Women's Figure Skating: Who Are Yevgenia Medvedeva, Bradie Tennell? Gold Medal Favorites

The Winter Olympic Games in Pyoengchang are in the second week and the figure skating events are set to wrap up soon. Tuesday night’s primetime coverage will feature the women’s short program skate, which will be followed by the women’s free skate and gold medal final during Thursday’s primetime.

Three Americans and two Olympic Athletes from Russia are expected to compete with the gold-medal favorites being the two Russians, Yevgenia Medvedeva and Alina Zagitova. They’ll be up against Americans Bradie Tennell, Mirai Nagasu and Keren Chen.

This won’t be the first time Tennell or Nagasu have touched the Olympic ice, they both competed in the team event where they earned bronze medals. Nagasu landed the rare triple Axel for women’s skating. Tennell is a newcomer to the Olympics, this is the first Olympic Games for the 20-year-old skater. She is set to skate first during the primetime coverage because she has some of the least experience in international competition of all of her competitors.

Tennell has suffered several fractures in her vertebrae that landed her in a back brace and off the ice for months at a time. The setback didn’t stop her from reaching Pyeongchang or a spot on Team USA.

The competition will put Tennell’s routine to a test. She will skate against Medvedeva, who broke onto the skating scene at the Junior level. She’s broken records for the highest scores set in the short program and free skate for women’s skating, according to NBC. But in addition to records, she’s also broken bones. She withdrew from Russian nationals prior to the Olympics which gave Zagitova the chance to win gold.

When Medvedeva returned to the sport during the European Championships, Zagitova beat her by just over five points. The two will go head to head in the women’s short program and free skate for gold starting Tuesday night.