More Gold Medal History in Turin

So much of the press going into the women’s figure skating event at the Winter Olympics focused on Michelle Kwan and her withdrawal from the Games due to injury. In addition, names such as Emily Hughes were at the forefront of everyone’s mind since she was the skater to replace Kwan. And then it was believed that the gold medal would likely be won by either the United States’ Sasha Cohen or Russia’s Irina Slutskaya. But then it was a relative dark horse that came forward and won after last night’s free skate event.

Japan’s Shizuka Arakawa prevailed taking home the gold medal. She skated flawlessly claiming Japan’s first medal of these Olympic Games. She is also the first ever Japanese figure skater to win an Olympic gold medal.

Cohen went home with silver while Slutskaya went home with bronze.

Congratulations to Shizuka who came away with a well deserved medal and recognition for her country’s figure skating program.