Figure Skating: Alina Zagitova Wins Russia’s First Gold Medal<br />Zagitova defended the design of the routine, saying, “It captivates the audience and makes them watch to the very end.”<br />A year ago, Zagitova was the world junior champion, while Medvedeva was the senior world champion favored to win Olympic gold.<br />Strictly speaking, Alina Zagitova, the 15-year-old victor in women’s figure skating, competed as a neutral “Olympic Athlete From Russia.” At a medal ceremony later Friday, she was to see the five-ringed Olympic flag raised instead of the Russian flag<br />and to hear the Olympic hymn played instead of the Russian anthem.<br />Today, we proved ourselves here.”<br />A two-time world champion and consensus favorite to win gold before she broke a bone in her right foot last fall, Medvedeva was forced to confront a sobering reality on Friday at age 18: Experience<br />and artistry and expressiveness did not prevail over mathematics.<br />George Rossano, the editor of the website Ice Skating International, said, “The timeline<br />for developing U. S. skaters is four years slower than the rest of the world.”<br />If a skater does not have triple-triple combination jumps by age 14, he said, “You’ve missed the boat to be a world-level competitor.”<br />The Russians were behind, too, once.
