The Olympic Favorite Curse

This is a telling of how every Olympics the favorite to win has been cheated out of the medal by destiny. This is now almost a twisted tradition. Which begs the question: what will the next Olympics hold in store for us? Milano Cortina 2026 uh oh

[bridgetbinion]

I love the Italian commentators getting pissy when Kim Yuna didn't get her gold medal.

[luzcalderon]

I swear women's figure skating can be made into a show as intense as the fisrt seasons of Game of Thrones or Breaking Bad. It could be called Ice Queens

[Mooooooooooooooooooooooooo]

Adelina hugging that judge right after her win ON CAMERA will always be such a surreal moment

[adapienkowska]

I think the problem with Sotnikova was that she made mistakes and scored higher (by a lot) than she ever scored in her career.

[laney]

"And they were roommates" has the same energy as "And he did this at my birthday dinner"

[ashlabelle]

I would also add to the reasons why fans were pissed at Sochi, that Adelina *didn't* have a great performance. Don't get me wrong her program was challenging and she had lots of energy, but most of her jumps had very blatant technical errors. From cheated jump entries to underrotations to two-foot landings, you name it. And almost none of those mistakes were called. Meanwhile, both Yuna and Carolina performed perfect technical programs, and were underscored.

[roxnn]

“at least now they can have their medal ceremony” 🥺 poor girl, she was only 15, it wasn’t her fault. Eteri is notoriously cruel, she should be ashamed for what she’s done to these girls. The adults around Kamila failed her and seriously ruined her reputation and career that she’s spent her WHOLE life working for + not only did they fail her but failed all the other athletes that still haven’t gotten their awards.

[jyzbwcl]

"at least now they can have a medal ceremony" broke my heart all over again 😭 these girls with their immense talent deserved to be evaluated equally with all the other athletes and also not be given heart medications

[simashakeri]

It's been nearly a decade and I am still so furiously heartbroken for Yuna.

[FrozenKizz]

I felt so bad for yuna Kim. Her Performance was brilliant.

[chaeryoungswife]

How ironic that while Sotnikova holds the medal, every figure skating fan acknowledges that Yuna was the true winner

[allier]

btw, yuna wasn't crying because she didn't get gold. it was tears of relief. she knew then it was over and was retiring.

[fluff_bunny]

2:50 you can hear the commentator's pain and disbelief. a precursor to today's twisted system and skating society.

[Elong.]

I like how these commentators talk about the crazy scoring is. I don’t believe I’ve heard the US commentators do this. Thanks for posting this

[soph]

You didn’t mention this but Sotnikova literally went and hugged one of the judges (who was also Russian) after her win was announced. Everything about that competition feels dirty to me.

[kendrakupferschmid]

The fact that these girls are pitted against each other so viciously instead of being proud and glad for your teammate speaks monuments of their coaches and staff. Disgusting.

[ChristineTheHippie]

Let's hope the 2026 Olympics will have a wholesome medal ceremony with three happy medalists.

[AlixFiori]

How awfull to have a 15 yo CHILD under 3 heart medications just for a piece of metal

[skateata]

I love how this was presented like a horror story 😂

[ayanna]

I would argue it goes back even farther to the 1990s. Nancy Kerrigan was the favorite to win in 94', but the winner was Oksana Baiul. Michelle Kwan in 98' and 2002, but Tara Lipinski and Sarah Hughes took the title, the 2006 Olympic gold was considered to be a battle between Sasha Cohen and Irina Slutskaya, however Shizuka Arakawa won. The only year since the 1990s where the favorite did win was 2010.