- Aliona Savchenko has competed at five different Olympics in attempt to win gold
- She finally reached the top of the podium with German partner Bruno Massot
- Pair collapsed to the ice in celebration after their world record-breaking routine
- Savchenko said ‘2018 is our year’ after the final run, in which they scored 159.31
Aliona Savchenko collapsed to the ice in celebration after securing her first Olympic gold medal at the fifth time of asking.
The German has competed for two different nations with three different partners over the course of five Olympics, but finally earned top spot with a world-record routine alongside Bruno Massot on Thursday.
Savchenko immediately dropped to the ice at the end of her routine, before the judges scoring the pair 159.31 points in their free skate.
Aliona Savchenko smiles after collapsing onto the ice following her world record routine
The German, alongside Bruno Massot, won gold after attempts at five different Olympics
The German pair smile at the top of the podium after their amazing run on Thursday
That gave them 235.90 points, catapulting them from fourth place to first and topping China’s Sui Wenjing and Han Cong by less than half a point.
Interestingly, the Germans are coached by British ice skating legend Christopher Dean, and this week marked 34 years since his famous Balero routine with Jane Torvill.
Speaking after her victory, Ukrainian-born Savchenko said: ‘We did New Year’s together and we said, “2018 will be our year,” and it is. It’s just an amazing story, and I’m unbelievably happy.’
China’s Sui and Han, who led after the short program, made mistakes on their opening lift, a combination jump and side-by-side triple salchows.
Savchenko is lifted above Massot’s head; the pair are coached by Brit Christopher Dean
The Germans perform during their ‘Pair Free Skating’ in the figure skating at Pyeongchang
They recovered to skate a strong second half of the program, but the bobbles proved costly. They finished with 234.47 points, leaving them with a silver medal.
Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford added bronze to the team gold they won with Canada, becoming the first pair to land a quad throw in an Olympic competition.
‘We heard what the Germans did before us. We heard that score when we were on the ice,’ Duhamel said. ‘We didn’t let it faze us. We said: “OK, good for them. Now it’s our turn.”‘
They skated well, but the Germans were simply superb.