Sochi Winter Olympic 2014

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The long program results:

Russia, Adelina Sotnikova, 149.95
South Korea, Yuna Kim, 144.19
Japan, Mao Asada, 142.71
Italy, Carolina Kostner, 142.61
U.S., Gracie Gold, 136.90
Russia, Yulia Lipnitskaya, 133.34
U.S., Ashley Wagner, 127.99
Japan, Akiko Suzuki, 125.35
U.S., Polina Edmunds, 122.21
Italy, Valentina Marchei, 116.31
France, Mae Berenice Meite, 115.90
Japan, Kanako Murakami, 115.38
Canada, Kaetlyn Osmond, 112.80
China, Zijun Li, 110.75
China, Kexin Zhang, 98.41
Canada, Gabrielle Daleman, 95.83
South Korea, Haejin Kim, 95.11
Australia, Brooklee Han, 94.52
South Korea, So Youn Park, 93.83
Georgia, Elene Gedevanishvili, 92.45
Germany, Nathalie Weinzierl, 89.73
Norway, Anne Line Gjersem, 85.98
Czech Republic, Elizaveta Ukolova, 84.55
Slovakia, Nicole Rajicova, 75.20

The final standings:

Russia, Adelina Sotnikova, 224.59
South Korea, Yuna Kim, 219.11
Italy, Carolina Kostner, 216.73
U.S., Gracie Gold, 205.53
Russia, Yulia Lipnitskaya, 200.57
Japan, Mao Asada, 198.22
U.S., Ashley Wagner, 193.20
Japan, Akiko Suzuki, 186.32
U.S., Polina Edmunds, 183.25
France, Mae Berenice Meite, 174.53
Italy, Valentina Marchei, 173.33
Japan, Kanako Murakami, 170.98
Canada, Kaetlyn Osmond, 168.98
China, Zijun Li, 168.30
China, Kexin Zhang, 154.21
South Korea, Haejin Kim, 149.48
Canada, Gabrielle Daleman, 148.44
Germany, Nathalie Weinzierl, 147.36
Georgia, Elene Gedevanishvili, 147.15
Australia, Brooklee Han, 143.84
South Korea, So Youn Park, 142.97
Czech Republic, Elizaveta Ukolova, 136.42
Norway, Anne Line Gjersem, 134.54
Slovakia, Nicole Rajicova, 125.00

 

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SOCHI, Russia -- Bursting from the shadow of her adored teammate, Adelina Sotnikova gave Russia its first gold medal in women's Olympic figure skating.

While much-heralded Julia Lipnitskaia was stumbling, the 17-year-old Sotnikova soared. When she won the free skate Thursday at the Sochi Games, she denied South Korea's Yuna Kim from defending her title and confirmed Russian command of the sport once more.

"This is the happiest day in my life," Sotnikova said. "I simply stepped on the ice today and realized how much I like what I'm doing and skated really good."

The Russians have won three figure skating gold medals at these Olympics: team, pairs and women's.
Only this latest one was a surprise. A huge surprise.

Sotnikova, 2 years older than Lipnitskaia but far less accomplished, was considered a long shot against the likes of Kim, Italy's Carolina Kostner, who took bronze, Japan's Mao Asada and even Americans Gracie Gold and Ashley Wagner.

But Sotnikova, seemingly far more relaxed than nearly every other competitor, won it all, giving Russia or the Soviet Union 27 Olympic gold medals. They own five men's golds, 13 in pairs, seven in ice dance, and took the first team event this year.

Sotnikova was in the media area when she was told she won. She ran waving her arms in the air before finding her coach and sharing a warm hug. When she got onto the podium for the flower ceremony, to raucous chants of "Ross-si-ya," she jumped up and done like, well, a teenager who had just had her Olympic dream come true.

"It's the Olympics. And it was a long way for me," she said. "To compete at the Olympic Games, I dreamed of any medal, but frankly speaking, I wanted a gold one."

Lipnitskaia was fifth.

"I wanted to skate my best today but it didn't work," she said. "I've lost control over my jumps- tiredness and emotions."

Gold finished fourth, Wagner seventh and 15-year-old American Polina Edmunds ninth. Asada was third in the free skate after finishing 16th in Wednesday's short program and wound up sixth.

