Story by Olivia Ouyang.
Yuna Kim, or the Queen as she is fondly known in the skating world, delivered the program everyone expected of her. Unfortunately, perfection was not enough for the gold medal. The 2010 Olympic Champion and 2013 World Champion led by a small margin after the short program but ultimately settled for silver, 5.48 points off of gold.
It was Adelina Sotnikova who usurped the Queen, claiming for Russia their first gold medal in women’s figure skating. The nineteen-year-old, who won her first Russian national title at the age of twelve, was a bit of a dark horse coming into the competition. In the build up to the Games, Sotnikova had been in the shadow of her younger teammate, Yulia Lipnitskaya, who helped Russia win the team figure skating gold. However, Lipnitskaya faltered in both the short and long program and settled for fifth.
Capturing Italy’s first Olympic figure skating medal was Carolina Kostner, the 27-year-old veteran. In her third and final Olympics, Kostner finally suppressed her nerves and skated a clean short and long program. After disappointing finishes in Torino and Vancouver, an Olympic bronze medal is an appropriate way to cap the career of one of the most beautiful skaters of all time.
One of the best and most emotional programs of the night came from Japan’s Mao Asada, who was thought to be a gold medal contender coming into the competition. However, after a disastrous short program, Asada sat in sixteenth place. Heartbroken after her skate, Asada came into the long program with something to prove. With steely determination, Asada skated a clean program and broke into tears at the end. She ultimately moved up ten spots and finished in sixth place. Although she was unable to capture another medal, Asada could not have asked for a better skate with which to end her career.
The Americans threw down respectable programs and all three finished in the top ten. Gracie Gold, Ashley Wagner, and Polina Edmunds placed fourth, seventh, and ninth respectively.
Since the start of the Games, the ladies’ figure skating competition has been posed as a battle between the girls and the women. The free skate event tonight demonstrated the qualities of both youth and experience. In four years, the Olympics will be in South Korea. At that time, Kim will be 27, the same age as Kostner is now. If the Queen is able to keep up her level of skating, there is a good chance she will be able to reclaim her throne in front of a home crowd.
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