Innholdsfortegnelse for April 2022 i International Figure Skating

There are so many great moments to reflect on from the 2022 Olympic Winter Games. New champions were crowned in all four disciplines, and not the ones most of us expected in two of them. What transpired with the Kamila Valieva doping issue cast a cloud over the Games for skating fans. But with so many other positives and individual achievements to celebrate, we chose not to let that one negative dampen our enthusiasm and cheered on all the other skaters. Despite the tight restrictions and daily testing, we did not hear one complaint. Everyone seemed genuinely happy and grateful that the Games was actually taking place. Our coverage this issue recaps all the action of what transpired on the ice as well as what took place behind the scenes.…

Four years before the 2022 Olympic Winter Games opened to the world, China began searching for foreign talents with Chinese backgrounds, as part of the country’s “Morning Road” initiative to recruit top athletes to represent it at its home Games in Beijing. One of those was the American-born figure skater Zhu Yi (Beverly) who renounced her U.S. citizenship in September 2018 and became a Chinese citizen. Zhu won the 2018 U.S. novice title but had no international experience before switching to represent China. She won the right to compete at the Games following a skate-off against two other women who were born and raised in China. Though that nation did not qualify a woman for the Games, as the host nation China was granted one spot in the women’s event.…

The women’s short program opened under a cloud following the decision that allowed Kamila Valieva of ROC to compete in the individual women’s event, but while the competition began as expected, it ended on a note few had anticipated. Valieva opened her short program with a step out on the opening triple Axel, but went on to execute the remaining elements without error. She received 82.16 points for her efforts. Following her performance, Valieva declined to comment and it was no surprise that she did not attend the press conference. Though Valieva won the short program, the surprise of the day was her teammate Anna Shcherbakova, who finished second, just 1.96 points out of the lead. Shcherbakova was rock solid in her performance set to “Dangerous Affairs” and “Total View”…

The fairy tale that has been the Yuzuru Hanyu story the past eight years did not end quite the way he had hoped at the 2022 Olympic Winter Games. The 27-year-old headed into the competition looking to make history by winning a third consecutive Olympic title. But that was not to be in Beijing. Hanyu finished a distant eighth in the men’s short program after popping his opening quad Salchow. He later stated his blade caught a rut, which prevented a take-off of the jump. Backstage, obviously upset, Hanyu was struggling with what had just transpired. “My rhythm felt right, and you saw that in my other jumps. It’s mind-boggling because the preparation to get here … Everything had gone right until now. I felt razor sharp during the six-minute…

The 2022 Olympic Winter Games was a showcase of the best skaters on the planet. New World records were set and personal best scores were in abundance in Beijing. New champions were crowned in all four disciplines, with five medalists from the 2018 campaign once again claiming steps on the podiums. Behind the scenes, tears of joy and disappointment flowed. And for one particular athlete, the outcome of her competition caused a major meltdown that was beamed around the globe. The 2022 Olympic Winter Games marked the first time this season that the top men in the sport would share the same ice, and expectations were high that a battle royale could unfold between two of them: Nathan Chen and Yuzuru Hanyu. Chen headed into the Games with maturity and…

The quest for Olympic gold in the pairs event was expected to come down to a battle between China’s Wenjing Sui and Cong Han and reigning World champions Anastasia Mishina and Aleksandr Galliamov of ROC. But as with the women and men’s events, this competition had its own interesting twists and turns. One can only imagine the pressure that sat on the shoulders of Sui and Han entering the Olympic Winter Games as China’s one and only medal hope in figure skating. With just one Challenger Series and two Grand Prixs under their belt this season — all of which took place months before the Games — what condition they were in and if they were injury free were unknown factors. Mishina and Galliamov narrowly defeated Sui and Han at…

Following his performance in the long program portion of the Team Event, which helped Team USA capture the (provisional) silver medal, Vincent Zhou suddenly found himself sidelined and alone. On Feb. 7, in a heartfelt video posted to Instagram, Zhou announced he had tested positive for COVID-19, which forced him to withdraw from the men’s individual competition and move to an isolation hotel. “I’ve isolated myself so much that the loneliness I’ve felt in the last month or two has been crushing at times,” Zhou explained. “The enormity of the situation, just the pain of it all is pretty insane.” After recovering and emerging from quarantine on Feb. 16, the ISU invited Zhou to perform in the gala. But later that evening, in a final blow to his already fragile…

On Feb. 8, rumors began swirling at the Olympic Winter Games in Beijing that an as yet unnamed figure skater had tested positive for a banned substance. When the Team Event medal ceremony was postponed twice without explanation, all eyes were focused on the medal-winning teams: the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) claimed gold, the United States won silver and Japan earned the bronze. International media began investigating the rumor and the postponement of the medal ceremony, and shortly thereafter reported that the skater in question was 15-year-old Kamila Valieva, the diamond of the ROC figure skating team. Due to Valieva’s age, the International Testing Authority (ITA) — which acts on behalf of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) at all Olympic Games — initially abstained from publicly disclosing the case in…

It had been a long four-year campaign for French ice dancers Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron following a disappointing result at the 2018 Olympic Winter Games in PyeongChang, where they missed the top step of the podium by a scant 0.79 of a point. In the intervening years, Papadakis and Cizeron won 10 of the 11 competitions they entered, finishing second at the 2020 European Championships behind the Russian team of Victoria Sinitsina and Nikita Katsalapov. With the pandemic raging throughout 2020 and 2021, the French duo opted not to compete last season and used the time to prepare for the 2021-2022 campaign and, more particularly, the 2022 Olympic Winter Games. Papadakis and Cizeron arrived in Beijing ready to do battle. China had proven to be a lucky place for…

SURPRISE BABIES American skating icon Michelle Kwan became a first-time mother on Jan. 5 when she welcomed a daughter, Kalista Belle Kwan. “I’m always full of surprises and tend to keep my personal life private. I’ve wanted to share this happy news for many months but each milestone seemed to be exciting and daunting at the same time. “I’ve always wanted to be a mom and, to me, she’s a perfect miracle. This has been a challenging journey to motherhood (not to mention a very long labor!!!) and I’m glad I never gave up.” Russian ice dancer Ivan Bukin had many things to celebrate at the 2022 European Championships. Bukin and his on-ice partner Alexandra Stepanova captured the silver medal in Tallinn, but a week earlier he became a father…

➤ 148 skaters from 32 ISU member nations were scheduled to take part in the Games. ➤ Canadian pairs skater Eric Radford was the oldest male competitor at age 37. ➤ Radford’s partner, Vanessa James, was the oldest female competitor at age 34. ➤ The youngest competitors in Beijing were both from the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) team: Kamila Valieva (15) and Mark Kondratiuk (18). ➤ These Games marked the fourth consecutive Olympic appearances for James, Evan Bates of the U.S. and Michal Březina of the Czech Republic. ➤ Canada’s Madeline Schizas celebrated her 19th birthday on Feb. 14 and Nikolaj Sørensen turned 33 on Feb. 18. ➤ No athletes from North Korea were permitted to compete in Beijing following a ban by the International Olympic Committee for not sending…