The women's figure skating competition will take center stage as the world's best women skaters compete in the free program of the ongoing 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics.
All eyes will be on South Korea's Yuna Kim, who will look to win her second-straight Olympic gold medal, and the reigning Olympic champion has a good chance of duplicating her gold-medal finish during the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Games.
Kim was not in her best form during the short program on Wednesday, but she did enough to finish on top of the leaderboards with 74.92 points.
Hometown bet Adelina Sotnikova wowed the crowd with her impressive routine to finish second to Kim with 74.64 points. Italian skating star Carolina Kostner finished third in the short program with 74.12 points, followed by USA's best medal hope Gracie Gold, who scored 68.63 on Wednesday.
Thursday's free program is expected to be filled with drama as the top four skaters after Wednesday's short program are still in strong contention for the coveted gold medal. Kim, Sotnikova, and Kostner are within less than a point of one another, while Gold is just less than six points behind the leaders.
Kim will head into Thursday's competition as the strongest contender for the gold medal. The 23-year-old South Korean is expected to go all out to successfully defend her Olympic title. Kim dominated her opponents in Vancouver four years ago wherein she set the ISU records for the short program, free program, and combined total scores.
Kim's road to her second-straight Olympic title will not be as easy as her path to gold four years ago. The South Korean skating star was comfortably ahead heading into the free program in Vancouver, which is not the same case this year.
USA Today noted that Kim's lead will be a non-factor in the medal race on Thursday with experts saying that even Gold has a good chance of pulling off an upset against her favored opponents.
"That's a virtual tie for first, just a hiccup separating the top three women. And Gold's margin of 5½ points from third place is equal to the value of one jump. She's most definitely in the mix for a medal, especially if the top contenders continue to crumble under the pressure," USA Today noted.
The women's figure skating final round will kick off at 10 a.m. EST.
Live stream will be available through NBC Olympics Live Extra, while running scores and final results will be posted at the 2014 Sochi Olympics official website.
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