Olympic athlete from Russia Alina Zagitova competes during the ladies' single skating short program of figure skating at the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympic Games, in Gangneung Ice Arena, South Korea, on Feb. 21, 2018. Alina Zagitova got the 1st place with 82.92 points. (Xinhua/Wang Song)
By Sportswriters Yi Ling and Liu Yang
PYEONGCHANG, Feb. 21 (Xinhua) -- The short program of women's figure skating here on Wednesday is all about the Olympic Athletes of Russia, who shine over the Gangneung Ice Arena and wrapped top two places.
The rising star Alina Zagitova, 15, edged two-time world champion Evgenia Medvedva to top the ranking with 82.92 points. Medvedva scored 81.61 points, followed by Canadian Kaetlyn Osmond with 78.87 points.
WHY THE RUSSIAN BOOM?
"They are just growing like mushrooms," said coach Elena Vodorezova about the constant flow of successful Russian female skaters.
Vodorezova is the coach of Sochi Games champion Adelina Sotnikova and coaches Grand Prix final silver medallist Maria Sotskova, who finished 12th after short program.
Why are the girls are so strong and are there so many? For the experienced coach, skating mentality plays an important role.
"I think the biggest difference to other countries is that the children and their parents come to the ice rink with the goal to achieve something in the sport -- in the west, they go to the ice rink to have fun," she said.
"Also, in other countries, practice has to adjust to school hours. It is the opposite way for us or the children have private lessons."
Figure skating has been a popular sport in Russia for years, but it became even more popular through TV reality-competition shows such as "IceAge". That, along with improved conditions and the growing success of the current crop of skaters has resulted in more and more children, mostly girls, flocking to the ice rinks.
"If we look back, about 10 years ago in Moscow about 20 ice rinks were built in different parts of the city, this obviously led to a steady flow of children," said Eteri Tutberidze, who coaches Medvedeva and Zagitova.
Alexander Lakernik, Russian vice-president of the International Skating Union and technical delegate for figure skating at PyeongChang Games, attributed the skater boom to good coaches.
"At one point, a lot of little girls with all triple jumps appeared. With the right technique, they keep their jumps, even when they grow. The girls are taught in the right way, especially in the group of Tutberidze," he said.
CHINA'S TOUGH REALITY
The Russia's success can be a good lesson for China, which is to host the Beijing Games four years later and is struggling to improve the unbalanced development of figure skating.
China's history in the sport doesn't stretch back very far and it's figure skaters did not appear at Olympics until 1980. Among four Olympic disciplines, only pair skating won China some credits with established pair skaters like Shen Xue and Zhao Hongbo, who won gold at Vancouver 2010, and Sui Wenjing and Han Cong who pocketed a silver here this time.
In PyeongChang, Chinese ice dancers Wang Shiyue and Liu Xinyu were held back from reaching the free dance and Yan Han survived the men's single short program but finished 23rd out 24 qualifiers. Jin Boyang, 20, ranked the fourth and gave hope for China to make a breakthrough in Beijing.
On the women's segment, Li Xiangning ranked the last among the 24 qualifiers on Wednesday, but secured a spot for China at the free skating.
Making her Olympic debut, the 17-year-old Li, China's national champion, conceded she succumbed to nerves since day one.
The same short program, which earned her 58.62 points in previous team event competition, produced a disappointing 52.46 points due to her falling on to the ice after the opening triple flip jump and later under-rotating a triple lutz jump.
As she completed her final spin in the soothing sound track of Italian film Cinema Paradiso, Li stood still for a couple of seconds before dragging herself to the rink side, obviously feeling lost.
Twenty-four of 30 top women's skaters qualify for medal match free skating on Friday. Luckily, the fatal mistakes did cost Li one point, but didn't bar her from reaching the final, which she longed for years.
"I'm too nervous. My arms and legs were as hard as ice that I couldn't feel myself at the rink. But I really wanna have the chance to perform the long program. Luckily, I have now," said Li.
"I will calm down, leaving what happened today behind and rally back," she added. So will all the Chinese figure skaters, hopefully.
