It’s that time of the year… the 2022 Winter Olympics! Today’s focus will be on one of the most competitive sports on ice: Figure skating.
The gold medals for each of the four disciplines (types of routines), went to skaters of four different nations. This year it is prominent that the Russian Olympic committee really dominated the rink.

The ROC earned six medals, two more than any other nation. The Russians were the only ones who received two wins in the team event.

Eteri Tutberidze, coach of Moscow’s Sambo 70 club, holds his students responsible for the achieving the 4 wins.

This was a monumental achievement because no country has had that many winners in a single’s game since Great Britain had its skating success at the London 1908 Games.

ROC scored medals in four of the five events, while Japan and the United States’ three each spanned three events. Nathan Chen won the gold medal that earned the US its most figure skating medals in 20 years!

“It’s so easy to fall into the trap of being like, ‘Oh my gosh, the pressure’s building. Everything’s so stressful. Everything’s so scary,”’ Chen recently told People.

Below are the stats from the figure skating program:

ROC

2 GOLD

3 SILVER

1 BRONZE

JAPAN

1 SILVER

3 BRONZE

UNITED STATES

1 GOLD

1 SILVER

1 BRONZE

CHINA

1 GOLD

FRANCE

1 GOLD

Although it seems as though Russia was taking the lead in the Winter Olympics, a scandal was brought to light due to figure skater Kamila Valieva’s doping scandal. It was found nine days after the ROC star skater Valieva wound up in a worldwide controversy over her failing a drug test for a banned substance. When she competed, she fell and didn’t have a perfect performance. She landed fourth place.

“I hate this sport!” Valieva exclaimed after her performance.

This just goes to show the pressure young skaters are put through, and with the scandal going on, Russian medal results have been put on hold.

“They broke her. That’s what they wanted, and they achieved it,” said former Russian skater and two- time medalist, Irina Slutskaya.

The gold winner, Anna Shcherbakova, who delivered a mistake-free performance, smiled and jumped on the podium with excitement, but later she admitted that once she realized she would win due to her competitor’s failed performance, she recalled she “was not ready to celebrate.”

“I was not upset or embarrassed to celebrate. I just lost all the emotions,” Shcherbakova said.

And the silver medalist, Alexandra Trusova was called the “Russian Rocket” by fans and media, as she was outraged making history as the first woman to land five quadruple jumps in a routine in the Winter Olympics and ONLY making second place.

“Everyone has a gold medal, everyone, but not me. I hate skating. I hate this sport. I will never skate again. Never!” Trusova screamed, pushing away her coach Eteri Tutberidze, who tried to comfort her.

She is still a teenage girl, and the emotions cannot be expected to be held in when all that hard work doesn’t pay off, even though she did still get second, which is still a monumental moment for the teenage girl, but seemingly not enough for her high expectations.

Even though figure skating is supposed to be a graceful sport, the media can turn it into scandalous drama, but that’s what the internet likes to do nowadays. No matter what controversy and mistakes these skaters make, their hard work and dedication should not be overlooked.