Adelina Sotnikova is Russia's first-ever women's figure skating champion after she won gold on Thursday, surprising everyone at the Iceberg Skating Palace in Sochi.
Most assumed after watching Korea's Yuna Kim skate that the 23-year-old had wrapped up her second-consecutive Olympic gold medal in the event. But the judges disagreed, and awarded the gold to Sotnikova.
It didn't take long for the accusations to fly. It's figure skating, after all. Below, a few links to pieces flying around the web about Sotnikova's stunning victory.
The New York Times' Jere Longman writes that Russia had high expectations in the event, but didn't expect to see Sotnikova on the podium:
Many expected a Russian to contend for a gold medal in women’s figure skating at the Sochi Games, but hardly anyone expected that it would be Adelina Sotnikova. ...
"It was totally fair," said Elvis Stojko, the two-time Olympic silver medalist from Canada. "Adelina was ready. Kim didn’t have enough technical ammunition."
Chris Chase at USA Today's For The Win writes that Sotnikova isn't getting enough credit for what she did on the ice on Thursday:
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?
Alexander Abad-Santos writes at The Wire that we all saw Sotnikova err in her program. She made a mistake (You can see a GIF over at The Wire.) Kim didn't. Yet Sotnikova won gold.
Going into Thursday's ladies' free skate, with the 2014 Olympic gold medal on the line, the top three skaters — Korea's [Yuna Kim], Russia's Adelina Sotnikova, and Italy's Carolina Kostner — were separated by mere fractions of a point.
And on Thursday all three took to the ice. Two of those skaters finished what were, to the naked eye, flawless performances. Sotnikova didn't. She had one glaring error midway through her program in her triple flip-double toe-double loop combination.
Yet she came away with the gold medal. ...
The best explanation might just be that figure skating, even with a new-ish scoring system designed to bring some objectivity, is, at the end of the day, extremely subjective.
Ah, figure skating. It seems we find ourselves back here every four years, engaging in the same tired conversations, going through the motions of the same tired controversies. You know what would help? Not having anonymous judges. That would be a start.
For more on the women's figure skating competition over the past two days, check out the storyline below.