Sotnikova trailed Kim by just .28 going into Thursday, and she overcame that by winning the free skate 149.99 to Kim's 144.19. The final totals were 224.59 for Sotnikova, 219.11 for Kim and 216.73 for Kostner


Skating last, Kim needed a repeat of her Vancouver performance to hold onto the gold. She began masterfully with a triple lutz-triple toe combination and hit four more triples. Because she had one less triple jump than Sotnikova, Kim's artistry couldn't make up the difference.
Of the three medalists, Kostner went first to the sport's iconic musical piece "Bolero." While not as powerful or precise as Torvill and Dean's masterpiece at the Sarajevo Games 30 years ago, it was graceful and enchanting. From beginning to end, she owned the music - and by the finish, she owned much of the crowd, too.

She patted her heart when she was done, and her 142.61 was a season's best.

But it was not enough to beat Sotnikova, whose interpretation marks surpassed Kostner's if not Kim's. The Russian's routine was filled with action and pace, and she hit seven triple jumps, which turned out to be decisive. There wasn't much interaction with the music, but the energy sold the program.

That left only Kim with a shot at gold. She couldn't match the feat of Witt or Sonja Henie.

To chants of "Jul-i-a, Jul-i-a," Lipnitskaia took the ice first in the last group, knowing her chances to win were ruined with her fall in the short program. Again she struggled in the second half of her routine to "Schindler's List," stepping out of one jump and falling on another. She showed little emotion when she finished, in direct contrast to when she helped Russia win the team gold.

With a slight frown, she left the ice, waved weakly to the crowd from the kiss-and-cry area, and wound up fifth, far below expectations.

Then again, Sotnikova made up for it for Russia.

 

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While Sotnikova's first-place finish was decisive in the eyes of the judges (over a five point margin of victory), her 224.59 final score left many shaking their heads. There was plenty of praise for the teenager's monumental achievement, but majority opinion seemed to favor other top competitors:

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/...lts-2014-single-free-medal-winners-and-scores

Sotnikova took some chances and had a very clean skate, but her gold medal obviously came with some controversy. Regardless, she is now an Olympic gold medalist, and appears to have a very bright future ahead.

The defeat will certainly be tough to swallow for Kim, who was exceptional in both programs.

With Sotnikova just 17, and Lipnitskaia only 15, Russia will be a force in women's skating for years to come—not to mention Thursday's triumph is likely to inspire an entire generation of Russians to pursue the sport, and ultimately, Olympic gold.

 

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Best skate of the night.

her program beaten by Sotnikova free? That is way overmark, 2nd highest in history. Corruption and politic are rife in Figure skating.
really, go to youtube in future and watch Sotnikova free and tell me that is 2nd highest in history. Which part?

There might be some changes after this result.

 

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It took 15 days, but the Sochi Olympics finally stirred up some controversy. But just because this feels like an old fashioned figure skating theft, doesn’t mean that’s necessarily the case.

Reigning Olympic champion Yuna Kim skated two flawless routines in her short and free program, but lost on the judges scorecard to 17-year-old Adeline Sotnikova, who also skated two nearly-flawless routines and, oh yeah, just happens to hail from Russia.

A Russian scoring an upset win in Russia was bound to send up distress signals no matter the circumstances, but especially when the victory is over Kim, the closest thing figure skating has to a queen.

It’s debatable, but not a robbery. Sotnikova skated well enough to win gold. She had a carefully constructed program with seven triples, five of which were in a combo. Kim had six and three, respectively. Thus, Sotnikova was going in with a higher total and made more margin for error, which she took advantage of with a minor hop after one exchange.
That won’t be good enough for the Kim supporters. This is figure skating, a sport that has been marred by countless judging controversies, including the infamous 2002 Salt Lake City scandal. The judges are largely anonymous. Their scores are hidden to the public. The situation is always ripe for allegations of corruption or favoritism. In making the system more objective, the sport has invited more skepticism. Why should fans believe something they can’t see?

That’s why the decision feels like a gift, as if the judges were caught up in the atmosphere created by a frenzied Russian crowd cheering on their favorite. And who could blame the judges? Listening to the crowd roar everytime Sotnikova landed a combination made her feel like the best skater. The crowd cheered Kim’s program, but it was muted, as if the crowd was sitting on its hands, waiting for the favorite to fail so the native daughter could win gold. It’s hard to be arbitrary when there’s so much emotion at play.

NBCSN’s figure skating announcers, Johnny Weir and Tara Lipinski, didn’t offer much criticism when Kim’s score was announced and Sotnikova was revealed to be the winner. But after Sotnikova’s scores came out earlier in the program, Weir alluded to a potential home-ice advantage.

