By Ash Fossey, 2028
Men fall at the winter Olympics as America wins their first female gold since 2007. The most popular sport in the Winter Olympics, figure skating is always full of upsets and scandals, and this year is no different.
Men’s Event:
America’s “Quad God”, Ilia Malinin, projected gold due to his unmatched jumping capability and 2 year winning streak in international competitions. Tragically for the US, he fell twice during his Olympic freeskate and placed 8th in the overall event. Despite this, he still went home with a medal in the team event in which he helped lead America to gold.
The internet erupted with explanations for the dozen plus falls of the men’s event, claiming that the ice must have been melting. This is mainly due to the fact that the rink was shared between figure skating and speed skating, which require different resistance from the ice.
Kazakhstan’s Mikhail Shaidorov won gold, closely followed by Japan’s Kagiyama and Sato.
Women’s:
Alysa Liu, a Chinese-American skater, won gold after returning to the sport following a multiple year break. This placement is the first Olympic medal in women’s figure skating to go to the US since 2007, when this skater was 1 year old! Her story fights the abusive narrative that many figure skaters follow in which being small is how they can succeed.
Despite this amazing comeback, it is clear that the sport has slowed down since the last Olympics. Alysa’s winning score of 226.79 is dwarfed by the previous Olympic’s podium in which Russia’s Anna Shcherbakova and Alexandra Trusova both had totals over 250.
Along with this, quad jumps and coach Eteri have fallen. Eteri, a lead Russian coach, who led the previous 3 Olympic champions failed to reach the podium with her current star skater, Adeliia Petrosian. This loss marks the end of a skating empire and the women’s jump progress. Adeliia was the only woman to attempt quad jumps this Olympics, failing both, a high contrast to Trusova’s record breaking 5 in one program at the last Olympics.
Kaori Sakamoto, a famous Japanese skater and a four time Olympic medalist, skated her final competitive programs before retirement. She landed second place with only 1.89 points less than Liu. Her teammate, Ami Nakai placed third right behind her.
