It’s been quite the Olympic debut for 15-year-old Kamila Valieva: On February 7, she became the first woman to land a quadruple jump in figure skating at the Olympics. She pulled off this impressive feat in the women’s free skating portion of the team event—and then she completed another one in the same routine just 30 seconds later. You can watch her amazing performance here.
This comes only a day after she landed a triple axel at the 2022 Olympic Games during the team event women’s short program and became just the fourth woman to do so on the Olympic stage, NBC reports.
Valieva’s performance in her two events—she came in first in both of them—helped her team, the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC), earn gold in the team event.
“When I was three years old, I made a wish to become an Olympic champion,” Valieva said afterward, according to Reuters. “My childhood dream has come true.”
Valieva attempted a third quadruple jump in her free skate routine, but ended up falling on the ice. Still, she ended up winning the event with a score nearly 30 points above that of the second-place contestant, Kaori Sakamoto of Japan.
According to the International Olympic Committee, Valieva got her start on the ice when she was just three years old, and while she tried out gymnastics and ballet as a young child as well, she soon turned her focus to figure skating since she preferred the speed of the sport. By 2020, she was a world junior champion. She became the European champion in 2022, setting a new figure skating world record in the short program.
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“I do feel this burden a bit, this pressure, because this is my first season among adult skaters,” Valieva said to ESPN after her Olympic performance. “I believe that I’m coping with this pressure, and sometimes it even pushes me forward. It helps me.”
Team USA earned a silver medal in the team event, marking their best finish ever after winning bronze in Sochi in 2014 and again in PyeongChang in 2018. The team event, which is being held for just the third time in Olympic history, includes the men’s short program, ice dance rhythm dance, pairs short program, women’s short program, men’s free skating, pairs free skating, ice dance free dance, and women’s free skating. Skaters earn points in their events, which contribute to their country’s total. The country with the most points at the end of the entire competition wins. At the end of team skate, ROC had 74 points, Team USA 65, and Team Japan 63.
Athletes from Team USA turned in solid performances throughout the course of the competition to earn second place. To open the competition, Nathan Chen won the men’s short program, and Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue followed shortly after with their own first-place finish in ice dance rhythm dance. Then on the third day of competition, Madison Chock and Evan Bates clinched silver for Team USA with their first-place finish in ice dance free dance.
While the team event is in the books, there’s still a whole lot of figure skating left at the 2022 Olympics. Valieva is also a gold medal favorite in the individual events, which begin next week. The women’s short program will be held on February 15 and women’s free skate on February 17—here’s how to watch these Olympic events!
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Source: https://www.self.com
