神聖なたわごと! Arakawa Wins Gold

Sasha Cohen fell twice. Irina Slutskaya stumbled. Shizuka Arakawa ascended.

Arakawa gave Japan its first medal in Torino in style. She came into the free skate program in third place but delivered a flawless performance to move ahead of Cohen who fell twice.

After Slutskaya struggled, Arakawa was ensured the gold, Japan’s first ever in figure skating.

Once she saw that Cohen had a rough go, Arakawa may have changed her routine a little to make sure of a solid score. I guess she was supposed to do a triple Lutz-triple loop, but did a double loop instead. It was also expected that she would perform a triple salchow-triple toe but settled for a double tow.

In the end, it was Arakawa winning Gold with Cohen and Slutskaya taking Silver and Bronze respectively.