Team USA delivered on the first day of figure skating's team event at the 2022 Winter Olympics. Now with two more segments ahead and valuable points at stake, will the Americans continue to deliver on Saturday night (U.S. time)?
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Nipping at their heels are the Russian skaters, this time representing the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC), who are in second by only two points (28 to 26). ROC has its best shot at pulling ahead tonight with 15-year-old skating sensation Kamila Valieva.
Karen Chen, who twice has been fourth at the world championships, is representing the U.S. in her first Olympic team event but second Winter Games.
After the women's short program, the field of 10 countries will be cut in half with only the top five advancing into tonight's men's free skate.
Entering the night, the U.S. is first (28), ROC second (26), China third (21), Japan fourth (20), Italy fifth (18), Canada sixth (16), Georgia seventh (15), Czech Republic eighth (12), Ukraine ninth (4) and Germany 10th (3).
Follow along live with updates below...
Women's Short Program
Group 1 feat. Gubanova
The first of two groups of women are on the ice for their six-minute warmup... China's Zhu Yi, Ukraine's Anastasia Shabotova, Czech Republic's Eliska Brezinova, Georgia's Anastasia Gubanova and Italy's Lara Gutmann.
8:44 p.m. ET: The start order for each segment in the team event is based on world standing in that discipline, so Zhu competes first for China. She falls on her triple toeloop in her opening combination and later pops an intended triple loop. Score: 47.03.
8:49 p.m. ET: The race for which countries will advance to the free skates/dance portion of the team event heats up with both Zhu and Shabotova's performances. The Ukrainian easily goes ahead of Zhu with a respectable 62.49 points.
8:56 p.m. ET: Brezinova is up next and if the name sounds vaguely familiar, that's because we watched her brother, Michal Brezina, a four-time Olympian compete for Czech Republic in the men's short program on Day 1 of the team event. He placed seventh, and she moves into second (61.05) for now with a popping "Sweet Dreams" remix that may have had you dancing at home.
9:03 p.m. ET: Gubanova potentially rounds out Georgia's Olympic team event debut, and beautifully so, jumping to first among the women with 67.56 points.
9:09 p.m. ET: Fun fact: Italy did not qualify any women's singles spots for these Olympics, but was granted a women's entry into the team event as it was ranked high enough collectively and had earned spots in the other three disciplines. So, Gutmann takes to the ice for what could be her sole performance here, unless of course Italy remains in the top five. Gutmann does almost all she can to help Italy advance and is in fourth for now, between Brezinova and Zhu.
Group 2 feat. Chen, Valieva
The final group is on the ice -- Canada's Madeline Schizas, German Nicole Schott, Japan's Wakaba Higuchi, Chen and Valieva.
9:23 p.m. ET: Schizas, who 12 years ago attended the Vancouver 2010 figure skating events in her home country, starts the group. Canada is the defending Olympic gold medalist in this event, but entered Day 2 of the team event in jeopardy of finishing sixth or lower. Schizas may have just saved her country with a standout performance that lands her 69.60 points and puts her into first.
9:31 p.m. ET: At her second Olympics, Schott has what two-time Olympian and NBC talent Johnny Weir calls her best performance ever. "I've never seen her on fire like that," he added. The 25-year-old scores 62.66 points and slides into third, behind Gubanova.
9:36 p.m. ET: Time for the heavy hitters of this segment. Higuchi, 21, is the 2018 world silver medalist in women's singles and has earned five Grand Prix medals in her career. Skating to Ellie Goulding's eerie version of Elton John's "Your Song," Higuchi leads now with 74.73 points to help Japan advance to the frees.
9:43 p.m. ET: Chen is up! Now 22, the 2017 U.S. champion competed at the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Games but was the only one of three U.S. women there not to compete in the team event. She has been known to come in clutch and deliver for Team USA but the inconsistent side of Chen came out here with a bit of a messy program. She under-rotated her triple toe and fell on her triple loop. A score of 65.20 and into fourth with Valieva next.
9:51 p.m. ET: The skater everyone had been waiting for when it came to women's singles at these Olympics does not disappoint. Valieva's opening triple axel made her the fourth woman to land that jump at the Olympics. "A talent like this comes along once in a lifetime," 1998 Olympic champion Tara Lipinski said on the NBC broadcast. The ROC skater earns 90.18 points, a few tenths from her world record score, and is 15.45 points ahead of second-place Higuchi.
To no surprise, Valieva moved ROC into first overall now with 36 points to the U.S.' 34.
Japan moved up to third (29), with Canada jumping from sixth to fourth (24) and China, which was third, now in fifth but safely moving on to the free portion with 22 points.
Georgia is the top nation of those eliminated, finishing sixth with 22 points, followed by Italy (seventh, 20), Czech Republic (eighth, 15), Germany (ninth, 8) and Ukraine (10th, 8).
Come back for the men's free skate at 10:50 p.m. ET, starring Team USA's Vincent Zhou.