The figure skating events at the 2014 Winter Olympics took place from 6 to 22 February at the Iceberg Skating Palace in Sochi, Russia. Medals were awarded in men's singles, women's singles, pair skating, ice dance, and the team event. The team event was a new addition to the Olympic Games this season. It combined the four Olympic figure skating disciplines (men's singles, women's singles, pair skating, and ice dance) into a single event; skaters earned points based on their placement in each discipline, and the gold medals were awarded to the team that earned the most placement points. Yuzuru Hanyu of Japan won the men's event; Adelina Sotnikova of Russia won the women's event; Tatiana Volosozhar and Maxim Trankov of Russia won the pairs' event; Meryl Davis and Charlie White of the United States won the ice dance event; and the team from Russia won the team event. Several world record scores in figure skating were set at the Olympics, including by Hanyu in the men's event; Volosozhar and Trankov in the pairs' event; and Davis and White in the ice dance event. The decision of the Figure Skating Federation of Russia to select Evgeni Plushenko as Russia's lone entrant in the men's event, given his age and history of surgeries, prompted criticism from many Russians after Plushenko withdrew from the event at the last possible moment. Controversy also arose upon completion of the women's event when an examination of the scores led to accusations of judging irregularities and improprieties. Ultimately, the history of the 2014 Winter Olympics was overshadowed by the revelation that Russia had been running a state-sponsored doping program for years, including through February 2014, when Russia hosted the Olympics.
Qualification
A total of 148 quota spots were available to athletes to compete in figure skating at the 2018 Winter Olympics. Each National Olympic Committee (NOC) was allowed to enter a maximum of 18 skaters, with a maximum of nine men or nine women. The results of the 2013 World Figure Skating Championships determined 83 total spots: 24 entries each in men's and women's singles, 16 in pair skating, and 19 in ice dance. The remaining quota spots were allocated based on the results of the 2013 Nebelhorn Trophy.
Team event For the team event, scores from the 2013 World Championships and the 2013–14 Grand Prix of Figure Skating season were tabulated to establish the top ten nations.
+Qualification for figure skating team event Nation Total 1 6053 2 5459 3 5274 4 4062 5 3707 6 3626 7 3609 8 3596 9 1528 10 1261
Entries A total of five figure skating events were contested: men's singles, women's singles, pair skating, ice dance, and the team event. All events were held from 6 to 22 February at the Iceberg Skating Palace in Sochi, Russia. Skaters or teams denoted with ● were eligible for the team event only.
Two countries were represented in figure skating for the first time at the 2018 Winter Olympics. Isadora Williams was the first Brazilian skater to qualify for the Winter Olympics, as was Michael Christian Martinez the first skater from the Philippines.
+ Nation Men Women Pairs Ice dance Brendan Kerry Brooklee Han Viktor Pfeifer Kerstin Frank colspan="3" Jorik Hendrickx colspan="3" Isadora Williams colspan="2" Patrick Chan Gabrielle Daleman Liam Firus Kaetlyn Osmond Kevin Reynolds Yan Han Li Zijun Zhang Kexin Michal Březina Elizaveta Ukolova colspan="2" rowspan="2" Tomáš Verner Viktor Romanenkov Jelena Glebova colspan="2" Florent Amodio Maé-Bérénice Méité Brian Joubert colspan="2" Elene Gedevanishvili colspan="2" Peter Liebers Nathalie Weinzierl colspan="2" Matthew Parr ● Jenna McCorkell Alexei Bychenko Paul Bonifacio Parkinson Carolina Kostner Valentina Marchei Yuzuru Hanyu Mao Asada Tatsuki Machida Kanako Murakami colspan="2" rowspan="2" Daisuke Takahashi Akiko Suzuki Abzal Rakimgaliev colspan="3" rowspan="2" Denis Ten colspan="3" Anne Line Gjersem colspan="2" Michael Christian Martinez colspan="3" Zoltán Kelemen colspan="3" Evgeni Plushenko Yulia Lipnitskaya rowspan="2" Adelina Sotnikova Nicole Rajičová colspan="2" rowspan="3" Kim Hae-jin colspan="2" rowspan="3" Yuna Kim Park So-youn Javier Fernández colspan="2" rowspan="2" Javier Raya Alexander Majorov Viktoria Helgesson colspan="2" colspan="3" Yakov Godorozha Natalia Popova Jeremy Abbott Polina Edmunds Jason Brown Gracie Gold Ashley Wagner Misha Ge colspan="3"
Competition schedule All times are in local time (UTC+4).
