The moment Nakai’s score was read after the final program of the night, teammate Amber Glenn jumped onto the kiss-and-cry stand and raised Liu’s hand in triumph. Liu sheepishly turned and applauded the 17-year-old Nakai, who raced over and hugged her.
It’s the first gold medal for an American woman since 2002, when Sarah Hughes stood atop the podium in Salt Lake City.
Glenn finished in fifth behind Mone Chiba of Japan, a stunning rebound from a disastrous short program Tuesday night. Her season-best free skate gave a score of 214.91 points, and just about landed her on the podium as well.
Glenn pumped her first and fought back tears when her score was read, then she took a seat in the new “leader’s chair.”
She wound up sitting there for quite a while.
Through an ice resurfacing. And through eight programs by other skaters, including American teammate Isabeau Levito, whose fall on her opening triple flip in an otherwise elegant performance kept her from taking over the top spot herself.
Adeliia Petrosian, the 18-year-old Russian competing as a neutral athlete at the Milan Cortina Games, tried the only quadruple jump during the women’s competition but fell on the quad toe loop. She was clean the rest of the way, but the points Petrosian lost on that fall ended up leaving her less than a half-point behind the leader.
It was Chiba — the ninth skater to follow Glenn — that finally took over first place.
That didn’t last long with Liu next on the ice.
