We are so close to the main event of figure skating at the Winter Olympic Games.
We’ve seen the ice dancers cause a storm. The pairs are going for the podium on Monday. And the men, well, they put on a chaotic finale that will be talked about for centuries to come.
But when it comes to the unpredictability heading into the competition, nothing comes close to the ladies who will be vying for gold in Milan this coming week.
Whereas the other disciplines had heavy favorites coming in, there are a slew of women who could make it onto the podium and even win it all if they are at their best.
As Tuesday’s short program looms, here are my official predictions for the women’s podium.
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Fallen Angel (4th Place): Adeliia Petrosian
For the person who will come short of getting a medal, I have Russia’s 18-year-old phenom Petrosian.
While she has the overall talent to get top three or even win the whole thing, it’s going to be difficult. As she has to compete under the Individual Neutral Athletes banner, her support is minimal.
She has no anthem. No banner. She can’t compete or test herself at other global events. And she has to compete in the first group of the day on Tuesday, when the crowd is at its quietest.
Bronze (3rd Place): Alysa Liu
The reigning world champion, Liu, has come out of retirement and stunned the world with how well she’s transformed over the past few years from her teenage days.
She performed at the 2022 Beijing Olympics and won’t have those rookie nerves that Ilia Malinin was upset about following his free skate on Friday.
Silver (2nd Place): Kaori Sakamoto
This is the Olympics of upsets. Even Sakamoto herself has said she is scared after seeing what’s transpired over the past week with all the major surprises.
There was a controversy in ice dancing. The ‘Red Wedding’ during the men’s competition. Even in the pairs event, the favorites, Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara, made a major mistake in the short program, leaving them off the podium heading into the climax on Monday.
Sakamoto has the perfect setup to win: it’s her Olympics before retiring to coach; she came third in 2022 and then second at the most recent Worlds. She looked almost flawless in the team event.
But these Olympics have shown us that nothing is going as expected.
Gold (1st Place): Amber Glenn
At an Olympics where the most unexpected winners are walking away with gold, wouldn’t Glenn be the perfect final chapter to that story?
No one thought she’d ever be in this position. She was no prodigy. She was a side character in the grand scheme of global figure skating for years. And then, through her own hard work, believing in herself, and transformation, Glenn is a three-time national champion and one of the best skaters in the world.
As one of the oldest American women ever to debut in figure skating at the Olympics at 26, Glenn has the technical ability and artistry to take home the gold.
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