Sui, Han win Olympic pairs figure skating gold on home ice at Beijing 2022
ROC pairs Tarasova and Morozov, Mishina and Galliamov take silver and bronze, respectively
The Chinese pair of Sui Wenjing and Han Cong set a season best and world record in the free skate to win gold in the pairs figure skating competition on home ice at Beijing 2022.
Sui and Han smashed their season best with a score of 145.11 with a whopping 155.47 in the free skate for a season best total 239.88 after an exquisite performance to a cover of Bridge Over Troubled Water.
"I'm so happy that I feel that my dream has come true," Sui said afterward.
WATCH | China's Sui and Han narrowly win figure skating gold:
Han thanked their choreographer, Canadian Lori Nichol, in particular, saying: "We win this gold medal with her help."
Russian Olympic Committee skaters Evgenia Tarasova and Vladimir Morozov took silver with their own season best of 155.00, for a total score of 239.25, just six-tenths of a point behind the Chinese pair. Their compatriots and 2021 world champions Anastasia Mishina and Aleksandr Galliamov took the bronze with a free skate score of 154.95, for a total of 237.71, both just under their season bests.
Canadian duo Kirsten Moore-Towers and Michael Marinaro skated a strong free program with only a couple of bobbles to score 118.86, for a total of 181.37, just shy of their season best 184.37. They moved up from 13th place after the short program to finish in 10th place.
WATCH | Canadians Moore-Towers and Marinaro finish 10th:
"It's not our best today for sure, not a career best by any means. But it was a big fight today," Moore-Towers said afterward. "It's been a great career for us. We fought for everything."
Vanessa James and Eric Radford also had a strong skate, with only a fall on a late throw triple flip, to score 117.96, well below their season best of 130.83, for a total of 180.99. They finished in 12th place.
"I'm so proud to have skated like that, especially after the short program yesterday," James said afterward.
"Today, the flip didn't go, but we're still a very new couple. To go out there and skate our hearts out is a huge accomplishment. And to have enjoyed it and trust our training, ourselves and each other is huge within 11 months."
Sui and Han improved on their silver medal in 2018 in Pyeongchang, but their finish atop the podium was not guaranteed. They were first after the short program and so skated last in the free skate, but Tarasova and Morozov had a clean skate to put them in the potential gold-medal spot. Sui and Han opened their program with a quad twist, which no other pair is doing in competition, but Sui later two-footed her landing on their side-by-side triple salchows.
Every other element was perfect, but Sui broke down in tears as the music ended, clearly worried whether her bobble would cost the duo the gold.
But they persevered with the narrowest of leads over Tarasova and Morozov, who improved on their disappointing fourth-place finish in Pyeongchang after heading into that free skate in second place. They picked up a silver medal in Beijing to match their silvers from the 2018 and 2019 world championships.
"We didn't feel much stress. We feel like we skated as one, so it went pretty smooth for us," Morozov said after the competition.
"We've been working for years to get this medal, so just to get it means a lot to us."
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