BEIJING — In the Sunday morning stillness of the Capital Indoor Arena, 15-year-old Kamila Valieva kept spinning in a perfect, tight spiral, a flash of purple and sequins trapped in a perpetual twirl with her leg above the air. She held the spin for so long you could hear the rat-a-tat-tat of the photographers cameras.
When she was done and her scores were posted, the team representing the Russian Olympic Committee had moved past the United States for first place in the team event, partly because of Valieva’s top score of 90.18 and because the previous skater, American Karen Chen, had stumbled in her short program, potentially costing the Americans a gold medal when the event finishes Monday.
Just when the United States needed Chen to skate the best she had internationally, she tumbled in her short routine, falling to the ice on a triple loop and under-rotating on a triple lutz and toeloop, finishing in a disappointing fourth place with a 62.50.
Despite the US’s strong start Friday, the first day of the team event, the team representing the Russian Olympic Committee is in excellent shape to win gold because Monday’s final three disciplines — women’s free skate, pairs free skate and ice dancing free dance — are its strengths.
The Americans, sitting in second place, will have to hope for strong performances from Vincent Zhou in Sunday’s men’s free skate and from the ice dance team of Madison Chock and Evan Bates for the United States to better its two bronze medal finishes in the previous two years the event has been in the Olympics.
The 5-foot-3 Valieva has sailed through the highest levels of skating. After giving up gymnastics for skating at 5, she has been dominating. Over the past three years she has won every major junior and senior competition except for last year’s Russian championships. On Sunday, it was easy to see why she is the best female skater in the world. She moved with ease across the ice, scoring high on a triple axel and a dazzling triple Lutz and triple toeloop.
Chen, 22, knew she would need to dazzle. Unlike Valieva, she has never medaled at a major international competition. Her best finishes before this Olympics were two fourth places at the world championships four years apart. She has always said her best performances have come when she skates clean programs and outlasts others’ mistakes.
But she made too many of her own mistakes Sunday, looking tentative through her entire routine and never recovered from her fall.
“I’m not going to lie — I definitely felt some pressure,” Chen said. “At the end of the day, it’s coming from myself. I want to skate well for my team, for myself, my coach, my family, for all these people. And so yeah I’m going to feel pressure.”