The competition exists out of two separate stages. The qualification stage includes the four events of figure skating with short programs of the men's singles, the ladies' singles, and the pair skating, and the short dance. The teams get points based on their result in the round, and after the qualification, the five best teams advance to the final. The final includes the free programs of the singles and pair events, and the free dance. After the eight events, the team with the most points wins the competition.
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Ten teams qualified for the event with the teams from ROC, United States, and Canada as the main medal contenders, as the only three teams to have won a medal in the event. With its dominance in the women's singles and the pair skating, the ROC seemed to be the favorite for gold, but Canada was the defending Olympic champion. The United States compensated with strong contenders in the men's singles. Other potential teams to contend for the medals were Japan and China.
Kamila Valieva and Anastasiia Shabotova were the youngest athletes to compete and both were also nominated to compete in the women's singles rounds of the team event. They were over a year younger than Sofiia Holichenko and Karina Safina, who were also still younger than 18 years old, with both competing in the pair skating discipline. Fifteen other competitors had been born in the 21st century. In comparison, Eric Radford was the oldest of the field aged 37, over two years older than Vanessa James, who was one of four athletes to have competed in every edition of the Olympic Games since 2010. Also competing at their fourth Olympic Games would be Nicole Della Monica, Evan Bates, and Michal Brezina. Twenty-eight athletes made their Olympic debuts in Beijing.
The athletes from Russia won their second Olympic title in the event, after they also found glory in 2014 although they lost out to a dominant Canada in the most recent edition. Nikita Katsalapov and Victoria Sinitsina were the only Russian athletes with prior Olympic experience when they competed in 2014, with Katsalapov winning his third Olympic medal after a gold medal in the team event and a bronze medal in the ice dancing in 2014. The four remaining team members who made their Olympic debuts, as well as ice dancer Victoria Sinitsina, won their first Olympic medals. The United States recorded their best result in the team event, after winning bronze in 2014 and 2018, with Nathan Chen and Alexa Knierim winning their second Olympic medals after they won bronze in the team event in 2018. Japan won their first team medal, despite having been one of the big powerhouses in the men's singles, with Shoma Uno winning his second Olympic medal after a silver medal in the men's singles in 2018. The Olympic champions of 2018, Canada, was left just behind the medals, with China recording their best team result ever after a seventh and sixth place in 2014 and 2018, respectively. Georgia crowned their Olympic debuts with a sixth place, ahead of Italy, who just missed out on the medals in 2018. Debutant Czech Republic, Germany, and Ukraine completed the rankings.