“That is a big, big number. You have to think being in Russia in front of a Russian audience has definitely helped. She skated well, I don’t know if she was eight points ahead of [bronze medalist] Carolina Kostner.”
But Weir backtracked later, saying he agreed with the podium “100%.” Lipinski said Sotnikova deserved to win because she skated with the most heart. Or did she skate with the most fan support, which gave the impression she had the most heart?​

With Weir and Lipinski playing it safe in the end, that left the outrage for Twitter and, perhaps, for Scott Hamilton, when he calls the action during NBC’s primetime show later.

Russians would have said Sotnikova was robbed if she had lost. Koreans will say the same thing happened to their national hero. Someone has to win and when the decision is left up to the judges, the runner-up is always going to have an argument. That’s the way it goes in Olympic figure skating.

 

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Why The Olympic Figure Skating Final Wasn't Fixed

Russian 17-year-old Adelina Sotnikova won the gold medal in women's individual figure skating on Thursday night, beating out Yuna Kim in controversial fashion.
Kim was the favorite going into the event, and the overall impression was that she was unbeatable if she skated cleanly.

On Thursday night Kim did skate cleanly ... but she lost to a Russian who'd never won a major international competition.

In the immediate aftermath of the result, a number of people in the media cried judging controversy. Christine Brennan of USA Today called it the worst decision since Salt Lake City in 2002 — the infamous event that forced the sport to adopt a more objective scoring system.

But when you break down the scores, it's clear that the decision wasn't all that egregious.
Sotnikova finished with a score of 149.95 in the free skate. Kim got a 144.19.

They were basically even in the subjective "component score" portion of the judging. Kim got a 74.50, and Sotnikova got a 74.41.

If the assumption is that the judges screwed over Yuna, they didn't do it in the part of the judging were you give out points for abstract things like skating skills, choreography, and interpretation timing.

Sotnikova won it in the technical score, largely because her routine had a higher degree of difficulty.

The technical score is fairly objective — each element has a specific value, and if you complete the element, you get the full value. There's also a "grade of execution" score where judges add or subtract points based on how perfectly or imperfectly a skater completed each element.

Every routine has a total base value — the maximum amount of technical points a skater can earn for simply completing all of their elements. Sotnikova's was 61.43. Kim's was 57.49. The Russian's routine was harder, in other words, so she had an inherent advantage going into the event.

That 3.8-point difficulty difference accounts for the majority of the final score difference between the two skaters.

Going into the event, Kim had to out-skate the Russian by about four points to make up that base value deficit and beat her.

The question is, did she?

The commentators felt that Kim was spectacular outside of a little bit of stiffness toward the end of her routine. Meanwhile, Sotnikova brought down the house in the best skate of her life, but had a slight bobble on one of her landings.

This isn't a case where people think it was fixed because Sotnikova committed a huge error and still won. It's a case where two skaters threw down two clean, world-class routines.

Sotnikova had a harder routine and she didn't mess up.

The event was really close. But to say that this was some sort of undeniable injustice is an overstatement.


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Mao have a more technical program, why did Sotnikova beat Mao as well in score? Sotnikova also have a small mistake. Mao program was flawless, more technical, harder, why Sotnikova beat her?

 

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Ashley Wagner slams Olympic figure skating judges, calls for change

SOCHI, Russia – Ashley Wagner launched a withering attack on figure skating's hierarchy and the Winter Olympics judges on Thursday night after being pushed down to seventh in the ladies individual competition.

The 22-year-old American fought back tears as she revealed her frustration and anger with the judging at the Iceberg Skating Palace and suggested that the two Russian skaters, gold medalist Adelina Sotnikova and fifth-place finisher Julia Lipnitskaia, had been given unfairly inflated scores.

"I feel gypped," said Wagner, who skated two programs without any falls and punched the air with delight at the end of her free skate.

However, she ended up behind Lipnitskaia, who fell in each of her programs, Mao Asada, who fell heavily during a disastrous short program, and fourth-place Gracie Gold, the fellow American who tumbled to the ice on Thursday.

Wagner appeared to take particular exception to Lipnitskaia's scores and claimed the judging controversy would damage figure skating's popularity.

"People don't want to watch a sport where you see people fall down and somehow score above someone who goes clean," she said. "It is confusing and we need to make it clear for you.

"To be completely honest, this sport needs fans and needs people who want to watch it. People do not want to watch a sport where they see someone skate lights out and they can't depend on that person to be the one who pulls through. People need to be held accountable.

Wagner's total of 193.20 was 7.37 points behind Lipnitskaia, the Russian sweetheart who won the hearts of the host nation with a pair of performances that helped win gold in the team competition. That was despite Lipnitskaia falling heavily on both nights and being visibly dismayed at her performance once she left the rink after her free skate.

