Zagitova leaps into favorite’s role with a strong short program

Americans fare poorly, not in medal contention

Olympic figure skating tends to favor the young and the speedy, and Wednesday’s women’s short program was no different: Alina Zagitova, the 15-year-old Russian jumping phenom, leaped into the lead over her more accomplished teammate, two-time world champion Evgenia Medvedeva.

Zagitova’s 1.31-point lead is deceptively small. Already a talented jumper, Zagitova will gain even more points for her prodigious technical skills as she unleashes her full arsenal of jumps in her free skate today during NBC’s primetime Olympic telecast. All those jumping passes will be in the second half of the program — when skaters receive a 10-percent bonus for each jump performed — bringing a fitting, free-wheeling end to a performance set to Minkus’s Don Quixote. The strategy will allow the consistent Zagitova to widen the gap in the free skate. She is now the heavy favorite to capture the gold medal.

The short program result must be difficult for Medvedeva, the most complete, enduring Russian skater in their era of teenage phenoms. She needed a strong program to withstand Zagitova’s upcoming scoring surge, but Medvedeva started her program to Chopin’s Nocturne in C-Sharp Major nervously. Her usually bouncy knees were a little stiff going into her first combination, a triple flip followed by a triple toe loop. The flip was so unsteady that she was unable to perform the triple toe with both hands aloft, a modification that provides extra flair and more points because it disorients her center of gravity.

Medvedeva has no room for error in the free skate. Only a mind-blowing performance with amplified difficulty could salvage her gold medal, provided Zagitova does not make an uncharacteristic mistake.

The battle for the bronze turned out to be more stressful than stirring. All three American women had major mistakes, with Mirai Nagasu taking a nasty tumble on Tuesday when she overtried on her trademark triple axel and lost control. Karen Chen fell forward on her opening lutz jump. Bradie Tennell, the American known for not falling on jumps, fell on her jump. They find themselves in 9th, 10th and 11th place, respectively.

This was the worst short program performance by an American trio in the history of the Olympics. All three women are better skaters in the short program than in the long, so they have erased themselves from the medal hunt.

Those who remain in the bronze medal battle royal include Kaetlyn Osmond of Canada and Japan’s Satoko Miyahara, a delicate skater with tremendous posture and positioning.