Kamila Valieva sends Russians into Olympic team figure skating lead

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Kamila Valieva stood at the edge of the rink to get some last-second advice from her coach, Eteri Tutberidze, then took one deep breath and glided swiftly to the middle of the ice inside cavernous Capital Indoor Stadium.

And proceeded to leave everyone else breathless.

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In a performance that confirmed her place as the gold medal-favorite at the Beijing Games, the 15-year-old Valieva laid down one of the highest-scoring short programs in history. Her score of 90.18 points on Sunday thrust the heavily favored Russian team into the lead after the second of three days of competition in the team event.

"I'm obviously happy that we're in the lead at the moment," she said, "and I hope that continues in the free skate as well."

It did through the men's free skate, where Mark Kondratiuk finished a surprising third behind Yuma Kagiyama of Japan. That left the Russians with 45 points, three ahead of the U.S. and six ahead of Japan, heading into the free dance, pairs and women's free skates that will decide the medals on Monday.

Kamila Valieva, of the Russian Olympic Committee, competes in the women's short program team figure skating competition at the 2022 Winter Olympics, Sunday, Feb. 6, 2022, in Beijing.  (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)

It was a disappointing day for the Americans, who had led after Day 1 thanks to winning performances from Nathan Chen and ice dancers Maddison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue. Karen Chen fell on her final jump in the women's short program, and Vincent Zhou — subbing into the event for Nathan Chen — struggled during his free skate.

That left the U.S. trailing the Russian team and forced to keep