Direct from Skate America 2022, listen to Gabb (@tegomass) sit down with Men’s Bronze medallist - and her favourite skater - Junhwan Cha (KOR) to talk about his experiences at the event, celebrating his birthday, last-minute costume changes and more!
What Is The Olympic Figure Skating Team Event?
The Olympics are just around the corner - with teams flying in and practices having just begun - and with it comes flocks of viewers both new and old who look at the competition schedule and wonder…
What on earth is the Team Event?
Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered! Read on for an explanation of the precursor to the individual events and the beginning of all that Olympic excitement!
What is the team event?
The Team Event was created in the hopes that it would encourage federations to foster a desire to develop all four disciplines in figure skating - Men’s, Women’s, Pairs and Ice Dance - in order for them to win a Team Olympic medal.
The Team Event was introduced at the Sochi Olympics back in 2014, meaning this years’ event will be the third iteration of the competition format.
How many countries are participating in the Team Event?
A total of 10 countries are selected to compete in the Team Event, those of which are the top 10 federations over all four disciplines at major competitions in both this and last season.
The countries participating in the Team Event at the 2022 Olympics are: Canada, China, Czech Republic, Georgia, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, Ukraine, and the US.
How many skaters compete out of those teams?
Each team is composed of 1 Man, 1 Woman, 1 Pairs team and 1 Ice Dance team. Federations may only select athletes that have qualified and been assigned to their respective individual event.
Federations may choose to send different skaters for each segment of competition, for example sending one man to skate the Short Program and then a different one to skate the Free Skate - but they may only do this for a maximum of two out of the four disciplines.
Since the Team Event takes place before the Individual Events, it’s not uncommon for top skaters to either only skate one segment or opt out of competing in the event entirely in order to preserve energy and strength for their main events.
What if a country is selected to compete but doesn’t have athletes qualified in each discipline?
There is an Additional Athlete Quota of up to 5 spots overall that allows teams to invite extra skaters - provided that they have earned the required technical minimum scores internationally - in order to complete their team.
These skaters are only allowed to compete at the Team Event and are not permitted to compete in the Individual Events of their discipline.
At this Olympics, Germany, Italy and Ukraine are utilizing this rule to complete their teams by inviting competitors for Men’s, Women’s and Pairs respectively.
How is the team event scored?
Similarly to World Team Trophy, the other major team-based figure skating event, each teams’ scores are based off their ordinals in each segment of the competition.
Skaters receive their scores at the end of the programs as normal, and then their relative place finish - from 1st to 10th - in that segment is given a point value. Each country's placements in each segment are then added together to form the total score for that team.
The points for each place finish in each segment are:
1st place: 10 points
2nd place: 9 points
3rd place: 8 points
4th place: 7 points
5th place: 6 points
6th place: 5 points
7th place: 4 points
8th place: 3 points
9th place: 2 points
10th place: 1 point
Unlike World Team Trophy, where all of the teams compete in both the Short Program and the Free Skate, only the top 5 countries in the overall standings after the Short Programs are completed proceed to the Free Skate in the Olympic Team Event.
Sounds cool! When and where can I watch it?
The Team Event kicks off on Friday February 4th and runs until Monday February 7th.
For the full detailed schedule and list of broadcasters of the 2022 Winter Olympics, check out our calendar!
Episode 56: World Championships 2021 and COVID-19 - Transcript
Lae: As you may be able to tell - this is part 3 of our Worlds coverage for this year in Stockholm [Sweden.] In this, we will mostly be focusing on the organization of the competition itself - this has obviously been a running theme of In The Loop's coverage of this competitive season and, sadly, we're going to be revisiting a lot of the themes we've already discussed across all of our episodes this season.
Episode 55: World Championships 2021: Ice Dance and Ladies - Transcript
Episode 54: World Championships 2021: Pairs and Men - Transcript
Kite: And he couldn't go to the gym obviously so he was using chainsaws as weights-
Evie: and car batteries. Chainsaws and car batteries.
Kite: Never change, Keegan. Also, Keegan in a cowboy hat with that giant Canadian flag during the dance event was probably like the best thing that happened this weekend.
Episode 53: 20/21 National Championships and COVID-19 - Transcript
Kite: This is an episode about the four big national [championships] - Russian, Japanese, US, and Canadian. We're going to be focusing on the Russian and Japanese Nationals in particular but we are not going to be following our usual format of discussing the performances and the results and instead, we're going to be devoting this episode to assessing how these events coped with the COVID restrictions and the impact their actions, or inaction had on the skaters and the rest of the season.
Episode 52: COVID-19 and the 20/21 Season (featuring interview with Tim Koleto) - Transcript
Kat: Becs, I don't know about how you but I have really not watched a lot of figure skating at all this season.
Becs: I think this is the least figure skating I've watched in like a decade, almost. Granted there hasn't been as much, but even considering I didn't watch a single program until Cup of China, that's like a solid 8 months that I didn't watch figure skating.
Episode 51: 20/21 Grand Prix Series and the Pandemic - Transcript
Interview: Javier Raya of Skate Proud - Transcript
Montreal Guide Part 2: Fun Recommendations from Lilah Fear and Gabb
Montreal is a wonderful city with so many fun activities, great food, and amazing views! Montreal is also the home to the ever so growing Ice Dance Academy (formerly known as Gadbois). In this article, we will be sharing some of the recommendations given to us by ice dancer Lilah Fear who trains in Montreal, and our resident ITL Montreal local Gabb!