Evgenia Medvedeva, the 18-year-old two-time defending world champion, is her sport’s best example of a complete skater, a masterful jumper and expressive artist whose programs are built to honor skating as it was meant to be: with all the requisite physical muscle of the toughest triple jumps, but the subtle, well-placed, connective balance of a true performance.
Alina Zagitova, the 15-year-old who charged onto the scene while Medvedeva was out for two months with a broken bone in her foot, is her sport’s best example of a physically gifted opportunist, racking up valuable points any which way she can, including backloading her long program so she doesn’t even try a jump until she’s been on the ice for more than two minutes.