Figure Skating at The 2010 Winter Olympics - Competition Firsts and World Records

Competition Firsts and World Records

  • Overall, this was the first Olympic Winter Games since 1960, in which no European skater, pair, or dance team placed first. Instead, the gold medals went to skaters representing nations from the Four Continents.
  • It was the first time after 1960 that a Russian, Soviet or Unified Team (CIS) flagged team did not win the pair skating gold medal. Instead, the Chinese team of Shen Xue & Zhao Hongbo won. They were the first Chinese skaters in any figure skating discipline to win an Olympic gold.
  • For the first time since 1964, no U.S. woman won any solo figure skating medals.
  • At the pair skating event the team of Shen Xue & Zhao Hongbo (CHN) set a new world record for the short program of 76.66 points. They then set a new world record for the overall combined score of 216.57 points. The team of Pang Qing & Tong Jian (CHN) set a new world record for the free skate with a score of 141.81 points.
  • Canadians Tessa Virtue & Scott Moir became the first North American team to win the ice dancing title, ending Europe's 34-year streak. Ice dance was introduced into the Winter Games in 1976, and all but two gold medals had been won by Soviet/CIS/Russian pairs until 2010. Virtue and Moir were also the youngest skaters (aged 20 and 22 years of age, respectively) to win the title. The pair was also the first former World Junior Champion dance team to win the Olympic gold medal, the first pair to win the gold on an Olympic debut, and the first team to win the Olympic gold on home ice.
  • Kim Yu-Na's gold medal at the ladies' event is South Korea's first medal at the Winter Olympics in a sport other than speed skating or short track.
  • In the ladies' singles event, Kim Yu-Na (KOR) set a new World record of 78.50 for the short program. She also set a new world record of 150.06 points for the free skate and another world record for the combined total of 228.56 points.
  • Mao Asada (JPN) became the first lady to land a triple axel in an Olympic short program and the first lady to land three triple axels in one competition.
  • Daisuke Takahashi's bronze medal is the first Olympic medal for Japan in the men's event.

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