Chinese couple Sui Wenjing and Han Cong set a season best record and a world record in free skating to win gold in the pair figure skating competition on the ice house in Beijing 2022.
Sui and Han broke their season best record with a score of 145.11 with a score of 155.47 in free skate for a season best of 239.88 after a superb performance on the cover Troubled Bridge Over Water.
“I am very happy that I feel that my dream has come true,” said Sui afterwards.
VIEW | Sui and Han China win narrowly in figure skating gold:
Sui Wenjing and Han Cong edged their Russian opponents by 0.63 points to claim gold at home in Beijing 2022. 8:36
Han thanked their choreographer, Canadian Lori Nichol, in particular, saying: “We won this gold medal with her help.”
Russian Olympic Committee skaters Evgenia Tarasova and Vladimir Morozov took silver with their own season-best record of 155.00, with a total score of 239.25, just six tenths of a point behind the Chinese pair. Her compatriots and 2021 world champions Anastasia Mishina and Aleksandr Galliamov took bronze with a free skate score of 154.95, for a total of 237.71, both just below their season-best record.
Canadian duo Kirsten Moore-Towers and Michael Marinaro launched a strong free program with just a few bobbles to score 118.86, for a total of 181.37, just off their season best of 184.37. They moved up from 13th after a short program to finish in 10th.
VIEW | Canada Moore-Towers and Marinaro finish 10th:
Kirsten Moore-Towers and Michael Marinaro posted a total score of 181.37 in pair skating. 8:00
“It’s definitely not the best for us today, not the best career by any means. But it was a big fight today,” Moore-Towers said afterwards. “It’s been a great career for us. We fought for everything.”
Vanessa James and Eric Radford also had strong skates, falling only on a late-throw triple flip, to score 117.96, well below their season-best score of 130.83, for a total of 180.99. They finished in 12th place.
“I am very proud to be able to skate like that, especially after yesterday’s short program,” said James later.
“Today, the flip didn’t go away, but we’re still a very new couple. Going out there and skating with our hearts is a huge achievement. And to enjoy it and trust our training, ourselves and each other is huge in 11 years time. month.”
Sui and Han improved their silver medals in 2018 in Pyeongchang, but their finish on the podium is not guaranteed. They were first after a short program and the last to skate on free skates, but Tarasova and Morozov had clean skates to put them in a potential gold medal spot. Sui and Han opened their program in a circular motion, which no other pair in the competition did, but Sui then made a two-footed landing on an adjoining triple salchow.
Every other element was perfect, but Sui burst into tears as the music ended, clearly worried whether her bobble would hurt the duo.
But they held on with a narrow lead over Tarasova and Morozov, who improved on a disappointing fourth place finish in Pyeongchang after heading to free skate in second place. They took the silver medal in Beijing to match their silver medal from the 2018 and 2019 world championships.
“We didn’t feel much stress. We felt like we were sliding as a unit, so it went pretty smoothly for us,” said Morozov after the competition.
“We have worked for many years to get this medal, so getting it means a lot to us.”
VIEW | Oral History: The skating scandal that rocked the 2002 Winter Olympics
How the quid pro quo judging nearly snatched the gold medals from Jamie Salé and David Pelletier of Canada. 7:51
“Coffee aficionado nerd. Troublemaker. General communicator. Gamer. Analyst. Creator. Total brew ninja.”
