Japanese teenager Ami Nakai was the shock chief after the quick program of the Olympic girls’s determine skating competitors on an evening when her nation’s skaters largely stole the highlight from Workforce USA’s Blade Angels of their bid to finish America’s two-decade medal drought.
Nakai delivered a clear, commanding skate on Tuesday, highlighted by a hovering triple axel for a personal-best rating of 78.71, edging three-time world champion Kaori Sakamoto (77.23) into second. Solely Alysa Liu of america was capable of break the Japanese maintain on the highest spots, scoring 76.59 to return in forward of fourth-placed Mone Choba (74.00).
There has by no means been a clear podium sweep in Olympic girls’s determine skating, however Nakai, Sakamoto and Chiba will fancy their probabilities at making historical past for his or her skating-mad nation getting into Thursday’s free skate, when the medals will likely be doled out.
The 17-year-old Nakai laid down the early marker from the highest of the second-to-last group, drilling the three-and-a-half-revolution soar to open her program to La Strada by Nino Rosa and racking up factors with a triple lutz-triple toeloop combo adopted by a triple loop. Her rating improbably held up via the subsequent 11 skaters.
“I really feel like I’m dreaming,” Nakai stated. “I simply tried to remain in my skate, and have a great time for the remainder of the skate. “The Individuals push me with their tough jumps, together with the triple axel. However on the similar time, they’re all very good individuals, so I simply need to take pleasure in my time with them on the ice.”
Sakamoto, who backed up her 2022 Olympic bronze medal with three consecutive world titles, delivered a sublime efficiency to Andrea Bocelli and Sarah Brightman’s Time To Say Goodbye, incomes excessive marks for her triple lutz and triple flip-triple toe combo.
Liu, the 20-year-old who received final 12 months’s world championship after getting back from a two-year retirement prompted by burnout, earned her season-best rating with a near-perfect routine set to Promise by Laufey and Dan Wilson to stay squarely within the podium hunt. Had been she to win a medal of any colour on Thursday, she would turn into the primary American lady to succeed in the Olympic podium on this occasion since Sasha Cohen received silver in 2006.
“Whether or not I beat them or not isn’t my aim,” Liu stated of her Japanese rivals. “My aim is simply to do my packages and share my story and I don’t must be over or below anybody to do this.”
Her American teammates, who entered this contest with excessive hopes of medal competition, didn’t fare as properly.
Skating instantly after Liu kicked off the ultimate group, 18-year-old Isabeau Levito was docked a degree on her step sequence and completed eighth with 70.84 factors. Later, Amber Glenn’s skate to Madonna’s Like a Prayer – which had prompted a video message of encouragement from the singer – began off properly sufficient with a sensational triple axel that despatched the constructing into delirious roars. However the 26-year-old Texan was left in tears after a popped triple loop value her seven factors, derailing her program and dropping her to thirteenth place with 67.39.
“I don’t know what occurred,” Glenn advised her coach as she left the ice. “I had it.”
Adeliia Petrosian, the three-time Russian champion who entered these Olympics as a person impartial athlete, skated within the first group resulting from a scarcity of worldwide competitors expertise on account of Russia’s battle in Ukraine. Her clear skate to a Michael Jackson medley – together with They Don’t Care About Us on the climax – was good for fifth with a rating of 72.89, leaving her inside placing distance of the medals.
“At first I used to be nervous, not about my skate, however about my [emotional] state. This was crucial begin of my life,” Petrosian stated. “I’m feeling actually calm, and I hope it will assist me with my free skate as a result of this [short program] already helped me as we speak.”
The 18-year-old from Moscow, who’s coached by the controversial Eteri Tutberidze, tried not one of the quadruple jumps nor the triple axel that are in her arsenal, however remained coy when requested whether or not she’d try them in Thursday’s free skate.
“I want to maintain this a secret as a result of I by no means inform about my program,” she stated.
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