The women’s free skate short program is set for Tuesday, leading into Thursday’s free skate final, which will decide the medals. Even so, the short program carries significant weight, as its scores combine with Thursday’s to form the final total.
Team USA features three popular skaters nicknamed the “Blade Angels” — Amber Glenn, Alysa Liu, and Isabeau Levito — all in pursuit of Olympic gold.
With the excitement surrounding them, former Olympic gold medalist and NBC analyst Scott Hamilton spoke about some of the skaters during an appearance on the “Today Show” Tuesday morning.
“I just want to see her skate clean,” Hamilton said about Glenn. “She’s so athletic, she’s so explosive… her emotions are raw. You can just see where she stands at any given moment — whether she’s nervous, like she was in the free program in the team event, or whether we saw her at Nationals come out last and just throw it down. I’m hoping she can calm her nerves and just throw a clean short program with the rest of the field.”
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Hamilton also reflected on Liu’s unique journey. She retired from figure skating at age 16 following the 2022 Beijing Olympics, having grown frustrated and burned out. After a year away, she returned to the ice under the condition that she could skate her own way — and now she’s back at the Olympics with a special opportunity ahead.
“There’s something different about Olympic ice… nerves can do that,” Hamilton said. “But Alysa, she’s just different. She’s got the hair, she’s very free-spirited, she just goes out on the ice like, ‘I’m just gonna skate.’ She’s already been on Olympic ice, and that might give her a little bit of an advantage.”
The short program is set to begin around 12:45 p.m. EST on USA, with the second half moving to NBC. Thursday’s free skate final will be televised exclusively on NBC, and each skater’s start time will be determined by their short program scores.
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