+Figure skating events schedule Date Time Event 6 February 19:30 Team event (men's short program) Team event (pairs' short program) 8 February 18:30 Team event (ice dance short dance)Team event (women's short program)Team event (pairs' free skating) 9 February 19:00 Team event (men's free skating)Team event (women's free skating)Team event (ice dance free dance) 11 February 19:00 Pairs' short program 12 February 19:45 Pairs' free skating 13 February 19:00 Men's short program 14 February 19:00 Men's free skating 16 February 19:00 Ice dance short dance 17 February 19:00 Ice dance free dance 19 February 19:00 Women's short program 20 February 19:00 Women's free skating 22 February 20:30 Gala exhibition
Medal summary
Medalists +Olympic medalists Discipline Gold Silver Bronze Men's singles Yuzuru Hanyu Patrick Chan Denis Ten Women's singles Adelina Sotnikova Kim Yuna Carolina Kostner Pairs Ice dance Team event Evgeni PlushenkoYulia LipnitskayaTatiana VolosozharMaxim TrankovKsenia StolbovaFedor KlimovEkaterina BobrovaDmitri SolovievElena IlinykhNikita Katsalapov Patrick ChanKevin ReynoldsKaetlyn OsmondMeagan DuhamelEric RadfordKirsten Moore-TowersDylan MoscovitchTessa VirtueScott Moir Jeremy AbbottJason BrownAshley WagnerGracie GoldMarissa CastelliSimon ShnapirMeryl DavisCharlie White
Medal table
Records
The following new record high scores were set during this competition.
+ Date Skater(s) Event Segment Score 9 February Team event(Ice dance) Free dance 114.34 11 February Pair skating Short program 84.17 13 February Yuzuru Hanyu Men's singles 101.45 16 February Ice dance Short dance 78.89 17 February Free dance 114.66 116.63 Total score 195.52
Controversies
Selection of Evgeni Plushenko The decision to select Evgeni Plushenko for the Olympic team was seen as controversial by many in Russia, especially as he had lost the 2014 Russian Figure Skating Championships to Maxim Kovtun. Russia only qualified one man to the 2014 Winter Olympics and could not submit one skater to compete in the team event and another in the men's individual event. During the 2014 European Figure Skating Championships, Ottavio Cinquanta, then-president of the International Skating Union, stated, "If one of your skaters has sustained the same injury for years, you should not enter him." Plushenko did not compete at the 2014 European Championships. Plushenko was ultimately chosen for the Olympic team after skating for members of the selection committee behind closed doors. He skated successfully during the short program of the team event, finishing second behind Yuzuru Hanyu. During the free skate, he performed only one quadruple jump, and reported having back pain. On 10 February, Aleksandr Gorshkov, then-president of the Figure Skating Federation of Russia (FSFR), said that Plushenko would compete in the individual event. However, Plushenko withdrew from the short program minutes before he was set to compete. Considering his age (31) and history of back pain and multiple surgeries, many Russians asked why Plushenko had been chosen for Russia's sole men's quota spot in the first place. Despite the fact that Maxim Kovtun had won the 2014 Russian Championships, which, according to the FSFR's own rules, should have earned him a spot at the Olympics, the selection committee considered his competitive history too inexperienced and erratic, and opted to send Plushenko instead.
Women's event results The gold-medal victory of Adelina Sotnikova of Russia over Yuna Kim of South Korea in the women's event prompted an outpouring of criticism and allegations of unfair judging. Journalists and skating experts argued that scores given to Sotnikova were inflated both in the short program and free skate. Sotnikova also received criticism for her choreography and artistry, which many found lacking compared to that of Yuna Kim, as well as Carolina Kostner, the skater from Italy who won the bronze medal.
Christine Brennan of USA Today reported that an unnamed Olympic figure skating official alleged that "the geographic makeup of the judging panel 'was clearly slanted towards… Sotnikova'." The panel of nine judges included four judges from former Eastern Bloc nations (Russia, Ukraine, Estonia, and Slovakia), plus one judge from France, which had earlier conspired with Russia to fix the results of the pair skating event at the 2002 Winter Olympics. Yuri Balkov, the Ukrainian judge, had already served a one-year suspension after he was caught on tape trying to rig the outcome of the ice dance event at the 1998 Winter Olympics, while the Russian judge, Alla Shekhovtsova, was the wife of Valentin Piseev, the then-general director of the Figure Skating Federation of Russia (FSFR). In addition, the technical panel, which is tasked with identifying all of the elements performed as they happen in real time, as well as flagging technical errors and the levels of difficulty performed in different elements, was led by Alexander Lakernik, the then-vice president of the FSFR. In the wake of the judging scandal at the 2002 Winter Olympics, the International Skating Union (ISU) adopted a new system of judging, whereby judges' scores were now posted anonymously, ostensibly to relieve judges from pressures from their federations and other outside influences like those which had corrupted the 2002 pairs' event. However, the result was now that judges' scores could not be scrutinized for malfeasance. An examination of the score sheets for Sotnikova, Kim, and Kostner showed irregularities. At this point in time, the world record for the highest score in the women's free skate was 150.06, received by Yuna Kim at the 2010 Winter Olympics, where she won the gold medal. Adelina Sotnikova received a total score of 149.95 in her free skate at the 2014 Winter Olympics. Prior to this, the highest she had ever received for the same program was 131.63, which she had received at the 2014 European Figure Skating Championships roughly three weeks earlier. Even if Sotnikova had had the cleanest skate of her life, journalists and commentators could not see justification for a score increase of over 18 points.
On 21 February, the ISU issued a statement which asserted that all of the rules and procedures had been correctly applied during the competition and that no official protest had been filed by any participating nation concerning the results. The ISU expressed confidence "in the high quality and integrity of the ISU Judging System", and added that "judges were selected by random drawing from a pool of thirteen potential judges" and that all nine judges on the free skating panel were from different nations.