Evgenia Medvedeva lost to Alina Zagitova for the second time this season. At the main tournament in the life of any skater, Evgenia became only the second. After the skate, Medvedeva, who always smiled on the ice, burst into tears.
The pre-Olympic year for Zhenya turned out to be unusually difficult. An 18-year-old figure skater suffered an ankle injury. After the Japanese Grand Prix, which the Russian woman had already spent with injury, Medvedeva did not go on the ice for two months. An injury during the Olympic season is the worst thing that can happen to an athlete.
Medvedev recovered for the European Championships. However, at the continental championship held in Moscow, for the first time in three seasons she was not the favorite and was defeated. For the Games, it seemed that Zhenya was in better shape.
In the free program, the eldest of Eteri Tutberidze’s charges was the last to perform. Medvedeva realized that if she took risks and declared a cascade more complicated than she did, she could lose the entire program. And if she doesn’t declare, then only a miracle will help her get around the Zagitovs. Zhenya decided not to risk it.
As a result, the two gold contenders received exactly the same marks for their free program. This is a unique case in figure skating. But Alina had a world record in a short box office.
After finishing her speech, Medvedev burst into tears. She walked towards her Olympics for three years. For three years she delighted the whole world. Zhenya has two victories at the world championships, two European champion titles, two Grand Prix finals, victories at the Russian championships, and world records.
“This was the first time in my life - I’ve never had anything like this happen at a competition. There was no tension, emotions overwhelmed me, my soul felt lighter. Tears didn’t even appear after the skate, after the last “double” (double axel). I probably realized that I left my whole soul on the ice,” the skater explained.
At the same time, Evgenia noted that the main result is that she herself is satisfied with the rental.
“I was raised in such a way that a person looks at it sensibly, analyzes what went wrong, today I skated without stress at all. I was going to be satisfied with the skate, it worked out,” R-Sport quotes Medvedev.
According to the skater, she felt that the fans supported her personally. “It felt like I heard shouts. It’s not easy to make me hear something before the performance,” the skater noted.
“I felt all the emotions that I ever had. I worked so hard to be here, I left all of myself on the ice. I don’t regret anything, I did everything I could,” Zhenya concluded.
The Olympic Games are coming up in Beijing. In four years, Medvedeva will be only 22. This is the heyday for athletes. However, behind Zhenya are very young figure skaters, whose programs are even more complex than Zagitova’s. Time will tell whether Evgenia will be able to remain among the leaders of women's skating.
The injury has already cost the 18-year-old athlete her participation in the Grand Prix final, which she qualified for with victories at two stages of the series. Now, on the advice of doctors, Medvedev will miss the Chechen Championship.
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“Following the doctors’ recommendation not to force preparation during the final recovery period, Medvedeva will miss the Russian Championship. This decision of the athlete and her coach Eteri Tutberidze was agreed with the federation,” said the President of the Russian Figure Skating Federation Alexander Gorshkov
Evgenia Medvedeva is a two-time world champion, two-time European champion, two-time winner of the Grand Prix final. The previous two seasons, the figure skater became first in women's single skating and at the Russian championship.
The Russian Championship will be held in St. Petersburg from December 21 to 24. The European Figure Skating Championships will be held from January 15 to 21 in Moscow, TASS recalls.
The 2018 Olympic Games will be held in Pyeongchang, South Korea, from February 9 to 25. Let us remind you that Evgenia Medvedeva said that she was not ready to compete at the Olympic Games under a neutral flag. For her, the Games in Pyeongchang would be the first “adult” Olympics in her life. Four years ago, at the Olympics in Sochi, she was only 14 years old, and she could not compete in the national team.
“I cannot accept the option in which I would compete at the Olympic Games without the Russian flag, as a neutral athlete. I am proud of my country, it is a great honor for me to represent it at the Games. This gives me strength and inspires me during my performances,” she said figure skater during a meeting of the IOC Executive Committee.
The name of figure skater Evgenia Medvedeva constantly appears in the press. The young athlete persistently conquers sports podiums, snatching victories one after another. The list of her achievements includes gold and bronze medals, Russian, European and world champion titles in single skating, a world record in the team figure skating championship (80.85 points).In 2016, Evgenia took ninth place in the ranking of the International Skating Union, and a year later she took first place.
Daughter of a figure skater. First steps to success
Evgenia Armanovna Medvedeva was born on November 19, 1999 in the capital of the Russian Federation. Her father is Armenian Arman Babasyan, an individual entrepreneur. The figure skater took her last name from her maternal grandmother. 
