Olympics, Beijing: figure skating, here is Italy for the team competition

Ready, go: Friday we leave. Daniel Grassl in the male individual (from 2.55 Italian, 9.55 Chinese), Charlene Guignard-Marco Fabbri in dance (from 4.35), Nicole Della Monica-Matteo Guarise in couples (from 6.15) and Lara Naki Gutmann in female individual (from 4.30 on Sunday). Here is the blue team chosen to face the short artistic programs and the Rhythm Dance of the team competition which, at the Capital Indoor Stadium in Beijing, will open the Olympic figure skating calendar.

Blue choices

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Two options were required (Guignard-Fabbri and Gutmann), the others had an alternative: Grassl was preferred to Matteo Rizzo, Della Monica-Guarise to Rebecca Ghilardi-Filippo Ambrosini. A question of seasonal performance and experience. The goal – not easy to hit – after the prestigious fourth place in PyeongChang 2018, is to enter the five teams that, between Sunday (men) and Monday (all the others), will compete in the free programs. With the project, at that point – in accordance with the regulation – to bring into play who up to that point will have been watching. Net of the fact that, for any substitutions, there will be time up to 13 Italian (20 Chinese) on Thursday, a time limit postponed by a few hours compared to what was initially foreseen. With the positivity to Covid always lurking, it is right to “protect” the teams: within that hour the results of the day’s tests will also be known and therefore any possible substitution at the last minute will become possible.

The prediction

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Not that, however, we don’t already have to deal with some forced renunciations. After Keegan Messing’s stop for Canada (who has remained in his homeland for now), Germany on Wednesday lost the Berliner Nolan Seegert (an artistic couple with Minerva Hase), fortunately asymptomatic, but now isolated in an ad hoc hotel. The duo will not be able to be replaced (Hase is obviously considered a close contact) and even if the German presence in the race does not seem compromised, the result cannot but be affected. Regardless, not all nations will field the best. But, beyond a constantly evolving situation, the challenge for medals seems to have to involve three teams: that of the Russian Olympic Committee, the United States and Japan (without Yuzuru Hanyu), with China as host, Canada. , Italy and Georgia to play for the other two useful places to get to the free. The ranking, as is known, will be given by the algebraic sum of the points won thanks to the placements in each single segment of the race (from 10 to 1 in the first part, from 10 to 6 in the second).