The 15-year-old Alina Zagitova yesterday stole the show in figure skating, as US skier Lindsey Vonn took bronze in her final Olympic downhill and Norway’s Marit Bjoergen became the most successful athlete in Winter Games history.
Zagitova was breathtaking in the Russian-dominated short program, breaking the world record set just minutes earlier by her teammate, 18-year-old Evgenia Medvedeva.
It put the Russian starlets on top of the standings ahead of tomorrow’s free skate, where Zagitova will attempt to become the youngest women’s singles figure skating champion since Tara Lipinski in 1998.
Photo: Reuters
They also look set to win the first gold of the Games for the Olympic Athletes from Russia.
“We are friends, we are young girls, we can talk about anything with each other,” said Medvedeva, who like Zagitova is making her Olympic debut.
“But on the ice, we must fight. I feel like it’s a little war, when you skate you are alone,” said the double world champion.
Vonn, 33, was aiming for a second downhill title in her final Olympics, but it was not to be as she finished third behind Italy’s Sofia Goggia and Ragnhild Mowinckel of Norway.
However, the 2010 winner was delighted to reach the podium, becoming alpine skiing’s oldest female medalist after a series of injuries that threatened to wreck her career and ruled her out of Sochi in 2014.
“If you think what’s happened over the last eight years and what I’ve been through to get here, I gave it all and to come away with a medal is a dream come true,” Vonn said.
“You’ve got to put things into perspective. Of course, I would have loved a gold medal, but, honestly, this is amazing and I’m so proud,” she added.
Goggia described herself as a “samurai” after timing 1 minute, 39.22 seconds for a first ever downhill title for the Italian women’s team.
“Usually, I’m really chaotic, but I wanted to take in every little detail, every particular in the morning. I believed in myself -— and then what counts. I didn’t take any risks. I just used my brain because I have one sometimes and I use it,” she said.
Bjoergen won a total of 14 Olympic medals when she took bronze in cross-country skiing’s women’s team sprint, outstripping compatriot Ole Einar Bjoerndalen, who has 13 in the biathlon.
Bjoergen, 37, is also the second most successful woman at either the Summer or Winter Games, trailing only Soviet gymnast Larisa Latynina with 18 medals.
“It’s hard to understand, actually,” Bjoergen said. “I think I’ll need to have time to myself and look behind me and look how I’ve been able to do this. It’s still hard to understand it when I’m standing here.”
There was disappointment for the US when their men’s ice hockey team, missing NHL players after a row over money, crashed out 3-2 in the quarter-finals against the Czech Republic, who are to face the Olympic Athletes from Russia in the semi-finals on Friday.
In women’s hockey, Finland defeated the Russians 3-2 to take the bronze medal.
Petra Nieminen put Finland on top just 2 minutes, 23 seconds into the game and Susanna Tapani doubled the lead 10 seconds into the second period.
Olga Sosina answered for the Russians, but Linda Valimaki responded for Finland later in the second period.
Lyudmila Belyakova’s power-play goal with 13 minutes, 57 seconds remaining pulled the Russians within the final margin, but they could not find an equalizer.
The Finns matched their best Olympic women’s hockey finish, having also taken bronze in 1998 and 2010. Russia have never taken a medal in the event.
Four-time defending champion Canada and the US meet today for gold.
In other action, Russian skier Sergey Ridzik recovered from a crash in the ski cross final to take bronze, behind Canada’s Bredy Leman and Marc Bischofberger of Switzerland.
Ridzik went down early in the race, but he got up, clambered to the top of a slope and restarted his run, coming in behind the front two as Canada’s Kevin Drury failed to finish.
The competition, where four skiers race each other down a twisting track featuring a number of jumps, was marred by a series of heavy falls.
France’s Terence Tchiknavorian fractured his tibia and was to undergo surgery later yesterday, while Canadian racer Chris Del Bosco was also taken to hospital after a sickening wipe-out.
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