BEIJING — Sui Wenjing and Han Cong won the pairs figure skating gold medal in their home country Saturday night, performing a smooth and elegant free skate program to "Bridge Over Troubled Water" to top three duos from the Russian Olympic Committee.
The Chinese couple, who won the silver medal four years ago at the Pyeongchang Games, beat a strong field by skating the top-ranked program in both segments of the competition. They made one small mistake but earned a world-record 155.47 points Saturday for a total of 239.88, edging out Evgenia Tarasova and Vladimir Morozov (239.25) and 2021 world champions Anastasia Mishina and Aleksandr Galliamov (237.71).
"We went through a lot, from being not expected [to win] at the very beginning," Wenjing said. "People said we were a pair of underdogs, because our builds were not meant for figure skating. Traditionally, men were expected to be tall and women petite.