"They need to get rid of the anonymous judging," Wagner said. "There are many changes that need to come to this sport if we want a fan base because you can't depend on this sport to always be there when you need it. The sport in general needs to become more dependable."

Sotnikova won gold with an incredible score of 149.95 for her long program, 18 points above her previous season's best. Defending champion Yuna Kim of South Korea took silver and Carolina Kostner of Italy secured bronze.

"I am speechless," Wagner said, when asked how the competition had transpired and Sotnikova had landed a gold medal that few saw coming. "The crowd was very supportive of the Russians so to be a Russian figure skater must have been absolutely incredible to get out there … period."

Wagner's inference could not have been more obvious – the Russians, on home ice, had an advantage. She, like many others, will long feel that there was something fishy going on during this competition. Not that she was totally surprised.

"I came into this event knowing pretty well that that was how it was going to go," she added. "It is not fair to the skaters who work so hard to become noticed if they are not going to have a sport that backs up what they are doing."



Wagner vowed to return in four years to have another crack at the Winter Games when they are held in the South Korean city of Pyeongchang. So, too, did Gold and 15-year-old Polina Edmunds , who fell once in her long program but ended up in ninth place.

Gold's outside chance of claiming a medal effectively evaporated when Kostner and Sotnikova skated so strongly immediately before she took her turn.

"Of course I hoped for a medal, but when that happened I knew it was gone pretty much and that I was going to be fourth," Gold said. "I am happy with how the Olympics have gone for me. You always want to skate a clean program but I couldn't be happier."

Gold ended up 11.20 points back from Kostner but has catapulted herself into the spotlight over the past month and won an army of followers. If she does carry on to 2018, she will have plenty of support.

Out of the three, it could be the quietly spoken Edmunds who has the biggest upside. She is likely to be a major threat in 2018 if she continues to improve at such an impressive rate.

Aside from the bronze won by Wagner and Gold in the team event, the U.S. women came up empty-handed, mirroring events of four years ago when Mirai Nagasu finished fourth and Rachael Flatt came in seventh. That said, there is plenty of reason to be optimistic about the future and all three Americans will take some positive memories in their own way.

 

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SOCHI, Russia – In the whirlwind stirred up by Yulia Lipnitskaya, it was easy for the other Russian to get lost in the dust.

Now the other Russian, Adelina Sotnikova, is her country’s first women’s Olympic singles champion, thanks to a judges’ decision that may go down as among the most questionable in figure skating’s checkered history.

A year after finishing just ninth in the World Championships, she dusted Lipnitskaya and beat other more acclaimed rivals, including defending champion Yuna Kim of South Korea and Carolina Kostner of Italy, in Thursday’s free skate to become a winner as surprising as Sarah Hughes of the United States in 2002.

Kim had won the short program, when Sotnikova and Kostner were within a point of her lead. Sotnikova wound up with a final margin of 5.48 over Kim, whose exquisite performance to a tango did not get the enormous edge over the Russian in component scores that it deserved.

Sotnikova finished with 224.59 points to 219.11 for Kim. Kostner, who did a strong performance to Bolero, was third at 216.73.

Gracie Gold was fourth at 205.53, with teammate Ashley Wagner seventh at 193.20. It meant the U.S. women went without a medal in consecutive Olympics for the first time since 1948.

Lipnitskaya, who fell in both the free skate and short program, wound up fifth.

Sotnikova’s victory made Russia the only country to have won Olympic titles in every discipline, including the team event introduced this year.

Her free skate showed much more refinement than her helter-skelter short program, even if Sotnikova hammed it up at the end by turning an open hand into a wave at the judges. They acknowledged that wave with the second highest free skate score in history.

She made one mistake, a two-footed landing on the third jump of a combination, which got a negative grade of execution. But Sotnikova’s combination of big jumps, speed and power made her case for a big lead in the technical marks, and it led the judges to get more than a little carried away with her component scores.

That Kim did not have a triple loop jump in her free skate cost her five or more points had she executed it cleanly, which would have been the difference.

Sotnikova, 17, of Moscow, was the phenom before Lipnitskaya, 15, became one this season. She won her first of four senior national championships at age 12 and her fourth in December, beating the 15-year-old Lipnitskaya.

Having expressed her gratitude to the judges for the scores that left her just .28 behind Kim after the short program, Sotnikova might think of sending caviar and champagne for their continued generosity in the free skate.

Her free skare to Saint-Saens’ Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso, choreographed by five-time U.S. ice dance champion Peter Tchernyshev, relied on her energy and strong spins to create a winning impression. Sotnikova, from Moscow, is a perfect skater for the sport’s connect-the-dots scoring system.

