Beijing 2022: When and where to watch figure skating pairs at the Winter Olympics

"This pairs free skate is going to be the best ever."

Those were the words of 1998 gold medallist Tara Lipinski on NBC Sports on Friday during the pairs skating short program. The final figure skating event at the Winter Olympic Games Beijing 2022 will come to a thrilling conclusion on Saturday 19 February.

After the short program, which took place on Friday at the Capital Indoor Stadium, People's Republic of China's Sui Wenjing and Han Cong have the lead with a score of 84.41.

They are followed closely by three ROC teams: Evgenia Tarasova and Vladimir Morozov (84.25), Anastasia Mishina and Aleksandr Galliamov (82.76), and Aleksandra Boikova and Dmitrii Kozlovskii (78.59).

The pairs competition was expected to be a fairly open affair, especially given the retirement of reigning Olympic champions Aljona Savchenko and Bruno Massot (GER) and it has lived up to that expectation. This will go down to the wire, and you won't want to miss it. We bring you everything you need to know ahead of a can't-miss finale.

Pairs to watch

China's Sui Wenjing and Han Cong were expected to be frontrunners for the Beijing 2022 title and so far they have lived up to that title. The 2018 Olympic silver medalists and two-time world champions (2017, 2019) are certainly among the favourites to go one better this time around and win the gold.

The hosts can also be proud of Peng Cheng and Jin Yang, who currently sit in fifth place after an impressive short program routine.

Mishina and Galliamov, the 2021 world champions, will run Sui and Han all the way in an effort to win gold on their Olympic Winter Games debut. They are the current European champions and scored the highest total in the pairs free skating in the team event earlier in Beijing 2022.

However, somewhat surprisingly, it's the Tarasova and Morosov who are a whisker away from leaders Sui and Han, just .16 points to be exact. They are returning to their second Olympic Winter Games after their debut at PyeongChang 2018, where they finished second in the team event and fourth in the pairs skating. Could Beijing 2022 be their big breakthrough?

The best of the rest

There are two Team USA pairs to watch out for as well in Alexa Knierim and Brandon Frazier and Ashley Cain-Gribble and Timothy LeDuc.

Japan's Miura Riku and Kihara Ryuichi have already won bronze in the figure skating team event during this Winter Olympic Games, and finished in the top 10 after the short program. The duo will be hoping to return to the podium one more time before Sunday's Closing Ceremony.

Canada's experienced pair of Vanessa James and Eric Radford will be looking to bounce back after a disappointing performance in the short program that sees them currently in 12th. Their compatriots Kirsten Moore-Towers and Michael Marinaro are right behind them in 13th, and will be looking to rebound after suffering a crash landing while attempting a throw element in the short program.

When and where to watch figure skating

The Beijing 2022 figure skating competition concludes on Saturday 19 February when the pairs free skating starts from 19:00 CST (12:00 CET, 3:00 PST on Saturday) at the Capital Indoor Stadium.

Keep up with all the action in our Live Blog updates throughout Beijing 2022, here.