Featured Article Summary #141

The figure skating team event at the 2022 Winter Olympics took place from 4 to 7 February at the Capital Indoor Stadium in Beijing, China. It included men's singles, women's singles, pair skating, and ice dance, with points awarded for placements in each category. The final medals were originally set by the total points, with Russia leading, the United States in second, and Japan in third. However, the medal ceremony was delayed after a positive test for a banned substance was revealed from a sample linked to Kamila Valieva, and her case later went through legal proceedings. Nearly two years later, her scores were removed, and the results were recalculated, changing the medal positions to the United States first, Japan second, and Russia third. The medals for the American and Japanese teams were ultimately presented at a ceremony during the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris. The team event is the newest Olympic figure skating event, first held in 2014. It combines men’s singles, women’s singles, pairs, and ice dance, with points given for each discipline’s placement; the team with the most total placement points wins gold. Canada won in 2018, followed by the Olympic Athletes from Russia in second and the United States in third. Before the 2022 Olympics, WADA confirmed Russia had a state-sponsored doping program, and Russia was banned from international competition in 2019. For the 2022 Games, Russian athletes were allowed to compete under the name of the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC). The 2022 team event took place in Beijing in early February, where Russia was expected to win, and Kamila Valieva was seen as a likely standout for the women’s events. For the team event, the top ten countries were chosen using results from the 2021 World Figure Skating Championships and the 2021–22 Grand Prix Series. To qualify, a country needed skaters in at least three of the four disciplines, and if fewer than ten countries had all four, countries with only three could add athletes using the ISU “Additional Athletes Quota.” These extra skaters could compete in the team event but not in the individual Olympic events. The text explains the abbreviations used in the event: SP stands for short program, FS for free skate, RD for rhythm dance, and FD for free dance. It also says that each member nation submitted athletes for the different segments in their respective disciplines. In the team event, the men skated their short programs on Friday, 4 February, and the women on Saturday, 5 February. Each short program was under 2 minutes 40 seconds and had to include required jumps and spins, plus a step sequence covering the full ice surface. The top five teams after the first round went to the final, with men skating their free skates on Saturday and women on Monday, 7 February; the free skate lasted up to 4 minutes and required seven jump elements (including an Axel-type jump), three specific types of spins, a step sequence, and a choreographic sequence.