileva set a free-skate world record with a score of 185.29, breaking her own record in the process (180.89 from Skate Canada in October).
It seems unlikely anyone will challenge Vaileva for the top spot given her track record.
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