Her striking speed on the ice came from time training with a group of male skaters when she was younger. Sotnikova would try to keep up with them.

Sotnikova, second at the European Championships the past two years, feels a responsibility to help pay for her younger sister Maria’s extensive surgical and medical bills, according to Russian journalist Elena Vaytsekhovskaya. Maria Sotnikova has Treacher Collins Syndrome, a congenital disorder causing facial and cranial deformities.

"Figure skating is not a hobby. It's my work, which I want to do, and do well," Sotnikova told a Russian website last year.

Sotnikova was disappointed not to have a role in the team event. Lipnitskaya got first choice for winning the European Championships, and her coach, Eteri Tutberidze, wanted to have her do both programs.

When she skated brilliantly in winning both, the tiny Lipnitskaya became an instant star. But a fall on the final jump of the short program left her nine points behind Sotnikova going into the free skate.

 

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What an amazing free program. Watch it online.

 

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浅田真央

 

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Carolina Kostner has enjoyed many highs and lows during the course of her long figure-skating career. Having missed the podium in previous editions of the Games, the Italian approaches Sochi 2014 in the form of her life and with high hopes of success.
Calmness is the watchword for Carolina Kostner the most productive phase of her career. Determined to enjoy her skating rather than focus on results, she conquered all her demons by winning the world title at the tenth attempt in Nice in March 2012. The Bolzano-born skater followed up by claiming silver behind Yuna Kim at this year’s Worlds in London, Ontario, and also won the European title in Zagreb, her fifth continental crown since 2007.

Kostner’s father Erwin captained Italy’s ice hockey team at the 1984 Olympic Winter Games, while her mother Patrizia was herself a talented figure skater who competed at national level. Just for good measure, two-time world super G champion Isolde Kostner is her cousin. Discussing her sporting background, she said: “Half of my family on my father’s side are involved in sport and the other half are involved in the arts. Figure skating was a nice way for me to combine the two.”

Kostner was only 16 when she competed in her first world championships in Washington in 2003, where she came up against her idol Michelle Kwan, who won her fifth world title that year. The teenager quickly acquired a reputation for her joyously expressive skating, her grace and her technical ability. “Everyone said I had this huge talent and that led to me having a lot of personal expectations,” she recalled. “When my career started to take off I wanted more and more. And then came the fall.”

Getting it right on the night

Kostner suffered her biggest disappointments on the Olympic stage, as her challenges at Turin 2006 and Vancouver 2010 were undone by a series of falls in the free programmes.

Happily she has put all that behind her and no longer allows little mistakes to undermine her confidence. The success she is now enjoying is the result of the conscious decision she has made to exploit her potential to the full, to have fun and to never set her sights too high, “not even in front of the mirror”, as she herself put it. Contemplating her chances of success in Sochi, she said: “I’ve won medals in Russia before and I’ve got a good feeling. It’s only when an artist becomes a master that they are fully able to express themselves.”

Kostner will make her third tilt at Olympic glory to the sound of Nikolai Rimski-Korsakov’s symphonic suite Scheherazade. And whatever happens between now and February 2014, the Italian will keep on smiling as she makes her painstaking preparations, serenely making sure that every detail, from choreography and costumes to the technical elements she will perform, is just right. If everything comes together, and Kostner makes the most of her talent, Sochi could well prove one of the high points of her career so far.

 

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She deserve it. So happy she finally got an olympic medal.

 

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https://www.change.org/en-CA/petiti...emand-rejudgement-at-the-sochi-olympics#share

Open Investigation into Judging Decisions of Women's Figure Skating and Demand Rejudgement at the Sochi Olympics



The following public figures' twit will give you a good gist of what happened:

Katarina Witt (German Figure Skater) "Shame Gold Medal, Yuna Kim is a real queen"

Bill Plaschke (American Sports Journalist) "Kim didn't win...unbelievable...scandal written all over this...Russian Sotnikova wins, fans going crazy, Kim disappears, wrong, wrong"

Alex Goldberger (Olympics Researcher at NBC) "Adelina Sotnikova was excellent tonight, but Yuna Kim was robbed"

Terra Findlay (Canadian ice dancer) "I'm speechless. Yuna Kim, you are a queen"

NBC Olympics (Official Twitter) "Yuna Kim wins Silver. 17 year old Sotnikova wins Gold, and Kostner wins bronze. Do you agree with the results?"

