Gold medalist - Adelina Sotnikova of Russia!
Neither Katelyn Osmond (who finished 13th) or Gabby Daleman (who finished 17th) were likely to be medal contenders in this event, so I had no vested interest in the outcome.
In the Short program, there were a few surprises. Yuna Kim laid down a great program, but the marks weren't astronomical, perhaps reflecting what I saw, in that she looked bored to death both before and after the program. It was almost as if she didn't want to be there (which I think might be true).
Then Carolina Kostner unleashed a beautiful Ave Maria and came in only 0.8 behind Yuna, and everyone started to get excited. Carolina is so graceful, and has beautiful lines. I've seen her in training with Lori Nichol at RTC (Richmond Training Centre) in Richmond Hill and am a fan.
All eyes were on Julia Lipnitskaia (or Yulia Lipnitskaya, take your pick...), as the sweetheart from the team event. Unfortunately, she didn't have a great skate, but her compatriot, Adelina Sotnikova, surprised everyone (despite the fact that Adelina is the 4-time Russian national champion), ending up in second place.
She had a good skate, but I don't think she deserved to be ahead of Kostner and that close to Yuna. The rest of the field filled out mostly as expected, except that Mao Asada, sadly, did not have a good skate and ended up in 16th after the short program.
I was also a little surprised that the German, Nathalie Weinzierl, finished in 10th ahead of Katelyn Osmond, which was unfortunate for Katelyn as it pushed her into the earlier group for the Free Skate, where she drew the first spot in that group, while Nathalie drew the last spot in her group (putting her right before the last two groups).
The highlight of the Free program (for me) was Mao Asada, who (according to the judges) had the 3rd best program of the night, and jumped all the way from 16th up to 6th overall. She landed the triple axel (and everything else), and (likely) finished her career on a great performance.
Most of the top 10 had pretty good performances. Julia/Yulia did not have a good skate, and fell (literally) to 6th. Ashley Wagener had yet another performance where she though she did great, with no falls, but two-footed and under-rotated her way to a 7th place finish.
Polina Edmunds looked like a 15 year old, and skated reasonably well, but fell to 9th, while Gracie Gold looked sharp except for one fall, and hung onto 4th overall. The US had all three skaters in the top 10, which is fabulous for them. There is a bright future for the US (and Canadian) programs, with all these great young skaters.
Once again, I thought Carolina Kostner was stunning, this time to Bolero (two classic pieces of music for her in this event), and probably deserved better. She remained in 3rd to claim the bronze.
Adelina Sotnikova skated a technically outstanding program, but without much in the way of choreography (what was with all that "popping and locking"?) or transitions, and there was a lot of simple crosscut skating between jumps. Her score was 18 points higher than her previous personal best...
Yuna Kim, again looking a little disinterested, skated a flawless program, but one that was technically less challenging than the one that Adelina performed, and didn't even look all that upset when she scored more than 5 points less than Adelina in claiming the silver medal.
The judges here seemed not to recognize the artistic superiority of Kostner and Kim, and gave large GOE to Adelina on her elements, propelling her into the Gold medal position. Hurray for Russia!
Despite how anyone feels about the judging and Adelina's Gold medal, what happened next is pretty uncalled for. Her personal Facebook page has been flooded with hate (mostly from angry Koreans). Sad. She's only 17, and a 4-time national champion. Whatever happened with the judging was not her fault. None of this is good for the sport...
Even with the Olympics in South Korea in 2018, I think there's no way that we will see Yuna Kim performing there (unless South Korea wants to pay her a tonne more money to convince her). The fact that she's only competed internationally 5 times since Vancouver says it all. She's too famous, too popular, and too busy selling things in Korea to concentrate on being the best skater in the world. Also sad...
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