What's the Story?

The 2018 Winter Olympics centered on the athletes from Russia, or those who could potentially represent Russia. The 2018 Olympics felt the consequences of the Russian Olympic Doping Scandal, which resulted in athletes representing OAR, the Olympic Athletes of Russia, rather than Russia herself. Many Russian skaters also chose to represent neighboring countries, such as Georgia or Kazakhstan. This is not the first time that Russian athletes were forced to compete under a flag and a name that did not align with their own nationality, and it would not be the last. At the 1992 Olympics in Albertville, France, Russian athletes competed under the name EUN, meaning Équipe Unifiée, or unified team. This was due to the recent dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. The team referred to a number of countries including Russia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan. In 2022, all of the countries that were part of the EUN, except for Russia, competed under their own name and their own flag. Russia competed as Russia for five olympic games between 1992 and 2014, but there is no telling when Russian athletes will again compete under that name and that flag. But the women continued their dominance this year, with the Olympic Athletes of Russia taking gold and silver. There is an extremely problematic reason for the new trend in young, Russian figure skaters popping briefly onto the scene, winning gold, and promptly retiring from the sport, which will be discussed in detail in the 2022 tab.

But let's talk about our Russian winners.

Alina Zagitova, of Tatar descent, and now a pro-Putin nationalist, won the gold medal after two stunning performances. She edged out her older OAR teammate, Evgenia Medvedeva, who had won the World Championships in 2016 and 2017, and was generally considered the best figure skater in the world. Both were coached by Eteri Tutberidze, who coached Yulia Lipnitskaya in 2014 as well as all three Olympic skaters from Russia in 2022. The rivalry between Zagitova and Medvedeva was clear, but the two also professed that it was a "productive rivalry" (Paskin) that motivated each to work harder and become the best skaters they could be. Their rivalry and the results of the Olympics, with Zagitova beating Medvedeva by just 1.31 points, caused yet another scoring debate among figure skating fans everywhere. Medvedeva's program was more artistic and emotional. Zagitova's program took advantage of the scoring system, where every jump completed after the 2:00 minute mark gets an extra 10% scoring boost. So, Zagitova threw all her jumps into the second half of the program. Does this mean that "Medvedeva was robbed" (Ryan) as Twitter claims over and over again? Does it mean that Coach Tutberidze was playing some wild game to see if Medvedeva's artistry would be sufficient to beat Zagitova's sneaky scoring? These results beg the question once again—how much of the scoring should come from performance and artistry, and how much from technical prowess? We may never solve this particular conundrum, but the International Skating Union did make one significant change after these Olympic Games: The Zagitova Rule. The rule effectively states that skaters will not be able to pull a Zagitova and put all of their jumps in the second half of their programs in order to get the extra points. Skaters can now only receive that bonus on their "final three jumping passes" (Walker).

Media outlets everywhere claimed that this rivalry would continue for years to come. This was not to be; Medvedeva retired from competitive figure skating in 2021, when she was just 21 years old.

On the men's side, Mikhail Kolyada did not medal as an individual, but he was a part of the team event, where the Olympic Athletes of Russia placed second. In a 2022 interview, he was asked how he felt about having to compete as "Olympic Athletes of Russia" rather than as "Russians," to which he responded that he is happy to be able to compete at all after everything Russia has been accused of, but it is "not fair" (FS Gossips).

Food for Thought

What might it mean for a Russian gold medalist, perhaps one who has dreamed of winning Olympic gold for years, to stand atop the podium and not hear their national anthem? What does that do for nationality and nationalism? They heard instead Pyotr Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1. A great piece of music, for sure, but it is not exactly reminiscent of national pride, right?

How and why do athletes change their nationality in Eastern Europe in order to compete in the Olympics? What does this mean for athletic integrity at the Olympic Games?