Twenty-three pairs of skaters took the ice at Capital Indoor Stadium on Saturday morning. And boy did they execute.
Team USA’s Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue, who are ranked No. 5 in the world, placed third. American teammates Madison Chock and Evan Bates, the No. 2-ranked team, finished one spot behind Hubbell and Donohue in fourth place.
France’s Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron placed first with a score of 90.83.
Spectators for the event were diverse, including former Olympic figure skater Johnny Weir, three-time snowboard gold medalist Shaun White, Olympic figure skater Jason Brown and even a human pretzel.
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Two-time Olympian, 2008 World bronze medalist and three-time U.S. national champion Johnny Weir commented on the performances with USA Today.
After hours of fierce dedication and stylistic prose, the standings were evident. Here’s a full list of the top competitors and their scores:
France’s Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron placed first with a score of 90.83. ROC’s Victoria Sinitsina and Nikita Katsalapov placed second with a score of 88.85. Team USA’s Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue, who are ranked No. 5 in the world, scored 87.13, putting them in third. Team USA’s Madison Chock and Evan Bates, who are ranked No. 2 in the world, scored 84.14, putting them in fourth place. ROC’s Alexandra Stepanova and Ivan Bukin secured fifth with a score of 84.09.
Canada’s Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier placed sixth, Italy’s Charlene Guignard and Marco Fabbri placed seventh and Canada’s Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Nikolaj Soerensen placed eighth.
Spain’s Olivia Smart and Adrian Diaz placed ninth and Great Britain’s Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson secured 10th.
Team USA’s Kaitlin Hawayek and Jean-Luc Baker placed 11th with a score of 74.58. China’s Wang Shiyue and Liu Xinyu 12th, Canada’s Marjorie Lajoie and Zachary Lagha 13th, ROC’s Diana Davis and Gled Smolkin 14th and Poland’s Natalia Kaliszek and Maksym Spodyriev 15th.
Finally, Finland’s Julia Turkkila and Matthias Versluis placed 16th, Czech Republic’s Natalie Taschlerova and Filip Taschler placed 17th, Georgia’s Maria Kazakova and Georgy Reviya placed 18th, Armenia’s Tina Garabedian and Simon Proulx Senecal placed 19th and Ukraine’s Oleksandra Nazarova and Maksym Nikitin placed 20th.
These pairs advanced to the medal event, and will be performing in the free dance on Sunday, while Germany, Japan and Lithuania have been eliminated.
Earlier in the Games, Team USA’s Hubbell and Donohue placed first in the rhythm dance team event competition with a score of 86.56. They came into the Olympics with one of the highest scores of all pairs for this season of rhythm dance. And they did not fail to prove themselves in the earlier rhythm dance team event or Saturday’s ice dance competition.
USA’s Hubbell and Donohue, along with Madison Chock and Evan Bates, are considered the favorites to enter this event.
Chock and Bates also proved successful in their earlier team performance, skating in the ice dance free dance and securing a winning score of 129.07. This gave the U.S. 10 additional points and earned them a silver medal.
The biggest competition set to face Team USA was the ROC’s Victoria Sinitsina and Nikita Katsalapov, who took second place in rhythm dance during the team event earlier in the Games.
Now that the top 20 pairs have been chosen, the next step is the ice dance medal event.
Stay tuned for the next competition in figure skating: ice dancing, free dance. The medal event will take place on Sunday at 8:15 p.m. EST.