Her mother, Zhanna Devyatova, who in the past herself was seriously interested in figure skating, decided to introduce the girl to the sport. And the little girl enthusiastically watched the performances of her namesake Evgeni Plushenko on TV. Three-year-old Zhenya was led by the hand into the section to the first coach Lyubov Yakovleva. In those years, the girl performed under the surname Babasyan and only later took her grandmother’s maiden name - Medvedev. Later, Yakovleva went on maternity leave, and the talented figure skater came under the wing of Elena Selivanova.
Performance by Evgenia Medvedeva, 8 years old
The promising girl began to study, forgetting about ordinary children's games and entertainment. Instead of games and friends, she had a coach, skates and ice, as well as endless training. But Evgenia didn’t even think about complaining. In addition to skating, which had already become the meaning of life, she had a hobby - drawing, for which she critically lacked time.
When the girl turned 8, a wonderful coach and teacher appeared in her life, working in parallel with Yulia Lipnitskaya, who was a year older. In the hands of an experienced coach, Evgenia began to turn into a real skating rink queen. Surprisingly, Zhenya and Yulia never became friends. Evgenia doesn’t like to be compared to Lipnitskaya, but she respects her rival.
Interview with Evgenia Medvedeva and her coach Eteri Tutberidze
Around the age of ten, according to Evgenia, her childhood ended - then she realized the seriousness of what she was doing. After two years of hard work, the 12-year-old figure skater officially joined the Russian national team.
A couple more years and she became a junior, making a brilliant debut at the Junior Grand Prix in Latvia. The performance brought her victory with a score of 169.52 points. The girl beat out her compatriot Maria Sotskova and American Karen Shen.
Despite the workload, the girl managed to be an excellent student at school. She especially liked history and biology. At the beginning of 2017, the girl said that she wanted to finish 10th and 11th grade as an external student.
Sports achivments
Already at a young age, Evgenia Medvedeva had an impressive track record of victories. After her first performance at competitions in Latvia, first place awaited her in Poland (179.96 points), but a serious struggle at competitions in Japan ended in bronze (163.68), and the Russians Maria Sotskova and Serafima Sakhanovich beat her. 
In 2014, performing at the Russian Figure Skating Championships, she took 7th place among adult skaters and 4th among young athletes. In the spring of the same year, she reached the final of the Russian Cup, where she took second place after Anna Pogorilaya.
Evgenia Medvedeva at the 2014 Russian Championships
In the 14/15 season, she was applauded as a gold medalist by the stadiums of Barcelona and Tallinn, where the Junior Grand Prix were held. At the Russian Championships 2015, she was among the winners for the first time, albeit with a bronze place, and at the national junior championship she became the winner.
At the end of 2015, the skater moved to the adult group and immediately won the Ondrej Nepela Memorial competition in Bratislava. Without having time to rest, she flew to competitions in Milwaukee, where she took first place in the Grand Prix of the adult league. And this is just the beginning - then resounding success awaited her in Barcelona and again the first step of the championship of her native country.
February 2016 brought new successes - again gold at the European Championships, which was held in the Slovak Republic. A month later, 16-year-old Evgenia Medvedeva won the Grand Prix final and received the long-awaited title of World Champion at the World Championships in Boston (March 23 – April 8, 2016).
In Boston, the young figure skater set a world record in women's single skating, receiving a record amount of points for the program - 223.86 (73.76 for the short program and 150.10 for the free skate).
It seems that this athlete is destined to break world and her own records for the number of points in singles. In 2016, she improved her own performance three times and unofficially broke world records. During the year, she took prizes in competitions in Canada, France (Paris and Marseille) and Russia.
At the beginning of 2017, Evgenia became a two-time European champion (in the Czech Republic), breaking personal and world records a couple more times, as well as a world champion based on the results of the championship in Finland.
Evgenia Medvedeva at the 2017 European Championship
On April 20, 2017, the figure skater set a new world record at the team World Championships in Tokyo, skating a short program scored by the judges at 80.85 points. Thanks to her victory, the Russian team became the leader.
Fans of the athlete had no doubt that at the 2018 Olympics in Pyeongchang (South Korea) she would repeat the success of Adelina Sotnikova and bring Russia “gold” in the women’s singles tournament. Due to the anti-doping scandal, besides Evgenia, only 2 figure skaters were included in the “women” category of the Russian Olympic team: Alina Zagitova and Maria Sotskova.
Personal life of Evgenia Medvedeva
The girl is dating a musician of Bulgarian-Kazakh origin Christian Kostov. He became the youngest participant in Eurovision 2017 and took second place. The young people met while filming a documentary about a music competition and were soon caught by paparazzi walking through Gorky Park. Fans jokingly called their relationship a “silver medal romance.” 
Zhenya is adored in Japan, and she is also a fan of everything Japanese: literature, fashion and anime. So, for one of the demonstration performances, Evgenia chose a song from the Sailor Moon cartoon, and once again surprised her “colleague” Moa Asadeh by reading her a poem in Japanese. On her Instagram you can often see drawings from fans from the Land of the Rising Sun.
