Olympic Figure Skating: Canada Wins Team Gold; U.S. Grabs Bronze
The United States was third, led by Mirai Nagasu, who gave a near-perfect performance
that included an extremely difficult triple axel, eight years after her last Olympic appearance.
Yuzuru Hanyu of Japan and Evgenia Medvedeva of Russia, both gold medal favorites in their individual events,
and Nathan Chen of the United States did not appear for the free skates, though Medvedeva and Chen had skated in the short program.
“So to become the first American to land a triple axel at the Olympic Games is historical, and no one can take that away from me.”
Nagasu placed second to the Russian Alina Zagitova.
Patrick Chan placed first in the men’s free skate,
and the ice dancing superstars Scott Moir and Tessa Virtue won the free dance to give Canada the comfortable victory.
“Four years ago, when I was left off the team, I wanted to make another Olympic team,
and I knew I would really have to be something special,” she said.
A third place by Gabrielle Daleman in the women’s event was not enough to stop their momentum,
and another strong performance by Virtue and Moir locked up the big win.
The team of Russians won the silver medal thanks in part to a first place by Alina Zagitova in the women’s free skate.