Sailor Moon Skater Evgenia Medvedeva Medals Silver at 2018 Winter Olympics

Olympian figure skater Evgenia Medvedeva gets silver at the Winter Olympics, yet her Sailor Moon cosplay skate will always be golden to us.

The fever accompanying the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang is nearly broken, and it likely never heated up more than when Russian teenage rivals Evgenia Medvedeva and Alina Zagitova hit the ice rink on Thursday night for a nail-biter of a finale to the Ladies Figure Skating competition. Despite tying on the free skate Thursday, Evgenia Medvedeva, one of the most famed Sailor Moon and anime fans on the planet, finished about 1.2 points behind Zagitova because of Tuesday’s short program competition. Even so Medvedeva has many things to be proud of, including matching Zagitova for the free skate world record following her flawless performance, as well as her undying love for the sailor scouts.

Despite being only 18-years-old, Medvedeva made waves on the first day of figure skating competition when she broke her own world record for the Women’s short program—until her Russian teammate and rival, the 15-year-old Zagitova, broke even that record a matter of minutes later. Be that as it may, Medvedeva already has a young career filled with masterful performances, including back-to-back world championship titles in women’s figure skating in 2016 and 2017.

In that vein, it was at the ISU World Team Trophy event in Tokyo last year where she revealed to the world her other great passion is a love for  anime, and Sailor Moon in particular. Indeed, Medvedeva apparently considers anime drawing her own pastime, and when she took that hobby to the ice, it made for an amusing but unmistakably graceful skate. Dressed as the Sailor Moon protagonist Serena, Medvedeva reenacted much of the anime’s first episode, complete with props of a cat and transformation from student to superhero. She even visibly sings along to some of the Japanese lyrics from the show’s original opening credits.

On its own, the skate is charming and lighthearted—as opposed to the far more serious Frederic Chopin themed ice numbers at the Olympics. However, a fan edit by Miss Teori, which we included under the original skate, underscores how this might be the most artful piece of cosplay ever. Putting the skate side-by-side with the video shows artistry and massive, unapologetic fandom.

Ad – content continues below

The first without the anime:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EfJ5HRypz9Y

And the other with it:

She may have to take home a silver medal due to barely a one-point difference in scoring, but after letting her fandom flag fly, she’ll always be the crowning princess to her fans.