Figure Skating: Alina Zagitova Wins Russia’s First Gold Medal
Zagitova defended the design of the routine, saying, “It captivates the audience and makes them watch to the very end.”
A year ago, Zagitova was the world junior champion, while Medvedeva was the senior world champion favored to win Olympic gold.
Strictly speaking, Alina Zagitova, the 15-year-old victor in women’s figure skating, competed as a neutral “Olympic Athlete From Russia.” At a medal ceremony later Friday, she was to see the five-ringed Olympic flag raised instead of the Russian flag
and to hear the Olympic hymn played instead of the Russian anthem.
Today, we proved ourselves here.”
A two-time world champion and consensus favorite to win gold before she broke a bone in her right foot last fall, Medvedeva was forced to confront a sobering reality on Friday at age 18: Experience
and artistry and expressiveness did not prevail over mathematics.
George Rossano, the editor of the website Ice Skating International, said, “The timeline
for developing U. S. skaters is four years slower than the rest of the world.”
If a skater does not have triple-triple combination jumps by age 14, he said, “You’ve missed the boat to be a world-level competitor.”
The Russians were behind, too, once.