Shizuka Arakawa makes golden breakthrough for Japan
TURIN (Italy): Former world champion Shizuka Arakawa pulled out the best performance of her career to claim Japan’s first ever Olympic figure skating gold when she took the women’s title here on Thursday.
She gate-crashed what was expected to be a Russian party at the Palavela when she surged to victory after the free skate as leading challengers Sasha Cohen of the United States and Irina Slutskaya of Russia both fell. Cohen took silver with Slutskaya claiming the bronze. Slutskaya had been bidding to complete an historic gold medal sweep for Russia after they won the three other figure skating titles earlier in the Games. But 24-year-old Arakawa, who had considered quitting after winning her world title in 2004, had other things on mind as she gave Japan their first medal of Turin 2006.
“I’m shocked, I can’t find words to describe how I feel,” said Arakawa. “I thought about quitting many times, but I’m happy I didn’t stop. I was expecting it to be the first medal for Japan but I didn’t let the pressure get to me. I hope this will be inspiration for the future generation of skaters.”
