PYEONGCHANG, South Korea — Technically, Russia did not win its first gold medal at these Winter Olympics on Friday. Strictly speaking, Alina Zagitova, the 15-year-old victor in women’s figure skating, competed as a neutral “Olympic Athlete From Russia.” At a medal ceremony later Friday, she was to see the five-ringed Olympic flag raised instead of the Russian flag and to hear the Olympic hymn played instead of the Russian anthem. And there was no question which country Zagitova represented in winning gold with a score of 239.57 points as fans chanted her name and waved the Russian tricolor. Her friend and training partner, Evgenia Medvedeva, took the silver medal with 238.26 points while skating as Tolstoy’s tragic Anna Karenina. (Kaetlyn Osmond of Canada won the bronze with 231.02 points, while no American placed higher than ninth out of 24 competitors, the worst collective finish by American women at the Olympics.)

Source: New York Times February 22, 2018 23:59 UTC