Sailor Moon Goes for the Gold at the 2018 Winter Olympics

The teen’s reaction: A slight shrug and the faintest of smiles, all while holding a Cabbage Patch-like doll backstage on the leaders’ couches.

That was enough to put her ahead of 18-year-old Medvedeva, who spread seven impeccably executed triple jumps across a flawless long program to “Anna Karenina“.

Alina Zagitova stamped herself as at least the Olympic co-favorite after upsetting a still recovering Medvedeva at last month’s European Championships.

Zagitova admitted that her meteoric rise has come faster than she expected.

Choi, who won the gold medal at the Asian Winter Games in Sapporo a year ago, is not overpowering, but has a steadiness that makes watching her appealing.

No one could touch Zagitova on this day.

At the 1998 Winter Olympics, Michelle Kwan of the United States was widely favored to win a gold medal. The first is Italy’s Carolina Kostner, who won bronze in Sochi, has been a world champion and, in my mind, writes the book on how to make skating handsome. As Belgium’s Loena Hendrickx glided onto the ice to begin her performance, brother Jorik – who also competed in figure skating in PyeongChang – was so nervous to watch his sibling, he couldn’t even look at her until her routine had already started.

Except hers is punctuated by Olympic gold.

Asked on Wednesday after she took the lead in the short skate why she wasn’t acting more like a typical 15-year-old, she said somewhat severely: “I don’t really show my emotions, splash them around as it were”. She will need to be rock-solid on those triple axels if she wants to become the first American woman to medal since Sasha Cohen in 2006.

Americans Bradie Tennell, Mirai Nagasu and Karen Chen are unlikely to medal after struggling in their short programs. “All fans were waiting for us athletes from Russian Federation to be on top”.

But sandwiched between the OAR skaters and the Americans were inspiring skates – and stories.

Medvedeva who was performing several minutes earlier broke her own world record and receiving 81.61 points. She would finish third.

Medvedeva, 8, who has been battling an injury and hasn’t competed since last fall, skated a scaled back program but was able to make up for her lower-scoring elements with high component, or presentation scores that recognize skating skills, musicality and choreography.

At the beginning of the season, I would have predicted with great confidence that Russia’s Evgenia Medvedeva would skate unchallenged to the top of the podium. “I try to do absolutely everything I can in the free skate”.

Two athletes from Japan are also in fourth and fifth, creating the possibility of an ice dancing sweep for Japan. Kostner – at 31 – is twice the age of Zagitova.

“There are so many different people at the top of the sport, ” said Boitano. Careers are more about the right place and the right time, the right performance with the right plan.

Should Zagitova win gold in the final on Friday, she will be the second youngest ever to do so.

Which made Medvedeva’s recent streak so special. Like her compatriots, the 17-year-old does many of her jumps with one hand over her head, increasing the difficulty and therefore her score.