Medvedeva declares ‘war’ on teammate
Russia’s Evgenia Medvedeva says she is preparing for “war” to deny her close friend Alina Zagitova figure skating gold after her compatriot set a new world record in Wednesday’s short program.
Zagitova displayed maturity far beyond her 15 years in a spellbinding routine to music from the film Black Swan to earn a massive 82.92 points to lead the competition.
Her flawless two-and-a-half minutes on the ice at Gangneung Arena, featuring a complex triple lutz, triple toe loop combination, gave her a narrow advantage of 1.31 points over her friend and training partner going into Friday’s free dance final.
Their closest challenger is Canada’s Kaetlyn Osmond with 78.87 points. Japan’s Satoko Miyahara sits fourth.
“We are friends, we are young girls, we can talk about anything with each other,” said Medvedeva, 18, who like Zagitova is making her Olympic debut.
“But on the ice, we must fight. I feel like it’s a little war, when you skate you are alone,” added the double world champion.
Zagitova said she is up to the daunting challenge.
“I’ve said many many times, Evgenia and me are very good friends off the ice, but in practice or competition I get this feeling of rivalry. It’s not bad or negative or malicious, but it is there.”
Asked at the media conference after the short program about her maturity and serious nature, Zagitova replied: “I am very calm, I don’t show emotions, I don’t splash them around. It’s my nature.”
The two skaters are set to fight it out for what could be the first gold of the Games for the Olympic Athletes from Russia — who are competing as neutrals after Russia was banned for doping.
Medvedeva refused to be drawn on the significance of that, commenting in English: “I’m trying not to think about medals, my main goal is to show a clean free skate, to be satisfied.”
Zagitova’s world-record feat was all the more remarkable given she had watched Medvedeva a few minutes earlier break the record she had set last week in the team event with a score of 81.61.