The Figure Skating events at the Winter Olympics will be represented by more than 150 athletes combined from 32 different countries, but only a handful will earn a spot on the podium and clinch the three medals up for grabs in their respective fields.
BetUS sportsbook has rolled out a raft of 2022 Winter Olympics futures for sports enthusiasts to sink their teeth into, covering all the key events. In this column, we focus on the highly popular Figure Skating team event and the accompanying betting online odds.
In total, ten countries have entered the team event, which kicks off in Beijing later this week. The competition is broken into two halves. All entrants will perform a short program, but only the top five nations will advance into the second half of the competition.
As per the odds, the three countries most likely to join the top two favorites – Russia and USA – are Japan, Canada and China.
Figure Skating Team Event Futures Odds at BetUS
- ROC -500
- USA +500
- Japan +1600
- Canada +2000
- China +3300
- Italy +10000
- Georgia +15000
*BetUS odds as of February 1, 2022
ROC Favored -500
Russian athletes aren’t allowed to fly their nation’s flag high. The ROC stands for the Russian Olympic Committee, and Olympic athletes from Russia will be competing under the obscurity of the ROC label throughout the Beijing Olympics.
As far as the figure skating discipline goes, the ROC is the team to beat by a country mile. Russia finished second in the team competition at the 2018 Winter Olympics, seven points behind gold medal winners Canada.
📺 Anastasia Mishina & Aleksandr Galliamov flying high! 🙌🏻⛸ With two outstanding programs they take home the gold medal and the European Champion Title 🥇 #EuroFigure #FigureSkating pic.twitter.com/mwywLpCDAw
— ISU Figure Skating (@ISU_Figure) January 13, 2022
The Canadians owed much of their success to the incredible performance of the ice dancing duo, Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir – arguably, the best ice-dance skaters over the last decade if not ever.
Virtue and Moir retired soon after their sensational run in Pyeongchang, and the impact of their departure is evident nowhere more so than in the odds gap between Russia and Canada for these Olympics.
Clearly, Virtue and Moir’s retirement opens the door for anyone to swoop in and claim the gold in this event. But the Russians are in the midst of a golden age in all figure skating disciples and they get the market’s ringing endorsement as the -500 favorites for Olympics picks.
The Russian ice-dancing pair of Anastasia Mishina and Aleksandr Galliamov won the 2021 World Championships, and all eyes will be on them in the team event and ice dancing event.
USA Second Faves
The Americans enter the team event as the second-best bet, but at a good distance off the Russians with odds of +500.
The USA clinched the bronze medal at the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics. With Canada falling out of favor, the Americans benefit just like the Russians do, and they’re a good bet to go one better and win the silver at least in Beijing.
obsessed with usa figure skating looking at their best chance at medaling and going you know what this moment needs? dinosaurs retreating under nathan’s gaze. pic.twitter.com/iTJgB353YF
— erica (@kaacire31) January 29, 2022
Nathan Chen, 22, is the USA’s best chance to win a medal in the individual competition, as per the odds too. He’s the favorite in a stacked field to clinch gold. It follows, a good performance by Chen could be key for USA’s chances in the team event.
Canada Falls Out of Favor
Canada enters the competition as the defending champion, but they’re longshots to repeat. That discouraging outlook has everything to do with the departure of Virtue and Moir. That fact is underscored further by how far the Canadians have dropped on the Olympic odds board in this event – Canada is an outside bet at +2000 without their most decorated ice-dancing duo.
GOLD | Canada wins first gold of the games in #FigureSkating Team Event. #PyeongChang2018
WATCH: https://t.co/AJFHZgLoo9 pic.twitter.com/L9fQEHRwQb
— CBC Olympics (@CBCOlympics) February 12, 2018
All hope is not lost for Canada in the team event though. They might have a shot at the bronze medal, but France, Japan and China are likely to give
