*Note*- This article was written on Sunday, February 11th, and may not be up to date on date of publication. Please check ISU (International Skating Union) for scores as they are released.

PYEONGCHANG- It’s day four at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, and while many events have taken place over the short period of time (Including Red Gerard’s amazing win), the Figure Skating team event has captured the nation’s attention. The United States is in full swing, sitting in third right now with a possibility at earning yet another bronze medal, the same placement they received in the 2014 Sochi games. With that said, how does the team event work?

While it may look complicated, the Team event is about skating your best to earn the most amount of points. Men, Ladies, Pairs, and Ice Dance will all skate their short and long programs, with the first place finisher receiving 10 points, and the last place receiving 0 points. Second place receives 9 points, and so on and so forth. This point system is used in both the short and the long programs, and the team with the most points receives the gold medal. Here are the current standings. (NOTE: The Ladies, Men, and Ice Dance teams still have to skate their long programs)

(After all of the Short programs have been completed, only the top five teams make it to the long program)

1-Canada-45 points

2-Olympic Athletes from Russia-39 points

3-The United States of America-36 points

4-Italy-35 points

5-Japan-32 points

With that said, how have the Americans been doing? In the Men’s short program, Nathan Chen from the U.S, who is a clear gold medal favorite, struggled. He landed his first jumping pass slightly off balance, but recovered with excellent spins and a charismatic step sequence. Going into his second jumping pass, he popped, which means he pulled out of the rotation, not gaining any points for the jump. In his last jumping pass, he came down under-rotated and fell.

Bradie Tennell, the 2018 U.S national champion, delivered a clean skate. Landing all her jumps beautifully, she was the epitome of grace and beauty. Pairs Chris Knierim and Alexa-Scimeca Knierim delivered, placing fourth in both the short program and long program. This marks a comeback for the pair team, as Alexa was very sick last year. She was very sick, losing weight, and eventually had to get multiple surgeries. Maia Shibutani and Alex Shibutani, two time U.S champions, and 2018 U.S silver medalists, sit in second after the short program. Delivering a fiery short program set to latin music, they hope to lead the U.S to a medal.

The ladies from the Olympic Athletes from Russia have been dominating. Evgenia Medvedeva, two time world champion, received a record breaking short program score of 81.06, the highest any lady has ever reached. Her teammate, Alina Zagitova, is set to compete in the ladies long program.

Canada’s Eric Radford and Meagan Duhamel won the Pairs free skate in the team event last night. Their amazing lifts, throw jumps, and spins are going to set up Canada for medal contention.