ESPN Official Website News Article titled "Home Cooking", "Home-Ice Advantage"

CBC Commentary: "That's a shock...Did you see that coming" (of Sotnikova winning) "Well I think I saw a medal coming, I'm just not sure we thought it was going to be that one" "As caught up in the moment as I was... I'm still stuck on quality of skating that Yuna Kim has, and the moments where you see jarring images during Sotnikova that she's not ready yet ...The judges have their job and I really look forward to looking at it again so I can see it with fresh eyes but yes I am sitting here a little stunned"

New York Times: "Comparing the Jumps of Sotnikova and Yu-na" included rating of Sotnikova's Triple Flip and Double axel as "Poor" in the free program and Yu-na's ratings consisted of Good only.
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As you can probably tell, the world was keeping an eye on Yuna Kim who has set a World Record for the history of Women's Figure Skating, to defend her gold medalist title this Sochi Olympic 2014. The free skating event took place this morning and nobody denies the fact the Sotnikova did present to her potential. She did an amazing job and showed amazing performance. The one mistake she made was the stumbling after one of her jumps which was - although small - quite visible even to the public who do not know professional knowledge of figure skating. Nevertheless, she achieved her best score of 149.95 which was 0.11 away from Yu-na Kim's world record of 150.06 at the Vancouver Olympics. This comparison illustrates the home advantage already although I do admit that rules have changed since then but we are talking of quality of programme here.

Next up was Yuna Kim, she skated and her performance can be shown through what the CBC commenters said "this woman has no equal". She did show tiny unstable landing in one of her jumps, but relative to the stumble shown by Sotnikova, it was not as visible and she carried on with superb acting performance. "If you were to write a textbook, that would be how to do it", "Nobody compares to the flow she takes as she jumps and on the landings, nobody" (CBC)

Even the night before in the short programme, an evaluation sheet from the judges were made public which showed 0 in one of Yuna's jumps - in the short program where she made no mistakes at all which already shocked the Korean people. As well as the fact that they put 4 Russian people as judges out of the 14, makes all the sense. But the score in the free program has added on to the unfairness of what's supposed to be the fairest of all competitions - the Olympics. The corruption needs to be made visible and needs to be corrected.

The above quotes are chosen because they are stated by well-known figures, however, the rest of the public is demanding justice. But of course, we, as just citizens, know that our voice is weak and we may not have a chance to change anything. But this is crucial. And this petition may help towards bringing fairness back into the Olympics that showed so much corruption ironically. Yuna does not care about the medal since Gold was not in her utmost desires but it is the unfairness being observed by EVERYONE in the world except Russia. They need to acknowledge that yes, Sotnikova wrote the history in Russia but HISTORY IS FULL OF BIAS THAT NEEDS TO BE CORRECTED. This is NOT for Yuna Kim, this is for the FAIR SPORTSMANSHIP THAT IS SUPPOSED TO BE CENTRAL TO THE WORLD EVENT OF THE OLYMPICS.

 

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http://www.canada.com/olympics/news/women-figure-skating-long-program-91959

Yuna Kim of South Korea wipes her face as she attends a news conference following the women’s free skate final Thursday at the Iceberg Skating Palace during the 2014 Winter Olympics

Bronze medallist Carolina Kostner of Italy celebrates after the women’s free skate Thursday at Iceberg Skating Palace during the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics

 

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Olympic silver medal at end of Yuna Kim's career

SOCHI, Russia Yuna Kim's career ended Thursday night with an Olympic silver medal.

And relief.

The South Korean star and 2010 gold medalist finished second to Russia's Adelina Sotnikova in the women's event, then retired.

"This was my last competition," she said.

Kim is the only skater from her nation to win an Olympic figure skating medal. She also owns two world championship titles.

She barely won the short program on Wednesday, but lost to Sotnikova by more than five points in the free skate.

Kim never was as comfortable in Sochi as she was at the Vancouver Games.

"The biggest feeling was being relieved because it was over," she said. " I want to rest."

After winning the 2009 world championship in spectacular fashion, Kim became a heavy favorite for the 2010 Games. She came through just as brilliantly, and even stuck around for one more season.

Then she left competitive skating for a year, and there was speculation she would not attempt to skate in Sochi. But Kim returned for the 2012-13 season and won her second world crown.

A foot injury sidelined her for the Grand Prix campaign this season, and she rarely cracked a smile or looked comfortable once she arrived in Russia. She even admitted several times the desire to win another gold medal wasn't as strong as her drive to win the first one.

"At that time I could die for gold in the Olympics," she said of the Vancouver Games. "But that desire, that strong wish was not as present. The motivation was a problem, I think."

