The 12 Figure Skaters to Watch Out for at the Olympics

Olympic figure skating starts on February 4 with the team event: rhythm dance and men’s and pairs’ short programs. This may not seem like the main ticket, but consider it a warmup for some of the most showstopping events of the entire Olympics. For sheer glamour, panache, and style in sport, it’s hard to beat figure-skating—and the gravity-defying feats don’t hurt either. And that first event could serve as a sneak peek at some of the top individual medal contenders:  Many of the following skaters will be assigned to at least part of that event—but they’re good bets for individual medals too.

Nathan Chen, U.S.A.

The American figure skater Nathan Chen arrived in PyeongChang four years ago as the U.S. and Grand Prix champion, and a leading contender to win Olympic gold. He made mistakes that put him in 17th place after his short program–but worked his way up to fifth place after winning the free skate with five clean quads. From then on, Chen maintained a winning streak that lasted till this past October, when he came in second at Skate America: gold medals at three World Championships, two more Grand Prix Final Championships, and four more U.S. National Championships. On January 9, even though he was skating with hip pain and fell twice in the free skate, he earned a sixth consecutive national title. When he skates in Beijing, expect to hear the word redemption in the commentary.

Yuzuru Hanyu, Japan

In 2018, Yuzuru Hanyu won his second consecutive Olympic gold medal, tying the record set by Dick Button of the U.S. in 1948 and 1952. Hanyu, who had withdrawn from his fall 2021 Grand Prix events because of an ankle injury, qualified for his third Olympics by winning his sixth Japanese national title in December against competition that included Shoma Uno, the reigning Olympic silver medalist, and Yuma Kagiyama, the reigning world silver medalist. They will be Hanyu’s teammates in Beijing as he tries to tie an even older record: the three consecutive Olympic golds won in 1920, 1924, and 1928 by Sweden’s Gillis Grafström.

Kamila Valieva and Anna Shcherbakova, Russia

Russians dominate the women’s field–but their success in Beijing may depend on their resistance to COVID. Several athletes at Russia’s Olympic training camp have tested positive, including figure skater Mikhail Kolyada, who has withdrawn from the competition. According to The Wall Street Journal, the Russian Figure Skating Federation has maintained that minors don’t need to be vaccinated (even though a vaccine has been approved for 12- to 17-year-olds), and that 15-year-old Valieva, the reigning Russian and European champion, and her 17-year-old teammates, Shcherbakova and Alexandra Trusova, are exempt. These teenagers have been trading titles and placements, but Valieva has broken away from the pack as the first woman to earn more than 270 points in the free skate and the first to earn more than 90 points in the short program. (She achieved that score Europeans on January 15.) If Valieva falls short in Beijing, Shcherbakova (the reigning world champion) and Trusova will be ready to seize their chances; if COVID gets them first, the women of the Japanese team, with its stringent health protocols, will be waiting.

Anastasia Mishina and Aleksandr Galliamov, Russia

The venerable Russian pairs coach Tamara Moskvina, whose teams have won four Olympic championships since 1984, hopes to add another title to that list. She coaches Russian national champions Anastasia Mishina and Aleksandr Galliamov, who won Worlds in 2021 and Europeans this month (in their debuts at both events), and the 2020 European and Russian champions, Aleksandra Boikova and Dmitri Kozlovskii.

Sui Wenjing and Han Cong, China

The 2017 and 2019 world champions and reigning Olympic silver medalists, Sui Wenjing and Han Cong, also have a distinguished coach: Zhao Hongbo, who with his wife, Shen Xue, became the first Chinese Olympic pairs champion (in 2010, breaking a Russian/Soviet winning streak of 46 years) and a three-time world champion. Skating at home and facing strong Russian competition, Sui and Han (with less artistry but great power) will hope for similar results.

Ice Dance: Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron, France

Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron, who had been almost unbeatable for three seasons, ended in second place at PyeongChang after the top of her costume fell down, but with a silver medal there and their third and fourth world golds in 2018 and 2019, they again seemed unstoppable heading for Beijing. But in the 2020–21 season, COVID kept them out of contention–both Papadakis and Cizeron contracted the disease in July 2020, and after they recovered they preferred not to risk travel. At first they said they would skip French Nationals and the European Championships to concentrate on Worlds; then they decided to skip Worlds to concentrate on the Olympics. (They also skipped Europeans this month, although they won their two Grand Prix events in the fall.)

Ice Dance: Victoria Sinitsina and Nikita Katsalapov, Russia

Those decisions left the door open for the Russians Victoria Sinitsina and Nikita Katsalapov, who beat Papadakis and Cizeron at Europeans in 2020 and took advantage of their absence to win Worlds in 2021. As the reigning world and European champions, Sinitsina and Katsalapov have an advantage over a team that has missed many major events over the past few seasons. (Katsalapov also has Olympic experience as the 2014 bronze medalist with his former partner Elena Ilinykh.)