Liu, the defending world champion, seems dialed in. “Whether I beat them or not is not my goal,” Liu said of her Japanese competitors, per The Athietic. “I don’t need a medal. I just need to be here, and I just need to present, and I need people to see what I do next.”
Liu isn’t feeling any pressure. Every time she takes the ice, she’s smiling and the arena shrinks down to just her and the music. Liu might not need a medal, but she’s certainly on track to get one.
Outside challengers in women’s Olympic long program
Adeliia Petrosian (Neutral Olympic Athlete), Amber Glenn (USA)
Russian skater Adeliia Petrosian, skating as a Neutral Olympic Athlete, surprised the field by finishing fifth in the short program. She’s new to the international scene because of Russia’s global sporting ban. But new or not, she looks like a genuine challenger for the podium.
The other challenger is a controversial one: Glenn.
Her doubled short program jump dropped her into 13th place, but those who think she can’t make up that difference are forgetting figure skating’s most important truth: Ice is slippery.
Skaters fall. Favorites choke. Unexpected dark horses emerge. Just look at the men’s gold medalist, Kazakhstan’s Mikhail Shaidorov, for proof. He finished his Olympic short program 16 points outside of first and made up the deficit thanks to a strong long program and weak long programs from competitors.
Amber is just nine points off the podium and 11 out of first. A clean triple axel — something only she, Nakai and (supposedly) Petrosian can do — will give her back four of those points on one jump alone. These Olympics aren’t over for her.
Wild cards in women’s Olympic long program
Loena Hendrickx (Belgium), Isabeau Levito (U.S.)
26-year-old Hendrickx is a fascinating skater. She’s rarely mentioned in conversation with the world’s best, but her grace, class and impeccable on-ice movement have earned her an absolute glut of podium finishes.
Hendrickx’s long program doesn’t have the same difficulty level as her competitors, but if she skates it cleanly — and her challengers fail to do the same with their programs — she could win a bronze medal.
Levito enters the long program in eighth, but she has something no one else in the field does: near-impeccable consistency. If the women’s long program is as sloppy as the men’s, Levito will be the biggest beneficiary,