The Russians, of course, had plenty of golden moments over the first week and a half of the Sochi Games. Their gold in the inaugural team figure skating event, followed by one in pairs. Victories in two-man bobsled and men's skeleton. All of their short track success, mainly due to former Korean Victor Ahn. That great story in snowboarding, where American Vic Wild won a gold for Russia minutes after his Russian wife won a bronze in the same event.
But we've also heard plenty of bad stuff. The empty seats. The protesters. The weather, which hasn't exactly been wintery. The stuff with the stray dogs. Then there's the Russian men's hockey team. But the hosts were spared an absolute national disaster with what happened tonight in figure skating, the winter sport ranked just below hockey in the eyes of many Russians.
Heading into the competition, most people thought it would be a coronation for defending champion Kim Yuna of South Korea, who would then go for a historic three-peat in her home country four years from now. Nobody was going to beat her. Then in the team event, 15-year-old Russian Yuliya Lipnitskaya stole the show, and suddenly it was possible that Kim would lose. Lipnitskaya was already a favorite to land on the podium. Could she actually get the gold?
Well, it turns out we were all forgetting about the other Russian, the one who just happened to be the national champion. Then Adelina Sotnikova reminded us all that she was still there by finishing second in the short program, less than a point behind Kim.
Then came tonight's free skate. Wow! Sotnikova was absolutely sensational. I don't remember the last time I've seen an Olympic performance that good (maybe Sarah Hughes?). She didn't just win the night. She completely owned it. As I was watching this afternoon (sidebar: how incredible have Tara Lipinski and Johnny Weir been on NBCSN?), once Sotnikova finished, I immediately said, "Gauntlet thrown down." No one, including Kim, was able to walk through that gauntlet, and we had an incredibly unlikely Olympic champion. She won a gold medal the way you're supposed to. She earned it.
After the competition ended, some of the articles that appeared online weren't praising Sotnikova for her remarkable performance. Once again we had the critics come out and question figure skating's judging system, complaining that it's completely subjective. Sotnikova had to have been given better scores because she was the hometown favorite and, as a result, the crowd loved her. Those critics obviously didn't watch the same skate I did. Because the judges got this one 100 percent right. What I saw was grace, beauty, perfection. Skating the way it's supposed to be. Four minutes of elegance. If that wasn't a gold medal-winning skate, I don't know what is.
Every Olympics has its unforgettable memory. A victory by the home team that's truly transcendent. In Vancouver it was, obviously, that gold medal game in men's hockey. Now Sochi has its moment. Adelina Sotnikova pulled off an upset for the ages. And for those who saw it, it's a moment they'll never forget. Congratulations to the Olympic champion. Or, should I say, "Pazdravlyayoo?"
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