Kim will skate in a show back home in May, but otherwise has no plans. She will skip next month's world championships in Saitama, Japan, which could cause some problems for South Korea. The nation's other two skaters in Sochi finished 16th and 21st.

They will need a much better showing in Saitama to keep three spots in the 2015 championships.

Kim's retirement also means home fans won't be able to watch her skate at the Pyeongchang Winter Games four years from now.

 

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Column: Sochi Games finally get their "wow" moment


The Sochi Games so needed this, their first truly transcendental moment for the home nation in a big-ticket event. For the 4 minutes and 9 seconds when Sotnikova's pluck and majesty mesmerized fans around the world, sport — gut-wrenchingly beautiful sport — was a honeyed drop to counteract the sour taste that has been part of Russia's first Winter Olympics.

In years to come, when people think "Sochi," they will remember images of militia thugs who disgraced themselves and their country by horsewhipping the punks from Pussy Riot.

The irreverent, YouTube-savvy performance artists knew that in this Black Sea resort turned police state for the games, they were guaranteed to find the trouble they needed to illustrate their new music video, and that the footage of them being mistreated would poop on President Vladimir Putin's very expensive party.

In years to come, tender hearts will also wonder how many stray Sochi dogs escaped the exterminators. It is somewhat depressing that Olympians have shown more concern about the pooches than about Russia's "nyet" to gay rights.

But, in years to come, Russians will remember this night, how Sotnikova's dress of Black Sea grey rippled against her thighs as she sped across the ice and how they held their breaths for her jumps, almost all executed to perfection. They will recall the thunder of the crowd stamping its feet in the Iceberg Skating Palace and its Beatlemania scream as the judges' very generous score was announced.

Neutrals and fans of Yuna Kim, as graceful in defeat on this night as she always is on the ice, will remember that they felt at best bemused and robbed at worse.

Despite what their critics say, no Olympics — not even these — are unrelentingly bad. Nor, as the International Olympic Committee would have us believe, are the games all sweetness and light. Instead, they are human — flawed, with good days and bad.

For the host nation, Wednesday had been as bad as they come. In being so quick to reach for their whips and pepper spray, the Cossack militiamen who attacked Pussy Riot picked at the seams of the new image that Putin seeks to weave for Russia with his $51-billion bet on these games.

Russia's ice hockey team — still big and red but no longer much of a machine — also fell in the quarterfinals to Finland.

And then Russian skating sweetheart Julia Lipnitskaia slipped on the banana skin of crushing national expectations, falling on a triple flip that she usually nails. Moral of that story: Don't leave a 15-year-old to do the job of a 17-year-old. Sotnikova took a nap while the hockey team was earning its 3-1 loss and then reminded everyone on the ice that Russia's skating hopes didn't start and end with Lipnitskaia. In both her short and long programs, Sotnikova proved far cooler than the Sochi weather has been.

As so often in skating, there will be questions and backroom chatter about the scoring of Thursday's free skate and to what extent it pandered to the partisan home crowd.

Sotnikova directed a wave at the judges as part of her routine. They waved back with their score of 149.95, liking her interpretation and the execution of her jumps and spins.

If these were Kim's last games, then she can be proud that she never skated a routine that wasn't sublime at the Olympics. She was stunning in Vancouver in 2010 and stunning again in both of her programs in Sochi. But the medal was silver not gold this time. Her elegance was haunting and she landed her jumps with the delicacy of falling snowflakes. But Kim, a grand dame of skating at 23, did six jumps with triple rotations. Sotnikova did seven.

When Kim's score — 144.19 — was posted in the jumbo screen, the crowd erupted.

Russia had its Olympic moment for the ages.

 

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Russian Sotnikova wins gold, Kim silver

SOCHI, Russia (AP) - Russia's cupboard was so bare of world-class female figure skaters that the sport's most dominant nation had to turn to the kids a few years ago.

Among those youngsters was Adelina Sotnikova, who won a national championship in 2009, when she was just 12.

She was too young to compete at the 2010 Olympics. When she finally got to the games this year, she was overshadowed by an even younger teammate. But on Thursday night, the 17-year-old Sotnikova looked comfortable and unburdened by the pressure of the host nation, becoming Russia's first gold medalist in women's Olympic figure skating.

In the signature moment of the games for Russians, Sotnikova defeated defending champion Yuna Kim of South Korea. Both women skated nearly flawless programs, but Sotnikova completed one more decisive triple jump.

"I first dreamed to be at the Olympics after the nationals in 2010," Sotnikova said. "And when I watched the games in Vancouver, I really wanted to qualify for the next games. I knew it won't be easy. There are so many new talented girls around."

