After figure-skating short program, Russian women lead

pulse

February 21, 2018 10:47 AM

Alina Zagitova of Russia, just 15, edged out her countrywoman, the comparably ancient Evgenia Medvedea, 18, in the women’s figure-skating short program Wednesday.

Zagitova’s combo by itself scored 13.71 points, outranking Medvedeva’s triple flip-triple toeloop, which got 11.96.

But the judges showed a slight preference for Medvedeva in all five of the more subjective categories like presentation, keeping the margin to a thin 1.31 points. Medvedeva skated to Chopin, while Zagitova chose music from the dance film “Black Swan,” with some “Swan Lake” interpolated.

Still, Zagitova’s total score of 82.92 was a new world record for a short program.

“From the score, this is the best performance of my life, but there is still room to grow,” Zagitova said. “I could have more speed going into the jumps, the landings of the jumps could have been smoother, there could have been more emotions.”

Medvedeva said after her program, “Today I felt better than in the team event, but I still could have had a higher score if the combination would have been better.”

Kaetlyn Osmond of Canada was third.

With only three days of competition remaining, Zagitova and Medvedeva have the best chance of any Russian athletes to win a gold medal at these Games.

There was disappointment from the Americans, none of whom completed a clean program. Mirai Nagasu, Karen Chen and Bradie Tennell were ninth, 10th, and 11th after the short program.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.