The figure skating events at the 2018 Winter Olympics took place from 9 to 23 February at the Gangneung Ice Arena in Gangneung, South Korea. Medals were awarded in men's singles, women's singles, pair skating, ice dance, and the team event. Yuzuru Hanyu of Japan won the men's event; Alina Zagitova, representing the Olympic Athletes from Russia, won the women's event; Aljona Savchenko and Bruno Massot of Germany won the pairs event; Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir of Canada won the ice dance event; and the team from Canada won the team event. Several world record scores in figure skating were set at the Olympics, including by Savchenko and Massot in the pairs event; Evgenia Medvedeva and Zagitova in the women's event; and both Virtue and Moir, and Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron, in the ice dance event. Virtue and Moir, who had previously won medals in both the ice dance and team events in 2010 and 2014, became the most decorated figure skaters in Olympic history.

Background In 2016, an independent report commissioned by the World Anti-Doping Agency confirmed allegations that the Russian Olympic team had been involved in a state-sponsored doping program from at least late 2011 through February 2014, when Russia hosted the Winter Olympics in Sochi. On 5 December 2017, the International Olympic Committee announced that the Russian Olympic Committee had been suspended from the 2018 Winter Olympics. Athletes with no previous drug violations and a consistent history of drug testing were allowed to compete under the Olympic flag as an "Olympic Athlete from Russia" (OAR). Under the terms of the decree, neither the Russian flag nor anthem would be allowed at the Olympics; the Olympic flag and Olympic Anthem were used instead.

A total of five figure skating events were contested: men's singles, women's singles, pair skating, ice dance, and the team event. All events were held from 9 to 23 February at the Gangneung Ice Arena in Gangneung, South Korea.

Qualification

A total of 144 quota spots were available to athletes to compete in figure skating at the 2018 Winter Olympics. Each National Olympic Committee (NOC) was allowed to enter a maximum of 18 skaters, with a maximum of nine men or nine women. The results of the 2017 World Figure Skating Championships determined 83 total spots: 24 entries each in men's and women's singles, 16 in pair skating, and 19 in ice dance. The remaining quota spots were allocated based on the results of the 2017 Nebelhorn Trophy.

Team event For the team event, scores from the 2017 World Championships and the 2017–18 Grand Prix of Figure Skating season were tabulated to establish the top ten nations.

+Qualification for figure skating team event Nation Total 1 6084 2 5924 3 5055 4 4345 5 4231 6 3801 7 3652 8 2806 9 1521 10 1397

Entries

Countries began announcing their entries following the 2017 World Championships. The International Skating Union published the complete list on 30 January 2018. Skaters or teams denoted with ● were eligible for the team event only. This was the first time that Malaysia had ever qualified for a figure skating event at the Winter Olympics; the Olympic Council of Malaysia chose to send Julian Yee.

North Korea originally qualified one quota spot in pair skating after Ryom Tae-ok and Kim Ju-sik finished in sixth place at the 2017 Nebelhorn Trophy. However, after North Korea missed the deadline to submit their entries for the Olympics, their spot was re-allocated to Japan. Following negotiations with South Korea – the first in more than two years – North Korea agreed to "actively cooperate" at the Olympics. and on 20 January, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced that, as part of the "Olympic Korean Peninsula Declaration", they had granted accreditation to North Korea for twenty-two athletes to compete at the Olympics and allocated an additional quota spot in pair skating for Ryom and Kim. In addition, the IOC approved the request of the North and South Korean Olympic committees to allow the two delegations to enter the arena together under the name "Korea" during the opening ceremony. Thomas Bach, then-president of the IOC, stated: "The Olympic spirit is about respect, dialogue and understanding. The Olympic Winter Games PyeongChang 2018 are hopefully opening the door to a brighter future on the Korean peninsula, and inviting the world to join in a celebration of hope."

