Fremont’s Karen Chen finishes Olympics run
Figure skaters perform long program; also, U.S. women’s hockey team celebrates epic victory over Canada.
GANGNEUNG, SOUTH KOREA » One darkhaired Russian teenager chose Cervantes’ whimsical character Don Quixote to find her path to Olympic greatness.
The other dark-haired teen from the same Moscow training rink turned to Leo Tolstoy’s tragic tale of Anna Karenina.
Alina Zagitova, 15, and Evgenia Medvedeva, 18, skated to wildly different characters Friday with the same intention: become the Pyeongchang Games’ first gold medalist for Olympic Athletes of Russia.
The Battle of Ice Princesses ended in favor of the sublime Zagitova, whose majesty led to a 1.31-point victory over the two-time reigning world champion. Both were well ahead of Canada’s Kaetlyn Osmond, who won the bronze medal after finishing second to Medvedeva at the 2017World Championships.
It was a day of Russian ice supremacy and American infamy. The U.S. women had their worst showing since the 1948Winter Olympics with all three skaters unable to perform cleanly in the free program. Their frustrating day followed disastrous short routines that knocked them out of medal contention 48 hours earlier.
U.S. champion Bradie Tennell was ninth, Mirai Nagasu 10th and Fremont’s Karen Chen 11th.
“I’ve trained myself to skate better than that,” Chen said. “To not be able to deliver is a huge letdown.”
Chen, 17, blamed a boot issue that bothered her the day before in practice. She also said it was difficult to compete in the Olympic amphitheater without her mom, who normally is her constant companion in rinks.
“I wanted it to be a great moment for both of us,” said Chen, who walked into the seating area to see her mother before
competing.
Nagasu, 24, called the three-week stay in South Korea an emotional journey that most people couldn’t understand.
“I’m ready to go home,” she said after failing to make a serious attempt at landing her signature triple axel that opened the program to “Miss Saigon” by C.M. Schoenberg.
“Maybe someone else could have done a better job,” said Nagasu, who complained she never got a hot shower because of the timing of when she bathed. “It’s unfortunate I hit a rut today.”
After falling on a triple axel in the short program her mother told the skater, “Who cares if you get last place. This is the Olympics. Making it is the hard part.”
Tennell, 20, looked the best of the trio in the free skate. The Illinois skater stepped out of two jumps in the middle of her program but otherwise stayed on her feet. Given the issues they had endured it had to be considered an accomplishment.
It’s going to take a special skater to rise from an American rink to equal the Russians. A day before the final Zagitova put together a jumping clinic in case anyone doubted her preeminence.
According to those watching, the Russian teen landed five triple jumps -in combination.
The Russians have dominated women’s skating since Adelina Sotnikova won the country’s first gold medal on home ice in Sochi four years ago.
Since then, much has been made of a rivalry between Zagitova and Medvedeva, who train under the tutelage of Eteri Tutberidze.
“I don’t go out there to prove something to someone,” said Zagitova, who won the short program with a world-record score. “Zhenia (Evgenia) and I are friends. We feel the rivalry when we come to competition but it is not maleficent.”
Medvedeva, who bawled after she finished Friday, echoed those feelings.
“We are humans, we communicate as usual, we are friends, we are girls, young girls,” she said. “We can talk about everything to each other.”
While Medvedeva trans- formed into a tragic Russian heroine, Zagitova pranced around in a flamenco-red party costume. She certainly has the audacity of the Man of La Mancha by performing all seven of her triple jumps in the second half of the free skate in order to get a 10 percent bonus value on each one.
The International Judging System added the bonus value to late jumps because it is more exhausting to attempt the difficult tricks when tired.
The strategy, known as backloading, has drawn criticism in the stodgy world of figure skating where a certain protocol must be followed at all times. The anti-Zagitova camp says her presentation is out of balance because the first two minutes are just skating steps.
“If I had the tenacity to do all my jumps in the second half, I’d get that done,” Nagasu said.
U.S. skaters would settle for simply staying upright.