Canada's Vanessa James and Eric Radford compete in the pairs short program at the Beijing Olympics, on Feb. 18.ALEKSANDRA SZMIGIEL/Reuters
Vanessa James and Eric Radford are in 12th after the pairs short program, while fellow Canadians Kirsten Moore-Towers and Michael Marinaro are 13th after a frightening stumble.
Sui Wenjing and Han Cong of China are the leaders with a score of 84.41. Evgenia Tarasova and Vladimir Morozov are second (84.25), while Russian teammates Anastasia Mishina and Aleksandr Galliamov are third (82.76).
James and Radford, who came out of retirement to team up last April, scored 63.03 points for their skate to “Shiny Happy People,” losing marks when James doubled their side-by-side triple toe loops.
Skating to “Hold on Tight” by Forest Blakk, Moore-Towers and Marinaro scored 62.51. They both took a hard fall on their throw triple loop. Marinaro caught his toe pick in the ice when he was launching Moore-Towers into the air – a mishap they said never happens – and both wound up on their stomachs.
The pairs free skate is Saturday.
Our Olympic team will be writing a daily newsletter to land in your inbox every morning during the Games. Sign up today to join us in keeping up with medals, events and other news.