GOLDEN MOTIVATION
Team event medal pushing Canadian figure skaters forward
GANGNEUNG — Figure skater Kaetlyn Osmond believes she has found an escape from the pressures of competing in an Olympics.
Her ticket out? That team event gold medal dangling from her neck.
“I think it gives a lot of motivation going into our own event, saying we’re already an Olympic gold medallist. It takes a lot of the pressure off, I think. I’m so excited to compete in my individual event. I’ve been training. There are mistakes in my short program that I want to fix. But definitely I’m ready to compete, I’m ready to fight and it’s just great motivation.”
That’s certainly one way to look at the lasting effect of a team event gold, and if she plays that mental pawn to her advantage later in the Games, good for her. Every little bit helps, and she needs to improve on a short program that left her third in a field of 10, one that was missing podium contender
Alina Zagitova, an Olympic Athlete from Russia. She skated only the long and won it, ahead of Mirai Nagasu of the United States and Canada’s Gabrielle Daleman.
In men’s action, Canada’s Patrick Chan will be looking to repeat the precision of his quads in the long program, clean up the problems he has had with triple Axels, and perhaps make one last assault on the top of an Olympic podium before retirement. But he is adamant that the gold in the team event is just as meaningful as anything he’ll win on his own, so he might also be out from under the pressurized Olympic bubble.
“We’re made to believe the individual event is all that matters ... Now I have a gold medal, not only that but two opportunities to skate here on Olympic ice. Whether it was good or bad, what a great opportunity. And I don’t know when it’s going to happen again, so I’m just savouring every moment I have on that ice,” he said.
And he has had plenty of time to do that already, having skated both short and long. His opponents for individual medals made other decisions — or had them made by team officials — and the wisdom of their strategies will be evident soon. Yuzuru Hanyu of Japan skipped the entire team event, his teammate Shoma Uno skated only the short, and won it. American Nathan Chen skated only the short and made a mess of it, so he’ll be looking for redemption. Mikhail Kolyada, an Olympic Athlete from Russia, struggled through both short and long programs. Advantage Chan? Perhaps. Pairs skaters Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford see an advantage in having skated both long and short at the team event, if only for the extra time it gave them in the venue under the heat of competition. Not to mention that medal.
“I think we’re going to enter the individual event feeling very comfortable and at home,” Duhamel said. “We’ve competed in this venue not once but twice now. We’ve done all our practice sessions here. I feel very settled in the arena, in the competition environment.
“And I think that’s going to help us, maybe over some of the competitors who haven’t yet competed. So that helps.
“But it doesn’t really relieve any pressure. We want to be on the podium in the pairs event and in order to win a medal in the pairs event, which is going to be such a strong field, we need to deliver two of our best performances and we know that,” Duhamel said.
Again, none of their largest rivals for medals skated both programs in the team event. In fact, Sui Wenjing and Han Cong of China didn’t skate either program. Evgenia Tarasova and Vladimir Morozov, Olympic Athletes from Russia, skated only the short and beat the Canadians. Aliona Savchenko and Bruno Massot finished third in the short and didn’t skate again because Germany didn’t advance to the long programs. It was certainly a mental boost for the Canadians to beat the Germans in the short program, and Radford said they will approach their own event with more confidence.
“In terms of performance, I’d just love to have the same performance,” Radford said. “I think that we created a very strong moment with that performance.”
Ice dancers Tessa Virtue
and Scott Moir won both the short and long, but didn’t have to skate against their perceived rivals for gold in their own event, Gabrielle Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron of France, who did not participate in the team event at all. The Canadians, who are three-time Olympians, were a bit surprised not to see the French rookies out there getting their feet wet.
“But we respect their strategy,” Virtue said. “This is the first time for them to compete in an Olympic Games so they have to approach it as they see fit. We’re sort of lucky to have that experience.”