Hanyu on top after short program
PYEONGCHANG, South Korea — Yuzuru Hanyu of Japan was dazzling in winning the men’s short program on Friday.
The reigning Olympic champion posted a score of 111.68 to beat Spain’s Javier Fernandez, who posted a score of 107.58. Shoma Uno of Japan was third with a 104.17.
Adam Rippon had the best finish among American men, finishing seventh with a score of 87.95. Fellow American Nathan Chen struggled in finishing 17th with a score of 82.27.
The highlight for the U.S. was Vincent Zhou, who became the first figure skater to land a quad lutz in Olympic competition when the 17-yearold hit the four-rotation jump leading into a triple toeloop to open his short program.
Zhou first landed the quad lutz during his warm-up, while he was waiting for the scores of France’s Chafik Besseghier to be read. Zhou said he’s always attempted a difficult jump just before his program to get his legs under him, and that it was a quad salchow before he learned the quad lutz last year.
Zhou scored a season-best 82.53 points to finish 12th.
The short program scores will be combined with the free skate Saturday to determine the medals.
Zhou got inspiration from a former Olympic star.
Zhou doesn’t know Brian Boitano well. But their lives became forever linked once Zhou qualified for the Pyeongchang Games.
The Palo Alto, California, teen is the first men’s skater from the Bay Area to make an Olympic team since Boitano did it in 1988 and ’94.
They met only once, when Zhou skated at the Yerba Buena Ice Skating and Bowling Center in San Francisco with the ’88 gold medalist. Yet, he feels a strong connection after studying the famous skater’s routines on YouTube.
“Brian Boitano has been an inspiration to me my whole life,” Zhou said before Friday’s short program. “He was the first Olympian I ever watched. Just the perfection of his jumps, his lines.”
The Olympic rookie took the initiative to call Boitano before traveling to South Korea. Boitano, 54, offered advice on how to feel comfortable on the world’s biggest stage.
“It’s important to stay within my routine,” Zhou said. “Eat my normal recovery food, bring my own pillow. Now that I have his support and experience to draw on, that’s something irreplaceable.”
Germany wins first pairs gold since 1952
Aliona Savchenko and Bruno Massot were flawless as the rest of the top contenders fell, and their free skate was enough to give the German pair Olympic gold.
Savchenko and Massot scored 159.31 points in their program set to music by Armand Amar on the final day of pairs skating at the Pyeongchang Games. That gave them 235.90 points, catapulting them from fourth place after a shaky short program to Germany’s first pairs gold since 1952.
China’s Sui Wenjing and Han Cong, who led after the short program, recovered from a slow start to their free skate to score 153.08 points. But their early bobbles proved costly — they finished with 235.47 points, less than half a point off the top step of the podium.
Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford added a bronze medal after winning team gold with Canada.