Figure skating at the 2014 Winter Olympics was held at the Iceberg Skating Palace in Sochi, Russia. The five events took place between 6-22 February 2014. For the first time at the Winter Olympics a figure skating team event was held.
Maps, Directions, and Place Reviews
Records and firsts
The following new ISU best scores were set during this competition:
Other records and firsts:
- Yuzuru Hanyu (JPN) set a new world record in the men's short program with a score of 101.45 points. This score was the first to break the 100-points barrier in the short program.
- Russia's gold in the ladies' event made Russia the first country to have won Olympic gold medals in all four figure skating disciplines. Also, winning the team trophy made Russia the first country to have won gold medals in all five events.
- Men's singles was the first time all medalists in an Olympic figure skating event were all of Asian descent.
- Yuzuru Hanyu's gold medal is Japan's first Olympic gold medal in the men's event. This is the first time the men's event was won by an Asian athlete.
- Adelina Sotnikova's gold medal is Russia's first Olympic gold medal in the ladies event.
- Meryl Davis and Charlie White's gold medal is the U.S.A.'s first Olympic gold medal won in ice dancing.
- Denis Ten's bronze medal is Kazakhstan's first Olympic medal in figure skating.
- Carolina Kostner's bronze medal is Italy's first Olympic medal in a singles event.
- Evgeni Plushenko (RUS) tied the record of four Olympic figure skating medals. (Gillis Grafström won four in the early years of the sport, in 1920-1932).
- Yulia Lipnitskaya (RUS) became the youngest Olympic gold medalist in figure skating under modern rules. Lipnitskaya became the second youngest all-time figure skating gold medalist, behind Maxi Herber who would have been too young to skate at the Olympics under modern rules. Lipnitskaya also became the youngest Olympic gold medalist in the ladies' discipline (Maxi Herber skated pairs).
Gold Medal Figure Skaters Video
Competition schedule
The following is the competition schedule for all five events.
All times are (UTC+4).
Medal summary
Medal table
Events
Controversies
Athlete selection
The United States' selection of Ashley Wagner over Mirai Nagasu for the Olympic team caused some controversy as Nagasu finished ahead of Wagner at the 2014 U.S. Championships. The results at the pre-Olympic nationals often play a major role in the decision process but U.S. Figure Skating never stated that they would be the only results considered. Wagner was selected on the body of her work, instead of her performance at that event.
The fact that the second-place finisher, Polina Edmunds, was also selected over Nagasu despite having no senior international experience also led to some calls of racism. However, Edmunds' lack of senior experience was a consequence of U.S. Figure Skating's earlier selection decisions. Despite winning the U.S. junior title, she was not selected for the World Junior Championships in the 2012-13 season, which would have allowed her to get senior assignments at the start of the 2013-14 season.
This was the first time that U.S. Figure Skating selected a skater who had competed in the pre-Olympic nationals and lost over another on who had also competed. On previous occasions, this was done for skaters who had been injured and unable to compete at nationals.
The selection of Evgeni Plushenko by the Russia Olympic Team for figure skating caused some controversy, as he had been beaten by Maxim Kovtun at the 2014 Russian Figure Skating Championships. Plushenko said he won't participate in European Championships and will give spot at men's singles for Kovtun and he will participate in the team event only. ISU president Ottavio Cinquanta cautioned Figure Skating Federation of Russia "If one of your skaters has sustained the same injury for years. You should not enter him or her." Plushenko skated strongly in the Short and Free Programs for the Team Event, however in the Men's individuals he withdrew right before the start of the Short Program which left host Russia without an entry since it was too late have Kovtun as a replacement. Russian figure skating officials defended the initial selection of Plushenko by noting that Kovtun had done poorly at international events.
Allegations of votes swapping
French sports newspaper L'Équipe, quoting an anonymous Russian coach, alleged that Russia and the United States would swap votes, with the United States voting for Russian athletes in pairs figure skating and team events and Russia voting for the Americans in ice dancing. The allegations were categorically denied by U.S. Figure Skating.
There were suggestions that the ice dancing competition was rigged in favor of American team Meryl Davis and Charlie White, over their rivals and training mates, the Canadian duo of Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir who were the defending Olympic champions. Virtue and Moir lost crucial marks in the Finnstep element of the short program which resulted in a wide 2.56 point deficit with Davis and White. Petri Kokko, one of the creators of the Finnstep, tweeted "I don't understand the judging in #icedancing. @Virtue--Moir should be leading in my honest opinion."
Ladies' singles figure skating results
In the ladies' singles event, Adelina Sotnikova (Russia) won the gold medal, while Kim Yuna (South Korea) was awarded the silver. The results sparked a worldwide media debate on the outcome. Media reports on March 21, 2014 stated that the Korean Olympic Committee intends to file an official complaint to the International Skating Union on the composition of the judging panel.
Qualification
A total of 148 quota spots are available to athletes to compete at the games. A maximum of 18 athletes could be entered by a National Olympic Committee, with a maximum of 9 men or 9 women. An additional six quota spots were made available for the team event. A further ten team trophy quotas (two in each discipline) were distributed to countries qualifying for the team event, but not the discipline itself. This means up to a maximum of 158 athletes could partake.
Participating nations
149 athletes from 30 nations participated, with number of athletes in parentheses. Brazil and the Philippines made their Olympic debuts in the sport.
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