Winter Olympics 2022 - Kamila Valieva makes history in the short programme to send ROC top of team event

Updated 06/02/2022 at 09:21 GMT

Aged just 15, Kamila Valieva is already a European champion, Russian champion and is unbeaten in the Grand Prix season. She became the fourth woman to land a triple axel in Olympic history on Sunday, joining Midori Ito (1992), Mao Asada (2010), Mirai Nagasu (2018) on an illustrious list. Valieva's performance sees ROC leapfrog USA at the halfway stage of team event qualifying.

‘Wasn’t it beautiful!’ – 15-year-old Valieva makes history at Winter Olympics

Kamila Valieva, arguably the finest skater in the history of figure skating, topped the women's single skating short programme rankings with a superb performance in the team event.

The 15-year-old executed her elements perfectly, showcasing her phenomenal technique, and snatched the lead with a huge overall score of 90.18, just shy of her own world record of 90.45 and a new Olympic record. The highlight being her historic triple axel.

Japan's Wakaba Higuchi came second, producing a fine score of 74.73 which saw her pick up nine points for her nation.

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Madeline Schizas from Canada skated her heart out and her nerveless display was rewarded with a career best result of 69.60 which saw her take third.

Yuma Kagiyama's stunning performance in the men's single skating saw Japan strengthen third spot in the team event.

The 2021 World Championships silver medallist was simply flawless and produced a season best score of 208.94 to give a Japan a major chance of getting on the podium in the team event.

It means that in the overall team event standings, Russia Olympic Committee are in first on 45 points. USA are in second (42), Japan are third (39), Canada move into fourth (30) and China, in their first team event, take fifth (29).

It was real disappointment for Italy who were seventh (20 points) following the women's single programme as reigning national champion Lara Gutmann could only add two points for her team.

China's Zhu Yi was up first and she tumbled when attempting the triple toeloop in her first element, producing a final score of 47.03.

Ukraine's Anastasiia Shabotova was visibly emotional after her performance. The 16-year-old made no visible errors. Having received no deductions, she scored a total of 62.49 to register two team points.

Eliska Brezinova from the Czech Republic was up next. Performing to Eurythmics' Sweet Dreams, she lost a point for failing to execute the triple lutz in the opening element but still scored a personal best score of 61.05.

Anastasia Gubanova, who won the Golden Spin of Zagreb last year, perfectly executed her elements. The 19-year-old Georgian scored 67.56.

Gutmann was marked down in her first and second elements. The Italian could not transition into a triple toeloop after a triple lutz while she was marked down in the triple loop for not completing a full rotation. She scored 58.52.

There was no pressure on four-time national champion Nicole Schott, who finished 18th in PyeongChang, with Germany bottom of the team rankings. She was marked down on the last two elements, but she delivered one of her finest short programmes in recent times and scored 62.66.

Karen Chen from the USA tumbled as she attempted the triple loop as her fifth element and it cost her nation's overall lead after her score was confirmed as 65.20.

‘Chen and Hanyu are going to have their work cut out!’ – Kagiyama produces ‘unbeatable’ performance

WOMEN'S SHORT PROGRAMME LEADERBOARD

1. Kamila Valieva [ROC] 90.18

2. Wakaba Higuchi [JPN] 74.73

3. Madeline Schizas [CAN] 69.60

4. Anastasiia Gubanova [GEO] 67.56

5. Karen Chen [USA] 65.20

6. Nicole Schott [GER] 62.66

7. Anastasiia Shabotova [UKR] 62.49

8. Eliska Brezinova [CZE] 61.05

9. Lara Gutmann [ITA] 58.52

10. Yi Zhu [CHN] (47.03)

HOW MEN'S FREE SKATING UNFOLDED

Kagiyama made some last minute changes to his elements and produced a quad toe late on and it paid off. His display will be best remembered for his opening quad salchow.

Russia Olympic Committee's Mark Kondratiuk produced three quads and went around the rink at a ferocious pace performing to A.L. Webber's 'Jesus Christ Superstar' to secure a result of 181.65 which saw him take second.

Vincent Zhou, who finished sixth in his Olympic Winter Games debut at PyeongChang, was the last to perform. Early into his programme he was unable to produce a quad flip but reverted to a single instead. He gave his all but he would not be able to challenge Kagiyama and would settle for third with 171.42.

Roman Sadovsky of Canada was up first but he slipped over when he attempted a quad salchow in his first element as well as on the triple axel in the third. He scored 122.60.

China's mercurial skater Jin Boyang launched himself into the quad lutz and then failed to execute a double toeloop at the end of his second element. After his fifth element he seemed to tighten up and did not get down in the knees enough, but still registered a fine score of 155.04.