+Entries Nation Men Women Pairs Ice dance Brendan Kerry Kailani Craine colspan="2" Jorik Hendrickx Loena Hendrickx colspan="2" Isadora Williams colspan="2" Patrick Chan Larkyn Austman Keegan Messing Gabrielle Daleman Kaetlyn Osmond Jin Boyang Li Xiangning Yan Han rowspan="2" rowspan="2" Michal Březina Emmi Peltonen colspan="2" Chafik Besseghier Maé-Bérénice Méité colspan="3" Morisi Kvitelashvili colspan="3" Paul Fentz Nicole Schott colspan="2" colspan="3" Ivett Tóth colspan="2" Oleksii Bychenko Aimee Buchanan ● Daniel Samohin colspan="3" Matteo Rizzo Carolina Kostner Giada Russo Yuzuru Hanyu Satoko Miyahara Keiji Tanaka Kaori Sakamoto colspan="2" rowspan="2" Shoma Uno Denis Ten Aiza Mambekova colspan="2" rowspan="2" Elizabet Tursynbaeva Deniss Vasiļjevs Diāna Ņikitina colspan="2" Julian Yee colspan="3" colspan="2" Dmitri Aliev Evgenia Medvedeva Mikhail Kolyada Maria Sotskova Alina Zagitova Michael Christian Martinez colspan="3" colspan="3" Nicole Rajičová Cha Jun-hwan Choi Da-bin Kim Ha-nul colspan="2" Javier Fernández colspan="2" rowspan="2" Felipe Montoya Anita Östlund colspan="2" Alexia Paganini colspan="2" colspan="3" Yaroslav Paniot Anna Khnychenkova Nathan Chen Karen Chen Adam Rippon Mirai Nagasu rowspan="2" Vincent Zhou Bradie Tennell Misha Ge colspan="3"

Competition schedule All times are in local time (UTC+9).

+Figure skating events schedule Date Time Event 9 February 10:00 Team event (men's short program) Team event (pairs' short program) 11 February 10:00 Team event (ice dance short dance)Team event (women's short program)Team event (pairs' free skating) 12 February 10:00 Team event (men's free skating)Team event (women's free skating) Team event (ice dance free dance) 14 February 10:00 Pairs' short program 15 February 10:30 Pairs' free skating 16 February 10:00 Men's short program 17 February 10:00 Men's free skating 19 February 10:00 Ice dance short dance 20 February 10:00 Ice dance free dance 21 February 10:00 Women's short program 23 February 10:00 Women's free skating 25 February 9:30 Gala exhibition

Medal summary

Medalists Javier Fernández's bronze medal was the first ever Olympic medal in figure skating for Spain. +Olympic medalists Discipline Gold Silver Bronze Men's singles Yuzuru Hanyu Shoma Uno Javier Fernández Women's singles Alina Zagitova Evgenia Medvedeva Kaetlyn Osmond Pairs Ice dance Team event Patrick ChanKaetlyn OsmondGabrielle DalemanMeagan DuhamelEric RadfordTessa VirtueScott Moir Mikhail KolyadaEvgenia MedvedevaAlina ZagitovaEvgenia TarasovaVladimir MorozovNatalia ZabiiakoAlexander EnbertEkaterina BobrovaDmitri Soloviev Nathan ChenAdam RipponBradie TennellMirai NagasuAlexa Scimeca KnierimChris KnierimMaia ShibutaniAlex Shibutani

Medal table

Records

The following new record high scores were set during this competition. Additionally, Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir of Canada became the most decorated figure skaters in Olympic history, having won medals in both the ice dance and team events in 2010, and the ice dance event in 2014, in addition to their two gold medals in 2018.

+ Date Skater(s) Event Segment Score 11 February Evgenia Medvedeva () Team event(Women's singles) Short program 81.06 15 February Pair skating Free skate 159.31 19 February Ice dance Short dance 83.67 20 February Free dance 123.35 Total score 205.28 206.07 21 February Evgenia Medvedeva () Women's singles Short program 81.61 Alina Zagitova () 82.92

Aftermath Alina Zagitova received criticism for backloading her free skate – that is, waiting until the second half of her program to perform her jumps, because jumps performed in the second half of a program received bonus points. Christine Brennan, a sports reporter for USA Today, described Evgenia Medvedeva as the "best example of a complete skater, a masterful jumper and expressive artist". Conversely, she described Zagitova as the "best example of a physically gifted opportunist, racking up valuable points any which way she can". Brennan further speculated that the International Skating Union (ISU) would likely change their rules to prevent future skaters from doing what Zagitova did. Indeed, at the 57th meeting of the ISU Congress in 2018, the ISU limited the number of jump elements that a skater could execute for a bonus in the back half of a performance to one in the short program and three in the free skate. This has colloquially been referred to as the "Zagitova rule".

The ISU launched an investigation into two Chinese judges following the 2018 Winter Olympics: Chen Weiguang, who had been a judge in the men's event, and Huang Feng, who had been a judge in the pairs' event. Both were found to have given "preferential marking" to Chinese skaters and deliberately low scores to their strongest competitors. As a result, Huang received a one-year suspension from judging, while Chen received a two-year suspension and was barred from judging at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. The ISU described the behavior of both judges as "one of the most serious ethical offences" that a judge can commit.

Notes

References

Works cited

External links

Results Official Results Book (Figure Skating)