MILAN, Feb 15 (Reuters) - Japan's Kaori Sakamoto faces a trio of rising Americans and a little-known but potentially dangerous Russian teenager when the women's Olympic singles figure skating event starts on Tuesday.
After an all-time upset in men's singles and a controversial result in ice dance, fans will be brace for the unexpected again when the women's competition with no clear favourite closes out the figure skating events at the Milano Ice Skating Arena.
One sure thing is that there a new champion will be crowned as Russia's Anna Shcherbakova, who won gold in Beijing, will not be in the field, having not competed since the 2022 season.
Alexandra Trusova, who took silver four years ago for Russia, also won't compete, providing a golden opportunity for Beijing bronze medallist and popular veteran Sakamoto.
A consistently clean and expressive skater, three-times world champion Sakamoto, 25, will be gunning for a gold-medal ending to her Olympic career.
Two of her teammates are also medal contenders - 17-year-old Ami Nakai, who bested Sakamoto at the Grand Prix de France in October, and 20-year-old Mone Chiba, the 2025 world bronze medallist.
AMERICAN ANGELS
The "Blade Angels" - Alysa Liu, Amber Glenn and Isabeau Levito - are aiming to ascend to the top of the podium and snap a 20-year medal drought for American women in the event.
Led by world champion Liu, the tight-knit trio represent the strongest U.S. women's contingent in decades.
Liu shocked the figure skating world when she retired in 2022 at age 16, and did so again when she returned to competition in 2024 with a new perspective on the sport.
The Californian's alternative style, which includes striped hair, represents a bold departure from figure skating's traditional aesthetic and she has asserted full control over her training and programmes.
Glenn, who along with Liu helped the Americans secure gold in the team event last weekend, is a three-times U.S. champion whose powerful skating includes a triple Axel.
Eighteen-year-old Levito rounds out the group.
RUSSIAN DARK HORSE
The biggest dark horse is Russian teenager Adeliia Petrosian, who mixes big jumps with even bigger questions.
The 18-year-old comes in largely untested on the global stage due to the International Skating Union's ban on Russian athletes in international competition following Moscow's invasion of Ukraine in 2022 shortly after the Beijing Games.
Petrosian beat two former European champions at an Olympic qualifying event in Beijing in September to book her spot in Milan, where she will compete as a neutral athlete.
If Petrosian, whose arsenal of jumps includes a quad and a triple Axel, emerges with the gold, she will be the fourth consecutive athlete from Russia to top the podium in the event.
The competition kicks off on Tuesday with 30 women competing in the short programme and concludes two days later with the top 24 battling for medals in the free skate.
(Reporting by Rory Carroll in Milan; Editing by Ken Ferris)
