Yuna Kim (KOR) Has Excellent Chance to Repeat as Ladies Olympic Champion After Short Program Victory

(20 February 2014)  Yuna Kim's quest to win back-to-back Olympic gold in the Ladies event took a step forwards by placing first in the Ladies Short Program, though just barely.  Favored Russian lady Julia Lipnitskaya fell on her solo jump, but Adelina Sotnikova had the skate of her life to nearly win the Ladies Short Program.  The American Ladies sit in fourth, sixth and seventh, with Gracie Gold in a reasonable position to challenge for the bronze medal.

Thirty ladies skated the sh9ort program in five groups of six.  Twenty four qualified for the free skate.

The first two warm-up groups were mainly the ladies whose goal was to q1ualify, or at least set a personal best on Olympic ice.  The exception was Polina Edmunds (USA), the newcomer to the senior ranks in the U.S.  Polina has not had a lot of international exposure, and so it was of no small interest to see how much love the ISU judges would giver her, and whether they agreed with the potential the U.S. sees in her.  And the answer was, the ISU judges agreed.  Polina is a talent to watch.  She scored 61.04 points and led the event until Yuna Kim (KOR) skated in start position 17.

Edmunds ended up seventh in the short, with her greater score being her element score.  She had an under-rotation called on triple toe loop in her triple Lutz - triple toe loop combination, and then skated cleanly after that.  He performance was well executed, with confidence and poise, but her program did not yet have the completeness and sophistication of the other top ladies, and was reflected in her component scores.  Her lowest marks in components were Transitions, and Choreography, sending a clear message for where she needs to next bring up her game.

On her first year at seniors and the Olympics she said, "It was definitely fun to skate on the Olympic ice like that.  I was hoping I skated a good program, a clean program, and I did.  I just wanted them the see what I could do in the elements and I'm happy they (the judges) recognized that."

The third warm-up group was all about Yuna Kim, with the other contenders not drawn to skate until the last group.

Kim looked nervous as she took the ice, and took a long time getting to her opening position.  She skated a technically clean program, but seemed to be holding back a little.  She did not have the intensity we remember from 2010, and her program did not have the detailed sophistication we remember.  The judges scored Transitions and Choreography the lowest of the components, and Interpretation the highest.  Her component marks overall averaged 9.97.

"For whatever reason, I felt nervous and didn't feel comfortable during my warm-up session.  During my practices, I always feel pressure.  But I did my short program in training before the Olympics successfully in South Korea and Russia."

Kim scored 74.92, below her season best, and seemed a fair statement of what was put on the ice.  With 13 skaters to go after her, it was a long wait to see how her marks would stand up.  In the end she finished first, but by only 0.28 points.

After her performance she said, "In warm-up I was very nervous.  I couldn't jump at all.  But I tired to believe in myself and believed in what I've done before."  While performing "I felt like I was dreaming," she said.  "I had a lot of thoughts when I was giving my performance."

The next potentially contending lady to skate was Gracie Gold (USA) who skated third in the fourth warm-up group.

Gold's performance to the dramatic Grieg piano concerto was was well skated, but she had to fight hard for the jumps, particularly the opening triple-triple and the double Axel, which she landed on the toe and had to fight for the landing edge.  Her spins were scored significantly higher than the jumps, and her step sequence earned eight of nine GoEs of +3.  The program has a few holes in the choreography before the jumps, and her lowest component score was for Transitions.  The average score for her components was 8.02, and she scored a total 68.63 to place fourth in the short program.  It was below her season best, and though she skated well, she did not attack with the energy she displayed at U.S. Nationals in January.

Assessing her performance she said, "I'm satisfied with it.  I have World Championships to make it perfect.  But I was happy to be able to perform under the bright lights and stress.  It's a tough event.   This is about throwing it out there, that when you have a shaky landing on a triple Lutz, you stick that triple toe..  I actually learned this from my training mate, Denis Ten (KAZ, Men's bronze medal).  He did a triple flip and double toe.  His flip was great, my triple Lutz was not great.  But I thought to myself, 'This is my Olympic moment.  Am I going to be on my butt?  No. The Olympics is not a place to play it safe, I'm going for it.'"

