How to watch the pairs figure skating free skate online
The U.S. isn’t looking like a podium pair, but China and the Olympic Athletes of Russia are battling it out for gold.
Medal winners for the figure skating pairs program of the 2018 Winter Olympics will be crowned Wednesday evening, following the second-part of the competition: the free skate. With the field having first competed on Tuesday night in the short program feature, the scores will be combined with the free skate portion Wednesday night at 8:30 p.m. ET on NBC (live stream) to decide which duo will win gold.
The Americans are facing an uphill battle, and might already be too far outside of medal contention. Team USA only has one couple competing in the pairs’ event, husband and wife Alexa Scimeca Knierim and Chris Knierim (the only married couple among the pairs). The Knierim’s finished their short program routine earning a 65.55 score, good for 14th place heading into the free skate portion.
“We are not upset at all with the score or the way we skated; we are just honored to be here,” Scimeca Knierim said, according to U.S. Figure Skating via NBC.
The pair has the right attitude, especially considering they were already apart of the team bronze win earlier in the week. They might not be heading home with a pairs medal, but they definitely won’t be going home empty handed.
There was stiff competition at the top of the leaderboard, with teams from China and the Olympic Athletes of Russia claiming the top spots. China’s Weinjing Sui and Con Hang took the No. 1 score (82.39) of the night, barely edging out Russian athletes Evgenia Tarasova and Vladimir Morozov (81.68). Sui and Hang snagged first place with an incredibly emotional skate to K.D. Lang’s version of “Hallejuah.”
With less than a point separating the top of the pack, Wednesday’s free skate programs will need to be as near-perfect as possible.
How to watch
- Event: Figure skating: Pairs free skate
- Date: Wednesday, Feb. 14
- Time: 8:30 p.m. ET
- TV: NBC
- Online Streaming: NBC Olympics | FuboTV