The Olympic figure skating event for ladies' singles will take place next week and all eyes will be on the rink to see who will take home the gold medal.
The top skaters around the world will be competing at the Iceberg Skating Palace in Sochi, Russia, and viewers will see gold-medal favorites Yuna Kim, Mao Asada, Julia Lipnitskaia, Carolina Kostner and Gracie Gold take to the ice.
Will "Queen Yuna" reign and become the third woman in Olympic history to win a consecutive gold medal in figure skating?
This year, Yuna Kim, the 2010 Vancouver Olympic gold medalist, will be facing tough competition in her bid for her second gold.
In last week's team skating events, Russia's darling, 15-year-old Julia Lipnitskaia stole the show with her jaw-dropping performance. Her performances were crucial for team Russia to secure the gold medal for the figure skating team event. A rising star, she became the youngest athlete to win a gold medal at the Winter Olympics figure skating event. After her mesmerizing performance, she received a standing ovation from President Putin and her home crowd and has become the one to watch at this year's figure skating event.
Yuna Kim has never competed against Julia Lipnitskaia, who won the 2014 European Championships in January. The two are eight years apart, and the Russian prodigy only just made it to the Olympic minimum cut off age by a mere 25 days. She scored her highest personal score of 214.41, just barely behind Yuna's Olympic record of 228.56.
By the look of Julia's performance last week, the competition is set to be tight and unpredictable. "I haven't met her in competition. It'll be interesting," the 15-year-old said of Yuna Kim to reporters in Sochi.
But Yuna Kim, 23, is unfazed by the youngster. She told reporters before boarding her flight to Sochi on Wednesday: "It doesn't help me to pay too much attention to how others perform. What's most important is getting the scores I have targeted..Unlike (Lipnitskaia), this is my last Olympics bid so it's different for me."
She arrived at Sochi and skated her first practice session on the ice Thursday evening before next week's event. During her practice, she carried out her triple-triple combination and triple jumps cleanly in front of media, with cameras documenting her every move.
Gracie Gold, the 18-year-old U.S. national champion is America's best chance at a medal for the ladies singles but will face stiff competition with the world's best.
Other gold medal favorites are Mao Asada of Japan and Carolina Kostner of Italy.
Kostner, 27, is currently ranked number one on the ISU World Standings for Single skating. Asada won the silver medal at the 2009 Vancouver Games. Both showed strong performances during the team skate event.
Be sure to watch the ladies' figure skating program on Feb. 19 and 20. See the full schedule below:
Feb. 19 - Ladies Short Program
Time: 10 a.m. ET on NBC Sports Network (live stream via NBCOlympics.com) / 8 p.m. ET on NBC (replay)
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)
