Men's figure skating preview: Hanyu and Chen have company in gold-medal race

The race for gold in men's figure skating stretches well beyond two headline skaters.

While all eyes are set to be on reigning and two-time Olympic gold medallist Hanyu Yuzuru as well as Nathan Chen, who has won the last three world titles, several other skaters are set to factor into the podium conversation in the men's singles figure skating event at Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022.

The men are set to hit the ice on Tuesday morning (8 February) inside the Capital Indoor Stadium, the first of four individual events in the Olympic programme. The free skate will take place Thursday (10 February).

On Monday (7 February), the ROC captured the team gold medal ahead of the U.S., while Japan earned its first-ever team bronze in the event.

While Chen scooped up a second Olympic medal as part of Team USA, Hanyu opted to sit the team event out, arriving to Beijing on Sunday (6 February) and practising for the first time on Monday.

Instead, PyeongChang 2018 silver medallist Uno Shoma and Youth Olympic Games champion Kagiyama Yuma suited up for Japan to help the squad to bronze. The two Japanese skaters will be the most likely foes for Hanyu and Chen: Each of the men are armed with a cadre of quadruple jumps - as well as artistic content to bring an audience in.

But it's only Hanyu, now 27, who will attempt the quadruple Axel - a jump that has never been done at the Olympics - or elsewhere.

He attempted the jump several times on Monday in practice but was unable to land it cleanly. Because it's not allowed in the short program, Hanyu will get one shot: The free skate.

He landed one in December at Japanese nationals, but the jump was downgraded - as Hanyu landed on two feet and completed the rotation (meant to be done mid-air) on the ice.

The quest for the quad Axel has both focused and given purpose to a skater already glistening with two Olympic golds: Hanyu said it's his priority over the gold medal here.

Golden dreams: Chen, Hanyu, Uno and Kagiyama

While the quadruple Axel remains Hanyu's primary, his skating quality at the Japanese nationals just a few weeks ago - where he won a sixth national title - shows that he is in the kind of form that could make him the first singles skater to win back-to-back-to-back Olympic titles in nearly 100 years.

An ankle injury forced Hanyu out of his Grand Prix assignments earlier this season in a scenario that was eerily similar to what he faced in the lead-up to PyeongChang 2018, where he found his form in time to capture a second gold.

Hanyu has spent much of the last two years training alone at home in Saitama, away from his training base in Toronto. Longtime coach Brian Orser will not be at his side at the boards or in the "Kiss and Cry" in Beijing, though Orser remains listed as his coach.

In Tuesday's short program, Hanyu will skate in the penultimate group, just prior to Uno.

The saying goes in skating: You can't win an event with the short program... but you can lose without it.

What to watch for? Clean programs: The men do just three jumping passes - including one in combination as well as an Axel - and the two-minute, 50-second program forces skaters to be at their ultimate best without any mistakes.

Kondratiuk, Brown, Messing could impress

Joining Chen in the final group will be Kagiyama, as well as his American teammate in Jason Brown - one of the top artistic skaters in the world - and Canada's Keegan Messing, who rushed to arrive on Monday after missing the team event having tested positive for Covid before departing Vancouver.

Hanyu and Uno's group also features Cha Junhwan, the Four Continents champion from South Korea, as well as Youth Olympic Games Lausanne 2020 medallist Andrei Mozalev of the ROC.

Mozalev's teammate Mark Kondratiuk, just 18, was impressive in his team event efforts, helping the ROC to gold. The teen has had a breakout last six weeks: He won nationals and then Europeans, and has become the de facto favourite for the three-man team after former world medallist Mikhail Kolyada was ruled out prior to the Games.

Also to watch from the ROC is Evgeni Semenenko, Kolyada's training partner.

Twists and turns: Could men's event hold surprises?

Chen, who has won each of the three world championships since PyeongChang - in 2018, 2019 and 2021 - started his season with his first international loss in over two years, placing third at Skate America.

It was there that his teammate Vincent Zhou won his first Grand Prix gold medal. After Zhou skated in the men's free skate portion of the team event on Sunday, however, it was revealed the following day that he had tested positive for Covid-19, and he announced his withdrawal on Monday.

Chen, who like Hanyu is a six-time national champ, will look to rely on quality big jumping in two programs he's revisited from the shortened 2019-20 season "La Boheme" in the short and "Rocketman" in the free. He plans five quads in the free skate.

The 22-year-old looked confident in his team event short program, four years after he stumbled in that skate - and the individual short - at the Olympics. He ended up in fifth place overall in 2018 - and did not lose another event until his bronze at Skate America.

While he and Hanyu will receive the brightest spotlights, both Uno and Kagiyama linger - the 18-year-old rising star landing the first-ever quad loop in Olympic competition on his way to helping Japan to the team bronze.

Uno has been joined by coach Stephane Lambiel, a fellow Olympic silver medallist, after the Swiss was delayed in traveling due to a positive Covid-19 test.

Men's singles - schedule, skate order

The short program is underway from 0915 local time on Tuesday (8 February). The free skate will take place on Thursday (10 February) at 0930 local time. You can see the full skating schedule here.

Tuesday, 8 February 0915 - Men single skating - Short program
Thursday, 10 February 0930 - Men single skating - Free program

The short program's skating order has already been set, and is in relation to a skater's current world ranking. The groups are then drawn at random:

Group 1
1 SADOVSKY Roman CAN
2 MAJOROV Nikolaj SWE
3 BRITSCHGI Lukas SUI
4 SELEVKO Aleksandr EST
5 JIN Boyang CHN
6 LITVINTSEV Vladimir AZE

Group 2
7 LEE Sihyeong KOR
8 CARRILLO Donovan MEX
9 SHMURATKO Ivan UKR
10 BYCHENKO Alexei ISR
11 BREZINA Michal CZE
12 ZHOU Vincent USA

Group 3
13 MILYUKOV Konstantin BLR
14 KERRY Brendan AUS
15 SIAO HIM FA Adam FRA
16 KONDRATIUK Mark ROC
17 SEMENENKO Evgeni ROC
18 AYMOZ Kevin FRA

Group 4
19 VASILJEVS Deniss LAT
20 MOZALEV Andrei ROC
21 HANYU Yuzuru JPN
22 UNO Shoma JPN
23 CHA Junhwan KOR
24 RIZZO Matteo ITA

Group 5
25 GRASSL Daniel ITA
26 MESSING Keegan CAN
27 KAGIYAMA Yuma JPN
28 CHEN Nathan USA
29 KVITELASHVILI Morisi GEO
30 BROWN Jason USA