As people around the world eagerly tune in during the kick off of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, three-time figure skating world champion Nathan Chen will be leading the United States team as they look forward to adding onto their previous two bronze medals. This will also be Chen’s opportunity to avenge his 2018 Olympic short program performance that had placed
him in fourth place.
The U.S. figure skating team has stated that among this group will include ice dancers Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue, followed by the pair of Alexa Knierim and Brandon Frazier on Friday. Audiences can tune in on Peacock, NBCOlympics.com, as well as NBC for a live stream of the event starting at 8:55 p.m. ET on Thursday night. Opening the men’s program with the rhythm dance at 10:35 p.m. ET, with Alexa Knierrim and Brandon Frazier following at 12:15 am.
Ice skaters from ten of the top nations in the world have been setting their sights for the gold medal. Each country partaking in Beijing has one entry in the men’s, women’s, and pairs short programs and rhythm dance. Afterwards, the path is narrowed down to the highest scoring five teams, also with a single entry in the men’s, women’s, and pairs of free skates and free dance. As teams are eligible to make two changes from the short program and the rhythm dance to the free dance, this may mean that Jason Brown or Vincent Zhou could end up competing in the men’s free skate instead of Nathan Chen.
Since their entrance in 2014, the Russian team has been awarded with both of the gold medals. In addition to this, the Japanese figure skating team has a more solid chance to be awarded their first medal during this event. For their second Winter Olympics, Hubbell and Donohue will be making their first team appearance after assisting the U.S. skating team secure a success during the 2019 World Team Trophy. As for Knierim, a 2018 bronze medalist, she and Frazier will be skating together in their first team event. Fans across the country are sure to be waiting avidly to cheer on this team.
