--- title: Alina Zagitova Wins Olympics Gold, Sparks Internet Debate description: Alina Zagitova winning gold and beating Evgenia Medvedeva with a jump-filled routine at the Olympics drew mixed reactions from the Internet. canonical: https://time.com/5172655/alina-zagitova-wins-gold-internet-reactions-olympics-2018/ author: Cady Lang article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-02-23T16:13:26.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:50:52.997Z og:title: Alina Zagitova's Olympics Gold Sparks Internet Debate og:description: The golden girl beat Evgenia Medvedeva by a mere 1.31 points og:url: https://time.com/5172655/alina-zagitova-wins-gold-internet-reactions-olympics-2018/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3a0343102ac13b39/698928ba096a942a4a6a19e1/alina-zagitova-wins-gold-olympics-2018-internet-reactions.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2000 og:image:height: 1125 og:image:alt: Figure Skating - Winter Olympics Day 14 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Alina Zagitova's Olympics Gold Sparks Internet Debate twitter:description: The golden girl beat Evgenia Medvedeva by a mere 1.31 points twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3a0343102ac13b39/698928ba096a942a4a6a19e1/alina-zagitova-wins-gold-olympics-2018-internet-reactions.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The Internet Has Mixed Feelings About Alina Zagitova Winning Gold With a Jump-Filled Olympic Performance > Sponsored content. 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The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically.  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang Feb 23, 2018 4:13 PM UTC  GANGNEUNG, SOUTH KOREA - FEBRUARY 23: Alina Zagitova of Olympic Athlete from Russia competes during the Ladies Single Skating Free Skating on day fourteen of the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympic Games at Gangneung Ice Arena on February 23, 2018 in Gangneung, South Korea. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images) GANGNEUNG, SOUTH KOREA - FEBRUARY 23: Alina Zagitova of Olympic Athlete from Russia competes during the Ladies Single Skating Free Skating on day fourteen of the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympic Games at Gangneung Ice Arena on February 23, 2018 in Gangneung, South Korea. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images) Harry How—Getty Images  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang Feb 23, 2018 4:13 PM UTC [Alina Zagitova](http://time.com/5172157/olympics-figure-skating-zagitova-medvedeva/), an Olympic Athlete from Russia, took home the gold medal in Friday’s highly anticipated skating showdown at the [2018 Winter Olympics](http://time.com/5123348/winter-olympics-2018-schedule/) in [PyeongChang, South Korea](http://time.com/5123599/pyeongchang-weather-winter-olympics-2018/), effectively edging out her teammate, Evgenia Medvedeva by a mere 1.31 points. Zagitova, 15, who earned a total score of 239.57, had a jump-filled routine to “Don Quixote” that many considered an extremely athletic counterpart to fellow OAR skater 18-year-old Medvedeva’s emotional and artistic performance to the movie soundtrack of 2012’s “Anna Karenina” which earned her a total score of 238.26. Many were quick to point out online that Zagitova’s performance was backloaded with lots of major jumps and feats, which allowed her to conserve her energy for the second half of her program and as might be expected, social media had plenty of hot takes about her winning her gold medal — the first one for the OAR during these Olympic games — and took to the Internet to sound off on how they felt about her big win. > [](https://twitter.com/NBCOlympics/status/966896248098729984) Some were ecstatic for the young skater’s impressive victory and jump-filled routine. > [](https://twitter.com/PaigeVanzantUFC/status/966896432077717504) > [](https://twitter.com/JulietMacur/status/966894146240708609) Others favored Evgenia Medvedeva. > [](https://twitter.com/jaycaspiankang/status/966901475971448833) > [](https://twitter.com/artincircles/status/966900497444556800) > [](https://twitter.com/MoriNoKaeru1/status/966900761446645761) > [](https://twitter.com/Mikayla36692343/status/966900376669536257) People defended the way Zagitova chose to choreograph her routine after it drew criticism from some. > [](https://twitter.com/PushDicksButton/status/966894939110952961) And others felt that it was history being repeated when it came to the athleticism vs. artistry argument. > [](https://twitter.com/cbrennansports/status/966901002610794496) > [](https://twitter.com/cbrennansports/status/966899921004634113) But one thing’s for certain: no one could deny that both athletes put on an incredible performance. > [](https://twitter.com/ScottHamilton84/status/966964695239294976) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5172655/alina-zagitova-wins-gold-internet-reactions-olympics-2018/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5172655/alina-zagitova-wins-gold-internet-reactions-olympics-2018/"},"headline":"The Internet Has Mixed Feelings About Alina Zagitova Winning Gold With a Jump-Filled Olympic Performance","datePublished":"2018-02-23T16:13:26.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:50:52.997Z","description":"The golden girl is just 15","url":"https://time.com/5172655/alina-zagitova-wins-gold-internet-reactions-olympics-2018/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Winter Olympics","2018 Pyeongchang Olympics"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3a0343102ac13b39/698928ba096a942a4a6a19e1/alina-zagitova-wins-gold-olympics-2018-internet-reactions.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Cady Lang","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/cady-lang/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3a0343102ac13b39/698928ba096a942a4a6a19e1/alina-zagitova-wins-gold-olympics-2018-internet-reactions.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Figure Skating - Winter Olympics Day 14","caption":"Figure Skating - Winter Olympics Day 14","creditText":"Harry How—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5172655/alina-zagitova-wins-gold-internet-reactions-olympics-2018/","name":"The Internet Has Mixed Feelings About Alina Zagitova Winning Gold With a Jump-Filled Olympic Performance"}}]}] ```