Russian teenagers rule women’s figure skating,
Zagitova, Medvedeva land top 2 spots; U.S. finishes out of medals
PYEONGCHANG, SOUTH KOREA — Eteri Tutberidze had seen enough.
Alina Zagitova was crying too much and training with too little at the figure skating rink in Moscow, and Tutberidze wasn’t putting up with it anymore. So the coach told the girl to leave.
Zagitova figured she’d move back to her hometown of Izhevsk in the Ural Mountains and find a rink and a coach there. She and her parents brought flowers to Tutberidze to thank her and say their goodbyes.
Tutberidze offered them a second chance.
The fairy-tale ending: Zagitova won the Olympics on Friday (Thursday night in the U.S.) to become the youngest champion after American Tara Lipinski and the first Russian with a gold medal at the Pyeongchang Winter Games.
Zagitova is 15 years, 281 days old. Lipinski was 15 years, 255 days old when she won in 1998 in Nagano, Japan.
There are more parallels than age with Lipinski, who also upset an older and favored countrywoman, Michelle Kwan, in Nagano with a more technically demanding program after finishing behind her in other competitions.
Zagitova’s stiffest challenge came not from the other side of the globe but from across her own rink. Twotime world champion Evgenia Medvedeva, 18, was the favorite and received the exact same score — 156.65 points — for the 4-minute free program. The difference was Zagitova’s world-record score of 82.92 points in the short program, 1.31 points higher than her rink mate. That gave her a total of 239.57.
“Figure skating is a sport that you must love,” Zagitova said, “that you must give your everything at every practice. I fully realize that my journey to these Olympics Games, all the work I have done, was not in vain. I will try to continue with the same momentum.”
Asked her thoughts that the Olympic flag — not the Russian flag — would be raised at the medal ceremony as part of her nation’s penalty for doping at the Sochi Olympics, Zagitova smiled and said, “Could I please not answer this question?”
It was the only time she backed down all night, and that was more than the U.S. women could say.
Canada’s Kaetlyn Osmund was third at 231.02. Then came a Japanese skater, an Italian, another Japanese, a Korean and another Russian.
And then, in ninth place at 192.35, came the top American, Bradie Tennell, who entered the competition having landed 32 straight triple jumps this season but botched three over the short and free programs. Mirai Nagasu did a half-rotation Axel instead of a triple and was 10th. Karen Chen missed jumps and her mommy — we’re not making this up — and was 11th.
The Americans did win a bronze medal in last week’s team competition, and Nagasu brought it with her to Gangneung Ice Arena for the free program.
“Here she is,” Nagasu told reporters, holding up the medal. “I told myself, ‘Mirai, you’ve already done your job.’ ... Like, I already have a medal. When I didn’t land my triple Axel in the short (program), my mom told me: ‘Who cares if you get last place? This is the Olympics. Making it is the hard part.’
“Maybe it won’t be enough for another person, or maybe someone else could have done a better job. But I didn’t back down, and although I got zero points for my attempt at the triple Axel, in my mind I went for it. ... I’m proud of what I did.”
Nagasu’s excuses: walking in the opening ceremony, a trip to USA House in the mountains taking four hours, having to go to bed at 8 o’clock each night and wake up at 4 a.m. (“which is hard for me”), the temperature of the water in the showers, and being physically and emotionally drained from the team competition.
(Footnote: Seven of the eight women who finished ahead of the Americans also skated at least once in the team competition, including both Russians.)
When politely asked why other countries were able to better manage their hardships and pressures, Nagasu called it an “aggressive question.”
Nagasu added: “I thought of this as my audition for ‘Dancing with the Stars.’ I would like to be on the ‘Dancing with the Stars’ because I want to be a star, and I made history here by landing the first triple Axel for a U.S. lady (in the team competition) and the third at the Olympics. So I think that’s a big deal.”
Chen talked about boot problems in her morning practice session, about this being her first Olympics, and about not being around her mother at the Athletes Village, where families aren’t allowed.
“The biggest change for me was not being able to see my mom 24/7. For me, that was something that I really missed,” she said.
Tennell, the reigning U.S. champion at age 20, was asked what it would take for the U.S. women to elevate their level to Russia’s teens.
“I think anything is possible with hard work and determination,” Tennell said. “The rest of the world just has to catch up.”