Well, not really in Russia. Not until Sotnikova and 15-year-old Julia Lipnitskaia developed into junior world champions.

And while much-heralded Lipnitskaia was stumbling in Sochi, Sotnikova soared. When she won the free skate, she further confirmed Russian command of the sport.

"This is the happiest day in my life," Sotnikova said. "I simply stepped on the ice today and realized how much I like what I'm doing and skated really good."

The Russians have won three figure skating gold medals at these Olympics: women's, pairs and team.

Sotnikova did not skate in the team event, and that provided incentive for her in the individual competition.

"When I found out that I was not in the team, it was hurtful. I felt ugly inside," she said. "Maybe it is all for the best - an advantage for me to make me so mad."

Sotnikova was considered a long shot against the likes of Kim, who announced her retirement after the free skate; Italy's Carolina Kostner, who took bronze; Japan's Mao Asada; and even Americans Gracie Gold and Ashley Wagner.

But she won it all, giving Russia or the Soviet Union 27 Olympic gold medals in the sport. They own five men's golds, 13 in pairs, seven in ice dance, and took the first team event this year.

Sotnikova was watching the scores on a monitor in the media area when she realized she won. She ran waving her arms in the air before finding her coach for a warm hug. When she got onto the podium for the flower ceremony, to raucous chants of "Ro-ssi-ya," she jumped up and down like a teenager whose Olympic goal had come true.

"It's the Olympics. And it was a long way for me," she said. "To compete at the Olympic Games, I dreamed of any medal, but frankly speaking, I wanted a gold one."

Lipnitskaia was fifth.

"I wanted to skate my best today but it didn't work," she said. "I've lost control over my jumps- tiredness and emotions."

Asada was third in the free skate after finishing 16th in Wednesday's short program and wound up sixth.

Sotnikova trailed Kim by just .28 going into Thursday, and she overcame that by winning the free skate 149.95 to Kim's 144.19. The final totals were 224.59 for Sotnikova, 219.11 for Kim and 216.73 for Kostner.

Skating last, Kim needed a repeat of her Vancouver performance to hold onto the gold. She nailed six triple jumps, one less than Sotnikova, and Kim's artistry couldn't make up the difference.

"At that time I could die for gold in the Olympics," she said of 2010. "But that desire, that strong wish, was not as present. The motivation was a problem, I think."

Gold finished fourth, Wagner seventh and 15-year-old American Polina Edmunds ninth.

Wagner didn't complain about her score, but criticized a scoring system that invites skepticism. Nine judges score each skater, and the individual judges' scorecards are not released.

"People do not want to watch a sport where they see someone skate lights out and they can't depend on that person to be the one who pulls through," Wagner said. "We've all been on the receiving end of it, and we've all been on the side where you don't really get the benefit of the doubt. People need to be held accountable.

"They need to get rid of the anonymous judging."

Kostner, 27, skated to the sport's iconic musical piece "Bolero." From beginning to end, she owned the music - and by the finish, she owned much of the crowd, too.

She patted her heart when she was done, and her 142.61 was a season's best.

"This medal is absolutely worth gold," said the first Italian to win an Olympic figure skating singles medal. "I will cherish it in my heart. It feels so great that patience and sacrifice and hard work and faith are paid at the end."

Sotnikova, whose interpretation marks surpassed Kostner's but not Kim's, skated a routine filled with action and pace, and she hit seven triple jumps. There wasn't much interaction with the music, but the energy sold the program.

That left only Kim with a shot at gold. She couldn't match the feat of Katarina Witt or Sonja Henie, who both won back-to-back Olympic titles.

To chants of "Jul-i-a, Jul-i-a," Lipnitskaia took the ice first in the last group, knowing her chances to win were ruined with a fall in the short program. Again she struggled in the second half of her routine, stepping out of one jump and falling on another. She showed little emotion when she finished, in direct contrast to when she helped Russia win the team gold.

With a slight frown, she left the ice, waved weakly to the crowd from the kiss-and-cry area, and wound up fifth, far below expectations.

But Sotnikova made up for it for Russia.

 

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Kostner, 27, skated to the sport's iconic musical piece "Bolero." From beginning to end, she owned the music - and by the finish, she owned much of the crowd, too.

She patted her heart when she was done, and her 142.61 was a season's best.

"This medal is absolutely worth gold," said the first Italian to win an Olympic figure skating singles medal. "I will cherish it in my heart. It feels so great that patience and sacrifice and hard work and faith are paid at the end."

 

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