2022 Winter Olympics qualifier: Indian figure skater Tara Prasad finishes 30th at Nebelhorn Trophy, misses cut
The Indian finished 24th in the free skating segment and 30th overall. Only six women figure skaters qualified for the 2022 Winter Olympics.
Indian figure skater Tara Prasad finished 30th in the women’s singles competition of the Nebelhorn Trophy 2021, a 2022 Winter Olympics qualifying event, in Oberstdorf, Germany on Saturday.
The 21-year-old figure skater was placed 34th after the short program event on Thursday and needed a big performance in the free skating segment to stand any chance of clinching one of the six available Olympic quotas in women’s singles.
Despite her best efforts, Tara Prasad fell short of the cut-off mark. She scored 84.76 points in free skating, taking her overall score to 122.27 points to finish 30th in the table.
The leader from the short program routine, Alysa Liu of the USA won the competition with a total score of 207.40 while Poland’s Ekaterina Kurakova was second with a score of 193.58. Meanwhile. Australia’s Kailani Craine clinched the final quota place for the 2022 Winter Games with a total score of 165.35.
Performing to the tunes of Evergreen Symphony’s rendition of the age-old classic, La Bayadere by Leon Minkus, Tara Prasad’s self-choreographed routine captured the emotion of the music well.
The three-time Indian national champion began with a double axel and a triple salchow (a jump where the skater starts with the inside edge of one foot and lands on the back outside edge of the opposite foot). She then built on the start to put on a solid showing.
She placed 24th in the free skate segment - considerably better than her showing in the short program. The Nebelhorn Trophy 2021 is the final 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics qualifying event for figure skaters.
Despite the setback, Tara Prasad remains confident about her future. “My goal is to make it to the Winter Olympics and even though it might not happen this time, I do want to skate for another four years. So, the next Olympics is actually my primary goal,” the Indian skater told Olympics.com in a recent interview.