Sochi, Russia: She was not even considered No 1 in her country, but Adelina Sotnikova stormed out of the shadows of Julia Lipnitskaya to become the first Russian to win the Olympic women’s figure skating title at the Sochi Games on Thursday.
The 17-year-old had been hovering so far in the background that, when it came to potential Olympic champions, her name was not even in the mix with Lipnitskaya, 2010 champion Kim Yu-na, 2012 world champion Carolina Kostner or Japanese heroine Mao Asada.
But she soared above her more illustrious rivals to leave the home crowd leaping and roaring with joy as she finally bulldozed the last figure skating barrier that had remained for Russia.
Since Ludmila Belousova and Oleg Protopopov gave the Soviet Union their first Olympic title in 1964, the 2014 Winter Games hosts, as USSR, the Unified Team or Russia, had won 26 golds in the sport before Thursday.
Surprisingly none of them had been in the individual women’s event and they had barely featured on the podium until Sotnikova captivated the hollering home crowd, if not the world, with a winning score of 224.59 that raised more than a few eyebrows.
“I smashed my season’s best,” said Sotnikova, who had been pacing nervously backstage until her victory was confirmed since Kim was the last competitor to skate. “In fact, I smashed my highest score for my whole career and I did it at the Olympics. I didn’t think I could skate like I did today.”
The South Korean had been favourite to join Norway’s Sonja Henie and Germany’s Katarina Witt as the only women to have won back-to-back Olympic titles and, despite delivering a flawless display full of grace and beauty, she was left sobbing backstage after losing her title by 5.48 points to Sotnikova.
“I am stunned by this result, I don’t understand the scoring,” Witt was heard commentating on German TV from her booth at the Iceberg Skating Palace.
While the nine-person judging panel would no doubt point out that Kim attempted only six triple jumps compared to Sotnikova’s seven, that did not explain why Italian bronze medallist Kostner had been given 7.34 points fewer than the Russian.
Kostner, decked in an eye-catching sheer black, backless dress, appeared to be almost floating on water as she executed every one of her 11 jumps, including seven triples, to the haunting melodies of Ravel’s Bolero that has long been a favourite with skaters.
But, within minutes, neutral fans were left scratching their heads wondering what exactly the judges saw, or rather did not see, as the Russian ended up with the top score despite a snatched landing following a double loop.
Sotnikova was the only one of the leading trio to make such an obvious mistake, but that did not stop her from obliterating her own season’s best for the free skate by more than 18 points.
“Any questions [about the scores] are for the judges, not for me,” Sotnikova said, determined not to let anything ruin her moment in the spotlight. “I did my job. I gave a gift to Russia.”
For her, the win was vindication of her own self belief as, remarkably, she had not been given a look-in for the team competition that Russia had won 11 days ago thanks to two electrifying performances by the 15-year-old Lipnitskaya.
As Lipnitskaya-mania gripped the nation, there seemed to be only one name on the lips of Russia’s 143 million inhabitants, but Sotnikova was determined to show that there was more than one teenaged superstar in the country.
While Lipnitskaya stumbled and staggered her way out of contention on Thursday, finishing fifth, Sotnikova made history.
