Team Event After Day 2

(7 Feb. 2022)  Team USA increased its  their lead over Team Japan in the Team competition on the second day of the event, after the skating of the Men's short program and the dance free dance.  Team USA now has 44 points vs. 39 for Team Japan.  Team Italy remains in third place with 37 points.

Men's Short Program

Yuma Kagiyama thrilled the crowd with an outstanding performance to “I Wish” closing the gap to move Team Japan just 1 point behind Team USA.

The 2022 Olympic silver medalist nailed perfect jumps – a quad toe-triple toe, quad Salchow and triple Axel – as well as excellent spins to score 108.67 point, just below his personal best. 

“It was a key responsibility for me, so I definitely felt nervous about that. But all of that nervousness was blown away by the support from the Milan crowd, everyone watching, and the cheers from Team Japan." 

“That support really gave me strength, and I think I was able to truly enjoy the moment and skate freely."

Reigning World Champion Ilia Malinin put out a solid performance to “Dies Irae” and “Lost Crown,” however, the triple Axel was not secure and he under-rotated his quad Lutz, in combination with triple toe loop. Malinin was second in the Short Program at 98.00 points. 

“I presume to come into this team competition with only 50% of my full potential,” he added.

“That's what I felt like here today and that's the way I pace myself leading up to the individual to make sure that I have enough energy.”

Daniel Grassl placed fifth in the Short Program, skating to “Tango per la liberta,”  under-rotating both quad Lutz-double toe loop and quad loop, scoring 87.54 points.

Team Canada moved up from fifth to fourth place with 35 points thanks to Stephen Gogolev finishing thir in the short porogram.

Team Georgia lost ground when Nika Egadze finished sixth in the Short Program. The Georgians now seem out of the running to reach the podium, though they still have some strength in pairs and the women's segments yet to be skated.

Ice Dance Free Dance

Three-time World Champions Madison Chock & Evan Bates delivered a passionate Flamenco to “Paint It Black” to win the Free Dance with a new season’s best score of 133.23 points.

Speaking of how their skate felt, Chock said "Oh very calm and very present and it was a great, great feeling to have taking a Olympic ice with that feeling, that intention and we really savored the moment.

And of scoring another season best Bates commented, "I think it's just a progression. Each time we step out we are competing with ourselves, you know, it's very cliche but it is our mindset and it is our approach and it's how we have stayed focused and it's how we've been training.

Utana Yoshida & Masaya Morito came fifth in the Free Dance which cost Team Japan four point in the team totals, widening the Team USA lead to 5 points.  Team Japan, however, is still in the mix for the gold meal as Team Japan is likely to get all or most of those points back in the Pairs free skate, when Japan has strength an Team USA does not. 

“I think today’s performances were not only strong and beautiful from Japan, but from all countries,” team captain Masaya Morita commented. 

“Looking ahead to tomorrow’s performances, the Japanese skaters are all strong both technically and mentally, so I want to support them in any way I can and help energize the arena,” he added.

Charlene Guignard & Marco Fabbri put out an emotional performance to “Diamanti” that thrilled. The were second in the Free Dance segment with 124.22 points.

“Then it's such a difficult sport, where mistakes are so easy to make that it's unpredictable. But we're confident for tomorrow.”

“We feel happy, proud, relieved, tired, a lot of mixed emotions, of course,” Fabbri added. “It was not an easy day for us, because you never know what happens in figure skating in general. 

“In the men's event, even if Italy had a good position after the first three events, we didn't take for granted that we would have skated tonight. We came here and we had to follow the Men's event during our warm-up, watch Daniel and think ‘What are the others doing?'"

Canadian Ice Dancers Marjorie Lajoie & Zachary Lagha contributed eight points to Team Canaa by placing third in the Free Dance.

Georgians Diana Davis & Gleb Smolkin placed fourth with their Free Dance.

Three Event Segments Remain

Only the top five teams after the short programs advanced to the free programs. The five teams who left the competition after the Men’s Short Program were France in sixth place, followed by The Republic of Korea, China, Great Britain and Poland. Team Republic of Korea was noteworthy  in placing seventh without having a pair team in the competition. 

Commenting the chances for Team USA for the gol, Chock said, “I think our team is incredibly strong, arguably as strong as it's ever been and I have the utmost faith in them.”

“I'll be proud of them no matter what the outcome is.

“We're really excited to cheer on our team and we just want them to feel good and skate how they want to skate and we'll be supporting them the whole way,” she noted.

“Quad God” Ilia Malinin is going to compete in the Men’s Free Skating, while Amber Glenn will skate in the Women’s Free Skating and Ellie Kam & Danny O’Shea compete in the Pairs event for the USA.

Japan will send three-time ISU World Champion Kaori Sakamoto, two-time ISU World Champions Riku Miura & Ryuichi Kihara, and ISU Grand Prix Final bronze medalist Shun Sato into the competition.

Italy will fight for the podium with ISU Grand Prix Final silver medalists Sara Conti & Niccolo Macii and 2026 ISU European Championships medalists Matteo Rizzo and Lara Naki Gutmann. 

Canada has a medal chance with Stephen Gogolev, Lia Pereira & Trennt Michaud and Madeline Schizas skating on the thir y of competition.

Georgia will be represented in the finals by 2026 ISU European Champions Nika Egadze, Anastasiia Metelkina & Luka Berulava, and 2023 European Champion Anastasiia Gubanova.