Japan’s skaters stole the spotlight as the Americans largely struggled in their attempts to end a two-decade medal drought
Japanese teenager Ami Nakai was the surprise leader after the short program of the Olympic women’s figure skating competition on a night when her country’s skaters largely stole the spotlight from Team USA’s Blade Angels in their bid to end America’s two-decade medal drought.
Nakai delivered a clean, commanding skate on Tuesday, highlighted by a soaring triple axel for a personal-best score of 78.71, edging three-time world champion Kaori Sakamoto (77.23) into second. Only Alysa Liu of the United States was able to break the Japanese hold on the top spots, scoring 76.59 to come in ahead of fourth-placed Mone Choba (74.00).
There has never been a clean podium sweep in Olympic women’s figure skating, but Nakai, Sakamoto and Chiba will fancy their chances at making history for their skating-mad nation entering Thursday’s free skate, when the medals will be doled out.
The 17-year-old Nakai, the youngest competitor in the event, laid down the early marker from the top of the second-to-last group, landed the three-and-a-half-revolution jump to open her program to La Strada by Nino Rosa and racking up points with a triple lutz-triple toeloop combo followed by a triple loop. Her score improbably held up through the next 11 skaters.
