Skating royalty ready to be crowned

Home pair's gold bid and starry men's showdown make for intriguing battle on the ice at Beijing 2022

Strong home hopes and a fascinating men's singles battle make for an intriguing figure skating tournament at Beijing 2022.

China's Sui Wenjing and Han Cong, the silver medalist pair four years ago at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, will bid to go one better on home ice at the Games.

"The chance to compete at home Olympics does not come along easily," the 26-year-old Sui said. "We will savor this opportunity of a lifetime as much as possible."

The two-time world champion duo won back-to-back grands prix in Canada and Italy this season, before which Han underwent hip surgery. Although skipping the Four Continents event, the Chinese pair head to the Games in confident mood.

"Physically we've never been healthier, and technically we really like our routine difficulty. We just cannot wait to let the show begin," said Han.

Sui and Han will face stiff competition from Russian rivals who swept the podium at the European championships in Tallinn, Estonia, in late January.

Anastasia Mishina and Aleksandr Galliamov claimed the European title to add to their world championship triumph last year, while Evgenia Tarasova and Vladimir Morozov finished second, followed by Aleksandra Boikova and Dmitrii Kozlovskii.

In the men's singles, Nathan Chen of the United States has his sights set on an elusive Olympic gold.

The 22-year-old has won six straight national championships, three consecutive world championships and three Grand Prix Finals in a row-but could only manage a fifth-place finish at the 2018 Winter Olympics.

Chen and two-time defending champion Yuzuru Hanyu of Japan look set to battle it out for gold in a mouth-watering showdown in Beijing. Hanyu withdrew from the Grand Prix series this season due to an ankle injury, but he dazzled last month en route to winning the Japanese championship.

His key to victory looks likely to rest on his bid to become the first skater ever to land the quadruple axel in competition. The jump involves 4 1/2 rotations, with Hanyu just narrowly failing to execute it perfectly at the Japanese championship, when he landed it with two feet.

After that close call, Hanyu said he is ready to take the challenge to Beijing.

"The Olympics are a place you must win. For that reason, I'll be strongly determined," he said.

"Beijing is an extension of everything I'm doing and I know I just might have to go all in now."

Others to watch in the men's singles include Shoma Uno, the 2018 Olympic silver medalist of Japan, and Chen's US teammate Vincent Zhou.

In the women's singles, 15-year-old Kamila Valieva will try to secure the gold medal for the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) team together with teammates Anna Shcherbakova and Alexandra Trusova.

Valieva topped the podium at the European championships with a score of 168.61 in the free skate-just 16.68 points below the world best she set earlier this season at the Rostelecom Cup in Russia. She has landed the quadruple toeloop, quadruple salchow and triple axel in the competition.

The ROC team's biggest competition will come from Japan's Kaori Sakamoto and Alysa Liu of the US. Liu withdrew from the US nationals due to a positive COVID-19 test but still got the nod for the Olympics to make her the youngest member of Team USA in Beijing at 16 years and 6 months old.

In the ice dance, skaters from France, Canada, the US and the ROC team are the favorites for glory.

Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron of France claimed silver in Pyeongchang four years ago and will be striving to go one step higher on the podium this month.

Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier of Canada, who won their home grand prix and were second to the French team at Internationaux de France, and world champions Victoria Sinitsina and Nikita Katsalapov of the ROC, are also expected to be in the mix for glory.

Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue, who finished one spot out of the medals in Pyeongchang, spearhead the US challenge.

Traditional powerhouse the ROC is a heavy favorite for team gold, with Canada and the US expected to join them on the podium, and Japan, France and China rated as outside medal hopes in the team event.