UPDATE: Russia's Adelina Sotnikova won the gold medal today, followed by Yuna Kim with SIlver, and Carolina Kostner with Bronze.
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Yuna Kim is inching closer to securing her second consecutive gold medal after placing 1<sup>st at the ladies short program on Feb. 19, 2014.
The results and scores of the free skating can be seen here.
Queen Yuna skated to 'Send in the Clowns' at the ladies event Wednesday, leading the ladies by a margin of just 0.24. Despite feeling stiff and nervous before her skate, she delivered a beautiful elegant performance.
"In warm-up, I was very nervous – I couldn't jump at all," Kim said afterwards. "But I tried to believe in myself and believed in what I've done before. I felt like I was dreaming. I had a lot of thoughts when I was giving my performance."
Kim scored 74.92, followed by Russia's Adelina Sotnikova with 74.64 and Italy's Carolina Kostner with 74.12.
Fans expected a showdown between Yuna Kim and Russia's 15-year-old prodigy Julia Lipnitskaia and Japan's Mao Asada, but both rivals fell during their performances.
Sotnikova and Kostner both skated their best short program ever in the biggest night of their careers.
"I'm very happy I managed to concentrate and show a good performance," Sotnikova told reporters after her skate.
America's Gracie Gold, Ashley Wagner and Polina Edmunds all gave strong performances, placing 4<sup>th, 6<sup>th and 7<sup>th respectively in the short program.
Mao Asada's fall during her signature triple axel resulted in major point deductions and received a score of just 55.51, placing 16<sup>th.. Asada had also fallen while attempting the same triple axel during the short program for the team skate. "I lost the fight within me," said Asada, after her skate. "It was all mental."
Julia Lipnitskaia landed 5<sup>th with a score of 65.23 after suffering a fall after a triple flip. The young teen looked disappointed with her performance, and she will have to be at the top of her game and best the top four on Thursday's free skate to have a chance at the podium.
If Kim, Sotnikova and Kostner skate flawlessly as they did on Wednesday's short program, they will be safe in securing an Olympic medal.
The Olympic champion will be determined Thursday, Feb. 20, 2014 after the ladies free skate program.
See the ladies' free skate long program NBC TV schedule for Feb. 20, 2014 below:
Feb. 20 – Ladies Free Skating Program
Time: 10 a.m. ET on NBC Sports Network (live stream via NBCOlympics.com) / 8 p.m. ET on NBC (replay)
See the full schedule for the free skate long program below:
1 KOR So Youn PARK
2 AUS Brooklee HAN
3 CAN Gabrielle DALEMAN
4 CZE Elizaveta UKOLOVA
5 NOR Anne Line GJERSEM
6 SVK Nicole RAJICOVA
7 CAN Kaetlyn OSMOND
8 GEO Elene GEDEVANISHVILI
9 KOR Haejin KIM
10 JPN Kanako MURAKAMI
11 CHN Kexin ZHANG
12 JPN Mao ASADA
13 CHN Zijun LI
14 FRA Mae Berenice MEITE
15 JPN Akiko SUZUKI
16 ITA Valentina MARCHEI
17 USA Polina EDMUNDS
18 GER Nathalie WEINZIERL
19 RUS Yulia LIPNITSKAYA
20 ITA Carolina KOSTNER
21 RUS Adelina SOTNIKOVA
22 USA Gracie GOLD
23 USA Ashley WAGNER
24 KOR Yuna KIM
Results will be updated.
