Everything you need to know about the figure skating exhibition gala
It is time for the skaters – like Olympic champions Nathan Chen, Hanyu Yuzuru and Papadakis/Cizeron – to enjoy themselves. Here's everything you need to know about the last event of figure skating at Beijing 2022.
Figure Skating
It's time to relax. The figure skaters who delivered scintillating performances during the Beijing 2022 Olympic Games are bidding farewell to the People’s Republic of China.
As is tradition, they will be able to wear what they want and skate with no care in the world during the exhibition gala which concludes each major competition.
No pressure, no stress. There’s nothing at stake, except maybe wanting to showcase their best selves.
So, like them, relax and learn everything you need to know about the Figure Skating Exhibition Gala at Beijing 2022.
Who’s taking part in the exhibition gala?
All Olympic Games medallists and their friends are going to be able to let their hair down and enjoy themselves on the Capital Indoor Stadium ice rink.
In ice dancing, France's newly-crowned Olympic champions Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron from France will be there, as will be runners-up Victoria Sinitsina and Nikita Katsalapov and bronze medallists Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue from Team USA.
Five other duos will be there too, including Canadians Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier and home duo Wang Shiyie and Liu Xinyu.
Japanese superstar Hanyu Yuzuru, the two-time Olympic champion who placed fourth at Beijing, has confirmed he’ll skate at the gala.
His successor as Olympic champion, Nathan Chen, will be there too along with fellow medallist Kagiyama Yuma and Uno Shoma.
American skater Vincent Zhou, who missed the men's singles due to Covid, will skate too along with Canada's Keegan Messing will also be there.
In the women’s singles, all three medallists will shine one last time at Beijing: the 17-year-old champion Anna Shcherbakova and her ROC teammate Alexandra Trusova and Japan's bronze medallist Sakamoto Kaori.
They will be accompanied by Korea's You Young (sixth at Beijing 2022), American Alysa Liu (seventh) and Belgian Loena Hendrickx (eighth). The results are provisional.
China's Olympic champions Sui Wenjing and Han Cong are the headline act of the pairs skaters with Sui saying she would like to sing at the gala.
Silver medallists Evgenia Tarasova and Vladimir Morozov are also among the five pairs taking part.
What to expect at the exhibition gala?
Fun, laughs, smiles and never-seen before programmes are to be expected at the exhibition gala as it’s an opportunity for skaters to express themselves without pressure.
For instance, at PyeongChang 2018, Italian ice dancers Anna Cappellini and Luca Lanotte, sixth during the competition, danced on a Charlie Chaplin themed show.
Their compatriots Valentina Marchei and Ondrej Hotarek made us travel to the 90s with Barbie Girl.
Spain's PyeongChang bronze medallist Javier Fernandez took the audience back to the 1980s before stripping off to become 'Super Javi'. At Sochi 2014, he had given an aerobics class before changing costumes and getting splashed with water à la Flashdance!
In 1994, in Lillehammer, French skater Surya Bonaly, who had finished fourth, also attempted and landed, a back flip, a move that has been banned in competition.
So, what can we expect from Papadakis/Cizeron and co. this year?
When to watch the figure skating exhibition gala?
- Date: 20 February 2022
- Time: 12:00 Beijing time
- Place: Capital Indoor Stadium