This Olympian Once Figure Skated To 'Sailor Moon' & I Cannot Deal
Every single time I decide to sit down and watch figure skating, I immediately transform into an unqualified and mercilessly critical sportscaster... even though I have about as much grace as a stalk of celery, (and I'm usually watching when I'm slumped on the couch with a glass of wine in hand). Regardless, I am ruthless. But after watching an old video of Evgenia Medvedeva's Sailor Moon skate, I was so entertained, and reveling in all of the nostalgia.
Medvedeva, an 18-year-old figure skater from Russia, initially performed her Sailor Moon skate at the 2017 ISU World Team Trophy in Tokyo, per Gizmodo, and it literally brings me back to the days of Saturday morning cartoons and sugary cereals... trust me, it's a trip. The performance begins with her sleeping on the ice, and when the music starts, she tosses around some bedroom props and grabs Luna the cat. Medvedeva then magically becomes "the champion of justice." If you haven't seen it already, I highly recommend it, because it's beyond cute.
Decked out in Sailor Moon's classic white top, blue mini skirt, and tall red socks, Medvedeva is the badass female superhero that graced all of our '90s years as she rocks her way across the rink. From where I'm sitting, she nails each of her spins, jumps, and turns, her facial expressions and mannerisms are bubbly and theatrical, and she actually seems to know all of the lyrics... which, seriously, is pure dedication. The overall performance was super creative, and Medvedeva totally "fought love my moonlight and won love by daylight."
You can see the video of her Sailor Moon performance here:
Based on her song choice, you can tell that Medvedeva is an avid anime fan, which, according to Anime News Network, was why she was portrayed as an anime character on NBC's Twitter, before the Olympics started.
And seeing as this performance was beyond iconic, it's obviously making the '90s babes in the Twitterverse feel some things... like, a lot of things. So again, if you haven't caught anything about it in your feed yet, it's gotten some pretty great attention from every single Gen Y kid ever.
If you've been able to catch any of her other performances at the Olympics, you can tell that she's an incredibly talented and world-renowned figure skater. On Feb. 21, she actually set a world record for the short skate program in PyeongChang, and — I won't lie — it kind of took my breath away.
Right after Medvedeva's performance, though, her 15-year-old teammate, Alina Zagitova, managed to somehow surpass her amazing score, with an equally kick-ass performance. Even though it could have been a little awkward for the two neck-and-neck teammates, Medvedeva told ESPN the Magazine that she and Zagitova are fighting together, for Team Russia... er, the Olympic Athletes of Russia (OAR). Regardless, these two skaters from Russia are phenomenal (like, they're beating literally everyone heading into the free skate). So even though it was a tight competition between the two of them to be the figure skating world champion, their sportsmanship and camaraderie wasn't affected. Medvedeva told ESPN the Magazine,
We are friends. We are young girls. We can talk about everything to each other. When we take the ice, this is sport. We must fight. Every competition is a little war.
Although some athletes from Russia are obviously competing in the PyeongChang Olympics right now, Russia itself isn't competing under its own flag. This decision was made in December 2017 by the International Olympic Committee, after they found that several Russian athletes had, in fact, used steroids at the Sochi Winter Olympic Games in 2014. This is why each Russian athlete at the Olympics is being referred to as an "Olympic Athlete from Russia," as opposed to a "Russian athlete." Regardless of what the athletes from Russia are being called, however, it's pretty obvious that they're totally dominating the women's figure skating event, and each athlete is hella fun to keep up with.