The last warm-up group brought us to the matchups everyone was waiting for.  Julia Lipnitskaya, who put herself into gold medal contention with her strong performances in the team event.

She opened with a strong triple Lutz - triple toe loop combination, followed by a strong triple flip.  Everything seemed to be going great after that, but then in element 5 she badly under-rotated a triple flip, which was downgraded, and she fell.  A few media wonks in the stands muttered about the coach being not to bright to put the element as number 5, but many of the skaters put their last jumps as element four or five, and several of the ladies in the short program had two jumps in the second half as four and five.  So we are not buying that criticism.

It was a well skated program, except for the flip, and still earned 65.23 points, putting her in fifth for the short, but still in range for a medal.  After the skate Lipnitskaya looked crushed, but she vowed to fight back in the free skate.

Carolina Kostner (ITA) had a beautiful skate to Schubert's "Ave Maria."  It was a clean program and spontaneously in the program she changed her opening triple-triple from toe loop-toe loop to flip-toe loop.  She earned a season best 74.12 points and placed third in the short.

Afterwards in the post-event press conference she had the most reflective comments about what competing here meant her, befitting her status as an "elder statesman" of the ladies event, now competing in her third Olympic Winter Games.  Costner had the highest component scores, averaging 9.08, and she scored one 10.0 for Presentation.

"After Vancouver, I thought it was over," she explained.  "I thought I would stop skating and it was the end.  I decided to continue because I love skating.  It's the hard times that make you understand what you really want.  I'm honored that I have experienced what I've experienced and to be able to share the performance I did tonight."  Questioned further about wanting to quite skating after Vancouver she added, "I believed that I had reached my limit and I should just be happy with what I had done.  But I decided I wanted to keep going.  I wanted to share so much more.  I'm very pleased to be back at the Olympics for a third time and to show the good side of my skating.

On skating to "Ave Maria." she said, "That music somehow makes me so emotional.  It's like a prayer to say thank you to everything I've accomplished and everything I've learned from skating.  It all really came together."

Ashley Wagner (USA) was the last of the three U.S. ladies to skate.  She opened with an attempt at triple flip - triple toe loop, but the toe loop was badly under-rotated, and scored with a downgrade.  Other than the combination, she skated clean with confidence (more than she showed at U.S. Nationals) but did not attack as much as one might have hoped.  her components averaged 8.44.  She is numerically in range of the bronze medal, but she is going to have a lot of competition in the long for that spot, and will need to bring up her game in the free skate, where she is reprising her "Sampson and Delilah" routine from last season.  She currently sits in sixth place.

"Tonight was definitely nerve-wracking, I'll be honest about that." she said.  "But I'm set up well for the long program.  I actually have a chance for the podium.  She added, "The downgrade was nerves.  It's going out there and skating.  I have nothing to lose and absolutely everything to gain.

The biggest surprise of the night was the performance from Adelina Sotnikova (RUS), who had fallen off the radar screen with all the attention lavished on Lipnitskaya.  Sotnikova stepped up to the task and had a season best performance that scored 74.64 points.  Even with a lesser difficulty triple-triple (two toe loops, she scored the highest of the ladies in Total Element Score).  Her routine to the "Habnera" from Bizet's "Carmen Suite" consisted of a dramatic, powerful performance to a crashing piano rendition.

On competing in her first Olympics, she said, "I don't think about that.  You can't let that get into your head.  I didn't want to let it weight me down.  I was here in Sochi for Russian nationals and I just thought like that.  For me, it was just competition and, for a normal competition, it went really well."

Last of the skaters to perform was Mao Asada (JPN) who crashed and burned about as badly as we have ever seen.  Her opening triple Axel attempt was scored under-rotated and she fell.  Her following triple flip was also scored under-rotated.  Then on her triple loop - double loop combination she popped the element to a solo double loop.  Even with component scores that averaged 8.47, and she ended up in 16th place, well below the three leaders had 74+ points.  Stunned does not begin to describe the reaction of the skater and the audience.

I didn't skate anywhere near as well as I could," she said after her performance, "I don't know what to make of this now.  All I can do is give it everything I have tomorrow.  I can't comprehend any of this."  She added, "I couldn't do any of the things I've been working on in training.  Once I started the program, I couldn't control my emotions and my body.  My only option is to skate the free to the best of my ability."