Evgenia Tarasova – Vladimir Morozov won the short program, our team moved up to 3rd place in the Olympic team tournament

After the first day of the team figure skating competition, the Russian team shares third place with the Japanese team, having scored 13 points each. Canada is in the lead with 17 points, and the USA is in second place with 14 points.

Following the men's performance, the pairs presented their short programs. Two-time European champions, world championship medalists Evgenia Tarasova – Vladimir Morozov took to the ice under number 10. But neither the starting position nor Mikhail Kolyada's result could ruin the guys' spirits. And the mood was really such that it is necessary to achieve success.

After the performance, the pair's coach Nina Moser said that Zhenya and Volodya literally rushed to the ice, were so focused and concentrated on themselves that, having a time schedule in hand, they never looked at the TV screen, did not notice that the competition was delayed, and the pairs were starting late.

"They were in such a state that they did not even understand what was happening before them. Today there were a lot of funny situations when, according to the schedule, Volodya went out already in skates, not paying attention to the fact that the rivals were still warming up, the Italians Della Monica and Guarise were skating on the ice and there was a flood. Seeing my surprised look, Volodya said: "But according to the schedule, we are supposed to go out." He had to go back to the locker room, take off his skates. And at that moment it became clear to me that the guys really want to go on the ice! "They were really well prepared," Nina Moser commented.

Tarasova and Morozov skated the program brilliantly, without mistakes, absolutely deservedly ahead of the others. Meanwhile, the day before, during training, Zhenya fell and injured her hip. And it was completely unclear how the athlete would feel the next day, on the day of the competition. "Zhenya is a fighter. She proved it once again. A girl with a strong character," Moser added.

The skaters themselves told journalists that after the morning training they went to the Olympic village and returned to the rink before the start of the pairs.

"We did not see Misha Kolyada's performance. We knew his result. We went home right after training. Some put on makeup, some combed their hair," joked Volodya. – We didn’t think about anything except what we needed to focus on, we knew that we had to do our part and we did it.”

According to coach Nina Moser, another pair will most likely skate the free program at the team tournament. Sports duets are the first to enter the fight for individual medals after the end of the team competition, and the guys need time to recover and come to their senses. But the final decision on substitutions will be officially announced later. It is too early to say anything with 100% certainty now.

Initially, it was indeed planned that Tarasova and Morozov would skate the short program at the team competition, and Ksenia Stolbova and Fedor Klimov would skate the free program. But the Olympic champion in the team tournament in Sochi, silver medalist of the 2014 Olympics Ksenia Stolbova did not receive an invitation from the IOC to the Games in Korea. No one explained why a strong figure skater who had been competing throughout the current season was denied entry.

At the moment, we are 4 points behind the Canadian team in first place. It is just beginning, the whole fight is ahead. It is nice that a large group of Russian fans supported our guys at the Olympic rink. People came from different cities of the country, drew and stretched out posters, gathered together on one stand and cheered desperately.

Competition results.

Men. Short program. 1. Shoma Uno (Japan) – 103.25, 2. Alexey Bychenko (Israel) – 88.49, 3. Patrick Chan (Canada) – 81.66… 8. Mikhail Kolyada (OAR) – 74.36.

Pairs. Short program. 1. Evgenia Tarasova – Vladimir Morozov (OAR) – 80.92, 2. Megan Duhamel – Eric Radford (Canada) -- 76.57, 3. Alena Savchenko – Bruno Massot (Germany) -- 75.36

Team. Results of the first day. 1. Canada – 17 points, 2. USA – 14, 3. Japan – 13, 3. OAR – 13.

Olga ERMOLINA, Korea