A showdown for the ages
Precocious Russian teens turn attention to free skate with commanding lead
GANGNEUNG, South Korea — A true figure skating rivalry requires surpassing skills, intriguing back stories and significant rewards on the line.
Throw in a friendship, and Russians Evgenia Medvedeva and Alina Zagitova hit all the marks — just as they do on the ice.
The teenagers stood 1-2 after the women’s short program at the Pyeongchang Olympics. Barring a collapse by one of them, something that would be tantamount to the Patriots going winless, they will finish with gold and silver after Friday’s free skate.
Don’t expect the Russian pair to be challenged by any of the Americans. All three had trouble with their short programs, leaving Mirai Nagasu ninth, Karen Chen 10th and Bradie Tennell 11th heading into the free skate.
Indeed, this could be a skating showdown for the ages, better even than the Battle of the Brians in 1988 or LipinskiKwan in 1998. Or the ice-melting classic in the free dance earlier this week.
Don’t expect the 15-year-old Zagitova or the 18-year-old Medvedeva to back off an inch.
“We are friends first and rivals second, because you have to have competitiveness in sport,” said Zagitova, who has called Medvedeva an inspiration for her figure skating career.
So much of an inspiration, apparently, that Zagitova handed “Zhenya” her first defeat in two years at the European championships.
“Zhenya and I are friends,” Zagotiva said. “There’s no ill feeling there, but there is a competitiveness in our training sessions which spurs us on.” Seriously. In Thursday’s practice session, Zagitova did more jumps than the other four skaters on the ice combined. At one point — just fooling around, perhaps — she nailed a triple lutz-triple loop-triple loop-triple loop-triple loop series. Nonstop.
Medvedeva wasn’t quite so energetic — or over-the-top flashy. Then again, she has some catching up to do.
“We have a real human relationship, we talk a lot, and we spend almost the whole day together,” Medvedeva said. “I see how Alina Zagitova, part of an imposing 1-2 Russian duo, competes in the short program of women’s figure skating with an eye on gold. much she works and it makes me want to work harder.”
Working hard might be Zagitova’s forte now, but a few years ago she nearly was thrown out of her training group by coach Eteri Tutberidze, who also works with Medvedeva.
The daughter of a hockey coach in Izhevsk, a Russian city best known for its weapons industry, Zagitova was 11 when Adelina Sotnikova won Russia’s first women’s gold in figure skating at the Sochi Games in 2014. Later that year, she joined up with Tutberidze, but things didn’t go well initially.
“I was very disappointed and I cried and I was going to travel home,” Zagitova said. “I spent three or four days exercising on the ice and really understood how much I love figure skating. But it seemed too late to change anything,.
“We went to Eteri to say that we were going back to Izhevsk and I’m going to quit figure skating, and Eteri told me, ‘Let’s try it one more time,’ and I was so, so happy, really butterflies in my stomach. If that moment hadn’t happened, then nothing else would have happened. I wouldn’t be here at the Olympics.”
Zagitova has also had to deal with a broken arm and foot she suffered in separate accidents three years ago. And, as one of the younger athletes in Tutberidze’s group, she was once required to skate in a costume that Medvedeva had rejected as uncomfortable.
Medvedeva is more outgoing. Then again, she’s three years older than Zagitova.
Medvedeva enjoys making videos of herself dancing to the South Korean pop band Exo during her time off.
She was nearly unbeatable in the previous two seasons, winning two world titles and pushing aside more established skaters such as Sotnikova and 2015 world champion Elizaveta Tuktamysheva, neither of whom came close to making the 2018 Olympic team.
Now Medvedeva risks being pushed aside by a younger Russian talent. And a friend.
Indeed, when she talks about her training group back home, Medvedeva said:
“There’s really so, so many young skaters and some of them are doing such difficult elements.”
She didn’t mention Zagitova by name, but she didn’t really have to.
“It just forces you to be stronger,” Medvedeva said, “and when you see the younger skater who’s doing more difficult things, you’re just feeling inside so strange because you’re older and you must be stronger than them.”
The world is about to find out which of the two Russian rivals is stronger.