Evgenia Medvedeva – Sailor Moon
Evgenia Medvedeva spends a lot of time on social networks – Instagram and Twitter. She loves the works of Arthur Conan Doyle and the British Sherlock Holmes series with Michael Jackson, Metallica, Bon Jovi and the Scorpions. In the wake of her passion for rock music, she acquired a guitar, although she has very little time to study it.
Evgenia Medvedeva now
At the 2018 Olympics, the first Games in her life, Evgenia Medvedeva set a new world record in the short program (81.06 points). Together with Alina Zagitova’s victory in the free program, the Russian team received silver. The girl broke her own record performing a free program - the judges gave her 81.61 points. However, her performance was surpassed by Alina Zagitova, who competed after her – 82.92. As a result, Zagitova received “gold” and Medvedeva received “silver”. 
In May of the same year, the media reported Evgenia’s intention to change her sports citizenship from Russian to Armenian. This information was denied by the Figure Skating Federation. However, the fact that Medvedeva left Eteri Tutberidze’s team turned out to be true - this was reported by the director of the Sambo-70 center, within whose walls the figure skater trained. Tutberidze named Evgenia’s rivalry with Alina Zagitova as a possible reason for her ward’s departure.
Later, Evgenia admitted in an interview that leaving Eteri was the most difficult decision in her life. She moved to Canada where she began training under Brian Orser, the 1987 world champion and two-time Olympic silver medalist. At the same time, she remains a Russian athlete.
Evgenia Armanovna Medvedeva. Born on November 19, 1999 in Moscow. Russian figure skater. Honored Master of Sports of the Russian Federation (2016). Silver medalist of the Olympics (2018).
Father - Arman Babasyan, Armenian.
The mother is Russian, but she constantly remains in the shadows, does not give interviews and is not known to the public for some reason. Evgenia bears her grandmother's maiden name.
In the past, Evgenia’s mother was involved in figure skating. However, according to Zhenya herself, she was put into figure skating not because her mother skated, although this also played a role, but to improve her figure.
“True, my shoulder blades are still sticking out, but it seems to me that figure skating has ennobled me outwardly,” said the athlete.
She started skating at three and a half years old. At first she trained with Lyubov Yakovleva at CSKA, and when she retired, in 2006 she began training in Elena Selivanova’s group. In 2007, Evgenia’s parents decided to transfer her to the group.
As the athlete said, at the age of 9 she already clearly understood that “figure skating is my job, my career and my life.” At the same time, she was aware that this required effort and self-discipline: “You just need to learn to overcome yourself and difficulties.”
“Until about ten years old, although I was busy with figure skating from morning to evening, I wanted to play, run, and get distracted. And after ten, a turning point occurred. I already clearly knew why I was working, why I was doing this, what I needed to do to achieve results,” she shared.
And since then, Evgenia has been completely focused on sports. She noted that “sport gave me character, the ability to set goals for myself and achieve them by all available means.”
Since 2011 - member of the Russian national team.
In the 2013-2014 season, she reached the age at which the ISU allows athletes to participate in international junior competitions and made her debut at the Junior Grand Prix stage in Latvia, which she won. This was followed by a stage in Poland, which Evgenia also won.
In the Junior Grand Prix final, held in Japan, the athlete won bronze, losing only to her compatriots Maria Sotskova and Serafima Sakhanovich.
At the 2014 Russian Championships, Evgenia Medvedeva took seventh place among adults and fourth place among juniors. At the beginning of March 2014, she became second in the final of the adult Russian Figure Skating Cup, behind only Anna Pogorilaya.
She went to the World Junior Championships instead of the injured Sotskova and won a bronze medal, losing to other Russians - Elena Radionova and Serafima Sakhanovich.
In the 2014-2015 season, she won two stages of the Junior Grand Prix, which ensured her participation in the Grand Prix final. And in mid-August she won in Courchevel with a personal best in the free program. In the final of the Junior Grand Prix in Barcelona, she was first, winning both programs.
At the 2015 Russian Championships, she won a bronze medal for the first time. And at the Russian junior championship she finished in first place, which allowed her to qualify for her second world junior championship in Tallinn, where she managed to take the gold medal in a difficult struggle.
Since October 2015, Evgenia began performing among adult figure skaters - she started at the Ondrej Nepela Memorial and won this competition. Three weeks later she performed in Milwaukee (USA) at the Skate America Grand Prix series. In a difficult struggle, the skater managed to win first place.
