MILAN: Alysa Liu is left to bear the ambitions of the American figure skating team on Thursday night, when the last of the “Blade Angels” with a legitimate shot at the Olympic gold medal tries to catch Japanese teammates Ami Nakai and Kaori Sakamoto during the women’s free skate at the Milan Cortina Games.
Nakai, Sakamoto and Mone Chiba give Japan the chance for the first-ever women’s podium sweep.
Then there is Adeliia Petrosian, the young Russian sprite competing as a neutral athlete, and the only one of the contenders who has the ability to land a quad jump. She could shake up the entire competition with one big performance.
Those are the key players as the final night of figure skating drama unfolds at the Winter Games.
“Of course I want a medal. It would be very nice,” said Sakamoto, the bronze medalist from the 2022 Beijing Games, who trails Nakai by just a point in what is likely her final Olympics. “But I want to let everybody know what I’ve done over my career. I want people to know that there was a skater of this kind in Japan who had performed for a long period.”
Indeed, the Olympic gold medal is just about the only thing the 25-year-old Sakamoto has yet to win in her career.
At the opposite end of the longevity spectrum is Nakai, the 17-year-old inspired by the great Mao Asada. She will be the final skater on the ice after a brilliant performance Tuesday night, when she landed one of two triple axels in the entire women’s short program.
Chiba trails both of her Japanese teammates along with Liu, but the world bronze medalist is firmly in the mix.
“Being in Italy, with the music ‘Romeo and Juliet,’ I hope to skate as well as possible,” Chiba said, “and see how things are.”
Liu, who is two points out of first place, was the only skater to wedge herself among the Japanese trio.
The 20-year-old from the San Francisco Bay area has been on a dream ride ever since her two-year retirement, which had allowed her to reprioritize the things in her life and rediscover her love for skating. Liu became the first American world champion since Kimmie Meissner in 2006 last year in Boston, and now she could end an even longer US drought for women at the Olympics.
“The Star-Spangled Banner” has not played for a podium ceremony since Sarah Hughes triumphed at the 2002 Salt Lake City Games.
“I don’t think about stuff like that,” said the carefree Liu, who finished sixth at the Beijing Games, shortly before walking away from the sport. “My goal is just to do my program and share my story.”
Petrosian is the wildcard in the competition simply because she is so largely unknown.
The 18-year-old from Moscow has been unable to compete on a global stage because Russia remains banned from international events following its invasion of Ukraine. The few glimpses that people have seen have come from domestic events, where scores are typically inflated, and where the competition is far different from what Petrosian is experiencing at the Olympics.
Yet the latest pupil of controversial coach Eteri Tutberidze, Petrosian has proven in Milan that she could well become her nation’s next gold medalist, following in the footsteps of compatriots Adelina Sotnikova, Alina Zagitova and Anna Shcherbakova.
The last non-Russian to win the Olympic gold medal was South Korea’s Yuna Kim at the 2010 Vancouver Games.
“At first I was worried, not about my skate, but about my (emotional) state. This was the most important start of my life,” Petrosian said following her short program Tuesday night. “I hope this will help me with my free skate.”