At the next stage in Russia, her performance was also successful: she finished second. Based on the results of her performances at the Grand Prix stages, Evgenia reached the Grand Prix final in Barcelona, where on December 11 she won the competition in the short program, ahead of the Russian Radionova and the Japanese Mao Asada. In the free program, Evgenia scored the third total points in the history of the new judging system (that is, since 2003), which allowed her to win the Grand Prix final for the first time in her career. Thus, she improved all her achievements.
In 2016, at the Russian Championships, she won a gold medal for the first time in a difficult struggle. At the 2016 European Championships she took first place. At the World Championships in Boston, in the free program, she set a new world record - 150.10. Medvedeva became the third Russian singles skater after Irina Slutskaya and Elizaveta Tuktamysheva, who won all the main competitions of the season: the Grand Prix final, the European Championship, the World Championship. Medvedeva also became the first singles skater in the world to win the adult world championship the next year after winning the junior championship.
To achieve such high results, Medvedeva had to give up studying at school and study individually with teachers.
On April 22-24, the Team Challenge Cup 2016 championship took place. Competing in the USA for the European team, she improved her previous achievement in the short program (77.56), and in the free program she even set an unofficial world record - 151.55 and received 229.11 points based on the total points for the free and short program in this tournament. which is also an unofficial world record (after the result of figure skater Kim Young Ah - 228.56 points).
The Russian figure skater began the new pre-Olympic season at the end of October, where she competed at the Grand Prix stage in Mississauga, at the Canadian Federation Cup and took first place, while improving her previous achievement in the short program.
In mid-November 2016, the Russian figure skater competed at the Grand Prix stage in Paris, where she finished in first place at the Trophée de France tournament, and her athletic achievements in the short program were improved. This allowed her to confidently reach the Grand Prix final in Marseille, where Evgenia set a world record in the short program for the total points scored.
Thus, she became the holder of records in both programs. As a result of the free program, Evgenia Medvedeva became a two-time winner of the Grand Prix finals.
Evgenia Medvedeva (Sailor Moon). Dreams on ice - 2016
In December 2016, in Chelyabinsk she became a two-time Russian champion. The athlete again showed a high result, scoring points better than the world records set by herself, but at the international level the results of national competitions are not taken into account. Medvedeva also performed a cascade of three triple jumps, which, according to the athlete, allowed her to take a step forward.
At the 2017 European Championships, Evgenia again won the gold medal, becoming a two-time European champion. At the same time, she again broke the world record (which she had set) in the free program, and also set a new world record for the sum of points in two programs (previously held by the Korean Kim Young Ah).
She confidently won the world championship in Helsinki, becoming a two-time world champion. In the short program she scored 79.01 points, missing only 0.2 points from the world record she set, and in the free program she scored an unprecedented 154.40 points, immediately updating the world record in the free program and in total points by more than three points .
At the 2017 World Team Championships in Tokyo, Evgenia again broke all records in terms of points, first in the short program (80.85 points), and then in the free program (160.46) and in total points - 241.31.
In 2018, at the European Championships held in Moscow, she took second place, losing to.
At the 2018 Olympics became a silver medalist in team competitions.
In the short program of the Pyeongchang Olympics she. In the free program, both athletes showed the same result - 156.65 points. Thus, .
Until April 2018, she competed for the Sambo-70 Sports and Education Center of Moskomsport and trained at the Khrustalny Ice Palace.
In April 2018, Medvedeva decided to leave Eteri Tutberidze and train under the guidance of the Canadian. There were also rumors that she would compete for another country (Armenia was an option).
Her former coach said that the reason for Medvedeva’s decision was Zagitova’s loss at the Olympics: “Coming off the Olympic ice, she threw out a childish phrase: “Couldn’t you keep Alina for another year in the juniors?” I said: “Zhenya, what are you owed to everyone?” there should be equal chances." It should be simply faith in the coach, daily faith in the result, and not some conditions."
According to the athlete, she dreams of studying to be a makeup artist. She believes that she has a knack for this: before competitions, she always puts on her own makeup and she does it very well.
Evgenia Medvedeva in the "Evening Urgant" program
Evgenia Medvedeva's height: 157 centimeters.
Personal life of Evgenia Medvedeva:
Single. Not seen in high-profile novels. At the moment, Evgenia devotes all her time to sports.
Achievements of Evgenia Medvedeva:
Olympic Games:
Silver - Pyeongchang 2018 - team competition
Silver - Pyeongchang 2018 - single skating
World Championships:
Gold - Boston 2016 - singles skating
Gold - Helsinki 2017 - single skating
European Championships:
Gold - Bratislava 2016 - single skating
Gold - Ostrava 2017 - singles skating
Silver - Moscow 2018 - single skating
Grand Prix Finals:
Gold - Barcelona 2015 - single skating
Gold - Marseille 2016 - single skating
World Team Championship:
Silver - Tokyo 2017 - team competition
